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A Venetian Gothic facade adorned with banners for the 2026 Venice Biennale, in Venice, Italy, on Feb. 25, 2026.
Culture

What's on at the Venice Biennale? Russian soft power

by Kate Tsurkan

In the fifth year of Russia’s full-scale war against Ukraine, the Russian pavilion is set to return to the Venice Art Biennale with a “musical festival come to life” that serves as “a space for dialogue and exchange.” The pavilion was effectively canceled in 2022 after the artists and curator chosen to represent Russia withdrew in protest of the invasion. At the time, the organizers of the Biennale released a statement praising the decision and condemning “all those who use violence to prevent

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As Russian attacks on Ukraine's railways intensify, passenger trains now targets for drones

Russian attacks on Ukraine's railways are escalating and posing a more direct threat to civilians, as Moscow increasingly shifts from hitting infrastructure to targeting moving trains, including passenger trains. Attacks on the railway system rose from 134 in January to 166 in February and peaked at 206 in March, Ukrzaliznytsia — Ukraine's national train operator — told the Kyiv Independent. "There is a clear tendency since late 2025, and especially now in spring — focused strikes on rolling s

Passenger train following russian drone strike in Sumy Oblast, Ukraine, on March 14, 2026.

Investigation: Unmasking the anonymous hosts of 'Russians With Attitude,' a pro-war podcast popular with US far right

Editor’s note: This story is a collaboration between the Kyiv Independent and TUA Research, an independent OSINT group. It's not uncommon for artillery soldiers to write messages on shells before firing them — for the sake of posting them online. They can be vengeful or mocking. But one signed shell that Russians fired around August 2024 stood out as unusual. It promoted a podcast. "Subscribe to 'Russians With Attitude'," read the message, scribbled across the shell. Launched in 2020, "Russi

An investigation has uncovered the identities of the hosts behind Russians With Attitude

About Culture

Our reporting on literature, films, art, and traditions from Ukraine and the latest news on culture in Eastern Europe.

Ukrainian culture
Ukrainian culture has survived centuries of Russian attempts to appropriate Ukrainian art, silence Ukrainian artists, and erase the Ukrainian language. Modern Ukrainian writers, filmmakers, and musicians — some of whom are serving on the front lines — continue to develop Ukrainian culture and fight for Ukraine’s future.

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Ukraine used Storm Shadow to strike Russia's most irreplaceable weapons factory — and why it matters

An MBDA Storm Shadow/Scalp cruise missile on display at the Paris Air Show in Paris, France, on June 17, 2025.

As you read this, somewhere at a TSMC fab in Taiwan's Hsinchu a robot is moving a silicon wafer packed with transistors measuring 2 nanometers — 20 atoms in a row. Mass production of chips using the 2-nanometer process began in late 2025, and TSMC's entire 2026 capacity is already sold out — Apple, Qualcomm, NVIDIA, and AMD are all in line. Samsung has launched its own 2-nanometer Exynos 2600 processor. Intel is advancing its 18A node (1.8 nm). We are talking about the kind of density and effi

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