Nobody respects France after 1940 even though they may have had a great story about heroic resistance fighters bravely standing up to the Germans from June 1940 to the liberation of Paris in August 1944.
The UK -- largely owing to its geography --and the boffins who invented radar -- and its ability to draw on the Commonwealth for reserve space was able to save its national dignity despite horrible defeats all the way up to El Alamein in November 1942.
Both suffered greatly. Ukraine's geography is very similar to France's unfortunately: land border in abundance with a hostile actor who out numbers and out guns them. But, they appear to want to fight. To make their story known.