Russia's Road to War with Ukraine - Invasion amidst the ashes of empires

'We don't yet know where the current battle is headed. But Puri's 'first cut' will help us greatly in fathoming how we got here.' - Patrick Porter, Professor of International Security, University of Birmingham *** When Vladimir Putin invaded Ukraine on 24 February 2022, many in the West were left stunned at his act of brutal imperialism. To those who had been paying attention, however, the warning signs of the bloodshed and slaughter to come had been there for years. Tracing the relationship between the two countries from the breakup of the Soviet Union in 1991 to Putin's invasion in 2022, what emerges from this gripping and accessible book is a portrait of a nation caught in a geopolitical tug of war between Russia and the West. While Russia is identified as the sole aggressor, we see how Western bodies such as the EU and NATO unrealistically raised Ukraine's expectations of membership before dashing them, leaving Ukraine without formal allies and fatally exposed to Russian aggression. As a former international observer, Samir Puri was present for several of the major events covered in this book. He uses this experience to ask honestly: how did we get here? Why does Vladimir Putin view Ukraine as the natural property of Russia? Did the West handle its dealings with these countries prudently? Or did it inflame the tensions left amidst the ruins of the Soviet Union? Were there any missed opportunities to avert the war? And how might this conflict end?

Dr Samir Puri is a senior fellow in hybrid war at the International Institute for Strategic Studies, a geopolitics think tank, and a regular media commentator on the war in Ukraine for Al Jazeera, Bloomberg, the BBC and other outlets. He has had a ringside seat to several major events covered in this book, serving as an international observer at five Ukrainian elections including the 'Orange Revolution' in 2004. Soon after the first incarnation of the war began in 2014, he spent a year working along both sides of the front line as a British diplomat seconded to an international monitoring mission. He is the author of The Great Imperial Hangover: How Empires Shaped the World (Atlantic, 2020).