David and Goliath: Commentaries on the Russo-Ukrainian War

The biblical image of David and Goliath fittingly captures the nature of the war that Russia, the world's largest country by surface area, unleashed on neighbouring Ukraine. While Ukraine is the largest country on the European continent, it is almost thirty times smaller than Russia and has only over a quarter of Russia's population. Yet, Ukraine's stubborn resistance proves that it is possible to mount a successful defence against an enormously larger, more populous, and better-equipped enemy, even despite its threats of nuclear apocalypse should Ukraine refuse to submit and the West dare to interfere. This volume shows that history can help reveal the reasons for Ukraine's resolve and success on the battlefield and in the public arena.

Collected in David and Goliath: Commentaries on the Russo-Ukrainian War for the first time are short essays, commentaries, and interviews written and given by Serhii Plokhy, the world's preeminent scholar of Ukrainian history, on the eve of and during the first two years of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Plokhy draws our attention to the unique nature of the truly historic events of the largest war in Europe since the end of World War II.