The execution of Tymofiy Shadura and what it says about the power of the human spirit

Let us be in no doubt that in war all sides commit atrocities and war crimes. The brutal and bestial nature of conflict, the way in which it brutalises those swept up in its grip, renders anything else impossible.

American, British, French, German, Russian, Ukrainian, Israeli — the armies of every nation — contains within them those who plumb the depths of depravity and those responsible for acts of almost inhuman heroism in the midst of war and combat.

The current and ongoing conflict in Ukraine has perhaps seen more depravity and heroism than in any of the modern age. The elemental hatred between both sides are informed by contending interpretations of the history of the Soviet Union, especially during the Second World War, when for those who cleave to Moscow the Red Army was an instrument of liberation, while for many who cleave to Kiev it represented oppression.

Whatever your position on this question, and the welter of issues that flow from it with regard to the detestation or embrace of the Nazi ideology that has enjoyed a renaissance in western Ukraine, as with any conflict there arises an abiding moment of heroism and courage that helps us to understand the abiding power of the human spirit.