“Putin’s War Against Ukraine” by Taras Kuzio focuses on national identity as the root of the crisis through Russia’s long-term refusal to view Ukrainians as separate people and an unwillingness to recognize the sovereignty and borders of independent Ukraine. The book aims to debunk myths surrounding the conflict and provides an incisive analysis for scholars, policy-makers and journalists as to why Vladimir Putin is at war with the West and Ukraine.
Reality has set in among Western leaders that Russia believes the West is at war with Russia, with Dr. Kuzio citing the 2016 U.S. presidential election hacking as the most egregious example. The international liberal order of the post-Cold War era remains under threat from an aggressive Russia. The “End of History” – as it was proclaimed in 1991 – has been replaced by the “Return of History.”
Chapter headings include: “Understand-ing the Ukraine-Russia Crisis and the Donbas”; “Russian Nationalism and Imperialism and Ukraine”; “Ukrainophobia and Re-Stalinization”; “Anti-Zionism and Anti-Semitism”; “Crime and Violence”; “The Donbas and Ukraine”; “The Party of Regions”; “Subverting and Dismembering Ukraine”; “Invasion, Annexation and Hybrid War”; “Human Rights and War Crimes”; and “Ukraine’s National Identity and Putin’s War.”
The book includes interviews conducted in Ukraine, as well as recommended additional reading.
In his review on Amazon.com, Alexander Motyl wrote: “No Western scholar knows Ukraine as well as Taras Kuzio. Once again, as so often in the past, he comes through with fundamental work – well-researched, authoritative and clearly written – that will be indispensible reading for anyone who wants to know what is really going on in Ukraine today. The title says it all: Ukraine is the victim of a military aggression initiated, conducted and sustained by Russia’s supremacist macho dictator, Putin.”
The war in Ukraine has cost 30,000 civilian and military lives, according to Dr. Kuzio. One-third of the population of the Donbas has been internally displaced. The Donbas has also suffered the destruction of huge areas of the infrastructure and economy, and created a black hole of crime and soft security threats to Europe.
Dr. Kuzio is non-resident fellow at the Center for Transatlantic Relations at the Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies at Johns Hopkins University, and is a leading authority on contemporary Ukraine. This latest book is a product of extensive fieldwork in Russian-speaking eastern and southern Ukraine and the frontlines of the Donbas combat zone. The author is based in Toronto and is a native of England.
For more information, readers may visit Dr. Kuzio’s website, www.taraskuzio.com. Readers may obtain copies of “Putin’s War Against Ukraine” from online retailers and booksellers. An e-book version is available as well on Amazon.com.