WorldcrunchOlena Starik, 25, was born in Torez, Ukraine. She is currently living and working Istanbul, Turkey. She graduated from V. N. Karazin Kharkiv National University with a bachelor degree in International Information. An interpreter and translator (Ukrainian, Russian, English, Turkish and French), she also works as International Sales Specialist in a Turkısh manufacturing company.
Russia’s invasion pushed some 8 million Ukrainians to leave the country. While some are starting to return — for their families, education or other reasons — the total number of Ukrainians who return home depends on the duration of the war. And some demographers warn that only one-third or one half of emigrants may come back.
The Kremlin is shutting off access to crucial data on its population and economy. What did those figures reveal — and why is the government afraid of them?
In Afghanistan, where it is considered a disgrace to have only daughters in a family, some families raise their girls as boys — giving them male names, boys’ clothes and the freedoms typically denied to Afghan girls. But what happens to these girls when they grow up?
Central Asian presidents have been fixtures at Moscow’s Victory Day parades since 2022, but this year, their visits were preceded by a wave of diplomatic tensions.
The United States faces a lack of practical alternatives to sustaining Ukraine’s defense. With missile production lagging and diplomacy stalled, Washington is struggling to deliver the air defenses Kyiv needs to slow Russia’s advance.
On July 3, Russia recognized the Taliban-led Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, a decision that will have a significant effect on the positions of other nations, particularly those in Central Asia.
In Putin’s Russia, dissent is silenced. Yet pro-war “Z” bloggers and influencers insult and lambast military failures constantly, and go unpunished. The state tolerates them because without these defiant voices knitting the war machine’s lifelines, Russia’s offensive would stall.
Some 49,000 soldiers have deserted from the Russian army. But to avoid the harshest charges or being sent forcibly back to the front, some are surrendering promptly in the hopes of being sent simply to prison.
Some Russians who have gone to war are making big money: for signing a contract, monthly pay, injury insurance, and benefits in case of death. Unsurprisingly, many are eager to illegally get their hands on that money — from frontline commanders to women marrying the most vulnerable.
Once again, there’s talk of peace in Ukraine — a lasting, just peace. But the West has all the clues it needs in 25 years of Putin’s actions, and much of Russian history.
Along with questions of a ceasefire deal with Russia come questions of when Ukraine will hold its next presidential election. While much remains uncertain, Livy Bereg considers the prospects of potential candidates — including several recognizable faces from the past.
Vladimir Putin has offered a 72-hour ceasefire to begin on May 8, but signs on the ground point instead to plans for a major assault in eastern Ukraine. A key weapon would be specialized motorcycle brigades that could evade Kyiv’s defenses.
On the one hand, the prevalence of Soviet-era T-55 tanks, golf carts, donkeys and other makeshift transport are a clear sign of Moscow’s exhaustion. On the other hand, Russia is clearly investing in a transformation of its military. It’s the real reason that Europe is mobilizing.
Journalist Katya Bonch-Osmolovskaya of “Important Stories” on how Ukrainian children taken to Russia led to an arrest warrant for Putin, but they were then forgotten.
As Russia negotiates exclusively with the U.S., Putin aims to redraw spheres of influence, pulling former Soviet states back under Moscow’s control. All of this, paradoxically, continues to leave the fate of Ukraine as the vital issue for our times.
The war in Ukraine has reached a stalemate, and a ceasefire appears increasingly likely. Painful compromises with the aggressor may be inevitable. But what comes next?
Drones and other new technologies are important, but the foundation of success remains the mobilization of the economy, numerical superiority, and artillery. A military expert reflects on three years since Russia’s invasion.
Russia’s Parliament has approved a law that would limit migrant children’s access to schools. It contradicts basic decency, international law and the Constitution. It is also bad for Russians.
The key question is whether any peace agreement will satisfy the U.S. president, or if he will push for real security guarantees for Kyiv. The question is what Trump will do if Russia or Ukraine (or both) refuse to negotiate on U.S. terms and are not intimidated by the threats of the American leader.
The offspring of Russia’s elite were used to luxury loft apartments, expensive cars and carefree living. So how did Putin’s successive drafts of new troops impact them? As independent Russian news platform Vazhnyye Istorii found out, life essentially continues as normal.
Following the death of Alexei Navalny, the Russian opposition is in a serious crisis, and must look at the fundamental mistakes it’s made the past two years, including calls for destroying the nation and desecrating the flag. It’s not clear what impact the prisoner swap could have, but activist Timofey Martynenko says it’s time to have a pro-Russia, anti-dictator opposition.
As the U.S. presidential election draws closer, independent Russian-language media Vazhnye Istorii spoke with American politics specialists about the possibility of a second Trump term and what it would mean for the Russia-Ukraine war, traditional U.S. allies and China.
Over the past two weeks, Vladimir Putin has stated four times that Russia is ready for peace talks with Ukraine, but that those negotiations would be based on “current realities at the front,” by which he means maintaining occupied territories under his control.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s decision to lower conscription age from 27 to 25 may not be sufficient to replenish the army’s ranks, in a country where the age of the average soldier is far above other countries at war — now and historically. Here’s why.
After two months of war, experts in Ukraine are starting to consider what plan could work to restore the local infrastructure and economy, looking at the experience of Germany, Japan and Italy — countries that went down in history for their economic miracles after being destroyed by war.
More than 6,000 collaboration cases have already been filed in Ukraine — but how does the law distinguish between wilful collaboration and simply trying to survive? And what should happen to the guilty?
Though Russia’s intentions to take over Ukraine on the ground have failed, they are winning in the field of cartography. Maps seen in respected books and periodicals around the world offer a distorted view of who has the right to territory — and who is the aggressor. A campaign is underway to change maps to change perception of reality.
Russia has just celebrated its Victory Day over Nazism. It’s a good time to reflect on what retribution means, and how it’s not always black and white.
After its initial blitzkrieg failed, and with Ukraine gearing up for a counteroffensive, Russia sees its best hope in holding out for a protracted conflict. Kyiv, instead, is trying to convince its Western allies that achieving victory as soon as possible is the only path forward.
Russian state-owned energy company Gazprom has lost access to the European market and is rife with inefficiencies. Still, it isn’t going anywhere soon. The engine of Russia’s vast resources are fed into Vladimir Putin’s system for maintaining power.
Journalists from Ukrainska Pravda report directly from the trenches near Avdiivka, one of the oldest settlements in the eastern Donetsk region of Ukraine, where troops are facing near-constant Russian fire.
The fundamentally irrational decision to invade Ukraine was the final proof that Russian President Vladimir Putin has been living in a world of illusions. He may be best understood by retracing the steps of history’s other tyrants, and gauging how their stories ended.
After the annexation of Crimea, the peninsula’s prized resources were identified and distributed among Russian oligarchs with connections to the Russian President, handing out everything from wine vineyards to hockey clubs to steelworks.
Volodymyr Vakulenko was a Ukrainian writer killed by the Russians during the invasion. He left behind a diary that is intensely personal, yet encompasses much of the tragedy of his nation.
Predictions about the collapse of Russia are as old as the country itself. Yet a consistent centralization of power has gone on for decades, weakening Russia’s territories and republics. The war in Ukraine changes everything and nothing.
Thousands of Russian mothers exchange messages every day online in desperate bids to find their missing sons serving in the Russian army. This is the story of one such mother who has been looking for her son for seven months.
Russia has always claimed to be a kind of sheriff on the territory of the former USSR, a zone the country considers as its “privileged interests.” Now it has lost both strength and authority in the war with Ukraine.
What are Vladimir Putin’s long-term goals in Ukraine? An overlooked treaty from the mid-1990s reveal that his ambitions go far beyond Ukraine to building a Russian Empire 2.0.
This week’s massive strikes by Russia on Ukrainian territory brought back the terror of the first days of the invasion across the entire country. Were they strategic strikes, or simply a retaliation for Ukraine’s attack on a strategic bridge in Russia-occupied territory in Crimea?
Staunch Putin ally Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko has recently tried to distance himself from an escalating war. But a series of events over the past month look set to drag him into Moscow’s war with all the risks that entails for his small country.