On 24 February 2022, Russia attacked Ukraine. How did we get there? This course will explore the complex relationship between Ukraine, Russia, and the West on the eve of Russia's war in Ukraine. We will cover Ukraine's pre-Soviet, Soviet, and post-Soviet history, with special attention to the country's current political, social, and cultural issues, including the legacies of the past in post-1991 Ukraine, corruption and the ambitious anti-corruption reforms, the power of oligarchs, the role of mass civic protests such as Euromaidan, Ukraine's new cultural achievements, decommunization, post-Soviet urbanism, and the shaping of an inclusive civic identity in the wake of the Russian invasion. The course will also provide students with tools for verifying information in the fast-moving context of war. Finally, students will be asked to think about and develop postwar scenarios.