Best of
Ukraine

2021

I Will Die in a Foreign Land


Kalani Pickhart - 2021
    “Only a Russian could do that," says Aleksandr Ivanovich. “Only a Russian could make the whole world go mad.”A century later, in November 2013, thousands of Ukrainian citizens gathered at Independence Square in Kyiv to protest then-President Yanukovych’s failure to sign a referendum with the European Union, opting instead to forge a closer alliance with President Vladimir Putin and Russia. The peaceful protests turned violent when military police shot live ammunition into the crowd, killing over a hundred civilians.I Will Die in a Foreign Land follows four individuals over the course of a volatile Ukrainian winter, as their lives are forever changed by the Euromaidan protests. Katya is an Ukrainian-American doctor stationed at a makeshift medical clinic in St. Michael’s Monastery; Misha is an engineer originally from Pripyat, who has lived in Kyiv since his wife’s death from radiation sickness; Slava is a fiery young activist whose past hardships steel her determination in the face of persecution; and Aleksandr Ivanovich, a former KGB agent who climbs atop a burned-out police bus at Independence Square and plays the piano.As Katya, Misha, Slava, and Aleksandr’s lives become intertwined, they each seek their own solace during an especially tumultuous and violent period. The story is also told by a chorus of voices that incorporates folklore and narrates a turbulent Slavic history.While unfolding an especially moving story of quiet beauty and love in a time of terror, I Will Die in a Foreign Land is an ambitious, intimate, and haunting portrait of human perseverance and empathy.

Traitors


Alex Shaw - 2021
    Her mission is to assassinate Sasha Vasilev, a Russian mole who took the French secret service apart piece by piece and gave their secrets to the Kremlin.A PRISONER WHO CAN’T BE KILLED Ex-SAS trooper and MI6 Officer Aidan Snow is also in Ukraine. Sent by British Intelligence, he must extract Mohammed Iqbal, an innocent citizen caught up in the conflict in rebel-controlled Donetsk.A WAR THAT CAN’T BE WON As Snow and Racine find themselves drawn deeper into the crisis, their missions collide with devastating consequences. Outgunned and outnumbered, their only hope is to fight their way through and out of Donetsk before Russia closes its new iron curtain.

Ukraine vs. Darkness: Undiplomatic Thoughts (Ukrainian Voices Book 7)


Olexander Scherba - 2021
    Scherba's captivating essays reflect his views of international affairs from a Ukrainian perspective. His deliberations are presented in uncomplicated, plain language. The articles assembled here have repeatedly caused discussion in Ukraine and abroad.By his opponents, Scherba is often described as being surprisingly undiplomatic and even provocative. For instance, his article "Why nationalism can't be the national idea of a European Ukraine", published on a Ukrainian nationalist website, stirred considerable controversy in Ukraine. Aside from explaining Kyiv's take on some key issues of international relations, these essays provide insights into Ukrainian political thinking since the start of Russia's military aggression in 2014, and into the painful political intramural fights in Ukrainian society ever since.

My Father's Letters: Correspondence from the Soviet Gulag


Memorial International - 2021
    

Future War and the Defence of Europe


John R. Allen - 2021
    Taking as its starting point the COVID-19 pandemic and way it will inevitably accelerate some key globaldynamics already in play, the book goes on to weave history, strategy, policy, and technology into a compelling analytical narrative. It lays out in forensic detail the scale of the challenge Europeans and their allies face if Europe's peace is to be upheld in a transformative century. The bookupends foundational assumptions about how Europe's defence is organised, the role of a fast-changing transatlantic relationship, NATO, the EU, and their constituent nation-states. At the heart of the book is a radical vision of a technology-enabling future European defence, built around a new kindof Atlantic Alliance, an innovative strategic public-private partnership, and the future hyper-electronic European force, E-Force, it must spawn. Europeans should be under no illusion: unless they do far more for their own defence, and very differently, all that they now take for granted could belost in the maze of hybrid war, cyber war, and hyper war they must face.

A Loss: The Story of a Dead Soldier Told by His Sister (Ukrainian Voices)


Olesya Khromeychuk - 2021
    Its author is a historian of war whose brother was killed at the frontline in 2017 while serving in the Ukrainian Armed Forces. Olesya Khromeychuk takes the point of view of a civilian and a woman, perspectives that tend to be neglected in war narratives, and focuses on the stories that play out far away from the warzone.Through a combination of personal memoir and essay, Khromeychuk attempts to help her readers understand the private experience of war as such. This book will resonate with anyone battling with grief and the shock of the sudden loss of a loved one.