Despite repeated warnings from the White House, Russias invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 shocked the world. Why did Putin start the warand why has it unfolded in previously unimaginable ways? Ukrainians have resisted a superior military; the West has united, while Russia grows isolated.

Serhii Plokhy, leading historian of Ukraine and the Cold War, traces this conflict to post-Soviet tensions. Providing a broad historial context and an examination of Ukraine and Russias ideas and cultures, as well as domestic and international politics, Plokhy reveals that while this new Cold War was not inevitable, it was predictable. Ukraine, Plokhy argues, has remained central to Russias idea of itself even as Ukrainians have followed a radically different path. It is now more than ever the most volatile fault line between authoritarianism and democratic Europe as a new division of the world emerges around the economic superpowers of the United States and China.

Author – Serhii Plokhy

Hardcover,400 pages.