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.
Tag: russia
There’s been no shortage of boasting in Russia after the return of arms dealer Viktor Bout, in exchange for U.S. basketball player Brittney Griner. But even if Vladimir Putin showed his negotiating muscle, it’s a pyrrhic victory as too many other compatriots haven’t made it home alive..
A Ukrainian journalist considers the controversy over the shutting down of exiled, independent Russian television station TV Dozhd. Can Russians be opposed to Putin’s war and yet support the troops?
Russian occupation authorities promised to rebuild housing in Mariupol by winter, but in reality, thousands of people face the cold in largely destroyed houses and apartments. Mariupol residents told Vazhnyye Istorii about how they are surviving as winter falls.
As they’ve done for the past year, Ukrainians have spent the past three days studying maps and calculating distances. But there’s a difference now: The maps are of Russia. [shortcode-Subscribe-to-Ukraine-daily-box] The unprecedented drone attacks this week of airfields deep inside Russian territory open a new phase in the war that is both tactical and symbolic. […]
How to handle a nuclear armed pariah state is not a simple question.
Russian commentators are asking if Ukrainian forces have the means and will to strike Moscow itself.
Reports of Ukraine’s possible use of kamikaze drones deep inside Russian territory.
The Kremlin said Russian President Vladimir Putin was open to negotiations, adding that the possibility of talks would be hampered by the United States’ refusal to acknowledge annexed Ukrainian regions as being part of Russia. [shortcode-Subscribe-to-Ukraine-daily-box] “The United States still does not recognize new territories as part of the Russian Federation, and this complicates the […]
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.
European Council Chief Charles Michel used much of his face-to-face meeting Thursday in Beijing with Xi Jinping to urge the Chinese President to use his sway over Russian President Vladimir Putin “to end the war and to respect the sovereignty of Ukraine.” [shortcode-Subscribe-to-Ukraine-daily-box] Michel’s visit was the first official trip to Beijing by a top […]
The European Union is committed to setting up a special court with the backing of the UN to investigate and prosecute Russian war crimes in Ukraine, and force Russia and its oligarchs to pay the growing pricetag for the destruction of the country. [shortcode-Subscribe-to-Ukraine-daily-box] European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen promised in a video […]
While retreating from Kherson, Russian troops forcibly removed more than 2,500 Ukrainians from prison colonies and pre-trial detention centers in the southern region. Those removed included prisoners as well as a large number of civilians who had been held in prisons during the occupation, according to the Ukrainian human rights organization Alliance of Ukrainian Unity. […]
Whether or not the 64-year-old died of natural causes, the Kremlin is reinforced now in Minsk — leaving even less wiggle room for Belarus strongman Alexander Lukashenko.
Ukraine’s case for pursuing Russia and its leadership for war crimes now includes Moscow’s current strategy of trying to cut off energy supplies to Ukrainian civilians by destroying the country’s power grid. Ukrainian Prosecutor-General Andriy Kostin told the BBC that strikes on key energy infrastructure targeted “the full Ukrainian nation,” which fall under the purview […]
Fears of European discord over energy prices, as Ukraine is facing what the UN calls “appalling conditions of life” amid Russia’s onslaught timed with the arrival of winter.
This week marks the opening of what’s been described as the biggest Swedish espionage case since the end of the Cold War, as tensions rise in the face of the Russian war in Ukraine.
The French President leads a growing chorus of outrage against Russia, including the strongest condemnation to date from Pope Francis.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky condemned Russia’s strike Wednesday on a maternity ward in southern Ukraine that killed a baby born two days ago. The newborn’s mother and a doctor were pulled from the rubble of the hospital in Vilnyansk, located in the Zaporizhzhia region. [shortcode-Subscribe-to-Ukraine-daily-box] The morning strike was part of what appears to be […]
The reconquest of Kherson seemed like a turning point in the Ukraine war. But while Kyiv and the West can see it as an encouraging sign for the long-term fate of the war, it makes negotiations a veritable non-starter now. A cold, hard analysis from French geopolitical expert Dominique Moïsi.
Sending Ukraine advanced weaponry would be a response from Israel to reports that Tehran is sending ballistic missiles to Moscow.
Kremlin war aims in Ukraine have never been entirely clear. Part of that is due to the setbacks the Russian army has suffered; and now it appears that both the strategic and symbolic objective of reducing the capital of Kyiv to its knees is again very much on Vladimir Putin’s mind.
At least 12 missiles over the past 24 hours were fired at or near the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in southeastern Ukraine. [shortcode-Subscribe-to-Ukraine-daily-box] The surrounding territory and the plant itself, also known as ZNPP, are currently controlled by Russian forces, but the plant is a crucial source of energy for much of Ukraine. The Ukrainian […]
An inmate of the penal colony in the town of Kopeysk reveals the different ways convicts are recruited in the Russian mercenary Wagner Group, whose founder and Putin confidante Yevgeny Prigozhin personally sought the most violent criminals with vows to pay big sums and expunge their sentences.
In order to begin to alleviate decades of tension between the U.S. and Soviet Union, Switzerland hosted the Geneva Summit of 1985 where American President Ronald Reagan and Soviet General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev would begin to lead the world out of the Cold War Sign up to receive This Happened straight to your inbox each […]
Kremlin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov insisted that Russia has no choice to continue the war because of Ukraine’s “unwillingness to negotiate.” [shortcode-Subscribe-to-Ukraine-daily-box] “First they negotiate, then they refuse to negotiate, then they pass a law that prohibits any kind of negotiations, then they say they want negotiations, but public ones,” Peskov told reporters. The comments come […]
Is this what Vladimir Putin’s winter plans look like?
Warsaw says that the missile that hit Poland was probably a Ukrainian air defense missile that went astray. The Russian-made missile fell on the Polish village of Przewodów, near the border with Ukraine, killing two people late Tuesday. [shortcode-Subscribe-to-Ukraine-daily-box] Even though the missile was made in Russia, initial US assessments indicated that it had originated […]
Ukrainians, Russians and much of the rest of the world are still trying to make sense of Moscow’s decision last week to abandon the southern city of Kherson. Do not, for certain, underestimate the significance.
French President Macron used his bilateral meeting with Xi Jinping to try to convince China to take a tougher line with Moscow.
Kyiv has no intentions of letting Russian troops regroup with any “operational pause.” Events will begin to move quickly in Donbas, and may be heading for Crimea sooner rather than later.
The Russian president has resorted to a string of changing lies to justify his war on Ukraine. He has shown contempt along the way for the Christian values he claims to defend. But like arms and ammunition, a regime can also run out of lies.
This is among the most important signs of how the war has turned against Russia in the past three months.
After several weeks of mixed messages, the announcement of Russia’s withdrawal from the strategic city of Kherson caught many off guard. It is in many respects a momentous turn, with Ukraine poised to retake a city captured by Russian forces in the very first days after the Feb. 24 invasion. [shortcode-Subscribe-to-Ukraine-daily-box] The pullout is not […]
Representatives for U.S. basketball star Brittney Griner, detained in Russia since February, have confirmed they do not know her current whereabouts. This comes after her attorneys said the courts had ordered her transferred to a Russian penal colony on Wednesday. [shortcode-Subscribe-to-Ukraine-daily-box] “Our primary concern continues to be Brittney Griner’s health and well-being,” the WNBA player’s […]
A senior Ukrainian official said that Kyiv was not being pressured to negotiate with Russia, but would do so under certain strict conditions: restoring Ukraine’s borders, compensation for Russian attacks and punishing those responsible for war crimes. [shortcode-Subscribe-to-Ukraine-daily-box] Mykhaylo Podolyak, a Ukrainian official advisor to the head of the Office of the President, speaking to […]
If not cannon fodder, many of the reservists are facing shortages of food, weapons and promised payments.
In the Ukrainian city of Izium, Russian troops left behind more than destruction, mass graves and testimony of torture. After their hasty withdrawal in early September, Ukrainians found traces of the regime’s propaganda indoctrinating school children.
The mixed messages Friday may be part of a Kremlin strategy to fight for the southern city even harder.
Moscow has been forced to turn to rogue regimes for military supplies for its stalled invasion of Ukraine.