“Winning and Losing the War in Ukraine:  A Military Analysis.”  - A talk by Prof David Silbey

“The Russian invasion of Ukraine was supposed to be rapid and overwhelming, conquering the Ukrainians quickly and with minimal casualties on the Russian side.  Instead, the Ukrainians fought back vigorously and effectively, and have now not only driven the Russians away from the capital city of Kyiv but have also undertaken an offensive aimed to drive the Russians out of eastern Ukrainian lands the Russians had previously annexed, including the critical area of the Crimea.  The war has seen the use of modern technologies like drones but also tactics and strategies that hearken back to the bloody trench and artillery combat of World War I.  In this talk, I’ll analyze the war on a military level and try to illustrate not only the course of events but why they happened and how, from the ground level up to the national leaders — aiming to understand one of the largest and most consequential wars in recent history.”

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David Silbey - Military Historian • Director of Teaching and Learning, Cornell in Washington,   Series Editor, “Battlegrounds:  Cornell Studies in Military History,” Cornell University Press

Latest: D. Silbey & K. Wongsrichanalai, eds., Wars Civil and Great:  The American Experience in the Civil War and World War I (Kansas University Press, 2023)