What War Did To Us: Ukraine

by Nicholas Edward Laidlaw

Firsthand accounts of courage, cowardice, humor, and terror from the first 150 days of the 2022 Russo-Ukrainian War. Over 300 accounts from witnesses and participants of both sides tell their story in vivid and terrifying detail. This is the oral history of the most extreme of human War.

388 pages, Paperback

Published September 17, 2022

Reviews

[Marco Speranza · Rating 4 out of 5]

Formatting of the book is a bit crappy. Front and back cover Graphics are very blurry. Especially for a published book. I'm not a fan of the way the text and chapters are laid out, but that's just me being nitpicky.

As for the content of the book, 5/5. There's no other book like this for this war. The way the author has laid out the book, week by week and battle by battle helps tell an incredible story from those on the ground... literally. There's no politics, no 50,000 ft view of the situation, there's no armchair quarterbacking, no large maps, no generals discussing tactics, none of the fluff bullshit so many other books are jam-packed with. Its just what the people in The Fray are experiencing on a day by day basis. Whether it be a civilian, Ukrainian or Russian soldier, Western volunteer, a medic, or the wife of someone who's been captured.

I cannot recommend this book enough.

The formatting is the only reason why I subtracted 1 star.

[Connor O’Reilly · Rating 5 out of 5]

What War Did to Us part 2
- October 3rd pages 1-71
- October 4th pages 71-124
- October 5th pages 124-199
- October 6th pages 199-203
- October 7th pages 203-240
- October 8th pages 240-284
- October 9th pages 284-367

At this moment this is the only “good” book on the current war in Ukraine. It’s simple, just being a collection of stories from civilians and soldiers who submitted stories. Each persons view is different, sometimes you read from a Russian soldier who submitted his story, a story filled to the brim with propaganda, or you read a western volunteer who has drastically underestimated how different this war is, how fighting dudes with 50 year old AKs and having air support is so much different then fighting a (mostly) competent army with accurate and heavy IDF(InDirect Fire)

[Ryan Furtado · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is probably the best account you can currently find of the full-scale invasion. It covers a multitude of perspectives, Russian, Ukranian, civilian, etc. I would recommend you take these accounts with a grain of salt, though. This conflict is still ongoing, and there is no way to tell for sure if what you are reading is propaganda or fact. It's still interesting, nonetheless.

[Noël Brand · Rating 5 out of 5]

It’s an intense book. There’s a lot of suffering. Personal accounts from both sides of the conflict. Soldiers from Ukraine and Russia. Civilians. Separatists. A tough book to read.