Andrew Harding: A Small, Stubborn Town in Ukraine

Andrew Harding will speak about his book, A Small, Stubborn Town In Ukraine.

Event link: https://foccal.com/event/316

About the book:

The Russians are invading. But the locals have a plan.

It’s March 2022 and Russian tanks are roaring across the vast, snow-dusted fields of Ukraine. Their destination: Voznesensk, a town with a small bridge that could change the course of the war. The heavily-armed Russians are expecting an easy fight – or no fight at all.

After all, Voznesensk is a quiet farming town, full of pensioners. But the locals appear to have other ideas. Svetlana, a grandmother with arthritis, reacts in fury when Russian troops turn her cottage into their blood-soaked headquarters.

Valentin, a quick-talking lawyer, joins the town’s ‘Dads Army’ defenders, crouching in a trench with an AK47. Meanwhile, 21-year-old Sergei grabs a Molotov cocktail and lies in wait for Russian tanks as they push towards Dead Water Bridge. The odds are terrible.

But a plan is emerging, and there’s a chance it could save not just Voznesensk, but the rest of southern Ukraine. Meanwhile, inside the tanks, an inner battle rages. As Russian officer Igor Rudenko prepares to invade, he has a secret.

He is Ukrainian himself. A gripping work of reportage that tells the story of a pivotal moment in Ukraine’s war, this is a real-life thriller about ordinary people facing extraordinary circumstances with resilience, humour and ingenuity.

About the author:

Andrew Harding is a British journalist and author. He has been living and working abroad as a foreign correspondent for the past 3 decades. Since 1994 he has been working for BBC News.

He began his career in the former Soviet Union, initially as a freelancer. After a decade living in Moscow and Tbilisi, he moved to Nairobi, then Singapore, Bangkok and now Johannesburg. He is married with three sons.

Andrew has reported on the breakup of the Soviet Union, Russia’s parliamentary rebellion, the Asian tsunami and west Africa’s Ebola outbreak. He has covered many conflicts, most recently in Ukraine, but also in Chechnya, Azerbaijan, Abkhazia, Kosovo, Afghanistan, Iraq, Burma, Darfur, DR Congo, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Mali, South Sudan, Cote D’Ivoire, CAR, Burundi, Uganda, Libya and elsewhere.