WINDMILLS AND DON QUIXOTES. UKRAINSKA PRAVDA 25

A reconstruction of the three longest days of February 2022 — how the full-scale war that no one believed in began. How Ukraine lost and regained Snake Island, and how the Ukrainian Neptune missile destroyed the Russian fleet flagship, the cruiser Moskva. How a HUR Special Forces operative swam for 14 hours in the open sea. How fishermen from Strakholissia saved two thousand people from starvation and occupation. How ordinary old lady Polina Rayko from Oleshky became a star of naive art, and Paraska Plytka-Horytsvit from Kryvorivnia overcame the Gulag.

These are just a few of the 30 stories about a country which accepted a battle against fictional windmills and very real dragons.

The book Windmills and Don Quixotes. Ukrainska Pravda 25 is a journey that spans a quarter of a century. Through turbulence, the bitterness of defeat, and the warmth of hope. Through revolutions and war. Through ups and downs. From despair and the infantile thoughts like "it will sort itself out somehow" and "what can I change" to the realization of one's identity and one's own power.

This journey began in a one-room apartment that became the first office of the Ukrainska Pravda editorial team. With five people. Without money. Without guarantees. In a country that was entangled in "multivectorality" and rapidly sliding towards autocracy. It was then, in the spring of 2000, that Heorhiy Gongadze chose the hero from Cervantes' novel and Picasso's engraving as the symbol and logo for UP. A weirdo with a spear in his hand, who sees what others close their eyes to.

This is a story that all of us have been writing together for a quarter of a century — every day at the speed of ten news articles per hour.

The book contains only a few dozen of the hundreds of thousands of texts that appeared on the website over the years. This is an attempt to prevent the flow of time and the kaleidoscope of news from obscuring the meanings that make us who we are.

A few dozen names, reconstructions of historical events, portraits of modern Don Quixotes, and reports from places that are now destroyed, left to exist only in our memory and in the texts of Ukrainska Pravda authors.

Many names remain outside the scope of the book, but those that we managed to fit into a few hundred pages hold a shared truth that testifies to all of us.

The book also includes an original print by illustrator Serhiy Maidukov, created specifically for the publication Windmills and Don Quixotes. Ukrainska Pravda 25.

Team
Publisher: ist publishing
Compilers: Sevgil Musaieva, Mykhailo Kryhel
Authors: Matviy Vaisberg, Tata Voronova, Yaroslav Hrytsak, Artur Dron, Pavlo Kazarin, Roksana Kasumova, Olha Kyrylenko, Oksana Kovalenko, Roman Kravets, Mykhailo Kryhel, Tamara Kudriavchenko, Oleksandr Mykhed, Sevgil Musaieva, Mustafa Nayyem, Valentyna Romanenko, Roman Romaniuk, Yevhen Rudenko, Angelina Strashkulych, Andriy Taranenko, Halyna Tytysh, Kateryna Tyshchenko, Mykhailo Tkach, Rustem Khalilow, Pavlo Sheremet
Art direction, Illustrations: Sergiy Maidukov
Design and layout: Ostap Yashchuk
Producer: Valeriia Husieva
Photography by: Yuliia Veber, Ruslan Hanushchak, Paraska Plytka-Horytsvit, Yurko Diachyshyn, Mykhailo Kanafoсkyi, Olha Kyrylenko, Vladyslav Krasnoshchok, Mykhailo Kryhel, Dmytro Larin, Valeriy Miloserdov, Maksym Onanko, Daryna Rohachuk, Yevhen Rudenko, Eldar Sarakhman, Artem "Borzhomi" Semeniuk, Andriy Taranenko, Petro Tkachyshyn, Oleksandr Chekmenov, Pavlo Sheremet, Mykhailo Shtekel
Editor: Olha Petrenko-Tseunova
Proofreader: Iryna Kurhanska
Translation into Ukrainian: Olha Petrenko-Tseunova
Editor-in-chief: Kateryna Nosko
Project Management: Nastia Leonova, Kateryna Nosko
Copyright Lawyer: Mariia Farbota
Copyright Management: Mariia Sharova
Communications Manager: Polina Sopolieva