Ukraine crisis

The term ‘information war’ has never been so aptly used as when it is applied to Russia's continued military campaign against Ukraine and its post-Yanukovych political leadership. Russia's propaganda campaign has been as vital in its efforts to subjugate Ukraine as its military efforts. First, it has mobilized the Russian population behind a policy of naked aggression, while convincing them that it is fundamentally defensive. Second, it has created a counter-narrative of the events in Ukraine that has obliged those pushing to confront Putin's aggression to constantly disprove his falsehoods. The need to continually re-establish the truth and explain the reality of the situation has eaten up vital time, which Russia has used to press the offensive. War is a political act, and as the old saw goes: ‘in politics, when you are explaining, you are losing’. Andrew Wilson's account of Viktor Yanukovych's overthrow, and the Kremlin's violent response to it, should be read not so much as a work of scholarship or journalism, but as an act of counterpropaganda. This is not a criticism: Ukraine crisis is a welcome and necessary attempt to provide a coherent narrative of the events in Ukraine following the start of the Euromaidan protest movement in November 2013. Wilson places the political aspirations of the Ukrainian people themselves, and the extraordinary sacrifices they have been willing to endure to achieve them, at the heart of this narrative—and rightly so. That said, Ukraine crisis benefits enormously from Wilson's considerable academic expertise in Ukrainian and post-Soviet politics, and his application of a scholarly approach to the subject at hand. Care is taken to establish a detailed chronology of the invasions of Crimea and the Donbas, aided by extensive interviews with local activists and officials. This helps provide a structure and coherence to a conflict that has often appeared chaotic to those watching it develop daily. This approach has its drawbacks. Many of the activists and other sources used by Wilson are, by necessity, anonymous. Others, such as the Ukrainian military analyst Dmitry Tymchuk, are of questionable reliability. Wilson does not always make sufficient allowance for the fog of war, particularly in his accounts of the political manoeuvrings of oligarchs supporting the Donbas insurgents. Hindsight may be 20:20, but it can also make opportunism and luck look like strategy. The book is also, necessarily, something of a first draft of history, and the situation in Ukraine has developed considerably since the 5 September ceasefire which serves as its endpoint. Nevertheless, it is likely to be a key text for future researchers, and provides a strong foundation for future editions, once certain facts are more solidly established

Criticism · Journalism · Literature · Narrative · Offensive · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Population · Sociology · Ukrainian · Cybersecurity and Cyber Warfare Studies · Eastern European Communism and Reforms · European and Russian Geopolitical Military Strategies · Law