Short, well written and well researched history of the Russia-Ukraine conflict from the dissolution of the Soviet union around 1990 to 2018. First and last chapter is using an International Relations/Political Science perspective, the rest is a historical explanation and interpretation of the political events leading up to the war in 2014. Not so much focus on economy and culture, except when influenced the politics. The book's style reads like an extended editorial from The Economist. The author's point of view is from the Ukrainian leadership.