When the world gets closer.

We help you see farther.

Sign up to our expressly international daily newsletter.

Ukrainska Pravda
Ukrainska Pravda is a Ukrainian online newspaper founded by Georgiy Gongadze on 16 April 2000. Published mainly in Ukrainian with selected articles published in or translated to Russian and English, the newspaper is tailored for a general readership with an emphasis on the politics of Ukraine
People walking by a Russian army poster on Ushakova Square in Sevastopol, Crimea
FOCUS: Russia-Ukraine War
Victoria Roshina

Crimea Is Expanding Private Army Militias, Modeled On The Wagner Group

Wagner-like military groups are being formed in Crimea. Are they preparing to fight the Ukrainian army? Or to evacuate the local oligarchs?

The Crimean peninsula is restless. The pro-Russian occupation authorities are increasingly reporting explosions and attacks by the Ukrainian army. Meanwhile, sources inside Kyiv's intelligence services are promising that Ukrainian troops will enter Crimea before the end of the year.

Stay up-to-date with the latest on the Russia-Ukraine war, with our exclusive international coverage.

Sign up to our free daily newsletter.

The head of the occupation administration of Crimea, Sergei Aksyonov, insists that there is no panic, yet is actively building fortifications and planning for the possibility that the war arrives on the territory. This now includes the creation of private armies, which appear inspired to some degree by the Wagner Group, the Russian mercenary outfit now involved in combat in Ukraine.

Aksyonov has gathered two volunteer battalions, Tavrida and Livadia, which are currently located in the neighboring regions of Kherson and Zaporizhzhia.

Russian propagandists have already dubbed the combat wing, Aksyonovites, closely associated with Russian Cossacks and security structures that participated in the peninsula's annexation in 2014.

The Tavrida battalion operates under the leadership of Anton Sirotkin, a Cossack military leader and member of the Vladimir Putin's United Russia Party.

Another top Tavrida leader, Vyacheslav Tokmakov, explained on Russian television that at the beginning of the Russian full-scale invasion, Tavrida was in conflict with the regular army of the Russian Federation — and the Russian military realized that "it is better to leave (them) alone."

"We immediately set the conditions: gentlemen, you set us a task and a deadline. As for how, with what forces, let us decide," Tokmakov said about how his private army would work with Russia's regular army.

Watch VideoShow less
A Ukrainian soldier is seen cleaning the magazine filled with bullets in the base near Soledar.
FOCUS: Russia-Ukraine War
Pavlo Kazarin

"Nobody's Born For War" — The True Meaning Of My Ukrainian Uniform

Pavlo Kazarin is a journalist for Ukrainska Pravda. He is also serving in the Ukrainian army: With the good and the bad, heroes and otherwise.

-Essay-

KYIV — I once knew a priest. He said you could find anything in the Bible, a book that describes every different behavior model in the face of similar situations. And the freedom of choice of what to believe always remains with the individual, all to be determined by where we leave our bookmarks in the book.

You could say this same principle also applies to the army.

Stay up-to-date with the latest on the Russia-Ukraine war, with our exclusive international coverage.

Sign up to our free daily newsletter.

After all, you can find anything you want in our Ukrainian army. Heroism and selfishness. Courage and bureaucracy. Self-sacrifice and indifference. Everyone wears the same uniform, but underneath are different people. And the story each of us winds up telling about the army will depend on where we place our bookmarks after what we've witnessed and experienced.

Eyewitnesses will describe the same situations in different ways. There is no contradiction: hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians serve in our nation's defense forces. Each has their own experience, their emotional system, their life optics. Every soldier's sermon is a confession. At this moment, we listen less to the story of what happened than the speaker's story.

Too often the Ukrainian soldier is generalized. A person in a uniform becomes a representative of a caste. What he or she says then travels in news reports and on the internet with headlines like "Soldier says what he likes/dislikes/kills/makes him stronger. And so on."

Watch VideoShow less
Image of Kai Wegner, Berlin's Governing Mayor, Olekseii Makelev, Ambassador of Ukraine to Germany, and  Tobias Linder, Minister of State at the Federal Foreign Office, laying flowers in commemoration of the end of World War II.
FOCUS: Russia-Ukraine War
Mykhailo Dubynyansky

What Will Justice For Ukraine Look Like? The Nazi Demise Offers A Clue

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.

KYIV — In today's Ukraine, people often recalls the Germans of the 1930s-1940s, but there are two opposing historical narratives.

Stay up-to-date with the latest on the Russia-Ukraine war, with our exclusive international coverage.

Sign up to our free daily newsletter.

According to the first narrative, the Germans of the past are compared the Russians of today. Just like the Russians, the Germans massively supported their Fuhrer. Just like the Russians, the Germans welcomed the invasion of their army in other countries. Just like the Russians, the Germans did not want to know about the atrocities of their compatriots and diligently tried to ignore the Holocaust.

It is believed that even without being a member of Hitler's Nazi party, millions of Germans passively participated in Nazi aggression and were collectively responsible for the crimes of the Third Reich — and therefore do not deserve compassion.

Watch VideoShow less
Photo of ​a Russian soldier near a school in occupied Mariupol in September 2022
FOCUS: Russia-Ukraine War
Victoria Roshchyna

Inside Moscow's Vile Scheme To Kidnap And "Russify" Ukrainian Children

In Russian-occupied regions of Ukraine, an estimated 19,000 children have been abducted and put in so-called "filtration camps," Soviet-era-like facilities where they are being "re-educated" in brutal conditions. Exclusive testimony from several victims who managed to escape.

KYIV — "If the whole world could hear me, I would say that we need to win this war as soon as possible so that all children can see their families again..."

Those words come from 12-year-old Sashko from the southeast Ukrainian city of Mariupol, who was separated from his mother by Russians during the so-called "filtration" procedure in the Donetsk region.

Stay up-to-date with the latest on the Russia-Ukraine war, with our exclusive international coverage.

Sign up to our free daily newsletter.

Sashko is one of the thousands of children taken to the Russian Federation from the occupied regions of Ukraine under the guise of evacuation and ensuing rehabilitation ,to teach them to "love Russia."

On March 17, the International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin and the Presidential Commissioner for Children's Rights in Russia, Maria Lvova-Belova. They are suspected of facilitating the forced deportation of children from the temporarily occupied Ukrainian territories, violating the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.

According to the Office of the Ukrainian Prosecutor General, at least 19,000 minors have been taken to Russia and annexed Crimea since the beginning of the full-scale war. Only 364 have been returned.

Ukrainska Pravda talked to dozens of children who have managed to get back to Ukraine, testimonies that can now help able to identify the places of their detention, methods of abduction, and the names and positions of Russians who facilitated the crime.

Watch VideoShow less
Screenshot of video showing a drone exploding over the Kremlin residence
FOCUS: Russia-Ukraine War
Valentyna Romanenko, Oleksandr Shumilin

The Kremlin Drone Attack Is Linked To Ukraine’s Counter-Offensive — No Matter Who Did It

Whether Ukraine or Russia is behind the clamorous attack on the Kremlin, which Moscow says was an assassination attempt against Vladimir Putin, it is bound to shape the imminent counter-offensive.

This article has been updated May 3, at 8:45 p.m. CET, with Zelensky quote and additional background

-Analysis-

KYIV — The stakes could not be higher. The alleged drone attack on the Kremlin — whether Kyiv or Moscow ordered it — means that the Russia-Ukraine war is reaching a new level.

A video began circulating Wednesday afternoon of what the Russian authorities said were two Ukrainian drones that "tried to strike" the Kremlin residence and assassinate Russian President Vladimir Putin. The Russian leader was not on the premises, and no injuries or material damage was reported.

The Kremlin called the attack a "planned terrorist act" and "an attempt on the life of the President of Russia,” adding that "the Russian side reserves the right to take retaliatory measures where and when it sees fit."

Watch VideoShow less
Photo of police officer in Crimea
FOCUS: Russia-Ukraine War
Tamila Tasheva

In Crimea, Anti-Russian Actions Multiply As Ukraine's Counteroffensive Looms

Tamila Tasheva, the Permanent Representative of the President of Ukraine in the Autonomous Republic of Crimea, issues an appeal on the eve of Kyiv's counter-offensive to seize this moment in history — but do so carefully.

KYIV — The territory of Crimea, occupied since 2014, is currently divided into two poles: on one side are the occupiers and collaborators starting to panic as a major counteroffensive by the Ukrainian army looms; on the other side are our citizens, awaiting liberation and trying to support their Ukrainian state in every way possible.

Stay up-to-date with the latest on the Russia-Ukraine war, with our exclusive international coverage.

Sign up to our free daily newsletter.

So, alongside the kilometer-long trenches and concrete anti-tank structures, we increasingly have started seeing the colors of the Ukrainian flag, the words "Ukrainian Armed Forces are coming" on the walls, and the chant "Glory to Ukraine..."

In addition to those resistance movements that operate on a large scale, such as the Crimean Fighting Seagulls, Yellow Ribbon, Atesh, and Crimean Partisans, we are seeing more and more individual protests. The actions are different, but no less compelling.

Watch VideoShow less
A T-72 tank is pictured during the training of Ukrainian tank crews for offensive operations, Ukraine.
FOCUS: Russia-Ukraine War
Bohdan Miroshnychenko

How A Private UK Market Helps Get Used Tanks To Ukraine's Frontlines

Even as Ukraine's Western allies are sending much needed military hardware, there is an unofficial market for used equipment — from armored vehicles to drones and satellites — that has been vital for Kyiv. But how do these second-hand goods make it from Britain to the front?

KYIV — Satellite systems, pickup trucks, drones. Individual volunteers have been busy buying hand-me-down gear for Ukrainian forces since early in the war. Now, they've set their eyes on the British market of armored vehicles, buying up anything that could be used to fight Russia.

Old armored personnel carriers have been available at auction in the UK for many years. Weapons are removed from them, but the heavy tracked equipment are still in demand as "expensive toys" for businesses or simply to settle in collectors’ garages.

Stay up-to-date with the latest on the Russia-Ukraine war, with our exclusive international coverage.

Sign up to our free daily newsletter.

Visiting Ukrainian volunteers had a difficult task: to find working armored vehicles in the UK, buy them from private owners and deliver them to Ukraine on their own."

The advertisement on UK website "Tanks A Lot" reads: "We have a lovely little FV103 CVRT Spartan tank for sale. We've driven it around the yard and it's a very nice car. It handles well off-road and can be registered for UK roads."

Watch VideoShow less
Photo of the The training session of Ukrainian marksmen and fire teams is underway in Zaporizhzhia Region, southeastern Ukraine.
FOCUS: Russia-Ukraine War
Yevhen Buderatskyi and Olha Kyrylenko, Roman Romaniuk, Roman Kravets

Ukraine's Spring Counteroffensive Has Been Delayed Again — Here's Why

Analysts have been talking about a Ukrainian counteroffensive since the end of last year. But when, where and how it will happen is still a closely guarded secret, thrown into further turmoil by the embarrassing leaks from inside the U.S. Defense Department. Ultimately, however, there are other factors that matter more.

-Analysis-

KYIV — All last winter and into the spring, media and military analysts talked about the Russian offensive in Donbas and the upcoming Ukrainian counteroffensive. But military and political leaders say all of this talk is nothing more than reading tea leaves. According to the secretary of Ukraine's National Security and Defense Council, Oleksiy Danilov, at most five people know where and when the Ukrainian counteroffensive will begin.

In early February, top Ukrainian military and political leaders held closed-door briefings for G7 diplomats. At the time, the counteroffensive was planned for April or May. But in early April, secret Pentagon documents were leaked to the public on gaming servers.

Stay up-to-date with the latest on the Russia-Ukraine war, with our exclusive international coverage.

Sign up to our free daily newsletter.

The head of Ukraine's Main Intelligence Directorate, Kyrylo Budanov, believes that this was a Kremlin information operation to strike at relations between Ukraine and the U.S., while other Ukrainian military officials believe that the U.S. will benefit the most from it: both Kyiv and Moscow discovered that Washington has a wide range of data on their forces.

Still, the Ukrainian military says the U.S. leak hasn't disrupted planning. "This data leak will not affect the counteroffensive in any way. There is no word about our real plans," says a senior Ukrainian security official. "We have plans, the General Staff has approved them, and we are moving slowly. The next couple of months will be difficult."

Watch VideoShow less