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Investigations

Investigation: Inside Russia's FSB prison system in Crimea
Investigations

Investigation: Inside Russia's FSB prison system in Crimea

by Olesia Bida

Two new Russian pretrial detention centers in occupied Crimea form part of a system in which Ukrainian civilians are held for months without formal charges, access to lawyers, or family contact, and detainees report torture and abuse under the watch of Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB), a new investigation by the Kyiv Independent reveals. Former detainees told the Kyiv Independent that their relatives sometimes did not know whether their abducted loved ones were still alive. Russia's Fed

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Kyiv now feels like a front-line city — but its resolve is holding, for now

For much of Russia's full-scale war, massive attacks on Kyiv came mainly at night. Residents learned, as much as possible, to organize their lives around them. They would sleep in hallways or bathrooms, check Telegram channels for updates in the dark, then emerge in the morning and go to work, cafes, concerts, or dinner. That fragile division between wartime nights and relatively normal days is now disappearing. In recent weeks, Russia has increasingly launched jet-powered attack drones toward

Firefighters work after a Russian drone attack in Kyiv, Ukraine, on Sept. 1, 2026.

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Belarus tests a new path back to the West

Belarusian President Lukashenko in St. Petersburg, Russia, on Dec. 21, 2025.

Belarusian dictator Alexander Lukashenko has worked his way out of Western isolation before. Now, he seems to be launching yet another attempt. U.S. President Donald Trump on Sept. 21 announced a "massive" potash deal with Belarus, and only days later, Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski held talks with his Belarusian counterpart in the first ministerial meeting in seven years. Belarus has faced international isolation since the heavily disputed 2020 presidential elections, which Lukashe

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