This book review was originally published in the November/December 2024 issue of the New Zealand International Review .

There is hardly anyone who has not weighed in with their comments about the Russo-Ukrainian War and opinions about how it will or should end. However, there are far too few who understand the civic and historical context to suggest a viable resolution. People often have trouble believing that the genocidal carnage unleashed by invaders on their neighbours in Europe is even conceivable. Some revisionist foreign commentators and academics tend to think there must be something flawed about Ukraine that justified Russian aggression and perceive accusations from Ukrainians against Russians to be exaggerated and surely prejudiced. The reality in Ukraine is that, in the words of Shakespeare in The Tempest, ‘the hell is empty, and all the devils are here’, and they are Russians.

Christopher Miller is an unbiased Westerner who, over the last 15 years of his life’s experience, got to know Ukrainians as well as Russian deeds all over Ukraine – and this lies at the heart of his message to the world in his book, The War Came to Us, which is a collection of his reporting from the fighting grounds. As a foreign war correspondent, Miller has been to the most ravaged places and seen the utmost suffering and fortitude at the frontline, including during their darkest hours in 2022. This builds on his earlier experiences in 2014-15 reporting from both sides of the front in eastern Ukraine, from Crimea during its annexation by Moscow, and from the heart of the Revolution of Dignity in Kyiv. But before that, he got to know Ukrainians as an English teacher in peacetime Ukraine.

Ukrainians are highly committed to democratic practice and pluralism, and used to be very tolerant of everything Russian, but a distinctively independent and proud nation. After a short history and with a prologue dated 24 February 2022, the first day of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the author fills 75 pages of the first part with a description of his life in the country and the people he met, during 2009-2012 – mainly in Donbas, Ukraine’s eastern region, and then in 2013 in Kyiv. Miller starts by explaining how he, in his mid-twenties, looking forward to experiencing life in Africa as a volunteer, was sent to Ukraine instead, the country he had no preexisting connections to or knowledge about. He gives a very good introduction to Ukraine’s diverse and beautiful culture. Then Miller describes the people of Donbas, specifically the town of Bakhmut, which became his ‘second home’ in Ukraine – including their characters and political views. Travelling extensively around regions, learning the language (not Ukrainian first though, but Russian), he observes no trace of active separatist sentiments, neither radical nationalism nor intolerance, but rooted irritation towards politicians in power.

Putin failed to coerce Ukrainians into the “Russian World” and thus resorted to state-aggression. The second part starts with the intense first-person account of the winter streets of Kyiv during 2013-14. What began as the peaceful Euromaidan protest against Ukraine’s then-president’s last-minute decision to scrap the partnership with the European Union under pressure from Putin, became the “Revolution of Dignity” when government forces resorted first to unprovoked violence and later slayed more than a hundred protesters. The author then rushes to Crimea to witness the unmarked ‘little green men’ (evidently the Russian army) conducting an illegal annexation of the peninsula into the Russian World.

In 2014, Russians invaded part of Ukraine’s Donbas region, while Putin blatantly lied to the world. Christopher Miller utilises his connections in Donbas and, as a foreign journalist, gets press credentials from both belligerents of the war that started in 2014. He learns about Russia’s special forces which attempted coups d'état in multiple administrative centres of eastern and southern regions of Ukraine and eventually started the war; about Russians in all the leadership roles of sham republics; about Russian military equipment and regular forces on the ground. Miller undertakes efforts to investigate the shooting down by Russian forces of the Malaysian flight MH17 in July 2014, confirming the first deaths of New Zealanders (among the passengers) in Ukraine. Also, Miller meets the commanders of Ukrainian voluntary battalions, which aided Ukraine’s regular army to fight back against Russia’s militia and regular forces, and explains how and why they formed. Along the way, he does not exclude from his reporting any personal views of the local population, who often find themselves conflicted about what is happening around them, being affected by the Russian television propaganda, proximity or family links to Russia, and Soviet sentiments.

The last part of the book covers the events of the largest military invasion in Europe since the end of the Second World War.  It is a reporting about destruction, carnage and sufferings, inflicted by the Russian armed forces on Ukraine, but it is also the story of the stoicism and bravery of Ukrainians courageously fighting back against ‘Russian fascism’ Miller gives a good background to the invasion by describing the actions of the Ukrainian government and the mood amongst the people in the months preceding the warned-about invasion. There are insights into Ukrainian President Zelensky’s political story and personality.  After the invasion starts, Miller witnesses both the despair and resolve of common Kyivans protecting their families and aiding the defence efforts with whatever they can, the preparedness and wit of the military, and the true heroism of immensely outnumbered Ukrainian soldiers. From the liberated territories, the author provides an account of heinous and unspeakable crimes conducted by ordinary Russians against the civilian Ukrainian population, talks to the survivors of the excruciating Russian captivity, describes the siege of Mariupol – the selflessness of defenders and tragedy of its population, kidnapping, inhuman filtration camps, deportations, and indoctrination. Miller also writes about treason by the Kherson’s regional department of the Security Service of Ukraine  in the south (which aided invading Russian forces), successful counteroffensives in the east, goes to the funerals in the west, witnesses the last days of his Bakhmut prior to destruction, and lives through Russia’s unabated terrorising of Ukrainian cities with destructive missiles and drones.

The War Came to Us is a first person account of what is happening in Ukraine – the crisis of Russian fascism spilling into Europe and the remarkable spirit of the Ukrainian nation, which is paying in blood to protect the lives and future peace of not only Ukrainians but also Europeans.

THE WAR CAME TO US: Life and Death in Ukraine

Author: Christopher Miller

Published by: Bloomsbury, London, 2023, 400pp, UK £20.