Presentation of the advance copy of the book In the Ring of Fire: Defense of Luhansk Airport in Lviv

On April 8, 2025, on the eleventh anniversary of the start of the defense of Luhansk Airport, a presentation of the advance copy of the English-language edition of the book In the Ring of Fire: Defense of Luhansk Airport took place in the dungeon of the Garrison Church in Lviv.

The documentary chronicle In the Ring of Fire, which honors the memory of the defenders of the airport in the spring and summer of 2014, was published in Ukrainian in 2018.

Ten years after the events described in the book, an initiative group consisting of the authors and their like-minded colleagues decided to prepare and publish an updated edition of the book – this time in English – so that people outside Ukraine could learn about this extremely important part of the first stage of the Russo–Ukrainian War. Unfortunately, there is still a lack of understanding abroad that the war in Ukraine did not begin in February 2022, but back in 2014.

“One of the main messages we want to convey is that the Russo–Ukrainian War is still ongoing because it was not stopped at its initial stage. It will continue in the future if it is not ended at the current stage. The updated English version of the book contains new expert commentary assessing the place and role of the events described from the perspective of 2025 in the overall picture of the Russo–Ukrainian War,” says Oleksandra Liashenko, coordinator of the English reissue of the book.

The presentation was attended by the authors of the book, participants in the defense of Luhansk Airport, volunteers, and concerned people who support the project.

“The venue is also symbolic, because the military memorial located in the Garrison Church reminds us so much of the heroic defense of Luhansk Airport,” emphasizes Anastasiia Hlotova, co-author of the book and translator.