In the book, you contrast your willingness to ask for help during your recovery with people from previous generations who felt less inclined to be vulnerable in that way. Is that a positive generational change in your mind?

Absolutely. In my first book, Saved, I wrote about my father, who lived in the Philippines during World War II and was put in a Japanese prison camp at 12 years old. It wasn’t until I was in my mid-20s that he really talked about it for the first time. His generation didn’t talk about it. You just got on with life, and had some pretty tough times as a result.

So I absolutely think that we need to be talking more, and we’re in a world that allows that. I do caveat that, though, by saying that you mustn’t go too far and talk about absolutely everything. There are some battles you have to defeat by yourself. There is a line and and people have different ideas about where it is. But when you go through something particularly traumatic, I totally encourage you to talk about it.

When I was in the hospital, I knew that I was going to tell the first person who walked through that door if I was having a bad day and needed help. And just saying things like “This is really tricky” or “‘I’m struggling to figure this out,” helped so much.

Your own story will forever be connected to Ukraine’s story. How do you navigate that in your coverage?

I don’t think it really changes the way I would report on it. I mean, you could argue that having been in in the middle of it and being injured there I would be saying all we should do right now is give Ukraine absolutely everything it needs to keep the fight going. But I’m also aware that we need to find a way to end this. I like to think I’m pretty good at being able to see what I have to see as a journalist, as opposed to how I see it personally.

In your ideal world, how does this end?

As a pragmatist—or, similarly, a realist—if Ukrainians are not able to push Russian troops back to the original borders and if Russia is not in a position to take all of Ukraine, there have to be concessions somewhere. We can’t have a forever war.

What I’d like to see and what I think we will see is a ceasefire. What I’d really hope from a peace deal are security guarantees that ensures that Putin doesn’t spend the next three years re-arming. That said, Ukraine would also have three years to re-ram and possibly be more defensive as well.

Ultimately, I want a peace deal and I want it as soon as possible. I don’t think we well see new borders to the country. Instead, it’ll end up being closer to what you have in Korea where neither side acknowledges that they have technically lost the land. I want what everyone seems to want—I just don’t want it in a way that doesn’t guarantee the future security of Ukraine.