Mahi For Ukraine

17/10/2026

🇺🇦🇳🇿💪🏻

11/10/2026

Weakening sanctions on russia will not bring down fuel prices in any meaningful or sustainable way. And it certainly won’t bring peace any closer.

The US/ russian diesel deal is being presented as a way to ease pressure on global fuel markets. But the numbers tell a different story.

The United States alone consumes approximately 14 million tonnes of diesel per month. The initially announced 300,000 tonnes from russia amounts to barely 2% of that demand, and the supply is supposedly intended for both American and global markets. Even the larger promised volumes are spread over time, with no guarantee of delivery.

Meanwhile, russia is facing serious disruptions to its own refining capacity.

The economic impact of this arrangement is questionable. The political consequences are far more serious.

Easing restrictions on russian petroleum exports provides Moscow with another opportunity to generate revenue while continuing its war against Ukraine. It undermines the very economic pressure sanctions were designed to create, without securing any meaningful commitment from russia to stop its aggression.

Plus the consequences extend well beyond Ukraine. Russia is also providing Iran with intelligence on American military targets, while russian-made technology has been identified in Iranian drones used in attacks across the Middle East. Easing sanctions and allowing Moscow to generate additional energy revenue doesn’t just help finance its war against Ukraine. It potentially strengthens a regime that is actively helping Iran target American forces and destabilise the wider region.

Ukraine has made its position clear: it is prepared to halt strikes on russian oil facilities if russia stops attacking Ukraine’s energy infrastructure. That is what genuine, reciprocal de-escalation looks like. Yet russia has refused, seemingly confident that it can get what it wants without making any concessions of its own.

Peace will not come from rewarding aggression or easing pressure on the aggressor while its attacks continue.

If the objective is lower energy prices and an end to this war, the answer is not to help russia sell more fuel. It is to stop the attacks, enforce meaningful consequences, and secure a genuine end to the aggression.

05/10/2026

💙💛🇳🇿

🇺🇦 Today 6 October on Borsch Club - What keeps Ukraine going?

We’re continuing our conversation with Olena Grubb, Honorary Consul of Ukraine, who has just returned from six weeks in Ukraine.

This time, we talk about the people — the mood in the country, what Ukrainians are most tired of, what keeps them going, and what made Olena particularly proud while she was there.

We also ask what people here in New Zealand might misunderstand about life in Ukraine, and what simply doesn’t make it into the international news.

Borsch Club Broadcasts Fortnightly on OAR FM Dunedin - Community Access Media, Dunedin Tuesdays, 8.30pm
105.4 FM, 1575 AM and livestream on oar.org.nz

Plains FM 96.9, Christchurch: Mondays fortnightly, 7:30–8:00 PM (not the same week as OAR FM)

OAR FM website https://oar.org.nz/shows/borsch-club/
Spotify: open.spotify.com/show/5dZpMLeJ9qCRP61euCI0pf
Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/co/podcast/borsch-club/

01/10/2026

Today is Ukraine’s Day of Defenders.

There could hardly be a more brutal reminder of what those words mean.

Ukraine entered this day under another Russian drone attack. It followed a massive assault only a day earlier, when Russia launched missiles and 188 drones at Ukraine, killing civilians, including a child, and targeting energy infrastructure as winter approaches.

Russia’s war on Ukraine is abstract, and defending Ukraine is not an abstract concept.

Every Russian missile and drone intercepted means homes that are not destroyed and lives that may be spared. Every Ukrainian position held prevents Russia from moving further into Ukrainian towns and cities. Every soldier, medic, air-defence crew, drone operator, engineer and rescuer doing their job is part of the reason Ukraine remains a sovereign country.

On 29 September alone, Ukraine’s defenders faced 221 combat engagements across the frontline, while Russian forces used thousands of attack drones and continued intensive aerial bombardment.

And while Russia continues to deliberately bring terror to Ukrainian cities and tries once again to weaponise darkness and winter, Ukrainians continue to defend their country.

Today we honour those serving now, and remember those who gave their lives.

And we remember something the international community cannot afford to forget: Ukraine’s defenders are not asking others to fight this war. They are asking for the tools and sustained support necessary to stop the aggressor now — so others do not have to fight a bigger war later.

Glory to Ukraine’s Defenders.
Слава захисникам і захисницям України. 🇺🇦

22/09/2026

🇳🇿🇺🇦 New Zealand has joined Australia, Canada, Norway & the United Kingdom in condemning russia’s sham elections in Ukraine’s temporarily occupied territories.

The joint statement is unequivocal: holding russian State Duma elections in occupied Crimea and parts of Donetsk, Kherson, Luhansk & Zaporizhzhia is a gross violation of Ukraine’s sovereignty, independence & the UN Charter.

Importantly, the statement places these elections within the wider reality of russian occupation — the forced imposition of russian administration, law, media, education, language & citizenship, backed by coercion and repression.

And it makes clear what cannot be allowed to become blurred through years of occupation:

These territories are Ukraine. Sham elections do not change that. Borders cannot be redrawn by force.

We welcome New Zealand joining its partners in this clear rejection of russia’s attempts to legitimise its occupation of Ukrainian territory.

Maintaining this principle matters — for Ukraine, but also for the international rules that protect the sovereignty and territorial integrity of countries everywhere.

Full joint statement:

https://www.dfat.gov.au/news/media-release/joint-statement-russias-sham-elections-ukraines-temporarily-occupied-territories

New Zealand Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade Winston Peters Christopher Luxon

14/09/2026

What if one of the West’s greatest mistakes about Russia is not that we underestimate its power, but that we fundamentally misunderstand what it is?

We instinctively recognise ideological distance when it looks foreign to us. Yet with Russia, familiarity — European faces, Christianity, literature, a supposedly shared cultural history — has repeatedly been mistaken for shared values. We keep looking at Russia as though it were some distorted version of ourselves: Western, but estranged; Christian, but corrupted; potentially democratic, but temporarily authoritarian.

Even that supposed historical familiarity deserves much greater scrutiny. Russia is not simply the Slavic European nation its carefully cultivated image suggests: it is an extraordinarily diverse imperial state built through the conquest and incorporation of numerous non-Slavic, Muslim, Turkic, Finno-Ugric, Siberian and other peoples. And even Muscovy itself followed a very different historical trajectory from southwestern Rus (modern Ukraine) developing for centuries under Golden Horde domination and within a political environment profoundly shaped by it. There is considerably more to be said about what that meant for the state and political culture that subsequently emerged — and it is a history remarkably few Westerners seem to know.

We have become so accustomed to seeing Russia through the civilisational image Russia constructed and exported that we rarely stop to ask how much of that familiarity is real, and how much is projection: seeing European faces and assuming a European historical experience behind them.

But what if Russia is not a Western country that keeps failing to become what we expect it to be? What if we have simply spent far too long refusing to see it for what it is?

That is the question Kate explores at a high-level in this piece: “The Illusion Of a Familiar russia” https://www.ukrainianworldcongress.org/kate-turska-the-illusion-of-a-familiar-russia/

P.S. if you want to learn more on the subject, see some recommended reading in the comments below.

For decades, the West has suffered from a peculiar blind spot when it comes to Russia. We have tended to see a country that looks familiar enough to be understood through familiar categories: European, white, historically Christian, culturally rich, no longer communist and, after the collapse of the...

09/09/2026

🇺🇦🇳🇿🙏🏻
Thank you, New Zealand

🇺🇦🇳🇿 We are grateful to New Zealand for its continued and steadfast support for Ukraine.

Yesterday, the New Zealand Government announced that it will extend the New Zealand Defence Force’s contribution in support of Ukraine until 30 June 2028.

Up to 70 NZDF personnel will continue to be deployed in Europe as part of Operation Tīeke, contributing to the training and support of Ukrainian defenders, including in areas such as electronic warfare and drone operations.

We deeply appreciate this important decision and New Zealand’s continued commitment to strengthening Ukraine’s ability to defend itself against Russia’s aggression.

New Zealand’s support is not only a contribution to Ukraine’s security, but also to our shared security and the defence of the rules-based international order — from Europe to the Indo-Pacific.

We thank Foreign Minister Winston Peters, Defence Minister Paul Goldsmith, the New Zealand Government and the people of New Zealand for standing with Ukraine.

🇺🇦🤝🇳🇿

29/08/2026

“I’m standing here in Kyiv, between the word Freedom, the remains of the machinery sent to take that freedom away, and the faces of those who gave their lives defending it.

Today we honour Ukraine’s fallen defenders. They paid the ultimate price so that Ukraine could stand.

Our job now is to make sure it does.

Вічна памʼять Героям України.”
💛💙🙏🏻

29/08/2026

Only a few days ago, was hosting Independence Day celebrations, with international leaders and delegations from around the world here to stand with Ukraine. For that period, the skies over the capital were quiet, just as they were at the same time last year.

And, predictably, just as last year, once the delegations left, Kyiv went almost straight back to the sound of air raid sirens. Except this year, the attacks have intensified. You must’ve seen some of these headlines.

And living through it here feels pretty much exactly as they read.

For the past three days, Kyiv and the surrounding region have been under relentless russian attack. Air raid alerts end, only for another to begin almost immediately. On August 27 alone, alerts in Kyiv lasted for more than 14 hours. Through the nights and into the days, the drones and missiles keep coming.

Ukraine is increasingly capable of intercepting Shahed-type drones, but ballistic missiles are a different problem. Kyiv urgently needs more Patriot systems and, critically, the interceptors to keep them operating. At the same time, russia is developing the threat further: Ukrainian intelligence has confirmed the first combat use against Kyiv of russia’s upgraded 9M723-2 ballistic missile (aka Iskander-1000).

And russia is not even pretending that terrorising civilians is incidental.

This week, Deputy Speaker of the russian state duma Pyotr Tolstoy openly called on russian television for Ukrainian cities to be bombed specifically to demoralise the civilian population and force Ukrainians into submission. That is not an interpretation of russian strategy. They are telling us themselves what they are doing and why.

It was important to see so many international leaders here in Kyiv last weekend, and the additional commitments of support matter. But Ukraine needs air defence now!

Winter is approaching. We already know what russia does in winter: it attacks the energy and civilian infrastructure people depend on for electricity, heat and basic daily life. Ukrainian cities need to be properly protected before the cold arrives.

And russia needs to face consequences strong enough to change its calculations. Statements of solidarity are important, but they cannot intercept ballistic missiles.

Today, as Ukraine marks Fallen Defenders Day, we remember those who gave their lives so that Kyiv stands, Ukraine stands, and Ukrainians are able to continue living their lives here.

They paid the ultimate price. Those of us who remain, in Ukraine and among its partners, have an obligation to make sure that sacrifice was not in vain.


Ukrainian Association of New Zealand (UANZ) Ukrainian Association of Wellington Ukrainian Gromada of Wellington Ukrainian Association of NZ - Southern Regions fans Ukrainian World Congress - Свiтовий Конґрес Українців Посольство України в Австралії / Embassy of Ukraine in Australia