Overreach
Winner of the Pushkin House Book Prize 2023
*A Telegraph Book of the Year*
A Times Best Book of Summer 2023
*Shortlisted for the Parliamentary Book Awards*
An astonishing investigation into the start of the Russo-Ukrainian war – from the corridors of the Kremlin to the trenches of Mariupol.
The Russo-Ukrainian War is the most serious geopolitical crisis since the Second World War – and yet at the heart of the conflict is a mystery. Vladimir Putin apparently lurched from a calculating, subtle master of opportunity to a reckless gambler, putting his regime – and Russia itself – at risk of destruction. Why?
Drawing on over 25 years’ experience as a correspondent in Moscow, as well as his own family ties to Russia and Ukraine, journalist Owen Matthews takes us through the poisoned historical roots of the conflict, into the Covid bubble where Putin conceived his invasion plans in a fog of paranoia about Western threats, and finally into the inner circle around Ukrainian president and unexpected war hero Volodimir Zelensky.
Using the accounts of current and former insiders from the Kremlin and its propaganda machine, the testimony of captured Russian soldiers and on-the-ground reporting from Russia and Ukraine, Overreach tells the story not only of the war’s causes but how the first six months unfolded.
With its panoramic view, Overreach is an authoritative, unmissable record of a conflict that shocked Europe to its core.
Award-winning correspondent, historian and fluent Russian-speaker Owen Matthews has lived and worked in Moscow for over 25 years. He has built up an unrivalled network of contacts who have worked in Putin’s administration, security services, armed forces and propaganda machine. He worked first as a staffer for The Moscow Times and then as Newsweek magazine’s Moscow Bureau Chief. He has covered conflicts in Bosnia, Lebanon, Afghanistan, Chechnya, Iraq, Georgia and Eastern Ukraine. He currently contributes regularly to Foreign Policy, Spectator, Daily Mail, Telegraph and The Critic.