Yaroslav Trofimov

“The psychology behind the decision to stay or to go is complicated and doesn’t depend on the intensity of immediate danger. Some people are too old, too sick, or too fatalistic to move, even as shells fall nearby and as their windows are blown out. Others, like Denys, have family they don’t want to abandon. Some are just too attached to the comforts of their apartments, to their household possessions, and can’t imagine going to a remote, unfamiliar city—even if doing so would likely save their and their children’s lives. This lack of imagination, or outright self-delusion, rattled me at times. But such an inclination to minimize danger, and to believe oneself to be somehow protected, is natural.”
― Yaroslav Trofimov, Our Enemies Will Vanish: The Russian Invasion and Ukraine's War of Independence

“The consequences of this forgotten crisis—which remains blotted out of history books in Saudi Arabia and many other Muslim lands—last to this day.”
― Yaroslav Trofimov, The Siege of Mecca: The 1979 Uprising at Islam's Holiest Shrine