Matthews, Owen. Overreach: the inside story of Putin’s war against Ukraine. – London: Mudlark, 2022. – 414 p.

Matthews, Owen. Overreach: the inside story of Putin’s war against Ukraine. – London: Mudlark, 2022. – 414 p.

“For the Ukrainophile intellectuals of the nineteenth century language was the key to a non-Russian, post-imperial future.”

[Matthews, 2022, 56]

“If any historical event served as the root cause of the 2022 invasion it was not Kyivan Rus’ nor the Hetmanate nor the Second World War, but Ukraine’s role in precipitating the death of the USSR.”

[Matthews, 2022, 56]

US ambassador in Moscow Robert Strauss:

 “The most revolutionary event of 1991 for Russia may not be the collapse of communism but the loss of something Russians of all political stripes think of as part of their own body politic and near to the heart of that: Ukraine.”
[Matthews, 2022, 56]

“If history played any role at all in Putin’s decision to invade, it was first and foremost in the form of historical payback for Kyiv’s betrayal of 1991.”
[Matthews, 2022, 56]