Invasion: The Inside Story of Russia's Bloody War and Ukraine's Fight for Survival

by Luke Harding

Russia was clinically targeting Ukraine’s defenses: airports, military bases, ammunition dumps. It was shock and awe, done with a ruthless indifference to human cost. Sleep-deprived, it was hard for me to make sense of Moscow’s developing war plan, but the bold strokes were visible. An attempted blitzkrieg was under way. The ultimate target was Kyiv and its U.S.-backed government. Putin, you suspected, would wish to kill or capture Zelenskiy and to replace him with a pro-Russian puppet governor and administration. Amid this ferocious onslaught there were moments of normality. The bombs didn’t appear to be close, so I ventured outside. It was cold, just above zero. I wore a flak jacket and a woolly hat. A few residents were walking their dogs. The first queues had formed outside cash machines. Most shops and cafés were closed. But Aroma Coffee had opened as usual, selling croissants and takeout, as if nothing very remarkable had happened. Among the locals I spoke to that morning, the mood was one of shock, fear, and quiet disgust that Putin—without cause or reasonable pretext—had decided on war.