KRAMATORSK, Donetsk Oblast – The perfect sunny spring morning in Donetsk Oblast was marred by the constant explosions going off every few minutes a dozen kilometers away. The blasts were varied, coming from artillery and rocket barrages from both sides. A half-dozen soldiers held this outpost a short distance away from
Belarus' parliament approved a bill on May 4 to amend the country’s criminal code, introducing capital punishment for acts of "attempted terrorism." Previously, the death penalty was assigned to those that committed terrorist acts that resulted in casualties. Belarus’ State Security Committee, or KGB, has a long list of
ODESA – Anti-tank hedgehogs, military patrols and an extended curfew aren’t what one expects to see in Ukraine’s main sea resort. In May, Odesa, a Ukrainian port city on the Black Sea, usually rolls into the tourist season, which generates a substantial part of the city’s earnings. Now
Moldova’s Russian-occupied Transnistria region is becoming a new focal point in Moscow's ongoing invasion of Ukraine. Tensions have been rising over the fate of the breakaway republic after several explosions have been reported in Transnistria, which local Russian-led authorities claimed were attacks by Ukraine. One theory is that Russia
KHARKIV – As the small convoy of journalists rounded a bend outside Kharkiv, two dark-green Ukrainian howitzers could be seen on a hill, etched against the warm blue May sky. A little while later, they vanished, likely moved to another location to continue the ongoing artillery battle against the Russians near
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
The Battle of Donbas is raging high, but it’s not going the way Russia wanted it to. Almost 20 days in, the much-anticipated and feared grand offensive falls short of expectations. It is still not even close to achieving its ultimate goal — the encircling and crippling of the core
The 2022 documentary “Navalny” opens with filmmaker Daniel Roher posing a question to Alexei Navalny, a Russian opposition figure whose notoriety is just shy of that of a folk hero and construed by many as the metaphorical “anti-Putin”, the possible vehicle of Russia’s redemption: What message would Navalny leave
After Ukraine ended 2021 with a historically high gross domestic product (GDP) of $195 billion, top officials issued optimistic forecasts for the coming year. Then the war began, killing all of the country's economic plans. As of late April, the Russian military has destroyed 30% of Ukraine’s infrastructure, causing
A March 24 letter to the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), authored by influential Ukrainian civil society members and bearing over 3,800 signatures, criticized the humanitarian body for not doing enough to help Ukraine. The appeal accused the ICRC of prematurely pulling out of the encircled city
Early in the morning on March 9, Rostyslav Kotenko dialed the number of his father, Ukraine’s Armed Forces Colonel Serhii Kotenko. The two hadn't spoken since Kotenko’s father left to fight Russian forces in the war's hot spots, near Kherson and Zaporizhzhia. The long-awaited but brief conversation ended
ZAPORIZHZHIA – Along the freshly green riverbanks, the flowers are in bloom. People are outside, enjoying t-shirt weather in the spring sun. The central city streets are busy with life. This is almost enough to take one’s mind off the city’s many checkpoints and barricades and what they signify.
MAKARIV, Kyiv Oblast – Life is timidly reappearing in the half-destroyed town of Makariv. 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. Ripped-open buildings and craters are everywhere, the
BUCHA, Kyiv Oblast – When Russian forces turned an ordinary residential road in Bucha into a battlefield, wheelchair-bound Liudmyla Usenka, 69, was alone at home in the darkness. With a look of horror on her face, Usenka told the Kyiv Independent about the never-ending sounds of shelling and heavy street fighting
“Mom, you just have to get out,” I was saying into the phone, again and again. “I’ve bought you a ticket, take the night train and come to Kyiv. It’s for your safety, just leave the town for some time. Nobody knows if the worst is to happen
As Russia was preparing to invade Ukraine, experts feared that the Ukrainian banking system would collapse in the event of an all-out war. The closure of Ukraine's main banks, cashless ATMs, and free fall of the national currency were expected by many. Yet, the Ukrainian banking system proved the opposite,
The Russian soldiers that occupied settlements in Kyiv Oblast killed over a thousand civilians. Many people were hunted down systematically for being local political leaders, Donbas combat veterans, Territorial Defense joinees or other people of interest to the Russians. To find them, Russian forces carried lists with people’s names
Even after a Russian missile blew up Kharkiv’s city hall and the central square on March 1, Oleksandr Zuiev didn’t want to leave his hometown. Zuiev, 46, didn’t believe Russian forces would target civilians and never expected his own apartment to come under fire. “I was wrong,
On April 23, two months into Russia's all-out-war against Ukraine, one metro station in Kyiv got crowded again. President Volodymyr Zelensky gave an unusual press conference for Ukrainian and foreign journalists on the platform of the Maidan Nezalezhnosti (Independence Square) metro station in the heart of Ukraine's capital. The most
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
It was a beautiful wedding ceremony at the St. Michael’s monastery in Kyiv downtown. Lit with dozens of candles, the usually crowded church was almost empty when Sviatoslav Fursin and Yaryna Arieva, both dressed in traditional Ukrainian vyshyvanka embroidered shirts, were pronounced husband and wife. But there were no
BUCHA, Kyiv Oblast – As Ukraine recaptured the town of Bucha, the world saw the extent of the violence Russian soldiers inflicted on the civilian population. Since the Russian forces were driven out of Kyiv Oblast, 412 bodies have been found in the town’s streets, buildings and mass graves as
Ukraine and the world have spent weeks in anticipation of the Battle of Donbas, “the second phase” of Russia’s all-out war on Ukraine. Now, it seems, the wait is over. With the drastic intensification of hostilities in Donbas and neighboring areas, President Volodymyr Zelensky on April 18 finally confirmed
BORODYANKA, Kyiv Oblast – Walking through the town of Borodyanka, 40 kilometers northwest of Kyiv, European Union Council President Charles Michel wasn’t hiding his grief. Visiting the largely destroyed Ukrainian town that he has likely never heard of until recently, the official was trying to carefully pick words of support.
BUCHA, Kyiv Oblast – A week before she would have turned 23, Karina Yershova was killed by Russian soldiers in Bucha, a town outside Kyiv. They tortured her and most likely raped her, Karina’s stepfather Andriy Dereko told the Kyiv Independent. Then, they shot her in the head. “It was
Russia’s air force has proven insufficiently effective when it comes to crushing Ukrainian resistance. Despite heavily outnumbering Ukraine’s air force, Russia has failed to achieve total air supremacy, with the skies over Ukraine still being contested. And yet there is one aspect in which Russia’s air force,
Editor's Note: The Kyiv Independent isn't revealing last name of the person interviewed for this story and the name of his native village for safety reasons. Ukrainian farmer Ihor escaped the “living hell” of Russia’s ongoing war in Ukraine in late March after he had spent a month in
Viktoria Dubovitska, 24, and her two children survived the Russian bombing of the Mariupol Drama Theater by pure luck. Like hundreds of Mariupol residents, Dubovitska's family was sheltering near the theater’s main stage. But on March 16, her two-year-old daughter Anastasia got sick, and the family was offered a
The Russian-Ukrainian war has produced yet another hallmark event in the history of warfare. On April 14, after 49 days of Russia’s all-out war, Ukraine inflicted a devastating blow upon the Kremlin’s pride and the symbol of its naval power in the Black Sea. Missile cruiser Moskva, the
HOSTOMEL, Kyiv Oblast — Like so many pilots across the world, Dmytro Antonov, the crew commander of the Antonov An-225 Mriya aircraft, has his own little pre-flight rituals. The world’s biggest and strongest cargo airplane, the master of many flight records, Mriya required special reverence. It had its own spirit
April 14 marks 50 days since Russia launched its brutal all-out war against Ukraine. Moscow's unprovoked military aggression has already cost it approximately 19,900 servicemen and 5,260 units of weapons and other equipment, according to Ukraine's government estimates. Russia hasn't achieved any significant success in its offensive, having
BUCHA, Kyiv Oblast — With cameras clicking and reporters crowding around, three men in grey uniforms began pulling a dead civilian in a black body bag out of the ground. Their movements were confident and precise. They have repeated the procedure dozens of times in recent days. After Kyiv Oblast was
