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On February 24, 2022, Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine. To differentiate it from the first Russian incursion of 2014–15, I refer to it in this book as the “Second Russo-Ukrainian War.” This work was written in real time, and I observed the conflict as a researcher who had studied Russian military policy for a long time.
 
Normally, social science researchers look back on events only after the dust has settled; therefore, tackling a war for which the outcome and historical verdict are still undecided might seem more like a journalist’s task. However, I chose this subject for two reasons, as explained below.

First, the Second Russo-Ukrainian War is the largest conflict in which Russia has been involved since World War II. From Soviet interventions in Czechoslovakia and Hungary, Afghanistan, the two Chechen wars, the First Russo-Ukrainian War, and Syria, Russia has fought many battles. However, none of them approaches the scale of this war. Conflicts of this magnitude have rarely occurred since 1945. As a student of Russian military affairs, I cannot wait until the present crisis has become “history.”
 
Second, I wanted to offer my own perspective on how this war should be framed. Russia started the war, and whatever the circumstances, this action cannot be justified. This is my firm conviction. Yet, since the invasion began, we have heard many voices saying, “Russia has its reasons.” Some have even blamed the West and Ukraine. I do not deny such arguments. Had the international community treated post-Cold War Russia differently, this tragedy might have been averted.
 
Was war Inevitable? Was Russia truly so cornered that it had no choice but to resort to force on February 24, 2022? I believe not. My view is that this is an unnecessary war of aggression, and I have sought to demonstrate this throughout the book.
 
At the time of writing, discussions about a ceasefire were gaining momentum. An immediate halt to hostilities remains unlikely, but a path toward an end—although faint—has begun to emerge. That prospect makes it all the more essential to address the Second Russo-Ukrainian War as “history.” I hope that this volume will serve as a useful starting point for this debate.
 

(Written by KOIZUMI Yu, Associate Professor, Research Center for Advanced Science and Technology / 2025)