A decade of war: origins of Russian aggression in Ukraine

Gwendolyn Sasse and Jakob Hauter speak about the history of Russia's invasion of Ukraine, with Ursula Woolley. 23 October 2023.
For many observers outside of Ukraine, it could seem that Russia’s war began on 24 February 2022. However, this escalation was preceded by eight years of occupation of Crimea and aggression in eastern Ukraine. Before it escalated its aggression, Russia violated international law and human rights and enjoyed impunity. We discuss two new books on the war that is now nearly a decade long: Gwendolyn Sasse’s Russia’s War against Ukraine and Jakob Hauter’s Russia’s Overlooked Invasion: The causes of the 2014 outbreak of War in Ukraine's Donbas. In conversation with Ursula Woolley, the authors consider Russian imperialism, the changing perception of the war outside of Ukraine and the consequences of Russia’s aggression for Ukraine and the world.
Speaker
Gwendolyn Sasse has been the Director of the Centre for East European and International Studies (ZOiS) in Berlin since its establishment in 2016. She is also the Einstein-Professor for the Comparative Study of Democracy and Authoritarianism at Humboldt University, Berlin (since 2021). Previously, she was Professor of Comparative Politics at the University of Oxford. She retains an affiliation with Nuffield College as Senior Research Fellow. She is also non-resident Senior Fellow at Carnegie Europe. Her research interests include the comparative dynamics of democracy and authoritarianism, protest, war, displacement and the political remittances of migrants. Her current research in the context of Russia’s war against Ukraine concentrates on public opinion in Ukraine and on displacement from and within Ukraine. Her book The Crimea Question: Identity, Transition, and Conflict (Harvard University Press 2007; paperback 2014) won the Alexander Nove Prize of the British Association for Slavonic and East European Studies. In September 2023 Polity Press published her new book Russia’s War against Ukraine (an earlier version was published in German by C.H. Beck in 2022).
Speaker
Jakob Hauter received his PhD from University College London’s (UCL) School of Slavonic and East European Studies (SSEES) in 2022. Previously, he studied International Relations and Contemporary European Studies in Dresden, Saint Petersburg, Bath, and Siena. He also worked as a Russian and Ukrainian media and current affairs analyst for the United States Mission to the United Kingdom and as a researcher for Forensic Architecture. His book Russia's Overlooked Invasion: The causes of the 2014 outbreak of War in Ukraine's Donbas is an updated and streamlined version of his PhD thesis. He is also the editor of the collected volume Civil War? Interstate War? Hybrid War? Dimensions and Interpretations of the Donbas Conflict in 2014-2020.
Moderator
Ursula Woolley is the Chair of the Ukrainian Institute London. She was posted to Kyiv from December 1991 to January 1995 to set up the first British Council offices in Ukraine, in Kyiv, Lviv and Odesa. During the annexation of Crimea and the first years of Russia's war in Ukraine, she was the Executive Director of Pushkin House in London (2012-2016). She defended her PhD in Ukrainian Studies at UCL SSEES earlier this month.
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0:00:00 Our speakers
0:06:39 Why Gwendolyn wrote about Russia’s war against Ukraine
0:12:06 How Germans misunderstood Ukraine
0:15:00 How did you start to study Ukraine?
0:22:02 Why Jakob wrote about Russia’s invasion in 2014
0:27:25 Russia’s disputed invasion of Donbas
0:30:18 Analogy of Russian and local roles in invasion of Donbas
0:35:53 Politics of teaching and researching Ukraine, region, Russia
0:48:38 Russia’s invasion changes views of history
0:50:56 Impact of open source intelligence
0:58:05 Pro-Russian academics welcomed in West
1:03:28 How war affects Ukrainian education
1:06:58 Western responsibility for war and escalation
1:10:16 New evidence and reaction to full-scale invasion
1:15:08 What to call the war
1:17:31 German support of Ukraine
1:19:52 Gwendolyn’s history and Serhii Plokhy’s book
1:22:21 Has Germany discovered what Russia is, not what they wished it?
1:23:59 Academic communication to the public

[@joshuapaul2022]

According to NBC: "Biden administration officials are worried that Ukraine is running out of forces, while Russia has a seemingly endless supply, officials said. Ukraine is also struggling with recruiting and has recently seen public protests about some of President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s open-ended conscription requirements." In latest offensive that proved to be an epic unmitigated disaster Ukrainian army showed itself completely impotent. This impotence is the result of a successful implementation of an attrition strategy. Zelenskyy is running out of cannon fodder. He is forced conscripting even amputees, HIV positive and people with hepatitis. Total collapse is near so everybody tries to steal everything that isn't nailed down to the ground . It's a sign of utter desperation and hysteria. At this point unconditional surrender is the only practical solution for Ukraine. Hitler's Germany also refused to admit defeat until Hitler killed himself, then Keitel signed unconditional surrender. Anybody can go and see for himself the articles in The Time (about Zelenskyy) or The Economist (Zaluzhny).

[@johnwalker4642]

A russian federation perspective, that you have, understand that putin's aggression has been checked. The Ukrainian soldier on the ground believes a protracted war will ensue, thus keeping the mentally ill, corrupt, mafia player putin from corrupting the rest of Ukraine. As for the comparison of Zelenskyy with Hitler, you have chosen to show your cards as to your true intention, thus you must be dismissed from the table of good people who know better.

[@JameBlack]

дивно шо боти аж до таких нішевих каналів добрались