Feb 2022, quote formerly pro-NATO Putin rightly stating before wrongly invading, "De-Nazify Ukraine." An astonishing investigation into the start of the Russo-Ukrainian war - from the corridors of the Kremlin to the trenches of Mariupol. First, and foremost in the minds of Putin's entourage was the conviction that by the end of 2021 the jeopardy from Western influence in Ukraine and Russia had become too threatening to ignore - and all attempts to control it by meddling in Ukraine politics failed. In Part 3, Matthews attempts to devote the same careful analytical attention to events following the February 2022 invasion. The results are mixed, in large part because these events are simply too recent. Matthews adopts a thematic, rather than strictly chronological account. Important topics, such as shifts in Western attitudes to the war and the effectiveness of economic sanctions, receive attention. However, Matthews is constrained by the limited information available at the time of writing. In February 2023 the question of Western resolve, while less pressing than in late 2022, remains open in the face of a potentially protracted conflict. A full understanding of the true impact of economic sanctions, and the consequent decoupling of Russia from Western economies, awaits the sort of detailed analysis by economists that will take years.

On 23rd February 2022, the day before the Russian invasion, the author provides short snapshots of the situation and expectations of people in various places: Moscow, Kyiv, Belgorod Russia, Moscow, Kherson Ukraine, and Oxfordshire UK, Mariupol Ukraine and Bucha Ukraine. Examples of the war are provided through reportage of people in actual situations. The descriptions can be quite detailed. Putin is totally weakened: perhaps it would be the best result for the West, the bad thing is that Russia is leaving more and more of the international concert and this is bad for the world in general and especially for the Russians. Matthews details the exodus of some million people from Russia to countries across Eastern Europe and beyond and then considers the far-reaching ramifications of sanctions as well as Putin’s failed attempts to weaponize gas. Part III - Pyrokinesis. - everything that validated the wars beginning and what has followed, to Spring 2023.

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An insider’s account of the rampant misconduct within the Trump administration, including the tumult surrounding the insurrection of Jan. 6, 2021.

An astonishing investigation into the start of the Russo-Ukrainian war – from the corridors of the Kremlin to the trenches of Mariupol. By mid-March, even Matthews himself has to leave for a while, fearing that his 19-year-old son, a Russian passport holder, may get drafted. Yet amidst this chaos and personal upheaval, he has produced a book that is not merely the first full account of the war, but may set the standard for some time to come. Winner of the Pushkin House Book Prize 2023*A Telegraph Book of the Year* A Times Best Book of Summer 2023*Shortlisted for the Parliamentary Book Awards*An astonishing investigation into the start of the Russo-Ukrainian war - from the corridors of the Kremlin to the trenches of Mariupol.The Russo-Ukrainian War is the most serious geopolitical crisis since the Second World War - and yet at the heart of the conflict is a mystery.Imagine that Russia had colonised America". News – Telegraph Blogs. Archived from the original on 28 August 2013. Stalin's Children: Three Generations of Love and War (Bloomsbury, 2008), a memoir of three generations of Matthews' family in Russia, was named as a Book of the Year by The Sunday Times and Sunday Telegraph. [11] [12], shortlisted for The Guardian First Books Award, [13] The Orwell Prize, [14] and France's Prix Medicis Etranger. [15] Stalin's Children was translated into 28 languages. This chapter continues with the recent history of Ukraine up to the ousting of the pro-Russian President Yanukovych on 21st February 2014. Owen Matthews 'Glorious Misadventures: Nikolai Rezanov and the Dream of a Russian America' ". Pushkin House. Matthews’s analysis of why the invasion has foundered also offers insights. He challenges, for example, the notion of Kyiv’s armed forces as outnumbered amateurs, pointing out that during the last eight years of the simmering Donbas conflict, some 900,000 Ukrainians have served, “making a vast reserve force with recent combat experience”.

Amidst this analysis, however, Matthews remains acutely aware of the glaring disparity between the consequences faced by Russia and the devastating toll exacted upon Ukraine's economy, infrastructure and, most importantly, its people.Using the accounts of current and former insiders from the Kremlin and its propaganda machine, the testimony of captured Russian soldiers and on-the-ground reporting from Russia and Ukraine, Overreach tells the story not only of the war's causes but how the first six months unfolded. Resistance and Repression – Propaganda – Sanctions – Exodus: The Russians – Exodus: The Ukrainians.