Testimonies, exposures, and confessions...

Slovyansk. The Beginning of the War is a documentary research and chronicle of the most important episodes of the battle for the city of Slovyansk in the Donetsk Region, the capture of which by a group of "Strelkov" Girkin (a.k.a Strelkov)  militants on April 12, 2014 marked the beginning of the hybrid armed military aggression of the Russian Federation in the Ukrainian Donbas. Each section of the book has a symbolic title with the word "first", which reflects the essence of what had happened in the spring of 2014: "First Blood", "First Treason", "First Execution", "First Battle", "First Victory"…

The book features archive photos and recordings of interviews with key military and political leaders of Ukraine who made the main decisions in those turbulent times. Also, in each of the episodes, there are memories of the heroes who directly participated in those dramatic, heroic, and tragic events.

Artem Shevchenko, the author of this book, is the Director of the Communications Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine. As a military journalist, he actively covered the high points of what was happening events in Slovyansk during April-June 2014.