Ukrainians as the Antibodies of the World’s Immunity

English version. Ukrainians are awakening the world, reminding us of the values ​​that are defining for Western civilization. But does the West need this? Reflections and analysis.

I do not think this is an exaggeration or hyperbole. I came to this conclusion reflecting on the events of the last 20 years, which have occurred before my eyes and in which I have been a participant.

The values on which the modern Western world is built have become a defining benchmark for Ukrainian society—the very values we are fighting for today.

Indeed, a war between worldview and civilizational choice has been ongoing in Ukraine and around us for many years. My hobby is history, especially British history. And I always start lectures on the foundations of any contemporary phenomenon with the Magna Carta. It was in this document, and later in the Habeas Corpus Act, that the principles were established which, under the influence of the teachings of Rousseau, Locke, Montesquieu, and Hobbes, were later realized in the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen of France and the U.S. Declaration of Independence.

The right to happiness, as an absolute among other rights, is based on the right to a fair trial, the inviolability of property, and the inviolability of life. What we now understand as the Rule of Law is not an absolute gift. It is the achievement of centuries of human rights advocacy, the struggle against injustice and tyranny. And for this—not for resources, business, or oligarchs—Ukrainians are dying today. The war is for these values, for a shift in priorities from communist to free democratic ones.

Ukrainian lawyers remember well this transition from socialist law to “capitalism,” where people have more rights and opportunities because the individual and their rights are the center of legal regulation. Neither religion, nor the state, nor a monarch, nor a tribe or nation are absolute. The absolute is the human being. It is like suddenly realizing that God exists. Imagine this transition happening within one generation. Can you picture it?

Now imagine that fifty million people are turning from a totalitarian system and state dogma toward democracy. Well, not all at once, and not everyone, hence the “growing pains”: corruption, raiding, oligarchic governance. But let’s be honest, in which country is there no corruption? (Right now, lawyers from all countries are rolling their eyes and smiling.)

And these fifty million begin to fight for their path to the values of Rousseau, Hobbes, and Locke. Of course, the totalitarian mafia-like regime does not let go. Europe has probably forgotten their colonial connections. And naturally, the former metropolis finds it easier to corrupt politicians, media, and conduct hybrid warfare than to release its wealthiest colony.

But, frankly, Ukrainians differ from their “friendly neighbors” with pronounced and aggressive independence and self-reliance. It is much easier to organize a local revolution or demonstrations, like those that took place in London in the summer, than elsewhere. As a participant in both Ukrainian Maidan revolutions, I can tell you that the self-organization of society at those moments is impressive. In the winter of 2013–2014, we patrolled the streets at night ourselves when the police had fled and withdrawn from protecting the population. Conscious citizens guarded police offices to prevent gangs from raiding weapon depots under the pretext of “liberating illegally detained individuals.” I personally toured all three pre-trial detention sites every morning for two weeks, signing acts as a lawyer confirming no detainees were present, and we posted these acts on police office gates so that protesters would not storm the buildings. Provocateurs and bandits were detained by people themselves and handed over to the police, who at that time were afraid to leave fortified offices. This was a time when the European axioms enshrined in the Conventions manifested, which we, Ukrainians, adopted as a worldview.

We chose the path of a free society, not a totalitarian system, where modern feudal lords sell influence quotas as they used to sell passage across a bridge or the right to trade on a baron’s territory. Ukrainians are carriers of that spirit, which has been fading in Europe.

The spirit of entrepreneurial freedom, the spirit of religious freedom, the spirit of inviolability of property, the spirit of equality. Therefore, yes, Ukrainian refugees are inconvenient for many societies. Let’s be frank.

The wave of Ukrainians differs from the migration wave caused by Russian hybrid wars over the past 10 years in that our refugees are not what Europeans are accustomed to.

I often heard: “So you arrived in new cars.” Yes, in our case women mostly earn and work independently, and they left, saving their children, in the cars they had. And if you were fleeing bombs in Stuttgart, Birmingham, Rome, or Orléans, would you look for a donkey or a horse? Since when is human equality measured by the brand of their car or how shabby they look? There was an instance when a migration program provided lectures to Ukrainian women about hygiene and how often to take a shower. The reception system had not considered that refugees might already know about showers, razors, and deodorants, and moreover, have a university education. Bombs and bullets simply do not choose whom to kill—washed or unwashed people. And from war, everyone flees.

For the last 20 years, Ukrainians have lived much better than Russians, because economic freedoms and entrepreneurship gave people a chance to build their lives. And this is a source of envy for the society that chose to maintain totalitarian communism with elements of oligarchy. Do you know how many Russians moved to Kyiv after 2004? Because they believed that Ukrainians would reach Europe faster? And after 2014, how many Russian opposition figures came to live in Ukraine? Not because our climate is better or vegetables fresher and cheaper, but because the society is different, one that moves toward the values from the Magna Carta, and the books of Rousseau and Locke.

In 2022, Russian occupiers were struck by how ordinary people live in Ukrainian villages, with farmers owning two cars, tractors, washing machines, and—imagine—a toilet in their home. This envy is the main motivation to kill, strangle, or bomb the life they disagree with.

Today, for all countries worldwide, Ukrainians are a painful challenge to worldview. We arrive and ask: “Oops, where are your democratic values, the ones we have been fighting for ten years?” Where is the place for free enterprise in Europe? Why does a person with a university degree have less chance of support than someone who cannot write in their native language? Why are some refugees “more equal” than others, because somewhere a woman has no right to speak, while Ukrainian women can not only speak, they can ask very “intolerant questions”?

Recently, I read the UA2USA study that Ukrainian businesses in the USA generate $60 billion in revenue, providing $8 billion per year in taxes (source: Atlantic Council). How much do they pay in taxes in the EU? Has anyone counted? And do you know that Ukrainians work? No, we do not sit in hotels as a symbol of equality on the social benefits of other taxpayers. We stand for equality. Therefore, in Europe, depending on the country, Ukrainian employment ranges from 63% to 72%. For example, in the UK, over 60% of Ukrainians rent housing at their own expense, and as of 2023, 58% were working, while research from the University of Birmingham in 2025 shows economic activity exceeding 69%. This is about equality, about fair and equal responsibility toward the society in which one lives. 

In 2023, a year after the full-scale war began, Ukrainian emigrants in the EU (70% of whom are women) were already over 50% employed, and by 2025 the figure exceeds 65%, showing that Ukrainians uphold the same Protestant values on which the growth of the Western world and the 19th-century Industrial Revolution were based—work, thrift, and respect for property (here I refer to the book Why Nations Fail).

Now let us assemble the mosaic of all these facts.

The Western world perceives Ukrainians as terra incognita. Mysterious newcomers, 80% of whom have university degrees, attempt to start businesses, fully integrate into local life within a few years, demand equal rights, open new businesses, and most importantly—send billions of euros to Ukraine. Every Ukrainian donates to units where their friends, brothers, sisters, or neighbors are fighting. Likewise, each Ukrainian at home has family they support.

Ukrainians who stayed in Ukraine create a phenomenon that, I am not certain, exists in such scale in every European country—they actively defend and build their state. I do not want to cite EU studies on how many people are currently ready to fight for European values. But you will be surprised: social benefits and tolerance, combined with a sense of collective guilt (unclear exactly for what Europeans are guilty), have made societies extremely inert, suffocated by bureaucracy and overregulation, and not what Europe truly is, as we saw it in Ukraine during our Revolutions.

We are restless—that is a fact. We fight for what we believe in. We defend because life is singular; we will not have another life or time to create something for our children. And we thought that in Europe, everyone is equal in their pursuit of happiness, inviolability of property, protected from unlawful expropriation, arrest, and abuse of power. And I am glad that Europe, under the influence of Ukrainian “antibodies,” is awakening. Germany has awakened, Italy demonstrates that it is a great and proud country, France has remembered that it is the center of the continent, Poland is gaining momentum and developing its economy (only Ukrainians contributed +2.7% GDP growth, according to Reuters), and our friends in Greece, Romania, Czechia, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Finland, and Portugal defend these values and demonstrate commitment to what is common to our civilization. They support steadfastly because this is not a war for someone’s land or oil wells—it is for the worldview that originated in Athens and Rome, through Sorbonne, Venice, Oxford, Boston, Philadelphia, and made possible democracy, the abolition of slavery, and the ability to pursue happiness.

Unfortunately, the poison of hybrid warfare by the KGB, conducted over 30 years across all continents by the totalitarian regime, has paralyzed many political forces in the Western world. Were it not for Ukrainians with their “problem” and “situation,” the quiet virus of corruption and political bribery would have conquered the world. Yet, by valuing their own lives, ordinary Ukrainians provide a chance for recovery and a return to the values of Locke and Rousseau.

In the human body, there are cells that die attacking the enemy—they produce antibodies, the foundation of immunity. Perhaps 80 years was enough time for the West’s immunity to weaken. But do not forget who defended Europe from the Mongols under Batu Khan in 1240 (the Horde destroyed Kyiv), from the Ottomans in 1683 (Cossacks halted the advance on Vienna), and who today dies because rights and the Rule of Law in the modern world fail to function.

And as long as war and killing are called in news and documents “situations,” “conflicts,” or “problems,” the West’s immunity will not recover. You cannot treat a disease with kind words and “concern.” There must be a harsh work of immunity.

Yet we, Ukrainians, give a chance to remember what our shared values are, what our Western identity is based on:

• the right to life,

• the right to a fair trial,

• the right to property,

• freedom of enterprise,

• the right to pursue happiness, proclaimed in 1776.