Ukraine, Russia, and the Crimean Peninsula have been continuously in the spotlight of international developments in recent years. Unfortunately, in Greece, very little is known about the broader region, where there has been a strong and long-standing presence of the Greek element.

This book aims to answer the ongoing questions of many students regarding the events in these lands, making their history known to the broader reading public while simultaneously presenting recent developments from a geopolitical perspective. Moreover, many scholars agree that recent events constitute a new phase of the "Great Game," which has been played between the Russians and the Anglo-Saxon world in the Eastern region for the last 200 years.

The idea for writing a book about this area was born during the author's first trip to Russia in 1996. However, the final decision was made during the critical years of 2013-2014. Since then, the gathering and study of material began.

The author would like to thank all those who helped him in any way in writing this book, starting with Lieutenant General (ret.) Mr. Vasilios Papathanasiou, whose advice and comments were, once again, very important. Additionally, special mention should be made of the contributions of Mr. Christos Drougas, Professor Kyriakos Nikolaou-Patragas from the University of Athens, as well as Mr. Georgios Fragoudis (from the esteemed "Leimon" publications), with whom collaboration was once again flawless.

(From the author's preface)