Professor Roman Sheremeta
July 9, 2026
In 2004, Ukraine was standing at a turning point.
The country was caught between two futures. One path pulled it closer to Moscow and the old post-Soviet system. The other pointed toward Europe, reform, and a more democratic national identity.
At the center of that battle stood Viktor Yushchenko.
He was a presidential candidate, a former prime minister, and the leading opposition figure against the government-backed candidate Viktor Yanukovych. To many Ukrainians, Yushchenko represented a chance to break away from corruption, intimidation, and political control.
Then, during the campaign, he suddenly became violently ill.
At first, the symptoms were confusing. He suffered terrible pain, swelling, weakness, and internal damage. His body seemed to be collapsing without a clear explanation. When he appeared in public again, the change was shocking.
His once recognizable face had become swollen, scarred, and disfigured.
Doctors later confirmed he had been poisoned with dioxin, one of the most toxic chemical compounds known. The poisoning caused severe chloracne and left visible damage across his face. It was not just a medical emergency. It looked like an attempt to remove him from the political race.
But Yushchenko survived.
And instead of hiding, he returned to the campaign.
His face became a symbol of what was at stake. Every scar seemed to tell Ukrainians that the election was no longer just about politics. It was about fear, control, and whether a nation could choose its own future.
Yushchenko and his family believed the assassination attempt was connected to Moscow, because he was pushing for closer ties with Europe and challenging pro-Russian influence in Ukraine. That allegation has never been fully proven in court, but the poisoning became one of the most infamous political attacks of the modern era.
The election itself became a national crisis.
When Yanukovych was first declared the winner after a disputed runoff, millions of Ukrainians believed the vote had been stolen. People flooded the streets wearing orange, the color of Yushchenko’s campaign. The protests became known as the Orange Revolution.
For days, crowds stood in the cold demanding a fair vote.
The pressure grew so strong that Ukraine’s Supreme Court ordered a new runoff election because of widespread fraud concerns. In that repeat vote, held in December 2004, Viktor Yushchenko won.
He entered the presidency carrying the physical marks of the attack against him.
His victory did not erase the pain. It did not restore his health overnight. It did not answer every question about who poisoned him or why. But it proved something powerful.
The poison changed his face.
It did not silence him.
Viktor Yushchenko’s story remains one of the most dramatic political survival stories in modern history — a reminder that sometimes a scar becomes more powerful than the weapon meant to destroy the person carrying it.
Poisoned, disfigured, and nearly destroyed — Viktor Yushchenko survived the attack and still won the presidency.
Source: History of the world
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President Zelensky met with Polish President Nawrocki.
The meeting took place on the sidelines of the NATO summit in Ankara and lasted over an hour. It
Nawrocki said he told Zelensky that the UPA issue “is not a matter for negotiation” for Poles. Poland expects Ukraine to understand that the “Bandera flag limits Ukraine’s future in the EU format.”
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NATO countries have committed to allocating €70 billion in military aid to Ukraine in 2026, and no less than that amount in 2027.
This is stated in the final declaration of the NATO summit in Ankara.
NATO leaders stressed that aid to Ukraine must be “fair, predictable, and sustainable in the long term.”
Source: Live Ukraine
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“There is no major oil refinery left in Russia that has not been struck by Ukraine.”
Zelensky’s speech in Ankara, at the UN Summit.
His words come a day after Ukraine struck the russian Omsk oil refinery, over 2.700 km deep inside Siberia. And Moscow was powerless to stop it.
“We have completely eliminated the very idea of Russia having a strategic rear.
And you know this country. And for a long time, Russia believed it had a territorial advantage no one else possessed – a deep rear where it could safely keep military production, military equipment, and everything in its war defense zone, believing no one could reach them. And we have reached them.
Just yesterday, Ukrainian drones broke through Russia’s defenses and struck a Russian oil refinery in Siberia. And this is not an exception. It’s the new reality.
And there is no major oil refinery left in Russia that has not been struck by Ukraine.”
Source: text of Marijn Markus
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“We Have to Remain Human”
I will be honest with you – it was very difficult for me to write this article. But I needed to write it anyway.
I think many of us in the Ukrainian community – Ukrainians, Ukrainian-Americans, allies who have made Ukraine’s fight their own – need to hear it. And because I think what is happening to us is the second-most-important thing about this war, after Ukraine’s survival itself.
I have called russia the manifestation of pure evil. I stand by it… But if russia is evil, our great temptation is to become what fighting evil so often makes people become… Willing to become, in our imagination and eventually in our behavior, a mirror of the thing we are fighting…
Read the full article: https://romansheremeta.substack.com/p/we-have-to-remain-human
At the risk of stating the bleedin’ obvious, I’m going to do so anyway:
The defenders need somehow to amass an absolutely huge arsenal of long range fires : cruise missiles, ballistics, hypersonics etc. All with insufficient outside help.
They need to become even more brilliant and productive in the drone field.
Krasnov’s Patriot offer is just a copout and is not going to help in the short or medium term. His hatred continues to make him an implacable enemy of and lethal threat to Ukraine.
At some point, when Zel has got enough firepower, he’s got to say to the poisonous little rat Nazi :
“Leave us alone.
You have murdered thousands of our citizens with your malignant, toxic hatred and systematic genocide. We have now reached the point where we are forced to respond to your evil more resolutely.
If you murder even one more of our children, we will respond to your genocide in kind.
Unlike you, we aren’t savages or degenerate Nazi throwbacks, but you leave us with no other choice.”
Of course Yushchenko was poisoned by putinaZi scum. The tiny poisoner gets a boner from his little hobby.
That was a declaration of war and unfortunately it was not responded to properly.
In fact putler went on to skank Yanukovich into power. This was achieved with the help of Krasnov’s friend of 5 decades : Paul Manafort.
“Nawrocki said he told Zelensky that the UPA issue “is not a matter for negotiation” for Poles. Poland expects Ukraine to understand that the “Bandera flag limits Ukraine’s future in the EU format.”
Proof that Nawrocki works for putler.
Turns out he’s just another OrbanaZi.
“I have called russia the manifestation of pure evil. I stand by it. There is no other honest way to describe a country that fires missiles at maternity wards and cathedrals, that kidnaps children by the thousands, that murders civilians in their homes and then denies it, that has spent centuries trying to erase the Ukrainian nation and is trying again now with new weapons. Russia’s crimes in Ukraine are the greatest ongoing evil of our lifetime.”
Tell me, why is it that only Ukrainians are saying this, why not the entire civilised world?
Why does Ukraine have to suffer this horror and how do they cope with another two years + of the putler-rimmer-in-chief?