Greetings from Novorossiya: Eyewitness to the War in Ukraine

ISBN-13: 9780822965107 / Angielski / Miękka / 2017 / 224 str.

Pawel Pieniazek

Opis

When the people of Ukraine rose up against an authoritarian president and peacefully occupied Kiev's main square, they made the Euromaidan synonymous with moral courage and the yearning for freedom. But Vladimir Putin, sensing an existential threat to his own rule in Moscow, struck back.

Employing a noxious brew of mercenaries, local agents of influence, fake news on steroids, and disguised Russian special forces, Putin invaded Ukraine, seizing Crimea and creating a phony separatist movement to set against Kiev. Complete with all the trappings of statehood, with its own flag and armed forces largely staffed by Russians, they cynically called this "separatist" regime Novorossiya (New Russia), signaling their imperial intentions and touching off a bloody civil war. More than ten thousand people, including many innocent civilians, have perished in this conflict so far, with no end in sight.

Polish journalist Pawel Pieniazek was among the first journalists to enter the war-torn region of eastern Ukraine and spent over two years there. Greetings from Novorossiya is his vivid firsthand account of the conflict. Unlike Western journalists, his fluency in both Ukrainian and Russian granted him access and the ability to move among all sides in the conflict. He was the first reporter to reach the scene when Russian troops in Ukraine accidentally shot down a civilian airliner, killing all 298 people aboard. With powerful color photos, telling interviews from the local population, and brilliant reportage, Pieniazek's account documents these dramatic events as they transpired.

Originally published in Polish, this unique view of history in the making brings to life the tragedy of Ukraine for a Western audience. Historian Timothy Snyder provides wider context in his superb introduction and explores the significance of this ongoing conflict at the border of East and West.