For the Review’s November 21 issue, Timothy Garton Ash traveled to Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-biggest city, about twenty-five miles from the Russian border. He was visiting “to repay a debt of honor”—Russian missiles recently killed seven workers at a factory that had printed, among other things, the Ukrainian edition of one of Garton Ash’s books—and to bear witness to everyday life in a city haunted by air-raid sirens but soldiering on with literal underground culture:

Because of the constant and unpredictable bombardment, my book presentation, like most cultural events, was held underground. The most desirable hotel, too, is not the one with gorgeous views from the eighth floor but rather the one that has windowless underground bedrooms.

Below, alongside Garton Ash’s essay, we have collected five essays from the Review’s archives about Ukraine since the Russian invasion.

Timothy Garton Ash
Homage to Kharkiv

In the besieged city, the cost of the remorseless Russian assault is painfully visible despite the Ukrainians’ courage and innovation.

Timothy Garton Ash
Ukraine in Our Future

Ukraine faces extraordinary challenges, but it also presents a challenge for Europe—and a great opportunity.

—February 23, 2023

Tim Judah
Ukraine’s Volunteers

Even more impressive than Ukraine’s will to fight is the vast network of citizens who are supporting the armed forces and helping those in need of food and supplies.

—January 19, 2023

Cristina Florea
Ukraine’s Long Self-Determination

Ukrainians have declared their independence five times—each time, defining their nation anew.

—December 7, 2022

Olesya Khromeychuk and Sonya Bilocerkowycz
The Nation Ukraine Has Become

The reason resistance to the Russian invasion is so strong is that the country’s people already chose a new, decisively democratic identity.

—March 25, 2022

photographs by Louis Witter
Exodus from Ukraine

Scenes at the Polish border, which is seeing part of the largest, most sudden displacement of population since the period after World War II.

—March 5, 2022

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