Ukraine after one year of Putin's full-scale war

My report & photos from Kyiv (and come join me to discuss my new book Homelands)

History of the Present (20 days to 24 February 2023)

At the ‘car cemetry’ in Irpin. Ukrainian civilian cars trashed during the Russian occupation.

I'm sorry to have been out of touch for some time. I spent an intense, moving, inspiring week in and around Kyiv, then a few equally intense (if not so moving and inspiring) days of sessions and meetings at the Munich Security Conference, before returning to write it all up in Oxford. I would have written here while I was on the road, but my bloody MacBook Air, which has been temperamental ever since it fell on its head some months ago, chose precisely the worst moment to pack up. So I was doing everything on my phone.

This means, however, that I can take this newsletter up to the first anniversary of Putin's full-scale invasion of Ukraine on 24 February 2022, and include mention of President Joe Biden's excellent surprise visit to Kyiv (on an overnight train which looked a good deal more luxurious than the bone-crunching old couchette wagons I went in and out on) and Vladimir Putin's chilling, black-is-white state of the nation address.

My report, and conclusions, on that week in and around Kyiv, are given in a reportage essay here - for a change, in my old haunt, the Spectator. On the basis of a wide range of conversations with people including the commander-in-chief of the Ukrainian armed forces and the foreign minister, I argue that the next few months may well be a make-or-break moment for Ukraine – and therefore also for Europe. As promised there, I'm posting some photos below.

Join me to discuss Homelands: A Personal History of Europe

A lifetime’s work - published next week.

Next week sees the publication of my personal summa of 50 years of travelling in, studying, breathing, worrying about Europe – and, so far as possible, working for the cause of freedom in it. Homelands is an unusual genre: history illustrated by memoir and reportage. The book comes out first in Britain next week, and you can order a copy here. Dutch, German, American and editions in some 15 other European languages will follow. I'll try to keep track of them on my website where I'll also be posting some photos and source notes as soon as I can get to it.

You can join me discussing it live on Monday 27 February with the wonderful Lea Ypi in London at the How To Academy - tickets here-, online on Tuesday 28 February with Jon Henley of the Guardian - tickets here -, and with Oxford colleagues and students (in person or online) on Friday 10 March - Zoom registration here. Do come to one of those if you can. I will also arrange a dedicated online chat around publication time for paid subscribers of this Substack newsletter. (Too many people otherwise, I'm afraid.) More on that soon.

Photos from Kyiv, Bucha, Hostomel, Irpin and Borodyanka

NB: If this sequence appears truncated in your Inbox, apparently you need to click on ‘View entire message’

Little Artem, aged 6, waving the Ukrainian flag on a captured Russian tank in central Kyiv

Russian-language books in cellar of Syayvo bookshop, waiting to be recycled for the benefit of the Ukrainian army. While I was taking this photo, a guy wandered in saying ‘Can you take 55 volumes of Lenin?’

Lydia - one of the Syayvo bookshop team. They’ve recycled more than 111,000 Russian-language books and bought a vehicle for the Ukrainian army with the proceeds. She wants to make the bookshop more modern and ‘European-like’

The ruined bridge at Irpin, under which Ukrainian civilians died trying to escape Ukrainian shelling

A (genuine) Banksy on a ruined building in Irpin

Ruins of military and retired military housing near Hostomel airport. If Russian forces had successfully seized that airport, this war might have taken a very different course…

The Ukrainian national poet Taras Shevchenko, shot through the head by a Russian soldier. Ukrainian culture is also very much the target of this war of (attempted) recolonisation

Excavation of the mass grave at St Andrew’s church after killing of civilians in Bucha. (My photo of a photo in the church.)

And another such. Mainstream media don’t usually show such images. Perhaps they sometimes should….?

Also in Bucha: Natalya, whose nephew was shot by Russian troops just because of images he had on his phone. (See Luke Harding’s excellent book Invasion. Luke is on right in photo, signing a copy of his book for her.)

The Army of Drones app, including the ability to report location of Russian troops.

A new icon displayed in front of the altar of St Sophia’s - painted on wood panel from a box of ammunition from Bucha, April 2022

And one of the original, exquisite 11th century frescoes in St Sophia’s. Doubting Thomas - patron saint of historians and journalists….

In the presidential palace. Four security checks to get in….

Meeting Andriy Yermak - President Zelensky’s right-hand man. His message to the West: ‘Don’t be afraid!’

With the head of Ukrainian railways (far right) just before taking the overnight sleeper back to the great Polish city of Przemysl. He tells me they have a 20-year plan to convert all Ukraine’s railways from Russian to European standard gauge.