Overreach: The Inside Story of Putin’s War Against Ukraine

Describes in detail the history behind why Russia and Ukraine are at war.Also very good in analysing different scenarios for how the war can end in a balanced way.

To understand the complicated current situation. With so many things happening, it helps to understand the situation by knowing what has been done behind the scene. Highly recommend.

Owen Matthews writes from the perspective of his own family history in Russia and the Ukraine.I would suggest that the reader start at 50% of the book for the recent history of the Ukrainian war up to Sept 25, 2020. It is an extraordinarily vivid recounting of what has and is happening.Go back to read the first half for for the historical background that brought us to this moment in History.

This Book includes insights not only from Zelenskyy’s Office and the White House, but also from the Kremlin. It is a detailed and matured analysis of what was happening in 2022 on political and real battlefield. Truly enjoyed!

In "Overreach," Owen Matthews provides a poignant and informative perspective on the early stages of the Russo-Ukrainian war. With his unique background as a foreigner with strong ties to Russia, Matthews is able to offer a thought-provoking examination of the events that unfolded up to the fall of 2022. The author's personal connection to the conflict - having lived in Russia for over 25 years, having Russian roots and children who consider themselves Russian - adds depth and emotional resonance to the narrative. His family was, as many others, uprooted by the war, if not impacted in the most tragic ways that other families, mostly Ukrainian, were.Through vivid storytelling, Matthews delves into the details of the war's early days, painting a picture of tragedy for the Ukrainian people and senseless acts of violence by Russian soldiers. The reader is also given a glimpse into the frightening atmosphere that pervaded Moscow, where the “acrid smoke” of paranoia and a “blanket of fear” shrouded the city almost instantly.Matthews traces the gradual descent of Russian President Vladimir Putin into isolation and paranoia, ultimately culminating in his disastrous decision to try and conquer Ukraine. He resists the temptation to label Putin insane and instead portrays him (and to some degree his opponents from NATO) as figures from an ancient Greek tragedy who, through their actions, bring about the very outcome they are trying to avoid. He cuts surprisingly little slack to Ukrainian President Zelensky as well. He portrays Zelensky's decision to eradicate Russian influence in Ukraine through internal sanctions and his rejection of Steinmeier's formula for Donbass as fateful, if perhaps unavoidable, steps that ultimately led to an escalation of the conflict.With focus on the motivations and constraints of the key players involved, Matthews believes that NATO cannot afford to let Ukraine lose the war, while Putin's regime and potentially his life depend on avoiding a catastrophic loss (although, with his control of the Russian media intact, Putin will be well-positioned to declare just about any outcome that doesn’t involve the loss of Crimea a victory). Matthews suggests that at best, Putin's failed invasion of Ukraine could mark the end of expansive imperialism in European history. At worst?.. Putin tried nuclear blackmail and failed, but it doesn’t mean such an escalation is impossible for an erratic leader who already brought about the largest possible threat to his regime for an illusory and utterly unachievable goal. Anyway, Putin has poisoned Russia's future in the root and his self-declared victory will be one of the uneducated over the educated and of the past over the future, Matthews writes.Unfortunately, this book suffers from issues with editing and fact-checking. The author makes several inaccuracies, such as claiming that Vladimir the Great was known as Valdemar and that ancient Chersonesus he ruled over is the same as modern-day Kherson. The Savur-Mohyla obelisk wasn’t 300 meters tall, and there’s no evidence that 150,000 Soviet troops were buried there. The claim that 100,000 people make up a third of Crimea's population is incorrect. The book also mischaracterizes the relationship between the Russian and Ukrainian languages: I would refrain from saying that they are mutually unintelligible and are as far away from each other as English and Dutch. These (and many other) mistakes may detract from the book's overall credibility and integrity. But overall the book provides a comprehensive, balanced and insightful view of the war and its potential outcomes.

A thorough analysis of multiple aspects of the Ukrain-Russian relationship with an excellent historic background.

Before this book, the author was predicting that Russia will never invade Ukraine. Clearly, he was very wrong. He is still wrong and often even clueless on many aspects of Russian politics, Ukrainian politics, and Russia-Ukraine relations. The book might have some moderately interesting journalistic accounts of certain events (which can also be found in press), but it does not show a deep understanding of the topic. The book also shows that the author reads quite a bit of Russian propaganda (and most public Russian sources are propaganda), thinking that this gives him an insight into the minds of the Russian political elite or that it allows him to understand the grand picture. But unfortunately it never does. His perspective is often rather one-sided, he often follows Russian colonial narrative, and does not do justice to the long struggle of Ukrainian people against colonialism, and to their past and current achievements. The author is clearly clueless about the history of Ukraine, the aspects and making of Ukrainian identity over the centuries, the actual public opinions and moods among Ukrainians (including, for example, native people of Crimea), and about overall Ukrainian side of the story. These gaps cannot be filled with short interviews with random Ukrainians, in the way the author tries to fill them. Some quotes, just from the first pages: "Therefore this war will eventually end – as all wars that do not result in total victory end – with a negotiated peace." It is amusing that the author still wants to make blunt (and likely wrong, given the recent success of Ukrainian Army) predictions even after all his previous predictions turned out to be wrong. Another quote: "Putin’s invasion also precisely created the very things it was intended to avert. It united Ukraine and gave the country a true sense of nationhood." Never mind the fact that Ukrainian nation, identity, language and culture existed for many centuries prior to the current war, and that Ukrainians united many times in history fighting for their statehood and independence in the past. There are many more similarly blunt and unacademic statements following Russian colonial narrative.I also would like to mention some history behind his sources and heroes of the book. The introduction starts with describing author's "old friend" Zakhar Prilepin. He is portrayed affectionately, with adverbs like "smart" and "one of the greatest Russian novelist". The truth is that Prilepin is one of Russia's ultra-right (as in fascist right) ideologists, writers, and public figures, and has been collaborating with Russian FSB for very long time. Prilepin is well-known to be an accused war criminal and terrorist outside of Russia. In his public interviews, for example, Prilepin has boasted about the number of Ukrainian he killed himself. Before participating in Russian genocide of Ukrainians, Prilepin participated in Russian genocide in Chechnya of Chechen people. In between these two genocides, Prilepin was successfully selling the ultra-right ideology and propaganda to Russian public, and for that was praised as novelist by Russian state media. The line in the book saying that Prilepin "travelled to the rebel republics of Donbas in eastern Ukraine and became the deputy commander of a rebel battalion" is also hilarious. Donbas has never has never had a grassroots rebel movement: otherwise, why would Donbas rebels choose a commander who lives in Moscow full time? Instead, FSB officers like Prilepin were sent by Russian government to the east of Ukraine to create political and military chaos and an illusion of a rebel movement. I could go on about other details, but I think the above already gives an impression about the book and the author's level of expertise.

This is a substantial book of reportage on the current situation between Ukraine and Russia from a correspondent based in Moscow. The book is divided into three main parts covering the background to the situation, the actual fighting and the results of the fighting in both Ukraine and Russia. The writing is quite detailed in places and provides a useful reference for the story so far (at September 2022).OVERREACH is both the title of the book and of chapter 9. The idea of overreach does not define the book, but this chapter describes the over-ambitious and possibly deluded Russian position. It begins with a Ukrainian soldiers’ joke: “We used to believe the Russians had the second-best army in the world. Now we know that they have the second-best army in Ukraine.”THE BOOK has nineteen chapters divided into three parts (1). Each chapter is divided into titled sections. There are no illustrations or maps.LOOK INSIDE option lists the book’s Contents followed by the first six pages of Chapter 1 Poisoned Roots, showing the writing style.________________________________________________(1) THE CONTENTSIntroduction (9 pages)The introduction was written in Sep-2022 and describes how the author found that his sources in Russia had suddenly gone quiet. When he contacted them they would no longer talk with him nor agree to a meeting. The atmosphere in Russia had changed.Prologue - The Brink (20 pages)On 23rd February 2022, the day before the Russian invasion, the author provides short snapshots of the situation and expectations of people in various places: Moscow, Kyiv, Belgorod Russia, Moscow, Kherson Ukraine, and Oxfordshire UK, Mariupol Ukraine and Bucha Ukraine.PART I Blood and EmpireChapter 1: Poisoned RootsPutin the Historian – The Borderland – Blood and Empire – Soviet Empire.The first chapter provides a history of Ukraine and Russia, giving a good overview of a complicated subject.Chapter 2: ‘And Moscow is Silent’People Power - Geopolitical Catastrophe - Vladimir Vladimirovich - Tug of War - Predatory Autocracy - Tsar of Eurasia - Winter on Fire - Throne of Bayonets.This chapter continues with the recent history of Ukraine up to the ousting of the pro-Russian President Yanukovych on 21st February 2014.Chapter 3: The Bleeding Idols‘This is what a revolution looks like’ – Empire, Defence or Opportunism? – Betrayal – Crimea is Ours! – The Bleeding Idols.President Yanukovych moves to Russia. New elections result in President Petro Poroshenko. Putin takes advantage of the intervening chaos in Ukraine to invade Crimea; in Donbas, in the east, local pro-Russians, with covert help from Russia, set up independent areas.Chapter 4: Tomorrow Belongs to MeApotheosis – Aleksandr Dugin – Konstantin Malofeev – Metropolitan Tikhon – Sergei Glazyev – Vladislav Surkov – The Kremlin’s Gas Weapon – Syria – Russiagate –Illusions of Grandeur – Ukraine Betrayed – The Actor and the Oligarch – Reality TV.This chapter discusses a selection of topics and people current in 2015. Three people were influential with the Kremlin: the far-right philosopher Aleksandr Dugin, the ultranationalist Christian oligarch Konstantin Malfeev and the PR media monk Metropolitan Tikhon. Other people include Sergei Glazyev, who linked Orthodox ultra-nationalism to the Kremlin and PR guru Vladislav Surkov. Topics include Gazprom and the weaponising of Russian gas, and Russia’s war in Syria. In Ukraine, mention is made of the actor and future president, Volodymr Zelensky and the Oligarch and former president Proshenko.PART II WarpathChapter 5: WarpathThe Kremlin Has Many Towers – The Men of Power (Patrushev, Bortnikov, Shoigu) – 2020: The Plates Shift – Bunker Mentality – Kovalchuk.There is a Russian phrase that “the Kremlin has many towers”, but as Putin’s rule continued this became one tower containing Putin, Nicolai Patrushev and Aleksandr Bortnikov, all ex-KGB. There was also Sergei Soigu, the executor of the others’ decisions. By 2020 it was realised that attempts to stop a westward drift of Ukraine had failed and then Covid hit Russia hard. Putin went into lockdown. “Over two years in isolation, Putin developed a longstanding enthusiasm for historical theorising which would culminate in the essay on Russia and Ukraine, published in July 2021.” (Page 177. The essay was titled “On the Historical Unity of Russians and Ukrainians”)Chapter 6: Truth or Bluff?Breaking Out of Orbit - Fall of the Dark Prince – Sabre Rattled, Sabre Drawn – The Espionage War – Full Readiness – The Last-Chance Saloon – The Tsar and His Court.The road to war. Russia issues passports to the population of the Donbas. President Zelensky moves against Putin’s old friend, the Ukrainian oligarch Viktor Medvedchuk. Russian forces are mobilised in response to NATO exercises. The CIA obtains details of the Russian war plan but NATO countries and Ukraine so not think Russia is serious.Chapter 7: Cry HavocKyiv - Hostomel Airport, Kyiv - Sumy - Nova Kakhovka.Examples of the war are provided through reportage of people in actual situations. The descriptions can be quite detailed.PART III PyrokinesisPyrokinesis is the ability to set objects or people on fire through the concentration of psychic power.Chapter 8: Things Fall ApartResistance and Repression – Propaganda – Sanctions – Exodus: The Russians – Exodus: The Ukrainians.Protests flared up across Russia in the first day of the war and were met with an overwhelming police presence. A week later a new law carried a 15-years jail term for spreading misinformation about the war. Russian TV went into overdrive, denouncing NATO and the West. Russians left Russia. Ukrainians left Ukraine.Chapter 9: OverreachNegotiations - Nukes and MiGs – Bucha - Everyone was Shocked – Kharkiv - Kherson.At the start of the invasion the Russians failed to take Kyiv. In negotiations with the Russians the Ukrainians offered a deal that in retrospect would have been an excellent deal for Putin. It offered Ukrainian neutrality and rights for Ukrainian Russian speakers if the Russian troops returned to pre-24 February borders. There was no mention of Crimea and the Donbas.Chapter 10: StandoffThe Rival Armies – The Kadyrovtsy – The Donbas Troops – Wagner – The Russian Steamroller – Lend-Lease.Putin’s insistence on calling the hostilities a ‘special military operation’ and not a war avoided a general conscription, but it left the army undermanned. And the army was neither efficient nor modern, as described by  Pavel Filatyev . When a partial mobilisation was announced on 21 September a quarter of a million Russian men fled the country.Chapter 11: The Price of illusionEconomic Blitzkreig – Gas versus Guns – World War Z – Repression.Western sanctions will have an effect, but the Kremlin does not expect any backlash from the people over economic decline. Russia is using its gas as a weapon, but Europe is adapting. Putin’s Plan B to sell gas to China will not compensate for its loss of gas sales to Europe. Putin’s repression of his people has worked. For ordinary Russians any form of public protest has become unthinkably dangerous and also pointless.Chapter 12: Til ValhallTil Valhal is the Viking battle cry.Back to the Future – ‘Millions Stand Behind Me’ – ‘This Man Cannot Stay in Power’ – ‘History Will Absolve Me’ – NATO’s Endgame – Ukraiine’s Endgame – Peace Without Honour.Putin’s views and policies have always closely reflected those of the majority of his people. He is a ruthlessly successful populist. Whatever the final outcome of the war, Putin has to claim it as a victory. However, what would a post-Putin regime look like? Russia’s ultra-nationalist right represents a much more formidable opposition to Putin than the liberals. The West should be careful what it wishes for. Pavel Filatyev

The full scale of the atrocity of war from Russia against Ukraine.

The author has a lot of contacts on both sides of the conflict though the Russian ones are understandably more reticent. I particularly liked the detail that (in Soviet times) the landline telephone was often covered with a pillow when not in use and nowadays interviews are conducted well away from any mobile phones.Paranoia is sometimes essential.

One of the best analytical investigations of the main characters and flawed reasons for the invasion. What worried me most was that if nationalist Putin was overthrown worse could follow. What a disaster for the ordinary Russians - given a glimpse of consumerism only for it to be destroyed by hubris. Nobody will trust them for decades!

Great price