Serhii Plokhy’s The Russo-Ukrainian War: The Return of History presents the full-scale 2022 invasion not as an isolated event, but as the violent culmination of a conflict initiated in 2014. The book’s fundamental argument frames the war as an old-fashioned imperial conflict, driven by Russia's deep-seated historical ambitions, against which Ukraine is fighting a definitive war of independence.

Plokhy’s work is aimed at an audience seeking a longue durée historical perspective to understand the conflict's origins far beyond contemporary headlines. The author poses the book's central questions directly: "What made such a war of aggression possible? What made the Ukrainians resist as they did...? Finally, what will be the most important consequences of the war for Ukraine, Russia, Europe, and the world?"

As a Harvard historian of Ukrainian origin, Plokhy is a preeminent authority on the subject. His analysis provides an indispensable framework for policymakers, journalists, and strategists, dismantling the Kremlin's historical justifications and offering the definitive long-view needed to navigate the geopolitical fallout of this conflict, which he terms "the return of history" to Europe.