What is clear from Plokhy’s account, however, is that the current contest between East and West in Ukraine has a very long history, although none as brutal as what we have seen in the last several months. Time will tell whether recent Ukrainian victories, aided by European and North American allies, will vanquish Putin’s drive for a twentieth-first century Russian Empire and achieve Ukraine’s long-standing goals of joining the European Union and NATO. In the context of Russia’s unprovoked war against Ukraine launched in February, Plokhi’s introductory words resound even more forcefully: “Ukrainians probably have just as much right to brag about their role in changing the world as Scots and other nationalities about which books have been written asserting their claim to have shaped the course of human history.” Just over a year ago, the eminent historian of Ukraine, Serhii Plokhy, published a revised version of his 2015 book, The Gates of Europe. This is part of a series on the Ukraine Crisis.
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