Seize the City, Undo the State: The Inception of Russia's War on Ukraine

How do separatist conflicts arise and spread? When does separatism become a cover for a foreign aggression? How do local communities respond when state institutions collapse, and militants take over? The armed conflict in Eastern Ukraine, which started eight years before Russia's full-scale invasion, contains unique evidence to address each of these questions.

In Seize the City, Undo the State, Serhiy Kudelia offers an authoritative study of the conflict at its initial stage—2013-14—based on...