James Cowan

A Ukrainian colleague told me a joke yesterday. ‘We used to believe the Russians had the second best army in the world. Now we know they have the second best army in Ukraine.’ Five weeks ago, most people would have bet that after a month of Russian aggression, Kyiv and Kharkiv would have fallen, and the Ukrainians would have been pushed back into the Carpathians. Yet a combination of home match, high morale, sensible tactics, defence advantage and foreign weapons has given Ukraine the edge.

Two weeks ago, the charity I run suffered the greatest loss of life in its 33-year history. The Halo Trust was founded in Afghanistan in 1988 following the Soviet withdrawal. On witnessing the devastating impact of landmines and unexploded bombs on the population, two British soldiers set up an organisation to train young men of fighting age how to clear mines and ordnance. Since then, Halo has cleared 850,000 landmines from 24 provinces in Afghanistan, and almost 14 million mines and other explosive items worldwide. With support from Britain and other nations, Halo had been able to employ as many as 3,500 Afghan men as deminers. Many of these men joined us on departing the Taliban, exchanging their rifles for a metal detector and a reliable salary.