Oleksandr Mykhed talks to Colin Freeman

Ukrainian writer Oleksandr Mykhed explains how war in Ukraine transformed his life and thinking and those of his friends and family.

Mykhed writes in The Language of War of his own experiences when his quiet suburban life was destroyed overnight as Russian forces invaded. And he brings together a host of other voices to talk about their experiences including a veteran, an artist, a journalist, a literature professor, a soldier and many more. It is a story of what happens when you wake up to the sound of helicopters and smell of gunpowder, when your house is hit by shells and when you spend your nights in a basement turned bomb shelter. It is also a story about the realisation that you must fight back even though you have never held a gun before.

‘A vivid account of invasion and the struggle to find the words to describe a new reality: war’  Financial Times

Mykhed lived in Kyiv until March 2022 and is now enlisted in the Ukrainian armed forces. The Language of War was inspired by his work during an online residency at the University of Oxford. It was published to great acclaim in Ukraine. He is author of nine books, including the novel Astra, and a member of PEN Ukraine. Here he talks to writer and The Telegraph journalist and former chief foreign correspondent of The Sunday Telegraph Colin Freeman.