It started with an invasion on February 24thby Vladimir Putin's troops. At times it looked like this bush fire might conflate to a Third World War. It may still. This war or 'special military operation' has been the most and best reported of the post World War Two European conflagrations. Much of the coverage, especially on broadcast,has been stunning.

Here in the first draft of history we hear the accounts of frontline correspondents Stuart Ramsey of Sky News,Orla Guerin and Mike Thomson of the BBC, Alex Thompson of Channel Four News, Kim Sengupta of the Independent and Richard Pendlebury of the Daily Mail. In addition there are notes on the cyber/intelligence war from Nick Waters of Bellingcat, Alex Connock, Paul Lashmar and former BBC Director General Mark Thompson. Analysis from elsewhere is delivered by Jon Williams of RTE, John Ryley of Sky News, Pulitzer Prize Winner David Cay Johnson on the USA. Hanna Liubakova on Belarus, Geoffrey Davies and Marcus Ryder on China plus Paul Connew and Liz Gerard on newspaper coverage and more.

This book is designed not just to be the first but also the most comprehensive first draft of the history of the war in Ukraine.