TORONTO, NEW YORK, WASHINGTON, LONDON, KYIV – Yaroslav Trofimov has won the 2024 Peterson Literary Prize for his book Our Enemies Will Vanish: The Russian Invasion and Ukraine’s War of Independence (Penguin Press). The winner was announced at the Peterson Literary Fund’s awards gala held in the Guildhall of the historic Old Mill Toronto on November 30, 2024.
Diane Francis interviews Yaroslav Trofimov and Mikhail Zygar on the prospects for an end to the war in Ukraine
Yaroslav Trofimov — Author
Penguin Adult / Penguin Press (imprint) — Publisher
A revelatory eyewitness account of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and heroism of the Ukrainian people in their resistance by Yaroslav Trofimov, the Ukrainian chief foreign-affairs correspondent for The Wall Street Journal.
Since Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, Yaroslav Trofimov has spent months on end at the heart of the conflict, very often on its front lines. In this authoritative account, he traces the war’s decisive moments—from the battle for Kyiv to more recently the gruelling and bloody arm wrestle involving the Wagner group over Bakhmut—to show how Ukraine and its allies have turned the tide against Russia, one of the world’s great military powers, in a modern-day battle of David and Goliath. Putin had intended to conquer and annex Ukraine with a vicious blitzkrieg, redrawing the map of Europe in a few short weeks with seismic geopolitical consequences. But in the face of this existential threat, the Ukrainian people fought back, turning what looked like certain defeat into a great moral victory, even as the territorial battle continues to see-saw to this day. This is the story of the epic bravery of the Ukrainian people—people Trofimov knows very well.
![Деокупація. Історії опору українців. 2022 [De-occupation. Stories of Ukrainian resistance 2022]](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/604e7722dad32a12b242445a/b5516a26-8747-4d02-831d-385b8bb7f8bb/deoccupation_cover_print_page-0001.jpg)
![Бахмут [Bakhmut]](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/604e7722dad32a12b242445a/1732135741481-SN7AXOIIJ2VAQN9K1WWR/Bakhmut_cover_final_page-0001.jpg)
