History has often dealt Ukraine a bad hand – here are some parallels and pitfalls

For Ukraine, history is a battlefield. Months before Russian President Vladimir Putin launched his full-scale invasion, he published a brooding, 5,000-word article that made the case for dismantling the country; in his speech to mark the start of Russia’s offensive he reeled off a litany of historical grievances against the West; and months into the war, he cast himself as the successor to Russia’s modernizing tsar Peter the Great.

History lessons are now haunting Ukraine again. As US President Donald Trump pushes for a negotiated end to the war there, politicians and pundits are searching for the right analogies to explain the precarious moment Ukraine finds itself in – and to gauge the risks it faces in any diplomatic process.

Parallels are imprecise, but the current moment resonat