This is fresh air. I'm Terry Gross. My guest Luke Harding has been reporting from Ukraine

for the British newspaper The Guardian. Earlier this month he was in Karsan, reporting on

the liberation of the town Miolova, and the death, destruction, and landmines left behind

by the Russians. He reported from Butchah about Russian atrocities after Russia retreated,

and was in Maruyupil just before it was occupied by Russia. He interviewed one of the Ukrainian

engineers who worked at the Zaparizha nuclear power plant, which the Russians turned into

a military base, and which Putin is used as a form of nuclear blackmail. Perhaps the

most famous statement of Ukrainian defiance was when one of the border guards on Snake

Island responded to a Russia warships command to surrender, by saying, Russian warship,

go F yourself. Harding interviewed the commander of the Snake Island border guards and got the

story behind that incident. His new book Invasion, Chronicles the War, and his experiences covering

it, and analyzes the politics, strategies, and delusions behind it. Harding is a foreign

correspondent for The Guardian and was its Moscow bureau chief from 2007 to 2011. The Kremlin

didn't like what he was writing. He was spied on, harassed, and finally expelled. But

he continued to report on Russia, including Russian interference in the 2016 election, which

was also the subject of one of his previous books called Collusion. Luke Harding, welcome

back to Fresh Air. It is so good to hear that you are safe. Thank you. You know, I've

described how you were spied on, and while reporting from Russia and you were expelled,

because of your experiences covering Russia, and also your experiences covering Russian

interference in the 2016 election, and the poisoning of Russian defectors, I'm wondering

if this war, this Russian invasion of Ukraine, has a kind of personal meaning for you.

Yes, I mean, it's a good question. I mean, I think it does. Since the far as I or we,

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