‘A stunning work of eyewitness reportage and literary nuance. Clear-eyed, memorable. An instant classic’ STEVE COLL, Pulitzer Prize winning author of Ghost Wars

‘Brilliant and stirring. By layering detail upon telling detail, Trofimov builds up a vivid picture of how the men and women of Ukraine repulsed the Russian blitzkrieg with cleverness and courage’ Economist

‘For verve, knowledge and detail Trofimov can seldom be beaten and his writing is rich in local colour’ The Times

‘Part war correspondence, part road trip. Captures some of the most difficult, gruesome stories of the war. Those details are so intense that they sharpen everything around them’ Washington Post

‘A fast-paced, unflinching witness narrative of the war’s first year, perceptive in its accounts of Russian overconfidence and the inventive, makeshift ways in which Ukrainians fought back against a larger force invading on three fronts’ Financial Times

‘Achieves the highest level of war reporting: a tough, detailed account that nevertheless reads like a great novel’ SEBASTIAN JUNGER, bestselling author of The Perfect Storm


Yaroslav Trofimov, finalist for the Pulitzer Prize, 2023 and 2022