A massive fire broke out on June 22 at the Novoshakhtinsk Oil Refinery in Rostov Oblast in what appeared to be a drone attack.According to Russia, the attack was carried out by Ukraine. Russian regional authorities said the fragments of two drones were found on the plant&#39;s territory.A video shared on social media, filmed allegedly near the refinery, showed what appeared to be a kamikaze drone crashing on the plant and sparking the fire. Novoshakhtinsk Oil Refinery, which suspended its operation after the explosion, had a production capacity of up to 7.5 million tons of oil per year.The plant was well-known in Ukraine after Schemes, a journalist investigation project, found that the plant was owned by Oksana Marchenko, the wife of Ukrainian lawmaker Viktor Medvedchuk, known for his close ties with Russian President Vladimir Putin.According to Russian records, Medvedchuk&rsquo;s wife sold the plant in April.Putin is the godfather of Medvedchuk&rsquo;s daughter, while the lawmaker has been widely seen as Kremlin&rsquo;s point man in Ukraine.Medvedchuk is accused of high treason and is currently kept in pretrial detention. Medvedchuk is facing 15 years in jail if proven guilty.This isn&rsquo;t the first instance of a Russian oil refinery catching fire near Ukrainian borders. Every time Russian authorities have blamed Ukraine, with footage of military aircraft attacking the sites surfacing the internet.Ukraine neither confirms nor denies attacks being carried out on Russian territory.ExplosionsThe explosion at Novoshakhtinsk took place about 150 kilometers east of Russian-occupied Donetsk, which itself lays a dozen kilometers behind the current front line.According to local authorities, the fire was extinguished within two hours.<a href="https://api.kyivindependent.com/storage/c-6bk1d-wvtmxugk-1656025344lnWIl.mp4">A video, of what appeared to be an attack on the refinery,</a> records two men discussing the flying object they are filming, with both agreeing that it can&rsquo;t be a Ukrainian drone.Moments later an explosion occurs.This isn&rsquo;t the first attack on a Russian fuel plant.A large fire had erupted on April 25 at a Russian oil depot in Bryansk, a city 150 kilometers north of Ukraine&rsquo;s borders.The incident followed another fire at an oil storage depot in Belgorod, also near Ukraine&rsquo;s border. Russian regional authorities described it as an attack by two Ukrainian helicopters.A video shared on Twitter showed a blaze near apartment blocks in Belgorod, 40 kilometers from the border, with some clips appearing to show helicopters approaching the oil depot.Ukraine&#39;s top security officials denied that Ukrainian forces were behind the attack.&quot;For some reason, they are saying we are behind it. This does not correspond with reality,&quot; National Security and Defense Council Secretary Oleksiy Danilov said back then.&nbsp;

A massive fire broke out on June 22 at the Novoshakhtinsk Oil Refinery in Rostov Oblast in what appeared to be a drone attack.According to Russia, the attack...

Russian oil refinery formerly owned by Medvedchuk’s wife ablaze in Rostov region

<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img src="https://api.kyivindependent.com/storage/2022/05/KCH_8616-1024x683.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-34336"/><figcaption>Serhiy Zhadan, Ukrainian poet and writer, speaks during an interview with Kyiv Independent at the Kharkiv State Academic Puppet Theater on May 11, 2022. (Kostyantyn Chernichkin) </figcaption></figure>



“C’mon, this way,” Serhiy Zhadan said, climbing the stairs of Kharkiv’s Puppet Theater.&nbsp;



We follow the writer’s black cigarette jeans and iconic leather jacket through a maze of corridors, almost running after his lean silhouette deep into the cool darkness of empty seats.&nbsp;



Every theater dreams of untold stories.&nbsp;



We were the only spectators in the theater that day, surrounded by empty seats waiting to be filled by an audience who would one day come to listen to stories about Ukraine’s victory.&nbsp;



Instead, we watched over a scene of cardboard boxes waiting to be sent to soldiers and civilians on the frontline, in the blue light of a broken-windowed theater converted into a volunteer center on Feb. 24.&nbsp;



Sitting there among the empty seats and crude forgotten spotlights, I understood why I had traveled halfway across the country to meet Serhiy Zhadan. There was no other way to meet him than in Kharkiv. It’s his city, after all.&nbsp;



Since Russia’s full-scale invasion began, Zhadan has remained in Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city, doing humanitarian work and conducting numerous interviews in the city he couldn’t leave behind.&nbsp;



“The war caught me on the train on my way to Vinnytsia for a concert with the band. We&nbsp; learned about it and came back to Kharkiv,” he said.&nbsp;



“We” being “Zhadan and the Dogs” (“Zhadan i Sobaky”), the writer’s rock band founded in 2007, only one of Zhadan’s numerous artistic projects over the years - with literature as his guiding light.&nbsp;



Zhadan looks the part. Only his gray, sleek haircut betrays the passing of time on the 47-year-old writer, easily labeled as Ukraine’s “enfant terrible.”&nbsp;



Writer, poet, musician, humanitarian worker, political activist, Zhadan is on every front, avoiding labels as fast as he walks.



With 12 poetry books and seven novels, his cult status helped put the country’s contemporary literature on the map, especially in eastern Ukraine, where his characters evolve between hallucinated landscapes of war and picaresque quests.&nbsp;



Inspired by the country’s 1920’s avant-garde, and compared to the likes of William Burroughs, his abrasive style cuts to the chase.&nbsp;



“Let’s start by whispering the names, let’s weave together the vocabulary of death,” Zhadan wrote in his 2020 poem “New Orthography,” long before Russia’s invasion began on Feb. 24.



Many words were whispered that day. Among them, one unwavering statement: There would be no Ukrainian literature without Ukraine’s sovereignty.



“If Ukraine wins, there is some future for us,” he told the Kyiv Independent. “If Russia wins, there will be no literature, no culture, nothing.”



Kharkiv was always Ukrainian



Outside, the eerie silence overwhelming Kharkiv, broken only by the distant sounds of artillery, is a constant reminder of Russia’s looming shadow.



The city used to be a vibrant place filled with students from all over the world, taking classes at one of the city’s 38 universities. With its student life and numerous coffee shops and bars, Kharkiv was the “cool” city of eastern Ukraine.&nbsp;



“It was quite a cosmopolitan environment, democratic and open,” Zhadan said. “And now it’s half empty.”



Most of the city center’s windows are shattered, with some buildings blown apart by heavy missile strikes.&nbsp;



The black, burned skeleton of the Kharkiv Regional State Administration stands on Freedom Square as a monument to Russian dictator Vladimir Putin’s brutality.



The windows are missing from Kharkiv’s Puppet Theater, where Zhadan has established the headquarters of his volunteer organization. Wood panels and black curtains cover the holes for the time being, like a grieving sign of the city’s ordeal.&nbsp;



“The buildings we will rebuild,” Zhadan said.” The worst thing is not the buildings, but those who have died, because we cannot bring them back.”&nbsp;



<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img src="https://api.kyivindependent.com/storage/2022/05/KCH_8682-1024x683.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-34340"/><figcaption>Serhiy Zhadan, Ukrainian poet and writer, walks on the empty Constitution square in Kharkiv on May 11, 2022. (Kostyantyn Chernichkin) </figcaption></figure>



Zhadan doesn’t have time for art at the moment.&nbsp;



“A lot is happening right now, the last thing I think about now is my art, and I think more about what’s happening in my country and how to help,” he said. “I think reflections and art will take place a bit later.”



Born in now Russian-occupied Starobilsk, near Luhansk, Zhadan spent most of his life in Kharkiv, which stands on the edge of two worlds by its proximity to Russia.&nbsp;



But Kharkiv is not a Russian city, Zhadan said. “Even though Russia is 40 kilometers from here, Kharkiv has always been Ukrainian.”



If Kharkiv was a character, it would be Enei, said Zhadan. “Enei is a Cossack and a traveler who has a light and positive character despite everything happening to him,” he said.



Zhadan was referring to the Ukrainian mock-heroic poem “Eneida” by Ivan Kotliarevsky, a classic in Ukrainian literature published in 1798 that is widely considered to be the first literary work published wholly in modern Ukrainian. In this burlesque parody of Virgil’s “Aeneid,” Aeneas is a Ukrainian Cossack.&nbsp;



The poem, which makes Ukrainian school children roll their eyes to the sky, begins with these words: “Enei was a lively fellow/ And quite a Cossack for a lad/ For mischief he was more than mellow/ While courage above all he had” – a good description of Kharkiv in Zhadan’s views.



Kharkiv as a Russian city is mostly a stereotype propagated by Russians themselves, partly supported by (Ukraine’s) own politicians, Zhadan said.&nbsp;



The term “Russian-speaking Ukrainian” doesn’t make sense for Zhadan, as it implies they speak Russian and Ukrainian is a foreign language for them.&nbsp;



Many Kharkiv residents switched to Ukrainian because it’s a marker during this war, an effort Zhadan finds moving as they spoke Russian their whole life.&nbsp;



“Speaking Ukrainian is a marker that you’re a local, and that you refuse the language of the occupier,” Zhadan said.



The switch to Ukrainian is a natural process that gained momentum after Russia’s first invasion of 2014, he said, admitting that Ukraine will always have to fight Russia’s dangerous zone of influence.&nbsp;



“It became clear to Ukrainians that we either fight for our identity or be a part of this post-Soviet empire.”&nbsp;



Love poems



For Zhadan, the sole fact of writing in Ukrainian is political. By choosing which language to write in, writers indicate their political and ideological positions.&nbsp;



“That’s why even if you write love poems but do it in Ukrainian, you take a certain position in one way or another, it has a political connotation,” he said.



Zhadan predicts this war will divide Ukrainian literature into two periods, pre-war and post-war, but it will take time to see a new opus emerge. “The reality is too close, too bloody, and too rough to easily talk about,” he said.&nbsp;



<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img src="https://api.kyivindependent.com/storage/2022/05/KCH_8704-1024x683.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-34344"/><figcaption>Serhiy Zhadan, Ukrainian poet and writer, talks about Kharkiv in the city's Constitution Square on May 11, 2022. (Kostyantyn Chernichkin) </figcaption></figure>



Culture is deeply intertwined with politics in Ukraine, and Zhadan, involved in politics since the early 1990s, knows this all too well.&nbsp;



He has taken part in every revolution the country has seen since independence in 1991, becoming a prominent voice of Kharkiv’s local Euromaidan in 2014, fighting against the made-up ‘Russian Spring’ manufactured by Kremlin proxies in Ukraine’s Donbas.



He believes writers have a role to play in the fight against Russia’s colonial attitude, by building the country’s identity through art. As mediators, writers can’t stay idle in such times.&nbsp;



“We are a highly politicized society, which is understandable because we’re a postcolonial society and we’re trying to build our own identity to escape the influence of the Russian empire.”



This is what distances Ukraine from Russia, he said. “And Russians know this, which is why from time to time, they try to destroy Ukrainian literature.”&nbsp;



Ukrainian writers paid a hefty price to defend their language, he said, referring to the “Executed Renaissance,” the systematic execution of Ukraine’s intelligentsia by Stalin from the 1930s to 1940s.&nbsp;



​​In the early 1920s, Ukrainian artists and writers settled in Kharkiv, then the capital of Soviet Ukraine, making it an avant-garde hub. But Stalin soon cracked down on Ukrainian intellectuals who threatened the dictator’s totalitarian dream of Soviet culture.



Many of these writers and poets lived in the “Slovo” Building in central Kharkiv, a cooperative built in the late 1920s to house prominent Ukrainian cultural figures. Already seen as a threat, the phone lines were tapped and mass arrests ensued. On March 7, the building once again came under attack – this time damaged by Russian shelling.



The campaign to exterminate the Ukrainian intelligentsia culminated during the 1938-1938 Great Purge, with 223 writers being imprisoned or executed.



According to estimates, nearly 30,000 Ukrainian intellectuals were repressed during Stalin’s Great Purge. In 1930, the works of 259 Ukrainian writers were published, but by 1938 only 36 of those writers remained – the rest were executed, exiled, disappeared, or committed suicide.&nbsp;



Colonial empire



Zhadan always refers to Russia as “the empire,” a term suiting Russia’s colonial behavior towards Ukraine. For Russians, Ukraine is just a part of Russia, Zhadan said.&nbsp;



“Ukraine is just an appendix, a part of Russia, the same people that for some reason they constantly destroy, and Ukrainians have no right to their own independence,” he said.



“And Ukrainians see a history where they are their own people, an independent nation, who was always opposed to the empire.”&nbsp;



Ukrainians want to build an independent and democratic country while Russians feel quite comfortable in totalitarian conditions, Zhadan added.



<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img src="https://api.kyivindependent.com/storage/2022/05/KCH_8591-1024x683.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-34335"/><figcaption>Serhiy Zhadan, Ukrainian poet and writer, evokes Russia's imperialism during an interview with the Kyiv Independent at the Kharkiv State Academic Puppet Theater on May 11, 2022. (Kostyantyn Chernichkin) </figcaption></figure>



The “Executed Renaissance”&nbsp; is just one of many dark chapters in Russia’s colonial attitude towards Ukraine — a behavior Zhadan describes as a clash between two countries that are light-years away over their perception of past and future.



“In their vision of the past, the main role belongs to Russians, as they monopolized the whole memory of World War II,” a distorted vision they still use today to justify the horrors they inflict on Ukraine.



Yet Russia’s invasion showed Ukrainians that they have no other option than to completely disconnect from Russians because any mingling with Russia ends up with the destruction of Ukraine, he said.



“I think Russians have done everything for Ukraine to be destined for its independence and freedom.”&nbsp;



While we were leaving the comfortable darkness of Kharkiv’s Puppet Theater for the city, Zhadan's words reverberated in the city’s windy streets, intertwined with a far echo of his poem:&nbsp;



“To stand and talk about the night



Stand and listen to the voices



of shepherds in the fog



incanting over every single



lost soul.”

“C’mon, this way,” Serhiy Zhadan said, climbing the stairs of Kharkiv’s Puppet Theater.&nbsp;We follow the writer’s black cigarette jeans and iconic leather jacket through a maze of corridors,...

Serhiy Zhadan: ‘If Russia wins, there will be no literature, no culture, nothing’

<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img src="https://api.kyivindependent.com/storage/2022/05/Frederic-Leclerc-Imhoff-1024x641.webp" alt="Frederic-Leclerc-Imhoff" class="wp-image-37168"/><figcaption>French journalist Frédéric Leclerc-Imhoff was killed near Sievierodonetsk on May 30, 2022. (BFM TV)</figcaption></figure>



Frederic Leclerc-Imhoff, a 32-year-old French journalist, was killed by shrapnel on May 30 while covering the evacuation of civilians on the road to Lysychansk, near Sievierodonetsk, in eastern Luhansk Oblast.



According to Serhiy Haidai, the governor of Luhansk Oblast, Russian forces shelled an armored evacuation vehicle that carried civilians, killing Leclerc-Imhoff. The evacuation was suspended, the governor added.



Leclerc-Imhoff was with a colleague, Maxime Brandstaetter, 27, who received a shrapnel wound to the left leg, and their Ukrainian fixer Oksana Leuta, who received a concussion, according to the Prosecutor’s Office.&nbsp;



“Shrapnel from the grenades pierced the armor of the car … a fatal wound in the neck was received by an accredited French journalist who was making a report on the evacuation. A police officer (at the scene) was saved by his helmet,” Haidai said.



Leclerc-Imhoff was inside the vehicle, while the rest of the team was outside it.



<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="aligncenter size-full"><img src="https://api.kyivindependent.com/storage/2022/05/FLI.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-37169"/><figcaption>A view of the windshield of the bus hit by a Russian shelling, in which Frederic Leclerc-Imhoff received a fatal shrapnel wound on May 30. (Serhiy Haidai, Telegram)</figcaption></figure></div>



The body of Leclerc-Imhoff was evacuated alongside the rest of the team from Lysychansk to Bakhmut and then to Dnipro, where another team of journalists from BFM TV, their employer, was due to take care of the body and repatriate it to France.



French President Emmanuel Macron announced Leclerc-Imhoff’s death on Twitter <a href="https://twitter.com/EmmanuelMacron/status/1531280177992454146?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1531280177992454146%7Ctwgr%5E%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&amp;ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.lemonde.fr%2Fen%2Finternational%2Farticle%2F2022%2F05%2F30%2Ffrench-journalist-killed-in-ukraine_5985102_4.html">on May 30,</a> reiterating France’s support "to those who ensure the difficult mission of reporting in combat zones.”



At least eight journalists have been killed while reporting on Russia’s war in Ukraine since Feb. 24, according to Reporters Without Borders.&nbsp;



An intense battle is occuring for Sievierodonetsk – a key city – with Russian forces entering the outskirts and pushing towards nearby Lysychansk.



Sievierodonetsk serves as Luhansk Oblast’s administrative center, which Russia has been trying to conquer since it retreated from the outskirts of Kyiv at the end of March.&nbsp;

Frederic Leclerc-Imhoff, a 32-year-old French journalist, was killed by shrapnel on May 30 while covering the evacuation of civilians on the road to Lysychansk, near Sievierodonetsk, in eastern...

Russian shelling kills French journalist

<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img src="https://api.kyivindependent.com/storage/2022/05/WhatsApp-Image-2022-05-19-at-5.26.49-PM-1024x682.jpeg" alt="SHEVCHENKO U24" class="wp-image-35648"/><figcaption>President Volodymyr Zelensky (L) and football star Andriy Shevchenko (R) talk in Kyiv on May 18, 2022. (President's Office)</figcaption></figure>



Ukrainian football legend Andriy Shevchenko didn’t think twice when he learned that President Volodymyr Zelensky wanted him to become the first ambassador of UNITED24, a platform dedicated to collecting charitable funds in support of Ukraine.&nbsp;



He was ready to accept new responsibilities on the spot.&nbsp;



“I said yes because I knew I had to do something for my country,” Shevchenko told the Kyiv Independent.&nbsp;



The soft-spoken, football player took a moment to reflect on his comment. As for many, the war is a personal matter for Shevchenko.



His family was stranded in Kyiv when the war erupted and he said the images of Bucha and Hostomel, where unimaginable atrocities have been committed by Russia, haunt him. “I had heard a couple of things, but I was absolutely shocked,” Shevchenko said.&nbsp;



There was no other choice for him than to help Ukraine get back on its feet. A 2004 Ballon d’Or winner, his international career has given him a platform through which he can help his country as much as possible, he said.&nbsp;



A Ukrainian football star recognized worldwide, Shevchenko scored 48 goals in 111 games as a striker for Ukraine, making him the country’s greatest ever goalscorer.&nbsp;



He has played for Dynamo Kyiv, Milan, Chelsea, and Ukraine’s national team, helping put Ukraine on the map.



“Some athletes took weapons and went on the battlefield,” he said. “My weapons are my international connections.”



Helping Ukraine



Shevchenko feels that he owes it to Ukraine to use his international stature to increase donations, ensure the efficiency and transparency of their distribution, and ultimately contribute to his country's survival. 



“A lot of money was given to Ukraine, but not all the money arrived here, and we don’t know where it disappeared,” he said.&nbsp;“This platform will help us know where it’s going because donators need to see where their money is going.”



That’s why he accepted to become the face of United24, a global initiative launched by Zelensky on May 5 to support Ukraine.&nbsp;



According to Shevchenko, the first step is to remind international donors that the war is ongoing. After three months of Russia’s full-scale war against Ukraine, and the inestimable atrocities that have accompanied it, fighting "war fatigue" is crucial.



“We have to remind people that this country is at war, and we need to survive,” he said.&nbsp;



UNITED24 will raise funds for the defense and demining of Ukraine, including through the purchase of weapons, protective gear, and military, rescue, and demining equipment, according to the initiative’s press release.&nbsp;



Donations will also go toward medical aid for Ukraine, by providing the country with medications, medical equipment, and transport, and the rehabilitation of healthcare facilities damaged or destroyed by hostilities.&nbsp;



The project's third component is dedicated to rebuilding Ukraine, such as through the restoration of critical infrastructure.



All donations will be transferred to the accounts of the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) and assigned to the ministries of defense, health, and infrastructure.&nbsp;



In the first week following the initiative's launch, over $25 million was transferred to NBU accounts. The <meta charset="utf-8">UNITED24 website received 220,000 visits a day after being launched.



This help is critical for the survival of Ukraine, Shevchenko said 



"This is my contribution to my country because I want my country to have enough funds to survive and to defend itself," he added.



"Our economy is not working, how can you do anything when Russian soldiers are bombing our cities, are mining our fields?" he asked.&nbsp;



But he is also aware that this process is going to be a long one.&nbsp;



"To bring peace to our country, we need to win this war, we need to get rid of Russian soldiers on our land, and people have to come back," Shevchenko said.



Shevchenko also believes that Ukraine’s younger generations can make a big difference and that, with a united youth, Ukraine can strive toward the European values for which it was attacked by Russia.&nbsp;



“We are united because we are free people,” he said.

Ukrainian football legend Andriy Shevchenko didn’t think twice when he learned that President Volodymyr Zelensky wanted him to become the first ambassador of UNITED24, a platform dedicated to...

Shevchenko becomes face of UNITED24 fundraising initiative, says he wants to help Ukraine win

<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img src="https://api.kyivindependent.com/storage/2022/05/Screenshot-2022-05-08-at-21.46.13-1024x775.png" alt="" class="wp-image-32342"/><figcaption>Ilya Samoilenko, a <meta charset="utf-8">a 27-year-old officer of the Azov regiment, tells foreign journalists on May 8 about the dire situation in Azovstal, Mariupol's steel plant besieged by Russian forces. </figcaption></figure>



While the outside world was commemorating the end of World War II, Ilya Samoilenko, a 27-year-old officer of the Azov regiment, was speaking online to the press from the basement of Azovstal.



“We feel abandoned,” said Samoilenko from the last Ukrainian stronghold of Mariupol, a city with a pre-war population of 450,000 people, now nearly completely destroyed by Russia.



“We knew a big war with Russia was happening and we were ready,” he added, saying that all Ukrainian governments of the past eight years are to blame for the failure to prevent encirclement.&nbsp;



As Russia launched an all-out war against Ukraine on Feb. 24, Mariupol became its major target. The largest city of Ukrainian-controlled Donbas was first hit on the next day.



After encircling the city in early March, coming from Crimea and the east, exceeding Russian troops have been squeezing Ukrainian defenders into one of Europe’s largest steel mills – Azovstal, located in the city’s eastern part.



Samoilenko said Ukraine could have done a better job of protecting this strategic port city.



“We got zero support – no air support, no artillery or ground support. We were left on our own," he said, yet adding that they are not planning on stopping the fight.



“Surrender is not an option.”



Azovstal stronghold



Azov soldiers and other regiments including Marines have been holding the Azovstal plant against all odds for months, transforming it into a fortress.&nbsp;



Russians have been attempting to storm the plant over the course of the past weeks, despite the ongoing evacuation of civilians. According to Azov, the outer defenses of the plant have been breached and the fighting continues inside the premises.



The site is a labyrinth of warehouses, furnaces, tunnels, and rail tracks going six stories underground with numerous bunkers where civilians and soldiers hid for two months, living in the dark in hard conditions.&nbsp;



Samoilenko said he couldn’t disclose the number of soldiers in the plant, but they still have provisions, water, weapons, and ammunition. Yet, they can’t use artillery and don’t receive any resupply.



Russian troops keep bombing the plant daily, attacking it with small groups to try and squeeze the regiment out of it. They use tanks, mortars, and artillery, escalating their tactics every day.



Samoilenko said that as of May 1 — a date corrected by Azov press service to April 15 — Azov destroyed almost 2,500 Russian personnel, and wounded more than 5,000, which accounts for 10% of Russian total losses, according to Ukraine’s General Staff.



Azov also destroyed up to 60 tanks and damaged about 30, Samoilenko said.



And this, despite being less equipped than other units on the frontlines. “We have not received any Javelin, any new transport,” he said.



However, despite a strong showing by Ukrainian defenders, the numerically superior Russian forces were able to inflict devastating damage.&nbsp;



While Samoilenko rejoiced over the successful evacuations of almost 1,000 civilians from the plant over the past week, it’s a bittersweet achievement.&nbsp;



“It’s heartbreaking to see politicians celebrating the evacuation of a small group of people, while up to 25,000 people were murdered in Mariupol,” Samoilenko said.&nbsp;



Far-right ties



The Azov Regiment is considered an elite fighting force of the Ukrainian National Guard, with historical ties to the far-right, something that the Russian propaganda and many foreign journalists have been exploiting for years.



“We have our obscure past,” Samoilenko acknowledged.&nbsp;&nbsp;



The unit was initially formed as a volunteer battalion in May 2014 by Kharkiv-based football hooligans, some of which had far-right views.



“We decided to leave our past behind and integrate into the military,” Samoilenko said.&nbsp;



As a battalion, the group has fought on the front lines against Kremlin-controlled proxies in Donetsk since 2014. It was incorporated into Ukraine’s National Guard in September 2014.&nbsp;



In Mariupol, Azov took the role of commanding other military units on the ground. Their resistance has inspired people to call them “heroes of Mariupol,” a label that Samoilenko took with humility, saying it’s his duty.



“Heroism appears when the general (command) structure fails,” he added.



Surrender is not an option



After being labeled “Nazis” by Russia and its supporters for years, Samoilenko has no illusion about the treatment Russia reserves for Azov fighters.&nbsp;



“We do not have high chances of survival if we’re captured,” Samoilenko said. “The only way to guarantee your life and to stay unashamed is to fight.”



Every person captured will be used to inflict political pressure on Ukraine, according to Samoilenko.&nbsp;



“You can try to cowardly escape, and only think about your life instead of your duty,” he said, referring to the commander of the 36th Marines Volodymyr Baraniuk, who tried to desert and got captured by Russian troops on May 8.&nbsp;



Baraniuk tried to escape the battlefield in a civilian car, but he lacked preparation, according to Samoilenko, and got caught.&nbsp;



“This variant brings shame and death.”



He also cited the example of a soldier captured by Russian forces and paraded until the moment his mother received a text with a picture showing the suffocated corpse of her son.&nbsp;



“For Azov members, capture means death,” said Samoilenko.&nbsp;



“We have solid proof of the enemy’s inhumane actions and infringement of all rules of war,” Samoilenko said, adding that Russian POWs were already exchanged for Ukrainian POWs but were sent back to Mariupol and killed in action.



Samoilenko dismissed the possibility of negotiating with “these animals.”



He disagreed about the potential negotiations between Kyiv and Moscow, was not picking words for the Ukrainian government and compared Russian dictator Vladimir Putin to a street thug.



“We showed the world you don’t have to be afraid of Russia, we’re expecting the same (from those in power),” Samoilenko said.&nbsp;



“It’s not so hard not to be afraid of Russia, just stand and fight.”

While the outside world was commemorating the end of World War II, Ilya Samoilenko, a 27-year-old officer of the Azov regiment, was speaking online to the press from...

Azovstal defenders: ‘Surrender is not an option’

<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img src="https://api.kyivindependent.com/storage/2022/04/Makariv-house-2-1024x768.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-30078"/><figcaption>One of the houses in Makariv that have been destroyed by shelling, seen on April 15. (Alexander Query)</figcaption></figure>



MAKARIV, Kyiv Oblast – Life is timidly reappearing in the half-destroyed town of Makariv.&nbsp;



A dozen women in headscarves and rolled-up sleeves clean up the street, armed with brooms, against the apocalyptic backdrop. Not far, one of them is crying on her husband's shoulder.&nbsp;



Ripped-open buildings and craters are everywhere, the scars of violent battles that repelled the Russians from this strategic town located 30 kilometers west of Kyiv.&nbsp;&nbsp;



Over 200 buildings were destroyed and 600 severely damaged by mortars and artillery. Russians retreated on April 1, after occupying the northern part of the city, from where reports of atrocities keep emerging.&nbsp;



On the other side of the street, Makariv Mayor Vadym Tokar, clad in military fatigues, starts his day by meeting with volunteers with the goal to revive the town.&nbsp;



His main task is to help the people coming back and those who never left. Only 1,000 of the town's 15,000 residents remained behind and it's no easy task to welcome them back to the city without electricity, gas or running water.&nbsp;&nbsp;



Even though he's sturdy and tall, the 39-year-old Tokar admitted that rebuilding Makariv was a heavy burden. Both his and his parents' homes were destroyed in the fighting.&nbsp;



<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img src="https://api.kyivindependent.com/storage/2022/04/Mayor-Makariv-1024x768.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-30080"/><figcaption>Makariv Mayor Vadym Tokar recalls the Russian occupation and the ordeal his fellow citizens went through. "I just feel hate for Russians," he tells the Kyiv Independent. (Alexander Query)</figcaption></figure>



“I feel lost, I don't know what to do. I don’t know how to help these people," he told the Kyiv Independent while taking a deep drag on his cigarette.&nbsp;



&nbsp;“All I feel is hate towards Russians,” he said.&nbsp;



Russian atrocities&nbsp;



It's Tokar's duty to take care of the town but he is mindful that the Russians can come back at any moment. While civilians and volunteers help clean Makariv, the military digs in for another wave of attack.



"We can't rebuild the city at the moment, so we help with basic needs but we also need to think about defending it if they come back," he said.&nbsp;



Born in Makariv, Tokar stayed in the city during the fighting, to help civilians evacuate. When his parents' home was destroyed, he took it upon himself to rescue his family, which was trapped behind the Russian lines in an occupied part of Makariv. This was a dangerous operation, as Russians regularly targeted civilian cars.&nbsp;



<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img src="https://api.kyivindependent.com/storage/2022/04/Makariv-volunteers-1024x768.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-30079"/><figcaption>Makariv's post office, heavily targeted by shelling, seen on April 15. Civilians used to hide in its basement during artillery attacks. (Alexander Query)</figcaption></figure>



When Russians tried to take the town on Feb. 28, an old man, his daughter and her eight-year-old girl tried to evacuate. Russians opened fire at them. Only the girl survived, under the corpses of her family, Tokar said. His family survived.



The Russians mainly occupied the northern part of the town. They placed mines and explosives where they lived or looted, and booby traps have been found even in refrigerators and washing machines.&nbsp;



Oleksandr Holovchenko, 70, invited the Kyiv Independent to see what the Russians had done to this house. Russian shelling ripped his backyard wide open and broke the wall behind it. He had to replace the door when he came back and discovered the damage. On the other side of the road, the skeleton of a rusty, burned-down truck with a V on its side stands as a testimony to the fighting.&nbsp;



“They came and drank everything,” Holovchenko told the Kyiv Independent and sobbed.&nbsp;



His only remaining son, who was in the Territorial Defense force, was wounded by a shell and didn’t survive the injuty. His other son died in 1996 and his wife died last year; the rest of his family is now in Poland, where Holovchenko will not go.&nbsp;



“What am I going to do?” he kept repeating. “They took everything from me, I don’t know what to do with my life.”&nbsp;&nbsp;



“I have nothing left,” he said. “I’m going to die here.”&nbsp;



Blown-up houses are more common on the road up north.&nbsp;



During the battle, residents here had to move into their cellars to avoid being killed. Most of them feared another attack from Russian troops.&nbsp;



<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img src="https://api.kyivindependent.com/storage/2022/04/Makariv-center-1024x768.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-30077"/><figcaption>An administrative building ripped open by shelling in Makariv. (Alexander Query) </figcaption></figure>



Maksym, who didn’t want to reveal his full name in case of another Russian attack, said that one of his neighbors was killed after Russians entered his garden with a tank. Some residents saw them loot items from his house.&nbsp;



“We buried him in his garden,” he said. “They took all his tools to fix their tank, the garage was completely destroyed.”&nbsp;



Another man was shot when he tried to rescue his wife after Russians captured her. He took refuge at a neighbor’s and died two days after. The neighbors buried him in their garden.&nbsp;



Maksym pointed out a house nearby.&nbsp;



“A 32-year-old woman was raped there,” he said. “Russian soldiers slit her throat.”&nbsp;



Local authorities confirmed that a woman named Tetiana Zadorozhnyak was killed in this house by Russian soldiers. After the Russians retreated, gruesome videos emerged of her ransacked house, in which bloody sheets pointed to the horrific things that were done there.&nbsp;



Ombudsman Lyudmyla Denisova said on April 26 that after providing a hotline to report incidents of sexual violence and to seek psychological assistance, her office received around 400 rape reports, including from children, between April 1-14.



<a href="https://kyivindependent.com/national/hide-the-girls-how-russian-soldiers-rape-and-torture-ukrainians/">Read also: 'Hide the girls': How Russian soldiers rape and torture Ukrainians</a>



"Russians are not human, they're beasts,” Tokar said.&nbsp;



Evidence of war crimes is mounting along with the civilian body count in Kyiv Oblast —132 civilians bodies have been recovered from Makariv and the surrounding areas, according to local authorities.&nbsp;



Makariv Chief of Police Oleksandr Omelianenko told the Kyiv Independent that his team keeps exhuming bodies from around Makariv every day. They show the same pattern every time: young males, hands tied behind their backs, shot in the head and dumped into shallow mass graves.&nbsp;&nbsp;



“Signs of summary executions of civilians are everywhere, and we keep finding new ones,” Omelianenko said.&nbsp;



Mock executions&nbsp;



The Russian occupation left other kinds of scars even in the houses that were otherwise untouched by the fighting.&nbsp;



Mykola Buryak, 62, told the Kyiv Independent the houses nearby were mostly occupied by ethnic Russians and ethnic Siberians such as Buryats.&nbsp;



When they took over in early March, they ordered the neighborhood to put white flags and white ribbons on their houses. Buryak thought this would be enough to stay safe, but he was wrong.&nbsp;



<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img src="https://api.kyivindependent.com/storage/2022/04/Buryak-1024x870.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-30074"/><figcaption>Farmer Mykola Buryak tells the Kyiv Independent on April 15 about the humiliation Russian soldiers put him through during the occupation of Makariv, a town located 30 kilometers from Kyiv. (Alexander Query)</figcaption></figure>



One evening, a Russian soldier held him at gunpoint and brought him to a field near his house overlooking Makariv.&nbsp;



Finger on the trigger, he clicked it a few times to scare him, in front of Buryak’s wife and neighbors, who began to cry.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;



“He told me, 'You’re Banderites, your president is a clown, Putin is a good man’.”&nbsp;



The Russian soldier ordered him and his neighbor to do Nazi salutes and laughed watching them. He finally got tired and left them alone.&nbsp;



“He wanted me to insult Ukraine, but I will never say that,” Buryak said. “We’re ready to die here for Ukraine.”&nbsp;

MAKARIV, Kyiv Oblast – Life is timidly reappearing in the half-destroyed town of Makariv.&nbsp;A dozen women in headscarves and rolled-up sleeves clean up the street, armed with brooms,...

Russian troops leave shattered lives in Makariv

At least two Russian missiles hit a military facility and a residential building in the southern city of Odesa on April 23, killing at least eight people, including a three-month-old baby, and injuring at least 18 people. One of the victims burned in his car parked near the building that was hit.



Two more missiles were shot down by air defense forces. The debris from one of them hit another residential building.



The number of casualties is likely to increase, according to Andriy Yermak, president’s chief of staff.



<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img src="https://api.kyivindependent.com/storage/2022/04/2022-04-23-18.25.02-768x1024.jpg" alt="Odesa airstrike building" class="wp-image-28965"/><figcaption>A residential building in the southern Ukrainian port city of Odesa, seen after it was hit by a Russian missile on April 23. (Odesa City Council)</figcaption></figure>



The main attack destroyed at least four stories in a 16-story residential building in Arkadia, a popular residential area of Odesa. An unknown number of victims may remain under the rubble, and rescuers from the State Emergency Service are working on the site.



The missiles were launched by a Russian bomber Tu-95 coming from the Caspian Sea, according to Ukraine's military.



Speaking at a press conference later in the day, President Volodymyr Zelensky said that Russia fired seven missiles at Odesa on April 23, including two that were intercepted.



<figure class="wp-block-image size-full"><img src="https://api.kyivindependent.com/storage/2022/04/23_04_Одесса.mp4" alt="" class="wp-image-28999"/><figcaption>A residential building was hit by a Russian missile in Odesa on April 23. (State Emergency Service)</figcaption></figure>



Odesa has been targeted before, but it's the first time a residential building was hit.



The airstrike hit the city during the Orthodox Easter weekend. The Security Service called on April 23 for Ukrainians to stay home during Easter festivities over threats of Russian attacks that authorities feared can target churchgoers.



"Nothing is sacred (for them)," Yermak <a href="https://t.me/ermaka2022/350?fbclid=IwAR0RrI53Re12kz5kF2HC-ALDcYMcU_XRos1V9MAQruoY6kxCMAWcFYLjI7E">wrote on his Telegram channel.</a>



<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img src="https://api.kyivindependent.com/storage/2022/04/2022-04-23-18.25.17-768x1024.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-28973"/><figcaption>The attack destroyed several cars in the yard of a residential building. (Odesa City Council)</figcaption></figure>



Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba called on Russia to be designated a state sponsor of terrorism and "treated accordingly," meaning "no business, no contacts, no cultural projects."



"We need a wall between civilization and barbarians striking peaceful cities with missiles," Kuleba wrote <a href="https://twitter.com/DmytroKuleba/status/1517850557926580224">on Twitter </a>on April 23.







<a href="https://www.pravda.com.ua/news/2022/04/23/7341580/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener"></a>

At least two Russian missiles hit a military facility and a residential building in the southern city of Odesa on April 23, killing at least eight people, including...

Russian airstrike kills 8 people in Odesa, including 3-month-old (UPDATED)

<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img src="https://api.kyivindependent.com/storage/2022/03/Screenshot-2022-03-25-at-13.34.34-1024x808.png" alt="" class="wp-image-21470"/><figcaption>Screenshot of Christian Borys' website Saint Javelin, where his team sells merchandise flocked with the viral Saint Javelin meme to help support Ukraine (saintjavelin.com).</figcaption></figure>



“Saint Javelin” became a rallying sign of Ukraine’s resistance since Russia invaded on Feb. 24.&nbsp;



An Orthodox Madonna clad in green and cradling a Javelin anti-tank missile, the viral meme found a new use in the hands of Christian Borys, a Toronto marketer who was a journalist in Ukraine in 2014-2019.



Days before the war started, Borys created a $10 sticker out of the viral meme to help Ukrainian orphans in what he thought would be a modest contribution to Ukraine’s support relief.&nbsp;He also created a website, <a href="https://www.saintjavelin.com/">SaintJavelin.com,</a> to sell those stickers online.



“The sticker was a fluke,” Borys told the Kyiv Independent.&nbsp;



He had initially set up a $30,000 goal for his charity. A month in, Borys raised over $1 million, an unexpected success for the entrepreneur turned charity worker.&nbsp;



“It’s just very overwhelming,” Borys said.&nbsp;



Overwhelming success



The initial fundraising goal was aimed at providing scholarships to children who lost their parents in the war in Donbas that Russia started in 2014 – a personal topic for Borys. 



"One of the stories I worked on when I was in Ukraine was about families who had lost mostly fathers in the war," Borys said.&nbsp;



He interviewed widowed mothers, listening to their stories of grief and losses. 



“It’s one of those things that stick with you forever,” he said.&nbsp;



Borys collaborated with a Canadian charity HelpUsHelp. He went from hundreds of $10 stickers to over 6,000 items sold in 60 countries.



“It became a full-time job,” he said. “It’s so overwhelming, we’re trying to scale back a bit.”



To keep the operation running, Borys had to solve customer support, logistics and operational issues.&nbsp;



Each of his bank accounts was temporarily frozen because there was so much cash flowing through them that the banks thought he was laundering money, he told <a href="https://torontolife.com/memoir/my-accounts-were-frozen-because-the-banks-thought-i-was-laundering-money-how-a-toronto-man-raised-1-million-for-ukraine-by-selling-stickers/">the Toronto Life,</a> a Canadian local newspaper.&nbsp;



With that much money coming in, he rethought the purpose of the aid.



“We changed it from all of this money going towards orphans to all of this money will go to victims of violence," he said.



Aside from working with HelpUsHelp, Borys began working with <a href="https://2402.org/">the 2402 fund</a> created by Ukrainian journalists to help equip reporters and newsrooms with the necessary equipment, vehicles and protective gear.&nbsp;



Apart from his Saint Javelin merch project, Borys works with the Ukrainian World Congress, which represents the Ukrainian diaspora all over the world. Borys helped the organization set up a logistics chain for aid flowing into Ukraine, including first aid kits, tourniquets, bulletproof vests, kevlar helmets.



Borys said transparency is key in such a large-scale charity operation.



“My goal is to show everything because nobody's gonna trust somebody who's hiding anything,” he said. 



Art for charity



The Saint Javelin design was not an original creation of Borys. Ukrainian graphic designer Evgeniy Shalashov, based in Lviv and employed by Borys, slightly adapted a 2012 painting by U.S. artist Chris Shaw that was already a hit. 



In mid-February, Shaw “woke up to find an image of 'Saint Javelin' going viral all over the internet as a meme,” a digital alteration of his 2012 painting, “Madonna Kalashnikov.”



Shaw painted the&nbsp;“Madonna Kalashnikov,” a feminine religious icon holding a gold-leafed AK-47, in 2012, in the aftermath of the Arab Spring that shook the Middle East in the early 2010s.&nbsp;



<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="aligncenter size-large"><img src="https://api.kyivindependent.com/storage/2022/03/Screenshot-2022-03-25-at-13.37.39-763x1024.png" alt="" class="wp-image-21471"/><figcaption>Screenshot of "Madonna Kalashnikov," the original 2012 painting by U.S. artist Chris Shaw later transformed into the "Saint Javelin" meme. (Chris Shaw)</figcaption></figure></div>



In 2015, Madonna Kalashnikov was conscripted by the Ukrainian Army and became a morale patch for Ukraine’s military.



"The experience of Saint Javelin, simply, has been amazing, humbling, incredible, and also leaves me with mixed feelings,” Shaw told the Kyiv Independent.



“Of course, nobody asked me if my art could be used or sold,” he said. “However, after seeing the image used successfully to raise money for Ukraine I felt better that at least some of the profits made would be used for good purposes.”



“For Saint Javelin to become an image helping to aid relief and show solidarity with Ukraine is amazing.&nbsp;Now that she is everywhere, I want her to do good,” he added.



Saint Javelin isn't the only Madonna art associated with the war in Ukraine now. Ukrainian illustrator Anta Frirean, based in Germany, recently<a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/CbU4CwBMWXO/"> published</a> on her Instagram a religious adaptation of a viral picture of a mother from Kyiv breast-feeding her baby, her body reeling from shattered glass wounds. 



Frirean’s Instagram links to a webpage listing numerous charities and foundations to donate and help support Ukraine against Russia.



Meanwhile, Russia’s war rages and hits close to home for the Saint Javelin team. 



The Ukrainian members of Borys’ marketing agency “Black Hawk,” who lived in Kharkiv, Ukraine's second-largest city, had to leave because the city had been destroyed, Borys said.



They are now hiding in smaller towns and villages in Ukraine, searching for apartments in Poland for their wives and children.



Shalashov, who adapted the Saint Javelin graphic, has been forced into bomb shelters so many times that he chose to flee to a village near his city, Lviv.&nbsp;



When he first answered the Kyiv Independent, he apologized for the delay because of his lack of sleep due to the raid sirens in western Ukraine.&nbsp;



“I think the success of our campaign is all about the good people, who want to help Ukraine, who want peace in the world," Shalashov later said.&nbsp;“Design is the last thing here.”

“Saint Javelin” became a rallying sign of Ukraine’s resistance since Russia invaded on Feb. 24.&nbsp;An Orthodox Madonna clad in green and cradling a Javelin anti-tank missile, the viral...

'Iconic' Saint Javelin helps fundraise over $1 million for Ukraine

<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img src="https://api.kyivindependent.com/storage/2022/02/photo_2022-02-26-09.05.28-1024x766.jpeg" alt="" class="wp-image-13800"/><figcaption>A residential apartment building not far from the Kyiv International Airport (Zhuliany) was struck by Russian missile attacks on Feb. 26, 2022. There are no reported deaths.</figcaption></figure>



Russia lost 14 planes, 8 helicopters, 102 tanks, 536 BBM, 15 heavy machine guns, and 1 BUK missile since Feb. 24, according to <a href="https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=259492086363877&amp;set=a.229159256063827">Ukraine's military.&nbsp;</a>



The Kremlin also lost over 3,500 soldiers, Ukraine’s Armed Forces said on Feb. 26.&nbsp;Nearly 200 service members have been kept hostage.



Russia has begun redeploying reserve units in the areas bordering Ukraine and continues to carry out airstrikes on airfields, military depots, and civilians. Airstrikes target Sumy, Poltava, Mariupol, and Kyiv which saw heavy fighting overnight.&nbsp;



From the Black Sea, Russia launched naval-based cruise missiles across Ukraine.



Russia’s aviation is launched from Belarus and occupied Crimea.&nbsp;



Battalions of the 35th All-Military Army of the Eastern Military District are based in Mozyr, and can be used to strike targets on the territory of Ukraine. Dozens of tanks are located in the area of ​​Shumske and BM-21 Grad rocket launchers were put up in the area of ​​Kosivshchyna, Sumy Oblast, according to a report by the Ukrainian Armed Forces.



<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img src="https://api.kyivindependent.com/storage/2022/02/photo_2022-02-26-09.11.24-1-1024x1024.jpeg" alt="" class="wp-image-13799"/><figcaption>Russia faces heavy losses as it attacks Ukraine on all fronts. </figcaption></figure>



With its aircraft, Russia targeted Yuzhna, Odesa Oblast, the Ozerne airfield and civil infrastructure near and in Kyiv. Russia also used tanks and military vehicles in a failed attempt to breach Kyiv’s defenses.



Ukrainian military stopped Russia’s offensive in Kharkiv Oblast, fighting is ongoing. Urban warfare is still being fought in Okhtyrka, Sumy Oblast.



On the coast, Ukraine’s Naval Forces mined accessible landing sites.



Ukraine’s air defense systems have successfully repelled air assaults by enemy jets.



Aside from the Russian Il-76 military transport plane shot down south of Kyiv, Ukraine’s air force continues to inflict fire damage on the enemy manpower and military equipment in Kyiv, Chernihiv, and Kherson oblasts.



A combined force is conducting a defensive operation and holding positions along the entire line of demarcation.



“We will defend our country,” said President Volodymyr Zelensky, who is leading Ukraine’s defenses in Kyiv.

Russia lost 14 planes, 8 helicopters, 102 tanks, 536 BBM, 15 heavy machine guns, and 1 BUK missile since Feb. 24, according to Ukraine's military.&nbsp;The Kremlin also lost...

Russia faces heavy losses as it attacks Ukraine on all fronts

<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img src="https://api.kyivindependent.com/storage/2022/02/GettyImages-1238706374-1024x683.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-12604"/><figcaption>A police officer stands on the road on Feb. 23, 2022 in Kyiv, Ukraine. (Photo by Pierre Crom/Getty Images)</figcaption></figure>



Ukraine has declared a state of emergency in all of Ukraine except for eastern Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts starting on Feb. 24.



The parliament approved the decree introduced by President Volodymyr Zelensky on Feb. 23, as the threat of Russia's all-out invasion of Ukraine continues to grow. 



Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts already have a special legal status because of Russia’s ongoing occupation since 2014.



Restrictions introduced by the state of emergency are due to last 30 days and will vary depending on the region.



The state of emergency allows the authorities to temporarily limit the public’s constitutional rights.



The decree green-lights the following measures:



<ul><li>increased public order protection and security;</li><li>checks of identification documents of civilians and frisking if necessary;</li><li>ban on protests;</li><li>temporary or permanent evacuation of people from dangerous areas and providing them with accomodation;</li><li>ban on relocation of conscripts and reservists without notice;</li><li>ban on producing and spreading information that may "destabilize the situation";</li><li>ban on amateur radio transmitting devices.</li></ul>



Other measures that may be implemented "if necessary" include:



<ul><li>a curfew;</li><li>a special regime of entry and exit;</li><li>ban on mass events;</li><li>"special rules" for spreading information online.</li></ul>

Ukraine has declared a state of emergency in all of Ukraine except for eastern Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts starting on Feb. 24.The parliament approved the decree introduced by...

BREAKING: Ukraine imposes state of emergency

Alexander Query is a business reporter at the Kyiv Independent. He is the former business editor at the Kyiv Post. He worked as a TV correspondent and an anchorman at UATV in Ukraine, and received a BA in modern literature from La Sorbonne, in Paris.

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Alexander Query