As a historian living in Dubai, I never thought I would say, "I know what it feels like to be Ukrainian."

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But after months of drone strikes from the Islamic Republic of Iran against the region, and the United Arab Emirates specifically, with over 3,000 drone strikes, one would be safe to assume that we are their favourite target. After all those drone strikes, I developed an interest in those drones and how they are made. That path surprisingly led to the Russian Federation and the war in Ukraine, a war that I believe is the definitive conflict of the decade.

Russia, much like Iran, is sadly held hostage by a despotic regime. A regime that is driven by its own twisted interpretation of where the country belongs on the global stage. To understand the seriousness of the conflict, and why it matters to stand up to the heinous acts of Putin’s regime, we must look to the one subject he uses most, but understands least: history.

In January 1945, with defeat looming, Hitler's focus lay squarely upon the city. He knew that if it fell, the Third Reich would fall with it, so he demanded his men turn Königsberg into a fortress. The defeat eventually came at the hands - and bullets - of Soviet forces who took over the city. As a result of post-war negotiations and compromises, the Soviet Union took the city of Königsberg, and over the following decades German inhabitants were uprooted as Russian families were brought in to repopulate the city overlooking the Baltic........

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