Blue Shield 2 DNIPRO

PREORDER NOW AND SAVE 50%! DNIPRO can be read as a stand-alone novel.

WHAT-IF: Russia felt its hold on territories in Ukraine was threatened. Would it go nuclear?

Ukraine repeats its 2023 offensive, this time with Coalition nations fighting beside it. Russian lines crumble as Ukraine and Coalition of the Willing forces employ new weapons and tactics designed to overcome the threat of Russian drones and static defenses. Russia's grip on occupied Ukrainian territory is slipping. But Russian nuclear doctrine states "any critical threat to sovereignty and/or territorial integrity justifies the use of nuclear weapons" - not just on the battlefield, but against the territory of any nuclear-armed state supporting attacks against it.

As its armies in Ukraine are forced to retreat, Russia threatens Ukraine and the west with nuclear retaliation. The fate of Ukraine and its NATO allies could come down to the actions of a few ordinary individuals.

On her first combat deployment, Flight Lieutenant Karen "Bunny" O’Hare and the pilots of RAAF 3 Squadron are flying alongside the USAF to protect a 60-kilometer section of front-line south of Zaporizhzhia. A depleted Russian air force starts deploying a new tactic. Is it an act of desperation, or a rehearsal for something beyond contemplation?

Captain Vadim "Beartooth" Korenchuk of Ukraine’s 299th Tactical 1st Aviation Squadron is given an unenviable, and probably suicidal, assignment. Bulgaria has donated its soon-to-be-decommissioned fleet of 10 Su-25 Frogfoot aircraft to Ukraine, along with the pilots to fly them. Ukraine needs them to execute a special mission, deep behind Russian lines, that no drone or missile attack could achieve. They could be about to execute the most daring raid in the history of the Russia-Ukraine war, or be the shortest-lived experiment in military cooperation in history.

As Russia rattles its nuclear sabre, Captain Georgia "Cyborg" Leeson, flight leader of the USAF 495th Fighter Squadron "Valkyries" is tasked to escort Korenchuk's Frogfoot strike package into Russian territory. She's less worried about the risk of triggering a nuclear war, than she is about whether her emotional wingman will be able to do what he's being asked to do.

Ukrainian naval captain Roman Gribov must get an uncrewed missile drone through the Kerch Strait into the Azov Sea for a critical attack on an airfield inside Russia. Succeed, and he can cripple Russia's fleet of nuclear strike fighters. Fail, and …

Lieutenant Colonel Rhys Jones, CO of the 1st Battalion, Royal Welsh Regiment, fighting beside a Ukrainian mechanized division, breaks through the Russian first line of defense to find his flanks exposed, his supply lines strained and his unit under constant drone bombardment. His troops have trained for exactly this type of operation, but he is painfully aware that if he succeeds, he could trigger a global nuclear war.

Russian GRU Major Tomas Arsharvin is tasked with leading a team identifying suitable targets in Kherson for strikes by “special weapons”—a Russian euphemism for nuclear warheads. A patriot with an unshakeable sense of duty, he does exactly as ordered. Until a conversation with a superior officer causes him to question where his duty lies: to the regime occupying the Kremlin, or to the survival of his nation and its 143 million citizens.

Dasha Kravchenko is known as “the Watchmaker.” By day, she works in a jewelry shop in occupied Melitopol. At night, she makes the explosive devices used by the Ukrainian resistance group Voda—the Water Movement—to attack Russian military targets in the city. As the Ukrainian-Coalition offensive nears the city, she faces the ultimate choice: freedom, or death. And perhaps not just for her, but for her entire nation.