For months, the omens had pointed in one scarcely believable direction: Russia was about to invade Ukraine. And yet, the world was stunned by the epochal scale of the assault that began in February 2022. It was an attempt by one nation to devour another. The Kremlin wanted nothing less than a new world order.

Invasion is Luke Harding’s gripping chronicle of the war that changed everything. Reporting on the ground through the initial months of shock and heartbreak, Harding shares unheard human stories behind the headlines, while also excavating the compelling narrative of two very different leaders. As Ukraine’s actor-turned-president Volodymyr Zelenskiy rallied support on a global stage, Vladimir Putin appeared to dwell in a strange and unreachable realm. Harding delves into the ideological, religious and personal reasons really driving Putin’s strategy for war, and confronts a crucial question: what will be the end game of this unprecedented invasion?

Written in Luke Harding’s starkly transfixing style, this is an urgent, vivid and powerful account of the largest armed conflict in Europe since 1945. Having warned correctly about Putin’s dark and adventurist ambitions, his analysis of the war’s consequences for Kyiv, Moscow and the world makes for essential reading.