Welcome to Hard Talk on the BBC World Service with me, Stephen Sacker. For more than a thousand years,

the histories of the territories we know as Ukraine and Russia have been intertwined. They are the most

intimate of neighbours, and now they're fighting a bloody war as a result of Vladimir Putin's

decision to launch a full-scale invasion. His intention,

seemingly to topple Kiev's democratically elected government and install a regime sympathetic

to his desire to recreate a de facto greater Russia. My guest has intimate connections on both sides of this conflict.

Andrei Kerkhov is perhaps Ukraine's best-known contemporary novelist. His 1996 book,

Death and the Penguin, was a hit around the world. Kerkhov was born in Russia six decades ago

to a Russian family, who then moved to Ukraine when both territories were part of the Soviet Union.

When the USSR collapsed, Kerkhov stayed in Kiev, took Ukrainian citizenship, while continuing to write in Russian.

In the past two decades, he's been an acerbic commentator on Ukraine's somewhat chaotic

embrace of democratic politics, and he's been a fierce critic of Putin's Russia, particularly

after the annexation of Crimea and the invasion of the Donbass region in 2014. Now, Putin insists

Ukraine is a fake nation, nothing but a puppet regime of Western

interests and a nest of neo-fascists intent on committing a genocide on the country's ethnic Russians.

In essence, Putin is out to destroy Ukraine's independence and its identity.

Will he get his way?

Well, Andrei Kirchoff joins me now from Western Ukraine.

Welcome to Hard Talk.

Hello.

Hello, and thank you so much for joining us at a time

which I can imagine for your family, like so many Ukrainians,

...