In 2020 I launched a podcast series called the Battle of Stalingrad on Soundcloud and available on all major podcast platforms including Apple and Spotify. While the pandemic raged, I thought of the existential crisis that faced Russia between 1941 and 1945.
In 2014 I was fortunate enough to interview Russia’s ambassador to South Africa who spent some time explaining to me the importance of Ukraine and why Moscow believed they deserved to own this spot of Eastern Europe. This was two weeks after Russia invaded Crimea.
Mikhail Ivanovich Petrakov hosted me at the Russian embassy with dignity and read to me from Russian poetry, mentioning Russian authors, all of whom were born in Ukraine. Petrakov was former KGB, and knew Vladimir Putin personally.
I mentioned to him that invading Crimea may have made strategic sense, as the Russian fleet is based in Sebastopol, but then allowing the “little green men” pro-Russian rebels to try and seize the Donbas was not a good idea. He of course thought of me as a nothing, some African wafting on. But we sat in his boardroom for nearly two hours, quietly and calmly debating nation-state rights, the law, and history.
In short, Russian nationalists believe Ukraine is theirs. Whatever Kiev thinks, Moscow emperors like Putin want it back, and will do anything to get it back.
Petrakov then agreed to appear on a tv channel called Business Day tv, I was news editor there from 2012 to 2014. During the 15 minute interview he explained Russia’s motivations. The entire discussion was a history lesson, and it was shortly after this appearance that I decided to read up a bit more about Russian history.
Five years later, the Battle of Stalingrad was launched. So far it has a few hundred thousand listeners including Russians and Germans. All have asked for another go, possibly at Kursk, maybe Leningrad, one person suggesting battles of the Dnieper bend.
It is the latter that I’m beginning to consider. The Dnieper Bend was on the map that Mikhail had in his boardroom. We stood before this large map of Russia and its neighbours, Belorussia, Georgia, Ukraine, Finland, Chechnya, the Baltic States.
The line – the Dnieper River – flows almost directly North to South across Ukraine, and importantly, it flows through Kiev, splitting the city into two.
The interview over, later the ambassador appeared on the channel, then wrote an oped for Business Day Newspaper defending Moscow’s invasion of Crimea. Since then, much water and another invasion of Ukraine by the Russians later, we have a situation as of June 24 2023 where Vladimir Putin is facing a military coup.
Not a special military military coup — it’s a full-blown full-on military coup.
Now what?
It’s possibly time to begin a series called the Battles of the Dnieper, and take a closer look at this strategic river and its symbolic value to both Ukraine and Russia. It is an ancient divide that repeatedly shows up in historic terms, and in 1943 it was the location across 1000 miles for a major Russian victory over the Germans.
Time to plan.
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