How do I talk to my children about Russia’s assault on Ukraine?

Struggling to answer questions about the conflict, Will Gore despairs at the cost of war

A child sits on a swing in front of a damaged residential building in Kyiv (Reuters)

In the summer of 1991, the future of the Soviet Union hung in the balance. Hard-line communists, angry at the democratising reforms set in motion by Mikhail Gorbachev, staged an attempted coup, and there were tanks on the streets of Moscow.

At the time, I was on a family holiday in Austria, and I remember quiet, angst-ridden conversations between my parents, as they tried to work out what was happening, and what the knock-on consequences for the rest of Europe might be. Absurd as it seems, I think there was even talk about driving home early, just in case.

In the event, the coup was faced down, as Boris Yeltsin and other liberals had their moment in the sun. But no wonder that my parents were worried; they had lived their entire lives in the shadow of the Cold War, wondering if at any point the long stand-off between east and west would turn into direct conflict.