On December 20, the former Commander-in-Chief of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, now Ukraine’s ambassador to the United Kingdom, Valerii Zaluzhnyi, announced the release of his autobiography “My War”. The book is intended to be the first part of a trilogy; the two subsequent parts will be titled “Our War” and “Their War”.
The first book focuses on Zaluzhnyi’s pre-war life. He promises to discuss Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in the following volumes but already touches upon it in the first. Ukrainian media outlets have highlighted several key facts from the book.
◾A Prophetic Encounter: In the spring of 1997, while studying at the Odessa Institute of Ground Forces, Zaluzhnyi and his fellow cadets met a woman on a train who offered to tell their fortunes. Although skeptical, Zaluzhnyi recalls her predicting a “terrible war” in Ukraine in which he would be “the most important figure.” He remembered this moment vividly in late February 2022 under the “unbearable weight of responsibility and harrowing thoughts.” He writes, “No, I wasn’t afraid of what was happening; I was afraid of losing the strength to endure it all.”
◾The State of Ukraine’s Army Post-USSR: Following the collapse of the Soviet Union, the Ukrainian army remained in a dire state for years. In the late 1990s, Zaluzhnyi went months without pay, and his family relied solely on his officer’s rations. According to him, the worst period was in 2011, when the 51st Separate Mechanized Brigade he commanded had its personnel halved within two years, and monthly fuel allocations were limited to 20 liters. Meaningful reforms only began after Crimea’s annexation and the outbreak of fighting in Donbas.
◾Anticipating the Invasion: In 2021, Zaluzhnyi sensed the looming threat of a large-scale war. He was struck by the military’s lack of preparedness to counter multi-front attacks. Ukraine’s army faced shortages of weapons and equipment, but the most alarming issue was the almost complete lack of readiness of the missile defense system, which he described as being “practically nonexistent.”
◾Challenges During the 2023 Counteroffensive: The counteroffensive strained Ukraine’s relations with its allies. Zaluzhnyi was troubled by the army’s inadequate supplies and the “insistent pressure to advance.” At the time, The Washington Post had obtained information about the training of Ukrainian troops on NATO ranges. Ukraine’s Ministry of Defense tried to prevent these details from being leaked and promised the newspaper an interview with Zaluzhnyi in exchange. He used the interview to emphasize that the counteroffensive was “not a show for the world to watch, place bets on, or anything of the sort. Every day, every meter is won with blood.”
The initial print run of the book was 20,000 copies, with over 4,500 sold on the first day. However, the books are being shipped in batches; as of one month after the release, the publishing house “Babylon Library” had dispatched only 6,500 copies. The next shipment is expected at the end of January.
Interest in the book is fueled by Zaluzhnyi’s high approval ratings in some sociological surveys among Ukrainians, where he outpaces President Volodymyr Zelensky. Despite his popularity, Zaluzhnyi rarely communicates with the press and has stated that he does not intend to enter politics.
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The largest town is population 2992. The county is 13k people scattered over 713 square miles.