The War Came To Us: Life and Death in Ukraine

by Christopher Miller

Overview

'Vivid… Shocking… [Miller] brings a seasoned, personal perspective to his account of both the 16-month conflict and its wider roots.'
Daily Telegraph
'An eye-opening and deeply touching inside story of the country's long fight for freedom against Russian aggression.'
Waterstones

A breathtaking exploration of Ukraine's past, present, and future, and a heartbreaking account of the war against Russia, written by the leading journalist of the conflict.

When Russian President Vladimir Putin launched his unprovoked, full-scale invasion of Ukraine just before dawn on 24 February 2022, it marked his latest and most overt attempt to brutally conquer the country, and reshaped the world order. Christopher Miller, the Ukraine correspondent for the Financial Times and the foremost journalist covering the country, was there on the ground when the first Russian missiles struck and troops stormed over the border. But the seeds of Russia's war against Ukraine and the West were sown more than a decade earlier.

This is the definitive, inside story of its long fight for freedom. Told through Miller's personal experiences, vivid front-line dispatches and illuminating interviews with unforgettable characters, The War Came To Us takes readers on a riveting journey through the key locales and pivotal events of Ukraine's modern history. From the coal-dusted, sunflower-covered steppe of the Donbas in the far east to the heart of the Euromaidan revolution camp in Kyiv; from the Black Sea shores of Crimea, where Russian troops stealthily annexed Ukraine's peninsula, to the bloody battlefields where Cossacks roamed before the Kremlin's warlords ruled with iron fists; and through the horror and destruction wrought by Russian forces in Bucha, Bakhmut, Mariupol, and beyond.

With candor, wit and sensitivity, Miller captures Ukraine in all its glory: vast, defiant, resilient, and full of wonder. A breathtaking narrative that is at times both poignant and inspiring, The War Came To Us is the story of an American who fell in love with a foreign place and its people - and witnessed them do extraordinary things to escape the long shadow of their former imperial ruler and preserve their independence.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781399406857
Publisher:	Bloomsbury USA
Publication date:	07/18/2023
Pages:	400
Sales rank:	97,874
Product dimensions:	9.30(w) x 6.20(h) x 1.40(d)

About the Author

Christopher Miller is a writer and journalist based in Kyiv, Ukraine and Brooklyn, New York. He appears frequently on major US television news programmes, including those on CNN and MSNBC. He was interviewed for MSNBC's documentary film Headliners: Paul Manafort, and HBO's The Perfect Weapon. Chris also appears regularly on podcasts and radio programmes on the BBC, NPR, CBC, Monocle, Crooked Media and elsewhere.

Since 2022 he has been lead correspondent in Ukraine for the Financial Times. He was previously a world and national security reporter for POLITICO and a Ukraine correspondent for BuzzFeed News, where he covered the Euromaidan revolution and the invasion of Crimea. Before that he spent five years as a correspondent for Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty in Kyiv. He has lived and worked in Ukraine for 13 years. His writing and journalism has been published in POLITICO Europe, The Times, the Guardian, The Atlantic, CNN, Vice News, the Telegraph, the Independent, The Outline and GlobalPost.

His coverage of Russia's annexation of Crimea in 2014 was Missouri Honor Medal Winner for Distinguished Service in Journalism.

Table of Contents

Author's Note
Maps
A Brief History of Ukraine
Prologue
Part one: Peace
1 American Boy
2 Friends
3 A Darker Side of the Donbas
4 Acts of Journalism
Part two: Revolution and Annexation
5 Euromaidan
6 “Little Green Men”
7 Voting Under The Gun
Part three: War
8 “Russian Spring”
9 Stamps
10 “Look at Our Republic”
11 “Some Fucking Militia”
12 Volunteer Battalions
13 “Live in a New Way”
14 “This is a War Now”
15 Executioners
16 Fields of Death
17 The Launch Site
18 “The First Real Independence Day”
19 The Supply Runner
20 City of Ghosts
21 POWs
22 The Body Collectors
23 City of a Million Roses
24 Left Behind
25 The Woman in the Grass
26 The Cossack Bomb Squad
27 PTSD
Part four: Full-Scale Invasion
28 Warning Signs
29 Servant of the People
30 Keep Calm and Party On
31 The Battle of Kyiv
32 Control the Skies
33 “Who would like some tea?”
34 “Ya tut”
35 Heroes
36 Escape
37 “It feels like I'm doing something wrong”
38 The Brothers Vyshyvaniy
39 Savagery
40 A Storm on the Horizon
41 Trouble at Sea
42 Siege
43 Filtration
44 Summertime in the City
45 The Battle of the Donbas
46 “The Terrorists are Destroying Everything”
47 Missiles
48 “Fortress Bakhmut”
49 “To Peace”
50 “I. Love. You.”
Acknowledgements
Index

Editorial Reviews

05/08/2023

War correspondent Miller’s heart-pounding debut describes in gritty detail the frontline fighting and key events preceding Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. After witnessing the Kremlin’s takeover of the Crimean Peninsula and the battle between Ukrainian soldiers and Russian separatists for Donetsk airport (“a mess of spattered blood, shattered glass, and mangled steel”) in 2014, Miller crisscrossed the country and landed major scoops, including his discovery in Ukraine’s Donbas region of a trove of execution orders—the “first hard evidence of war crimes” committed by Russia’s proxies in the fight. After the war broke out in 2022, Miller traveled under enemy fire to the cities of Mariupol and Bakhmut, where he mingled with survivors hiding in the basements of damaged buildings, and to Kiev, which was under aerial assault from drone attacks. Miller vividly illustrates the risks correspondents take (at one checkpoint, “a hulk of a man with a snarling face sat me down and screamed at me for an hour.... And he told me he was going to kill me unless I confessed to being an American spy”), but readers hoping for insights into the historical and cultural fault lines underscoring the conflict will have to look elsewhere. Still, this is frontline reporting at its finest. (July)

Publishers Weekly

"A vivid, engaged and engaging series of vignettes and impressions of the period up to the early days of the war... What a passionate, colourful journey –by turns inspiring and horrifying – it turns out to be." —the Guardian

"Vivid… Shocking… [Miller] brings a seasoned, personal perspective to his account of both the 16-month conflict and its wider roots." —Daily Telegraph

"An eye-opening and deeply touching inside story of the country's long fight for freedom against Russian aggression." —Waterstones

“Christopher Miller has been an indispensable guide to what's been really happening in Ukraine for a decade or more, and his writing has helped show the world the true face of a country that is too often lied about.” —Oliver Bullough, bestselling author of Butler to the World, Moneyland and The Last Man in Russia

“When I want to know what is happening in Ukraine, I turn first to Chris Miller's reporting. Whether it's the latest information from the front lines of Russia's war against Ukraine, insightful analysis on political manoeuvrings in Kyiv, or understanding into what the average Ukrainian is thinking about current events, Miller always has the inside track. Now in his riveting book The War Came to Us, this foremost expert on the region takes us back over the last 12 years, providing the history, the culture and the context to help us understand where Ukraine is today and what might come next. A must-read for those who want to get beyond the headlines.” —Marie Yovanovitch, former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine and author of The New York Times bestseller Lessons From The Edge: A Memoir

“Christopher Miller knows Ukraine with unmatchable depth and a fierce intimacy - way before it became the eye of the global storm he was living and studying in this critical country. There isn't a village he hasn't visited and a front line he hasn't crossed. The world is belatedly waking up to the importance of Ukraine. And Miller is the ultimate guide.” —- Peter Pomerantsev, author of This Is Not Propaganda and Nothing Is True And Everything Is Possible

“A penetrating account of the reality of Putin's war on Ukraine... With powerful stories and insightful background, Miller provides a human dimension to a bloody conflict.” —Kirkus - starred review

“War correspondent Miller's heart-pounding debut describes in gritty detail the frontline fighting and key events preceding Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine…this is frontline reporting at its finest.” —Publishers Weekly

“Written with love, respect, and the critical eye of a reporter, the book evinces deep dedication to an adopted homeland... The War Came to Us is a detailed, personal, and engaging account of recent transformative events in Ukraine's history.” —Foreword

"Fascinating." —Timothy Garton Ash

"It’s Chris’ capacity for both narrative restraint and warm-hearted, unpretentious observations of his surroundings that make him stand out among many chroniclers of modern Ukraine in both its horror and its glory." —Natalia Antonova website

From the Publisher

★ 2023-04-17
A penetrating account of the reality of Putin’s war on Ukraine.

It is easy to think about Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in terms of geopolitical maneuvering and armchair commentary. The value of this book is that it demonstrates the real toll in lives lost and broken. Miller is a journalist who writes for a number of publications, but he has a deep connection with Ukraine, going back to a stint as a teacher in the Peace Corps. He emphasizes that the invasion is merely the latest chapter in the long story of conflict between Russia and Ukraine, and he delves into the background through stories and interviews. He clearly has great affection for the country and its people, and he wonders why it has been plagued by brutal, corrupt governments. Putin, for his part, has argued that Ukraine does not have legitimacy as an independent state and is historically part of Russia. Miller dismisses this claim, like most of what Putin says about Ukraine, as ludicrous, although the presence of a Russian-leaning minority complicates the picture. Most Ukrainians were not surprised when Russian forces came streaming across the border, and the preparations they had made were crucial in their capacity to beat back the invaders. There were plenty of Nazi-level atrocities, but if the Russians had thought that the Ukrainians would be intimidated, they were utterly mistaken. The Ukrainian military was supplemented by legions of volunteers, and advanced weapons from the West leveled the technological battlefield. Traveling around and speaking with people, Miller often finds it hard to maintain journalistic detachment, but his compassion and honesty are appreciated. He avoids a simplistic conclusion, but it looks as if the war has become a slogging match of attrition. Eventually, the Ukrainians will probably expel the Russians, but the final cost will be enormous.

With powerful stories and insightful background, Miller provides a human dimension to a bloody conflict.

Kirkus Reviews