War and Punishment

Putin, Zelensky, and the Path to Russia's Invasion of Ukraine

By: Mikhail Zygar

Narrated by: Richard Attlee

A NEW YORKER BEST BOOK OF 2023

From “one of Russia’s smartest and best-sourced young journalists” (The New York Times)—the first work by a Russian author to reveal his country’s history of oppressing Ukraine, providing an unprecedented overview of the war for Ukrainian independence that affects us all.

As soon as the Russian invasion of Ukraine began, prominent independent Russian journalist Mikhail Zygar circulated a Facebook petition signed first by hundreds of his cultural and journalistic contacts and then by thousands of others. That act led to a new law in Russia criminalizing criticism of the war, and Zygar fled Russia. In his time as a journalist, Zygar has interviewed President Zelensky and had access to many of the major players—from politicians to oligarchs. As an expert on Putin’s moods and behavior, he has spent years studying the Kremlin’s plan regarding Ukraine, and here, in clear, chronological order he explains how we got here.

In 1996 to 2004, Ukraine became an independent post-Soviet country where everyone was connected to the former empire at all levels, financially, culturally, psychologically. However, the elite anticipated that the empire would be back and punish them. From 2004 to 2018, there were many states inside one state, each with its own rulers/oligarchs and its own interests—some of them directly connected with Russia. In 2018, a new generation of Ukrainians arrive, and having grown in an independent country, they do not consider themselves to be part of Russia—and that was the moment when the war began, as Putin could not tolerate losing Ukraine forever.

Authoritative, timely, and vitally important, this is an unique overview of the war that continues to threaten the future of the entire world as we know it.

©2023 Mikhail Zygar (P)2023 Simon & Schuster Audio

Remarkable review of a terrible situation.

Mr. Zygar goes back about 400 years to examine and dissect many of the factors that led to today's Ukrainian - Russian conflict on a microscopic level. The depth of his historical and psychological review of the situation is stunning. His writing style is clear and compelling. The narration is also remarkably good, especially in light of the frequent insertion of Ukrainian and Russian names and phrases. The detailed biographical depiction of both Putin and Zelenskiy really does afford a great deal of insight into the complicated human factors at play in this horrendous and unnecessary war. It is clear that Putin's nationalistic/imperialistic notions and twisted sense of history and the concept of novorossiya combined with his ability to suppress truth and dissension within his country and within his people is at work. This also has implications for imperialist tendencies in many other places, including obviously the US. Absolutely required reading to have any hope of understanding this unfortunate situation.

Excellent unbiased historical review extremely informative and pertinent to world politics in general

The only negative is perhaps the length regarding the details of the very early historical events likely unknown to most readers and quickly forgotten

An Outstanding Read

The book was well researched, extremely informative and insightful, the audio read was a pleasure. I could not wait to listen to it every day, and I just wish that more readers would consider picking it up, especially those who are genuinely interested in the history of the Russia-Ukraine conflict.

A great breakdown of Ukrainian history.

Zygar does an excellent job of going back 300-400 years down through today to recount Ukrainian history and the run up to the start of the 2022 war. Going into the book I was already a big supporter of Ukraine 🇺🇦 and Zelensky and it enlightened me on many things i was not aware of. As a result of this book my support of them and their fight against Putin remains strong.

Amazing perspective

An amazingly deep and thorough dive into the history of a part of the world overlooked in traditional western Eurocentric education - very timely and incredibly well reported and researched