Last Saturday, the Singapore Press Club and Singapore Film Society organised a special screening of the award-winning short film, 20 Days In Mariupol, a moving, intensely painful account of the Russian siege, and eventual seizure, of the south-eastern Ukrainian city in 2022.

No one who watches it – even the most conflict-hardened medic or reporter – will be unaffected by the film. Of all the humanitarian disasters that visit upon us, from earthquakes to pandemics, war is the worst – and the only one that is truly avoidable. So, for war to break out on a continent thought to have settled borders and established institutional set-ups such as the European Union and Nato is deeply troubling when viewed from Asia, where territorial issues are rife and systems weak.