Ukraine’s forces are now on the defensive and Russian missiles strike its cities every day but, as Ukrainian journalist Illia Ponomarenko reminds readers in I Will Show You How It Was, it could have been so much worse for his country.
This is a vivid account of the early stages of Russia’s full-scale invasion told from inside Kyiv, a city then besieged by enemy forces and all but given up as lost by some western leaders who thought its swift occupation and Ukraine’s defeat were inevitable.
When Russian president Vladimir Putin sent hundreds of thousands of soldiers and swarms of tanks, missile systems and warplanes into Ukraine on February 24th, 2022, the international consensus was that the pro-western country would be overrun and Kyiv would fall in days or weeks.
Ponomarenko describes how Ukraine’s capital held out, interweaving reports from the frontline as it cut through Bucha and other Kyiv suburbs with the story of how young reporters established a new English-language newspaper, the Kyiv Independent, and made it a success in the teeth of war. The result is a kind of love letter to journalism, to Ukraine and, above all, to Kyiv as it drives the enemy from the gates.
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He captures the odd dissonance of the lead up to the war as the Kremlin told increasingly lurid lies about Ukraine’s supposedly “genocidal” intentions towards Russian speakers in the east and the US said a devastating invasion was imminent, yet Kyiv life continued almost as normal until the first missiles struck.
Then there was the eeriness of the wartime city: a European metropolis emptying out and falling silent, save for roadblocks and gun-toting volunteers, the wail of air-raid sirens, the thud of distant shelling and occasional crackle of gunfire.
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Russia retreated after losing key battles for places like Hostomel and Irpin, which may prove to have been pivotal in the war; for local journalists it was hard to grasp that familiar suburban streets were now the epicentre of Europe’s worst fighting for 80 years.
Ponomarenko evacuated his loved ones to safety and then returned to Kyiv to chronicle its remarkable survival. He says coming back was “the best decision of my life”, and the resulting book is a heartfelt addition to the plethora of books on the war.
