CHOSEN AS A BOOK OF THE YEAR BY THE FINANCIAL TIMES * TELEGRAPH * PROSPECT 'The best account of
the ongoing conflict - its preconditions and its present-day horrors' Prospect Do you know what
is at stake in Ukraine? Urgent compelling reading from the author of Chernobyl on the defining
conflict of our times On 24 February 2022 Russia stunned the world by launching an invasion of
Ukraine. In the midst of checking on the family and friends who were now on the front lines of
Europe's largest conflict since the outbreak of the Second World War acclaimed
Ukrainian-American historian Serhii Plokhy inevitably found himself attempting to understand
the deeper causes of the invasion analysing its course and contemplating the wider outcomes.
The Russo-Ukrainian War is the comprehensive history of a war that has burned since 2014 and
that with Russia's attempt to seize Kyiv exploded a geo-political order that had been
cemented since the end of the Cold War. With an eye for the gripping detail on the ground both
in the halls of power and down in the trenches as well as a keen sense of the grander sweep of
history Plokhy traces the origins and the evolution of the conflict from the collapse of the
Russian empire to the rise and fall of the USSR and on to the development in Ukraine of a
democratic politics. Based on decades of research and his unique insight into the region he
argues that Ukraine's defiance of Russia and the West's demonstration of unity and strength
has presented a profound challenge to Putin's Great Power ambition and further polarized the
world along a new axis. A riveting enlightening account this is present-minded history at its
best. BEST BOOKS OF SUMMER 2023: FINANCIAL TIMES * THE TIMES * SUNDAY TIMES CULTURE * TLS
