Igor Novikov: Former special advisor to Ukraine president Volodymyr Zelensky says Uppingham School and Rutland shaped his life

They were given an early warning of Russian intentions and had ample means of escape, yet their minds were made up.

“It was an informed decision to stay,” he said.

“I was told back in autumn last year there was a high probability of a Russian attack in the winter.

“I could have left the country before, one day after the invasion, or even the day when Russian forces got within 10 kilometres of my house.

“I have two young daughters and a wife, plus for a number of reasons I couldn’t be mobilised as a soldier.

“I had discussions with my wife and family whether we needed to leave or stay and made an informed decision to stay. We wanted to stand our ground.

“Standing your ground acts as a moral deterrent to an invader.

“If it had been up to me, they wouldn’t have stayed, only I would have. When the Russian forces left that was when my family said they needed a change of scenery.”

It’s a show of courage and an example of Ukraine’s customary rebellious spirit that have become familiar through daily news reports.

In Igor’s case the bravery was amplified by the increased risk he knew he was facing.

“I was on the Russians’ execution list,” he said.

“I found this out from friends inside our intelligence community. When I was told, it sounded ridiculous.

“But they were executing people in Bucha just because they didn’t like them.

“I’m not the most comfortable of people for an invader so my chances of making it through an occupation were very slim.

“We have a big house, a few cars, our life is good, so for the invading horde of people looting everything left and right we were in the worst position.

“We have seen that pattern emerging in the more upmarket neighbourhoods with far greater numbers of executions because they didn't want witnesses to their looting.”

They left Kyiv and drove to Germany once the Russians had withdrawn from northern Ukraine in early April.

He and his family are now living safely in France, yet uncomfortable habits die hard.

“A few days after we left Ukraine, a passenger jet went over my head and I fell off a bench and tried to roll under it.

“After 44 days in Kyiv, when you heard an engine it was a cruise missile heading someone’s way.”

Igor continues to travel back for business and, thanks to his former close Government ties, still has the inside track on the situation at home.

“When I’m in France, working remotely with that information flow coming out of Ukraine it is very surreal to look up from your phone and see normal life.”

Igor has come a long way since arriving at Uppingham School as a teenager, but he believes it had a big role in where his life would one day travel.

He came to Rutland in 1997, with Ukraine still undergoing a huge transformation a handful of years after independence from Soviet rule.

“My parents' dream for me was to become a global citizen and they wanted me to have a British education,” he explained.

“My first few months, it was quite difficult because I didn’t speak much English and it was a major change of scenery.

“It was very different in 1997 between Kyiv and Uppingham.

“My country was forming and it was a bit turbulent like the wild west - we were literally growing up.

“Life was completely different here. Going to chapel every morning, being in the middle of the academic process non-stop.

“But I look back at my time in Rutland as some of the best years I had in my life. I cherish every memory. It formed me as a person.

“Being at Uppingham and then London helped me understand both worlds and how to marry the two together.”

Before leaving for a law degree at the London School of Economics and Political Science, Igor spent a summer in Stamford with a girl he met in Uppingham.

“I got my first-ever job working at a seafood restaurant in Stamford,” he recalled.

“I saved up some money and we went on holiday to Greece. We were there when 9/11 happened.

“All of these memories feel a bit like a Hollywood movie.”

Despite graduating, he never practised law, instead joining the corporate world, working for one of the world’s biggest insurance companies before going it alone and making his fortune in business.

But his road to Zelensky really began after becoming involved with the Singularity University in Silicon Valley, California, and then opening a chapter for the university in Kyiv.

“I became quite well known for that and did a lot of public speaking,” Igor explained.

“I was approached by Zelensky’s inner circle in 2018 and was with his team through the presidential campaign. We clicked.”

After Zelensky’s election win the following April, Igor accepted a position as a presidential advisor.

He was put in charge of Ukraine’s relations with the United States, ‘trying to survive’ 18 months of Donald Trump, before leaving the voluntary role in August 2020 to concentrate on his business interests and research.

“It was an interesting experience,” he recalled

“I was with Zelensky in the room for the meeting with Trump in September 2019. That was his dress rehearsal for fame.

“I said then Zelensky will sooner or later be known as one of the greatest political leaders in the world. That seemed ridiculous before, but it has turned out to be true.”

In recent months the Ukrainian comedian turned world leader has become one of the globe’s most recognisable faces.

“He is one of those no-nonsense kind of people,” Igor said.

“They make the greatest of entrepreneurs and agents of change.

“Zelensky came from a show business background, I came from my turbulent rollercoaster career and we knew nothing about how things were meant to be run, but we just knew what outcomes we wanted.”

Igor believes their lack of political experience and impatience with bureaucracy worked in Ukraine’s favour.

“The world is changing faster than they can print textbooks,” he said.

“Now the quicker you race and the more agile you are the more chance you have of success.”

Igor believes this new politics also changed his nation’s fate when war broke out.

“When that black swan came, most seasoned politicians didn’t know what to do,” he said.

“Many thought ‘there is no way we can win this’ and talked about evacuation. Zelensky just said ‘no, I want ammunition, not a ride’.

“Had he left back in February, the frontline of where we are would have been completely different. The death toll would have been greater and people would have been demoralised.

“When you are confronted by a bully, you don’t open up a set of rules - you either face him or you run. These are your only choices.

“We are just lucky as a country to have a president who has stayed.”

Despite having officially left his Government role, Igor retains the inside track on what is happening.

However, forecasting the months ahead remains challenging.

“It is really difficult to forecast with someone as irrational as Putin, but it really depends on what direction he takes,” he said.

“A few weeks back I thought he would go on for maybe up to a year, but as he constantly escalates I think it will end up in a month or two, and it could end dramatically.”

What Igor is more sure of, though, is that ‘ultimately Putin will fail’.

“The world in five years will be unrecognisable because of technology - there will be a major shift from fossil fuels,” Igor said.

“It’s the reason Russia is doing what it’s doing.

“They have ambitions of grandeur but they rely on fossil fuels to sell to the world and their military. But there is no place for that in the 2030s.

“We are going to see growth of renewables and we are already seeing signs that the Russian Army is obsolete.

“For Russia their destiny is to float into obscurity, but for Putin that would mean regime change so he has decided to go the Stalin way.

“He wants to dehumanise his people and do as many land grabs as possible, but he doesn't realise the world has changed.”