On December 16, 2023, The Shevchenko Scientific Society in the U.S. inaugurated the 150th Anniversary year of the founding of the Society (December 11, 1873) with a lecture by Professor Serhii Plokhii.
Russia’s attack on Ukraine and the start of the largest European conflict since the end of World War II came as a shock to the world at large. Why did Putin start the war―and why has it unfolded in previously unimaginable ways? Ukrainians have resisted a superior military; the West has united, while Russia grows increasingly isolated. The lecture will provide answers to these and other related questions by tracing the origins of the newest European war and explaining the reasons for the return of the Cold War to the very same part of the world where it ended thirty years earlier. The presentation will be based on Plokhy’s new book, The Russo-Ukrainian-War: A Return of History, released in the US in May 2023.