SSEESing Russia’s Overlooked Invasion: Lessons from the 2014 War in Ukraine
A SSEESing event on Jakob Hauter’s recently published book on the outbreak of war in Ukraine’s Donbas in 2014. This will be an in-person event
SSEESing Russia’s Overlooked Invasion: Lessons from the 2014 War in Ukraine
15 Nov 2023, 19:00 – 20:30
Ukraine is now entering its tenth winter of war. As the debate about western military aid and possible ways to put an end to Russia’s aggression continues, it is often forgotten that this aggression did not start on 24 February 2022 but eight years earlier. Understanding the events of 2014 is crucial for policymakers seeking to make the right decisions in response to the full-scale invasion of 2022-2023.
This event discusses Jakob Hauter’s recently published book on the outbreak of war in Ukraine’s Donbas in 2014. The book argues that, contrary to popular belief, the Donbas conflict was never a Ukrainian civil war but a Russian invasion from its very beginning.
Failure to acknowledge Russia’s key role in the critical junctures of conflict escalation in 2014 meant that many western decisionmakers underestimated the destructive and aggressive nature of Russia’s Ukraine policy. As a result, the attempt to freeze the 2014 conflict turned into a catastrophic failure. Learning from this failure and drawing the right conclusions from the events of 2014 is crucial to putting an end to Russia’s war against Ukraine.
Image credit: Russian-led fighter in front of Sloviansk City Council on 14 April 2014
Yevgen Nasadyuk, licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0. Wikimedia
Jakob Hauter completed his PhD at UCL-SSEES in 2022. He previously studied International Relations and Contemporary European Studies in Dresden, Saint Petersburg, Bath, and Siena. He has also worked as a Russian and Ukrainian media and current affairs analyst for the United States Mission to the United Kingdom and as a researcher for Forensic Architecture. His new book Russia's Overlooked Invasion: The causes of the 2014 outbreak of War in Ukraine's Donbas is an updated and streamlined version of his PhD thesis. He is also the editor of the collected volume Civil War? Interstate War? Hybrid War? Dimensions and Interpretations of the Donbas Conflict in 2014–2020. He posts on X/Twitter @HauterJakob
Dr Jade McGlynn is a Leverhulme Early Career Research Fellow at the Department of War Studies, KCL. She is also a senior associate in the Europe Program at CSIS. She is the author of two books: Russia’s War (Polity 2023) Memory Makers: The Politics of the Past in Putin’s Russia (Bloomsbury 2023). She posts on X/ Twitter @DrJadeMCGlynn
Jaroslava Barbieri is a researcher at the Department of Political Science and International Studies, University of Birmingham. She recently published an article based on her doctoral study: Raising citizen-soldiers in Donbas: Russia's role in promoting patriotic education programmes in the Donetsk and Luhansk Peoples’ Republics. She is also a researcher at the Arena programme, Johns Hopkins University, dedicated to creating best practices for overcoming disinformation and polarisation. Her commentary has appeared in national and international media outlets. She posts on X/Twitter @jarabarbieri
Prof Andrew Wilson (Chair)
Andrew Wilson is Professor of Ukrainian Studies at UCL SSEES. His research interests include Ukraine, comparative politics of democratisation in the post-Soviet states, and political technology. His books include Belarus: The Last European Dictatorship (Second edition, 2021), Ukraine Crisis: What it Means for the West (2014), The Ukrainians: Unexpected Nation (New edition, 2022), Ukraine’s Orange Revolution (2005) and Virtual Politics: Faking Democracy in the Post-Soviet World (2005).
Further information
Ticketing
Pre-booking essential
Cost
Free
Open to
All
Availability
Yes