Anne Applebaum on Ukraine: ‘The signs were there but we didn’t want to listen’

Pulitzer Prize-winning historian and political analyst Anne Applebaum talks to Kathimerini and Yannis Palaiologos about the warning signs of the Russian invasion of Ukraine an the West’s reaction. 

“This is not about him suddenly going crazy. He’s been building up to this for a long time – years and years and years,” she tells Kathimerini.

“The signs have been there and they have been saying it and they’ve been taking actions to prepare for it, but we didn’t want to listen. And we refused to understand that that was what was happening. In particular, the Germans refused to hear it. They couldn’t believe it.”