Remarkable . . . [I Will Show You How It Was] lives up to its title, with countless pages that are alternately heart-rending, stomach-churning, and even inspiring. This is an important story, and Ponomarenko tells it with passion and intelligence. A revelatory portrait of the horror and absurdity of the conflict spiked with much-needed threads of humanity and hope.” —Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
“In this masterful blend of memoir and reportage, Ukrainian journalist Ponomarenko covers the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine with rigor and surprising wit. Determined to combat the 'shameless lies' that Vladimir Putin used to justify Russia's assault on Kyiv, Ponomarenko shares his on-the-ground observations of Ukrainian resistance … Such balanced takes and sardonic humor enliven the proceedings throughout. The results are lucid, stirring, and hard to shake.” —Publishers Weekly (starred review)
“Brings to life in vivid detail what it was like on the ground before, during, and after the Russian onslaught on the capital city . . . [makes] the reader feel the fear, uncertainty, and danger that the fog of war forces regular people to endure. Ponomarenko stands defiant.” —Booklist
“A story of searing clarity from Ukraine's frontlines of an unfathomably resilient, freedom loving people who refuse to bend to Putin's assault on truth and human life. We in the West must take note. Ukrainians are doing our work for us and we own them immeasurable gratitude. Never has this been clearer than in Illia Ponomarenko's heartbreaking-and ultimately hopeful-prose.” —Nicole Perlroth, bestselling author of THIS IS HOW THEY TELL ME THE WORLD ENDS
“A delightful, moving, painful, compulsively readable narrative of the early months of the Russian invasion. A gifted storyteller, Illia Ponomarenko talks to you as if you are sitting side-by-side, looking out the window of an apartment building in his beloved Kyiv, drinking cheap vodka shots and watching the sunrise after a long night of remembering-the heroism, the fear, the history, the love- the glories gained and the lives lost. This is, very possibly, the Ukraine war's very own Dispatches. Brilliant.” —Jon Lee Anderson, bestselling author of CHE GUEVARA: A REVOLUTIONARY LIFE
“Brilliant, dark and devastating. Illia Ponomarenko's memoir of the battle for Kyiv following Russia's 2022 invasion is destined to become a classic of modern war reporting. I Will Show You How It Was describes the folly and arrogance of Vladimir Putin's military plan, the thump and boom of battle, and the heroic fightback against the odds by Ukrainian soldiers and ordinary civilians. A vivid, dramatic, and moving account.” —Luke Harding, author of INVASION: RUSSIA'S BLOODY WAR AND UKRAINE'S FIGHT FOR SURVIVAL & the #No 1 New York Times bestseller COLLUSION
“Kyiv was doomed, destined to fall within a few short weeks if not days—those were the expectations of many, both friends and foes of Ukraine in February of 2022. The Ukrainian people surprised the world by fighting back, saving their capital, and turning the tide of the war. This eyewitness account of the battle for Kyiv explains not only how it happened but also why the Ukrainians fought and keep fighting today, once again against all the odds.” —Serhii Plokhy, author of THE RUSSO-UKRAINIAN WAR and director of the Harvard Ukrainian Research Institute
“A roaring, scathing expose of Russia's 'case' for war; a wry, vivid, deeply personal account of the invasion; a moving portrait of young Ukrainians' bewilderment and rage.” —Andrew Harding, BBC correspondent and author of A SMALL, STUBBORN TOWN
“At the beginning of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the world thought that Ukraine would not be able to withstand the military power of Russia. But people decided to fight for their freedom. Nothing is predestined. It is the decisiveness to act that determines the society that has a future. And this is what this book is about.” —Oleksandra Matviychuk, Noble Peace Prize winner
★ 2024-01-17
A remarkable on-the-ground report from the Battle of Kyiv in 2022.
War reporting is perhaps the most difficult branch of journalism. It is easy to be overwhelmed by the sheer drama: the blood and the thunder, the sense of history being written, the images and the noise. Ponomarenko, a Ukrainian journalist and co-founder of an online newspaper called the Kyiv Independent, makes no attempt to be impartial in his account of the roughly six-week battle for Kyiv, a city that he loved. “We were just moments away,” he writes, “from bidding farewell to our home and our way of life.” He kept posting his reports during and after the battle, describing the invasion as “one of the most tragic—and the most bizarre—events in modern history,” serving as “the opening act of the biggest European bloodbath since 1945, and one of the most shamelessly trumped-up, absurd, and unnecessary wars the world had ever seen.” The author mixes in pieces of the increasingly unbelievable statements from the Russian government, with Putin claiming victory even as his tanks were reduced to smoking wrecks. Ponomarenko notes that it was often hard to see through the fog of war, but the Russian attacks on the city’s civilian precincts told their own stories. In fact, the slaughter of innocents merely hardened the resolve of the Ukrainian population to endure and fight. The author ends with the Russians retreating to their strongholds in the east. While he believes that Ukrainian forces will eventually prevail, the cost is massive. The book lives up to its title, with countless pages that are alternately heart-rending, stomach-churning, and even inspiring. This is an important story, and Ponomarenko tells it with passion and intelligence.
A revelatory portrait of the horror and absurdity of the conflict spiked with much-needed threads of humanity and hope.
