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The mood in Ukraine has changed, says Jerome Starkey, The Sun’s Defence Editor. While there is still a steely resolve, it is now mixed with a sense of fatigue and weariness, according to Starkey.
He also notes a simmering resentment among those who are fighting, as they have been making sacrifices for such a long time while others are not. In the first part of The Security Podcast hosted by National Security News Editor, Sean Rayment and Linda van Tilburg, Starkey recounts the story of a female soldier who stated that everyone who can carry a gun should be doing so. She added, “I hate the men who aren’t signing up… and I hate the women who love them.”
In the second part of the interview with Jerome Starkey, he provides insights into the risks that war correspondents take, how they balance personal life with time on the frontline, and what motivates them.
Starkey described experiencing a couple of “really hairy moments” and recalls how he “cowered next to a flowerpot.” He says that balancing his personal life, especially now that he has two children, is really difficult.
“I remember asking a very experienced colleague of mine, whom I’d say is a professional and a role model. I asked him whether he’d ever written an ‘in the event of my death’ letter to his children or something like that. I think perhaps because he didn’t want to contemplate that at the time, his response was pretty sharp. He said, ‘No, because I think dying on an assignment would be the greatest dereliction of duty.’”
