Reporting War with Myroslav Laiuk and Luke Harding

The Ukraine Shelf Episode 7: Reporting War with Myroslav Laiuk and Luke Harding

In this episode Olesya Khromeychuk and Uilleam Blacker are joined by Luke Harding, award-winning Guardian correspondent, and Myroslav Laiuk, one of Ukraine’s leading writers, to discuss writing war reportage. Luke has been reporting on global conflicts for many years and wrote one of the first and best accounts of the early days of the Russian invasion of 2022 in his Invasion: Russia’s Bloody War and Ukraine’s Fight for Survival (Faber, 2022). Before 2022, Myroslav was known mainly as a poet and novelist, but since then he has turned to writing non-fiction. His Bakhmut (Ukrainer, 2023) and Spysky (Lists, Ukrainer, 2025). Myroslav and Luke discussed their experiences of reporting from the frontlines, the challenges of finding a language to describe war, the problem of neutrality (and whether it is possible in wartime), and more in this brilliant discussion.

Books discussed:

Luke Harding, Invasion: Russia’s Bloody War and Ukraine’s Fight for Survival (Faber, 2022)

Luke Harding, Betrayal: Trump, Putin and the New Age of Conquest (Faber, 2026)

Myroslav Laiuk, Bakhmut (Ukrainer, 2023 – published in English)

Myroslav Laiuk, Spysky (Lists, Ukrainer, 2025 – in Ukrainian).

Guests’ recommendations:

Luke: Julian Evans, Undefeatable: Odesa in Love and War (Scotland Street Press, 2024).

Myroslav: The Pateryk of the Kyivan Caves Monastery (early 13th century). Available online in a 1989 translation by Muriel Heppell and published by Harvard University Press here.