Sergei Plokhy: “I already wrote in the first edition of the book, and I must repeat: the war is not over yet—it may be far from over, and we still don’t know exactly how it will end. What can be said with greater certainty is that the war has profoundly changed not only the region but the entire world. There is no way back to the pre-war status quo. It is also clear that the shape of the post-war world will largely depend on the outcome of the war. A Russian victory would deal an irreparable blow to the rules-based international order and make possible the emergence of a new world order ruled by ‘rogue great powers’—a shift that is already underway. Conversely, a Ukrainian victory and the preservation of its sovereignty would give hope that a just international order can be restored from the ruins left by Russia in its attempts to destroy one of the Central European states…”