This was an interesting book. It tells the story of the taking of Slavyask, Ukraine, by Russian militia from 12 April 2014 until their retreat on 5 July 2014.

In the beginning of the book, 84 Days in Slavyansk, the author Alexander Zhuchokovsky speaks of the necessity of the reader to remember that books like these are written by people who lived the life being described and as such what is written is in their eyes. Others who lived through the same thing will see events and people differently. This is important.

Written by one of militia-men, it details what the Russians did, why they did it (pure belief that The Donbass region of Ukraine is traditional Russian territory. After the taking over of Crimea, these men believed that the next logical step was to move into and annex Donbass. They truly believed that a the Russian Federation would fully support them although there was no actual documentation or discussion from Russian officials that this action was supported by the government.
When the author speaks of actions of the militia, or gives short biographies of those men who fought, his story telling is on point. It is impactful in that you hear the patriotism he is speaking from. He and his fellow militiamen were raised to believe that Ukraine was never a sovereign territory but rather a piece of the Motherland that was taken from main Russia as the West overran the USSR.

Personally I do not believe this but reading his words, it is understandable why this happened.
The negative (for me) in this book is the detailed accounts of the munitions and the vehicles used on both sides. I found myself skipping these details; the military science. For someone who really knows and is interested, though, this is probably very interesting.

In the end, the author quotes quite a few of the primaries of the invasion/liberation, and the point each makes as to why they had to retreat was that there was no support from the Russian Federation. This group of men were on their own, even after they had recruited many civilians.

In light of the present Ukrainian war, this is a very interesting read. I highly recommend it. ( )