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Pussy Riot’s Nadya Tolokonnikova on Navalny, Russian culture, and supporting Ukraine’s military
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Pussy Riot’s Nadya Tolokonnikova on Navalny, Russian culture, and supporting Ukraine’s military

by Kate Tsurkan

“We don't just oppose Putin anymore, we're at war with him,” Nadya Tolokonnikova told the Kyiv Independent during a meeting in Kyiv. “To me, (saying) anything less bold is insufficient to meet the moment.” Tolokonnikova has never shied away from speaking truth to power. As a founding member of Pussy Riot, the Russian feminist and performance art collective, she quickly became a global symbol of creative resistance and unwavering defiance against authoritarianism in Russia. She’s been using her

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Why Ukraine needs Russia's terminal defeat – not just deterrence

Five years into the full-scale conflict, it has become clear that the model of strategic deterrence – the "steel porcupine" that Ursula von der Leyen often invokes when speaking about Ukraine –  offers no guarantee of resilience and long-term peace. The "steel porcupine" model assumes that, given Russia's significant resource advantage, Ukraine's only realistic strategy is to build a defense so strong that continued aggression becomes prohibitively costly for Russia. However, as of 2026, this

Ukrainian servicemen firing toward Russian positions near Bakhmut, Donetsk Oblast, Ukraine, on March 21, 2023.

About Russia

The Kyiv Independent’s coverage of news on Russia. Spanning eleven time zones across Eastern Europe and Asia, Russia has an estimated population of 146 million people. Russia’s capital city is Moscow, which is home to almost one in 10 Russians. Russia’s official currency is the Russian Ruble.

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