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 Аrmed Forces of Ukraine in the early days of the war.

Andreas Umland, M.Phil. (Oxford), Dr.Phil. (FU Berlin), Ph.D. (Cambridge), Research Fellow at the Swedish Institute of International Affairs in Stockholm, Senior Expert at the Ukrainian Institute for the Future in Kyiv, and Associate Professor at the National University of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy.