Ukraine is the new West Berlin of Eastern Europe. The annexation of Crimea and the Russian invasion of the Donets Basin (Donbas) forced the Ukrainian nation to change. In 2013, it was still a post-Soviet country with a divided identity. Today, it is an outpost of Europe which has been holding back the onslaught of the Russian army for several years now. The Wild West of Eastern Europe by Pavlo Kazarin is a book about how such a transformation has become possible. In 2022, the Ukrainian version of this volume was named "Book of the Year" by BBC Ukraine in the category of "Essay Writing".

Pavlo Kazarin is a journalist who was born and raised in Crimea. He works as journalist and had to move to Kyiv after the Russian annexation of the peninsula. The book was originally published before the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine, and the author joined the rmed Forces of Ukraine in the early days of the war.