Our Enemies Will Vanish: The Russian Invasion and Ukraine’s War of Independence

Wall Street Journal reporter Trofimov (Siege of Mecca) offers a comprehensive and harrowing eyewitness report on the war in Ukraine that focuses on the heroism of the country’s civilians and soldiers. After Russian forces invaded in February 2022, “tens of thousands” of Ukrainian ex-pats living in Europe and the U.S. returned to take up arms alongside “local villagers with hunting rifles” and “unruly militias” financed by soccer fan clubs, oligarchs, and political parties (some with “a far-right political history”). Trofimov, who was born in Ukraine, describes how this “powerful network of volunteer groups” helped repel Russian forces. Reporting both from the front lines as well as far behind them, Trofimov covers the defense of Kyiv, the destruction of Mariupol and the failed peace negotiations in Istanbul. He notes how Russia’s attempts to demoralize local people with acts of brutality bolstered Western commitment to send more weapons. Interviewing civilians and soldiers, he also relays the dangers he and his photographer and driver faced in war zones and describes with palpable emotion seeing places of his youth. This thorough overview of the conflict extends until just before Ukraine’s offensive to retake Kherson and Zaporizhzhia in June 2023. Readers seeking a blow-by-blow account of the war will want to take a look. (Jan.)