The Deep Roots of the Ukraine War – Volodymyr Ishchenko & Richard Sakwa Pt. 1/2

Richard Sakwa and Volodymyr Ishchenko on why peace was lost—and who helped destroy it. Russia’s illegal invasion of Ukraine did not come from nowhere. In this first of two parts, Richard Sakwa and Volodymyr Ishchenko cut through the common narrative that reduces the war to Putin alone, without excusing the invasion itself. The failure — and in key moments, US sabotage — of an inclusive European security order after the Cold War helped lay the ground for conflict. Inside Ukraine, post Soviet class conflicts led to the weaponization of language, identity, and nationalism. And the far right used the threat of violence to block President Zelensky’s early efforts to pursue peace. Sakwa and Ishchenko show that understanding history is not justification — it is indictment.