The Guardian foreign correspondent’s account of the Ukraine war is elegantly written, deeply researched and essential reading
On “the evening before everything changed”, the Guardian journalist Luke Harding was in Kyiv sharing borscht, Ukraine’s much-loved national dish, with Andrey Kurkov, the country’s most celebrated living writer. On what would become the fateful eve of Russia’s invasion, Kurkov called himself an optimist. Harding described himself as “increasingly gloomy”.
The date of 24 February is now seared in memory and history. Europe’s worst war in 80 years has scorched entire cities, cost many thousands of lives, torn countless families apart and sparked price hikes and hardship far and wide. It has also upended our understanding of Russia’s much-vaunted military might and Ukraine’s now much-lauded fighting spirit. A reminder, if ever there was one, that wars are about metal and mettle.
