The Russo-Ukrainian War through the Eyes of a Historian
CGIS South Building
Room S020, Belfer Case Study Room
1730 Cambridge St.
Cambridge
Wed., Apr. 8, 2026, 5:30 – 7 p.m. 
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine constitutes the largest war in Europe since 1945. It is also the first war to employ drones on a massive scale, both in the air and at sea, and the first major conflict that is widely characterized as hybrid warfare—combining conventional military operations, cyberattacks, and the active use of disinformation. The latter is a key element of the Kremlin’s war propaganda, aimed not least at its own population as well as Ukraine and the outside world.
How important have misuse and abuse of history been in the perpetration and justification of this war, and what are the actual historical causes of the conflict? Why did Putin start the war―and why has it unfolded in previously unimaginable ways? Ukrainians have valiantly resisted a superior military; meanwhile, the West has been vacillating as Russia colludes with allies in the international arena. The lecture will provide answers to these and related questions by tracing the origins of the Russo-Ukrainian war and explaining the reasons for the return of armed conflict in Europe, the very same part of the world where the Cold War had ended thirty years earlier.
Gazette Classification: Lecture, Special Events
Organization/Sponsor: Harvard Ukrainian Research Institute
Speaker(s): Serhii Plokhii, Mykhailo Hrushevs'kyi Professor of Ukrainian History, Harvard University
Contact Info: [email protected]
Harvard Key Required: No
More info: www.huri.harvard.edu…