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

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He adds: “A military defeat at the hands of NATO weaponry would likely strengthen, not weaken, that tendency. Measured against this standard, and considering the circumstances under which it was produced, the book is a success.

Important topics, such as shifts in Western attitudes to the war and the effectiveness of economic sanctions, receive attention. Small wonder that the intensity of their pleasures and indulgences is so sharp; it has to match the quality of their suffering.According to Matthews, Putin’s grudge against Ukraine goes back not just to its 2004 Orange Revolution, but to 1991, when its people followed the Baltic States in voting overwhelmingly for independence. There were probably too many pages spent dealing with the background of the war and not enough on the actual war itself.

Chapter 2 (“And Moscow is Silent”) gives a brief biography of Putin that largely aligns with the conventional Western interpretation. When the war with Ukraine began, Western countries decided not to help Kiev, they thought that in less than a week the Russians would take full control of the country. I like how the author goes back on time to Crimea’s invassion on 2014 to give further context of the conflict.In Part 3, Matthews attempts to devote the same careful analytical attention to events following the February 2022 invasion. The book was completed at the end of September, which means the author managed to reach the point in the war where it first began to seem that Ukraine might actually win. Owen Matthews has no doubt that the war in Ukraine is one of these, declaring in the introduction to Overreach that “The world’s security architecture, food and energy supply, balance of military power and alliances will be altered by [the war] forever”. Matthews is able to do this because of his understanding of Russia, its society - for instance people's work, life, living standards, interaction with the state and perception or understanding of their own government and the West; we see how government works, who works in local and central government and how these are managed, viewed, funded and manipulated by Putin and his siloviki.