On 24 February 2022, Russia invaded Ukraine in a major escalation of the Russo-Ukrainian War, which began in 2014. Following the 2014 Ukrainian Revolution, Russia annexed Crimea, and Russian-backed paramilitaries seized part of the Donbas region of south-eastern Ukraine, which consists of Lugansk and Donetsk oblasts, sparking a regional war. In March 2021, Russia began a large military build-up along its border with Ukraine, eventually amassing up to 190,000 troops and their equipment. Despite the build-up, denials of plans to invade or attack Ukraine were issued by various Russian government officials up to the day before the invasion. On 21 February 2022, Russia recognized the Donetsk People's Republic and the Lugansk People's Republic, two self-proclaimed breakaway quasi-states in the Donbas. The next day, the Federation Council of Russia authorized the use of military force and Russian troops entered both territories. This book tries to shed light on the causes which led to this war. It presents arguments of both sides carried through the words of presidents Putin and Zelenskyy. This edition includes as well the book about the historical background of the conflict and the military actions during the war. Content: The Speeches and Decisions of Vladimir Putin The Speeches and Decisions of Volodymyr Zelenskyy The Consequence: Russo-Ukrainian War

In 'Glory to Ukraine: Speeches of President Zelenskyy', Volodymyr Zelenskyy showcases his powerful oratory skills through a collection of speeches that encompass both patriotism and diplomacy. The speeches are filled with emotional appeals and calls for unity, reflecting the tumultuous political climate of Ukraine. Zelenskyy's literary style is direct and impassioned, making the reader feel the urgency and importance of his words. This book provides a glimpse into the mind of a world leader navigating complex geopolitical challenges with charisma and resolve. Zelenskyy's speeches are not only politically significant but also serve as a reminder of the power of words in shaping the course of history. Overall, 'Glory to Ukraine' is a compelling read that offers insight into the rhetoric of a modern leader striving for a better future for his country and its people.

This book extends principal-agent theory to the case of pro-Russian rebel militias in Eastern Ukraine. Russia’s war in Ukraine demonstrates the much-discussed relations between the principal (Russia) and agent (rebel militias) in Eastern Ukraine. Russia’s aggression against Ukraine in 2014 was a frontal challenge to the post-Cold War European regional order, and since 2022 it has offered a challenge to the global order. Filling the gap in the literature on indirect warfare and insurgencies, this book offers systematic insights into structures and relations within the leaderless rebellion in the Donetsk and Luhansk Oblasts. It introduces the concept of the delegation of leaderless rebellion, based on the argument that it is a specific kind of rebellion when local elites do not actively participate as the leaders of the rebellion. Random people, without any fighting or political experience and with no social embeddedness, become rebel commanders, which means the principal – Russia – faces serious challenges but also benefits from opportunities to exercise complete control over the rebel forces and administration. This book will be of much interest to students of civil wars and insurgencies, political violence, Eastern European politics, and international relations in general.

Russia’s war against Ukraine has grave consequences in several political categories. These include: a reassessment of the school of ‘political realism’, one of whose proponents claims to have predicted the war. Was the West partly ‘responsible’ for the war? Second, to what extent does the war of aggression, as an undeniable violation of law, damage the status of international law and justice? Third, the war is embedded in political developments that stretch back a century. It is examined in its context within American foreign policy since the Wilsonian peace programme, in relation to the dangerous reluctance of the EU to pursue a decisive geopolitical policy towards Russia, and interpreted in the light of Stalinist echoes within Russian politics.

International Organizations and Post-Soviet Conflicts in Georgia, Moldova, and Ukraine: The Limitations of Imagining Peace and the Failure and Success in Negotiations addresses the protracted history of international conflict resolution efforts to the Georgian-Abkhaz, Moldovan-Transnistrian, and Eastern Ukraine conflicts. The author explores the origins and onset of these first two conflicts in the early 1990s, but also looks at the eruption of conflict in Eastern Ukraine in 2014 and at the first months after the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022. This book shows how, from a conflict-transformation perspective, local vested interests and strategic interests have created obvious obstructions that have both fueled the conflicts and prevented their resolution. This volume develops a comprehensive theoretical framework for understanding the success and failure of international engagement that offers a new understanding of the extent to which international responses may or may not be helpful. Through an analysis of over 500 closed-source documents and about 70 interviews, the efforts of pan-European international organizations — with mandates from the OSCE, EU, UN, and NATO — are examined on both political and cultural levels. This work’s innovative analyses of those institutions’ performances shows how successes have often been overlooked and identifies misperceptions that reshape our understanding of the limitations to imagining peace.

The current international scenario with the war in Ukraine will have potential impacts on agri-food systems across the world. This scenario will change the balance of power among actors in the agri-food sector. High margins of uncertainty are common across supply chains in the face of uncontrolled increases in raw material prices and an uncertain guarantee of supply. This uncertainty is compounded by rising energy prices, putting the entire agrifood supply chain, which is highly energy-intensive, in crisis. In addition, the current war scenario could impact the demand for agricultural and food products by changing consumers' purchasing habits. Increasing the resilience of agri-food systems may need to become a priority for many national economic systems. In this scenario, the routes to achieve resilient agrifood systems are numerous and include reducing agriculture's dependence on energy, energy-intensive imports and raw material imports. Resilience also requires diversified import sources and market outlets through sound multilateral and bilateral trade policy.

Religion and World Politics provides a short, accessible, and practical introduction to how we can understand the place of religion in world politics in a more comprehensive, contextually relevant way. Is religion central or irrelevant, positive or negative in world politics today? So much political commentary and analysis focuses on these issues. But these are the wrong questions to be asking. Designed for practitioners, policymakers, and newcomers to the topic of religion and global politics, this book emphasises that religion is not something clear, identifiable, and definable, but is fluid and shifting. Consequently, we need analytical frameworks that help us to make sense of this ever-changing phenomenon. The author presents a critical, intersectional framework for analysing religion and applies this to case studies of three core areas of international relations (IR) analysis: (1) conflict, violence, and security; (2) development and humanitarianism; and (3) human rights, law, and public life. These cases highlight how assumptions about what religion is and does affect policymakers, theorists, and activists. The book demonstrates the damage that has been done through policies and programmes based on unquestioned assumptions and the possibilities and insights to be gained by incorporating the critical study of religion into research, policymaking, and practice. This book will be of great interest to students of global politics, IR, religion, and security studies, as well as diplomats, civil servants, policymakers, journalists, and civil society practitioners. It will also benefit IR scholars interested in developing their research to include religion, as well as scholars of religion from disciplines outside IR interested in a deeper understanding of religion and world politics. The Open Access version of this book, available at www.taylorfrancis.com, has been made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives 4.0 license. Thanks to the support of libraries working with Knowledge Unlatched www.knowledgeunlatched.org

'The must read masterpiece . . . utterly essential' PETER POMERANTSEV 'With erudition and verve' TIMOTHY SNYDER 'Powerful' SERHII PLOKHY 'Masterful' BEN ANSELL A history of Russian violence waged against Ukraine across the centuries. Russia's brutal invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 shocked the world. And yet this attack was in fact the latest episode in a centuries-long Russian campaign. In Intent to Destroy, leading scholar of genocide and Eastern Europe Eugene Finkel uncovers the deep roots of the Russo-Ukrainian War. Ever since the rise of Russian nationalism in the nineteenth century, the domination of this key borderland has become a cornerstone of Russian and Soviet policy. Using genocidal tactics - killings, deportations, starvation and cultural destruction - against ethnic Ukrainians and minorities including Tatars, Jews and Poles, Russia's long-standing policy has aimed to obliterate Ukrainian identity. This eradication has consistently been a part of the Kremlin playbook and leads inexorably to the violence we see today. Told with the astonishing power of Finkel's connection to this living history, and the authority of two decades of research, Intent to Destroy casts today's war it its broadest historical context, illuminating as never before Europe's bloodiest conflict since World War II.