The Ukrainian historian Serhii Plohky lectures in East European History at the University of Harvard and is the author of several books, including the successful Chernobyl: The History of a Nuclear Catastrophe (2018) – which covers the famous nuclear accident of 1986, an incident that the author himself survived. His most recent book, The Russo-Ukrainian War, analyses the events around the biggest European conflict since the Second World War. For outsiders, the 22nd of February 2022 –the day Russia invaded Ukraine– marked the beginning of this war, but there are deeper roots: a failed invasion attempt in 2014 that created a climate of geopolitical tension that has taken the world back to the Cold War period. The author also returns to the times of the Iron Curtain and explores the legacy of the Soviet approach, one that continues to be in operation today. In conversation with Juan Carlos Flórez.
Simultaneous translation from English to Spanish available