How a small town in Ukraine stopped the Russians in their tracks

The other day, John Simpson, He Who Cannot Be Removed From The BBC, tweeted something purportedly about Volodymyr Zelensky. What it was really about, though, was John Simpson – how many world leaders he had interviewed (200), over how long (more than 50 years), and who he most admired (Zelensky, Nelson Mandela and Vaclav Havel). It is difficult to imagine Andrew Harding, a veteran BBC foreign correspondent, tweeting something like that. He is a much more understated reporter, and less prone to foreground himself at the expense of his interviewees. He is just as likely to be on receive as transmit and understands that he is not the story.

A Small, Stubborn Town showcases his storytelling talents. Unlike most of the current crop of books about Ukraine, this pleasingly slim volume takes the narrowest focus. It is not a general history and nor does it dwell at length on the fraught and complicated story of Russia-Ukraine relations. It is instead the stirring tale of how one small southern town took it upon itself, with a motley collection of defenders young and old, male and female, civilian and military, to stop the Russians dead in their tracks. It is, in other words, the story of the war writ small.

Voznesensk, a farming community in the Mykolaiv region, lies close to where two rivers, the Southern Buh and Dead Water River, come together. That places it directly on the intended Russian route to the port city of Odesa, whose capture would have given Moscow control of the Black Sea coast.

When news breaks that the Russians have invaded Ukraine, a plan is quickly hatched. Yevhenii, the thirtysomething mayor, and Andrii, his deputy, rally the ‘troops’, setting up a makeshift civil defence team in short order.