I’m currently watching Timothy Snyder’s Yale class on the history of Ukraine from which I take away two points:

1. Sheer, overbrimming brilliance and charisma go a loooooong way toward outshining teaching methods that, at my most charitable, I can only call lacklustre (Prof. Snyder beats me in erudition and intellectual potential by a factor that isn’t even funny, but when it comes to teaching, hoo boy, do I have notes).
2. More to the point, Plokhy’s book is absolutely and avowedly foundational to this brilliant class.

So, humbly standing in a greater mind’s shadow, I can only say: if you only read one history of Ukraine, make it this one.