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Olena Starik

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Photo of flags in Donetsk
FOCUS: Russia-Ukraine War

In Wartime Ukraine, That Fine Line Between Surviving And Collaborating With The Enemy

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?

KYIV — After the start of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, many more Ukrainians have been forced to survive under occupation. That means the question of collaboration with the Russian occupiers, and how to determine responsibility for it, is a pressing issue.

The term "collaboration" appeared in Ukrainian legislation only in March 2022, but it has a far longer history. Collaboration was first used to describe the cooperation of local residents with occupying German authorities in France and Belgium during World War I. At the time, it did not yet have a sharply negative connotation.

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The more widespread use of "collaboration" appeared during World War II, when it became the official name for cooperation between Germany and France's Vichy government.

But how to define the term remains ambiguous, and it is difficult to draw a clear line between actions necessary to survive an occupation, and true cooperation with the enemy.

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Photo of Vladimir Putin entering through a door in Grand Kremlin Palace 2022
FOCUS: Russia-Ukraine War

When Did Putin "Turn" Evil? That's Exactly The Wrong Question

Look back over the past two decades, and you'll see Vladimir Putin has always been the man revealed by the Ukraine invasion, an evil and sinister dictator. The Russian leader just managed to mask it. These questions from the beginning of the war are returning in the wake of the apparent killing of Putin's former ally Yevgeny Prigozhin.

This piece was updated Aug. 24 , 2023 at 1:20 p.m.

-OpEd-

KYIV — The world knows that Vladimir Putin has power, money and mistresses. So why, ask some, wasn't that enough for him? Why did he have to go start another war?

A related but different question is posed after the presumed death of his longtime ally, Yevgeny Prigozhin, in what many believe was a Kremlin-sanctioned assassination after the Wagner Group leader had challenged Putin's rule earlier this year. Why did he have to kill his old friend?

At their heart, these are the wrong questions to ask. For Putin, military expansion and targeted hits are not an adrenaline rush to feed into his existing life of luxury. On the contrary, the shedding of blood for the sake of holding power is his modus operandi, while the fruits of greed and corruption like the Putin Palace in Gelendzhik are more like a welcome bonus.

In the last year-and-a-half, we have kept hearing rhetorical questions like “why did Putin start this war at all, didn't he have enough of his own land?” or “he already has Gelendzhik to enjoy, why fight?” This line of thinking has resurfaced after missile strikes on Ukrainian power grids and dams, which was regarded by many as a simple demonstration of terrorism. Such acts are a manifestation of weakness, some ask, so is Putin ready to show himself weak?

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However, you will not arrive at the correct answer if the questions themselves are asked incorrectly. For decades, analysts in Russia, Ukraine, and the West have been under an illusion about the nature of the Russian president's personal dictatorship.

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Mapaganda: How The World Falls For Russia's Bogus Maps — National Geographic And All
FOCUS: Russia-Ukraine War

Mapaganda: How The World Falls For Russia's Bogus Maps — National Geographic And All

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.

-Analysis-

KYIV — Mapaganda is a particularly well-targeted form of propaganda used by Russia against Ukraine and other countries affected by its military aggression. Mapaganda is implemented by the influencing of cartographic companies and communities so that they print and publish the Russian view of the world in their products: school textbooks, world atlases, globes, car atlases, tourist products, electronic map services, etc.

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It’s a real shame, but dozens of international companies, including National Geographic, develop, print and widely distribute maps that contain Russian disinformation and the Russian view of the situation. For example, they designate Crimea as a part of Russia while "claimed by Ukraine." This creates the impression that Ukraine is the aggressor.

The lion’s share of educational products of bookstores in Germany, Austria and Switzerland depict Ukraine in different variations outside the 1991 borders. The situation is no better in other European states, in the UK and the U.S.

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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

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.

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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.

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Image of A serviceman is seen during a combat mission involving the use of a 240mm 2S4 Tyulpan self-propelled heavy mortar in Russia's special military operation in Donetsk
FOCUS: Russia-Ukraine War

Why Russia Is Now Betting On A Long War In Ukraine

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.

-Analysis-

KYIV — There has been a lot of talk about prolonging the war in Ukraine and about who benefits from that situation.

British General Rupert Smith defined war as "collective killing for the sake of a collective goal" and advised focusing on political, strategic, territorial and tactical aspects.

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From this perspective, let's try to answer question "who benefits?"

First, we can exclude the U.S. and the "collective West" because they are not participating in the war.

The second important aspect is that Ukraine is not Iraq or Afghanistan. We are defending ourselves against aggression on our land; we are defending our sovereignty and our territorial integrity; we are not trying to spread the war to other territories or export it anywhere in the world. Our enemy, on the contrary, ignores all the existing norms of international humanitarian law, the laws and customs of war, and uses the practice of genocide both openly and covertly.

According to the founder and chairman of Genocide Watch, Gregory Stanton, “the Russian army actually intends to partially destroy the Ukrainian nationality.”

Two factors influence the duration of the war: Russia's ability to conduct sustained hostilities, which depends on whether there are temporal-spatial conditions to restore its ability to fight. Another factor is the ability of Russia to threaten the "collective West" and separately the United States, which depends on the achievements and losses of Russia in Ukraine.

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Image of Mikhail Bykov (L), director of Gazprom's Kasimovskoye Management of Underground Gas Storage, at the Kasimovskoye Underground Gas Storage Facility
Economy

Why Gazprom Is Still Russia's Single Greatest Weapon

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.

-Analysis-

In February, Russian state-owned energy giant Gazprom officially celebrated its 30th anniversary, which makes it a bit older than modern Russia itself. It was originally the brainchild in 1989 of the Soviet Minister of the Gas Industry Viktor Chernomyrdin, bound to absorb 50 enterprises and 16% of the world’s gas reserves. In Feb. 1993, it was simply transformed into a joint-stock company.

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Photo of Ukraine soldiers patroling at Avdiivka city of Donetsk
FOCUS: Russia-Ukraine War

From The Trenches Of Avdiivka, Ukraine's Hell On Earth

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.

“Get down!”

Machine gun fire whistling overhead is interrupted by the shout of a combat medic named Petro. Five people, including three soldiers and two journalists from Ukrainian publication Ukrainska Pravda fall to the snow.

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The sound of ringing bullets seemed distant to Petro's team and, as those under fire always hope, didn't come too close to hitting.

“Are you all good?” Petro asks after a few seconds.

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Photo of Vladimir Putin making remarks during a Victory Day military parade marking the 76th anniversary of the victory over Nazi Germany in World War II, in Moscow's Red Square
FOCUS: Russia-Ukraine War

The Tyrant's Solitude: How Dictators Lose Touch With Reality

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.

-Analysis-

KYIVFeb. 21, 2022. This wasn't just the day when Russia's full-scale war against Ukraine became inevitable. This was also the day that two critical parts of Russian President Vladimir Putin's regime were made clear: his unconditional dominance even over his closest, highest-ranking associates, and his complete immersion in the world of his illusions, where even his associates are forbidden to enter.

When both of these features lined up, the result was his suicidal decision to attack Ukraine.

Tyrants and despots style themselves as the most knowledgeable among mortals. Supposedly, they have access to detailed reports from the omnipresent, omnipotent special services, who never miss anything. That is why the despot seems to know everything better than the average person. There is no need to ask the people anything: the giraffe is tall — it sees further.

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This could not be further from the truth.

In fact, each person has their own worldview. The more authoritarian a person is, the stronger the conviction that their view is correct; the higher the person, the more they are inclined to believe that they are doing everything right.

Having risen to the heights of power, the dictator falls into a vicious circle.

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How Crimea Was Carved Up And Sold At Auction To Putin's Oligarch Pals
FOCUS: Russia-Ukraine War

How Crimea Was Carved Up And Sold At Auction To Putin's Oligarch Pals

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.

After Russia's annexation of Crimea in 2014, Russia didn't just add land and people to its population. It also paved the way for oligarchs to dismantle the peninsula's state and private enterprises.

Russian independent news Vazhnyye Istorii (Important Stories) has conducted an in-depth investigation into the identities of Vladimir Putin’s friends who now own virtually the entire peninsula.

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Nationalization began in Crimea immediately after the annexation. Ukrainian state property became Russian, or rather Crimean, according to a resolution entitled “On the issues of managing the property of the Republic of Crimea.”

The list of what was taken over was long, and it is still growing. It includes thousands of businesses, apartments and land plots. The actual owners received no compensation, and any attempts to file lawsuits in Russia were in vain.

"In Crimea, the courts did not accept a single document on the right of ownership from people,” says Crimean lawyer Zhan Zapruta. “The law was placed in a compromised position, and they [the Russians] did with it what they wanted.”

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Photo of Ukrainian writer, Volodymyr Vakulenko
FOCUS: Russia-Ukraine War

Despair, Love, Betrayal — Then Death: A Ukrainian War Diary

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.

KYIV — Volodymyr Vakulenko lived in the Ukrainian village of Kapitolivka near Izyum, with his 14-year-old son who has autism. Volodymyr was abducted by the Russians back in March, in the weeks after the invasion. For months, his family, investigators, fellow writers, journalists and volunteers searched for him in vain.

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Volodymyr recounted in his diary, which was later found, the first weeks of the Russian invasion of the Izyum region in eastern Ukraine. Kyiv-based media Livy Bereg takes a look back at Volodymyr's life and publishes excerpts from his diary, the original of which is now kept in the Kharkiv Literary Museum.

This is his story:

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Photo of a Russian flag during Unity Day celebrations
Russia

No Putin, No Russia? Why Losing The War Wouldn't Destroy The Russian Federation

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.

-Analysis-

The prediction “Russia is about to fall apart” has been a mainstay of the political science-futurist genre for the 30 years since the end of the USSR and establishment of the Russian Federation.

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Now, the war with Ukraine has drastically reduced the time-frame for such apocalyptic forecasts to come true. First, because it turns out that Russia can very well lose the war; and secondly, a defeat would weaken Vladimir Putin’s regime — and who knows if he will retain power at all?

“No Putin, no Russia” is a more recent refrain.

This line of thinking says that the weakening of the central government will push the regions to act independently. Yet noted political scientist Alexander Kynev explained in an interview with Vazhnyye Istorii why he doesn't believe anything like this will happen. The collapse of Russia is unlikely even if Putin loses.

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photo of a gate opening to a light blue mansion
FOCUS: Russia-Ukraine War

Kremlin Kids, Inc: How The Children Of Russia's Elite Keep Busy Avoiding The War

The offspring of Russia's elite were used to luxury loft apartments, expensive cars and carefree living. So how did Putin's mobilization for new troops impact them? As independent Russian news platform Vazhnyye Istorii found out, life essentially continues as normal.

There's a famous quote about war by the late Russian General Alexander Lebed that is universally true: “Let me recruit a platoon of the children of the elite, and the war will be over in a day.”

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Vazhnyye Istorii, as one of the few remaining independent Russian news platforms, decided to investigate what the offspring of the Russian elite thought about Russia's "partial mobilization" that was announced in late September, and whether any of them had been called up.

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