WAR AND PUNISHMENT: Putin, Zelensky, and the Path to Russia’s Invasion of Ukraine

Mikhail Zygar – Author

SIMON & SCHUSTER (Scribner imprint) — Publisher

Exiled Russian journalist, Mikhail Zygar, reveals his country's history of oppressing Ukraine. In his book, War and Punishment, Zygar blames Russia's colonialist mindset and state-controlled culture for the war. This important book dismantles the imperial narrative that Putin used to justify a brutal invasion.

As soon as Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022, independent Russian journalist Mikhail Zygar circulated a petition that was first signed by prominent Russian writers, artists, and filmmakers and then by thousands of others. Russia soon enacted strict new censorship laws, and Zygar was forced to leave his country. In his time as a journalist, he has interviewed Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky and has had access to many of the major players in both countries, from politicians to oligarchs. As an expert on Vladimir Putin's behaviour, he has spent years studying the Kremlin's plan for Ukraine, and here, in clear, chronological order, he explains the nationalist myths and legends Russia has exploited to justify savagely invading its independent neighbouring country.

Drawing on literature, formal histories, and his own reporting, Zygar details Ukraine's rise to nationhood, from its ancient origins as a culturally and politically distinct region, often in direct conflict with Moscow, to a Soviet-controlled state that suffered terribly at the hands of Nazi soldiers in World War II and, before that, from Stalin's forced-starvation policies in the 1930's. Following the fall of the USSR, Ukraine emerged first as a post-Soviet oligarchic state and then as a progressive nation with increasing economic, cultural, and political ties to Europe and the US.

Of particular note is Zygar's step-by-step account of the rise of Zelensky as a popular comic and television personality to a resolute symbol of Ukraine's resistance to Russia's invasion. Zelensky's ascent came as a new generation of Ukrainians, having grown up in an independent country, did not consider themselves to be part of Russia — a tipping point that led to war, as Putin could not tolerate losing Ukraine forever.

Authoritative and timely, this vital account is an unprecedented historical overview of the war that affects us all and continues to threaten the future of the entire world as we know it.