How Good It Is I Have No Fear of Dying

Starred review from December 1, 2024
The unprovoked Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 was just the latest escalation of Vladimir Putin's encroachments. Yulia Mykytenko, despite her young age, has been resisting since the 2014 Revolution of Dignity, calling for Ukrainian freedom and independence. She married a soldier and joined the fight in the Donbas. After her father's shocking act of self-immolation in Kyiv in protest of the government's apparent appeasement of Russia, Lieutenant Mykytenko spoke with journalists. Back on the battlefield, she learned that her husband had been killed. Struck by Mykytenko's valor and candor, seasoned journalist Marlowe recounts Mykytenko's astounding story of patriotism and service, detailing her family's legacy of resistance within the context of her country's history and the gritty brutality of fighting on today's front lines. Here, too, is criticism of Western allies for dragging their feet in supplying necessary weapons and equipment. Marlowe does excellent work translating interviews with Mykytenko into seamless and beautifully written prose. This book provides everything readers want to know about the war in Ukraine and the indefatigable courage of that country's fighters. A tour de force of hope and service amid the destruction of a horrific, ongoing war.

COPYRIGHT(2024) Booklist, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

December 15, 2024
An extensive report from the front lines of Ukraine, viewed through the eyes of a war-weary but indomitable officer.Irish Times reporter Marlowe recounts the wartime experiences of a young Ukrainian army officer named Yulia Mykytenko, whom we first meet in the besieged Donbas region. Commanding a reconnaissance unit employing first-person-view drones, Mykytenko says, matter-of-factly, "With a $500 FPV, you can destroy a tank that cost millions." So have she and her soldiers done, despite the gap in technology and supplies that the Ukrainian army suffers, with arms from the West arriving only in fits and starts and freighted with political considerations. Mykytenko's contempt for Russia is clear, but her assessment of the overly cautious West is scarcely more complimentary. Perhaps surprisingly, she has no shortage of criticisms for her nation's president, either: "The army on the ground knew the invasion would happen. When the intelligence services warned [Zelenskyy] in November 2021 that Russia was going to attack, he said, 'No, it's not going to happen.'" The country has since paid a terrible price, and Mykytenko has paid dearly herself: Her father committed suicide by self-immolation in protest against what he perceived to be Zelenskyy's failure to react strongly enough following Russia's seizure of Crimea, and her husband died in combat. "Ukraine was not ready for the 24 February 2022 invasion because Zelenskyy had neglected the armed forces, leaving them in a demoralized, ill-prepared and ill-equipped state, as my father and other veterans warned," she charges. Proudly, Mykytenko insists that Ukraine deserves NATO membership, not as a gift to the country but because it would make a valuable addition to NATO's order of battle: No other army would withstand Putin's as stubbornly, she asserts--and besides, "We could also teach NATO a great deal about efficiency in the heat of battle." A wartime account of searing intensity and righteous anger.

COPYRIGHT(2024) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.