On Aug. 2, around 11 a.m., Angela was at work when her husband of 32 years, Serhiy, drove their car home from the auto repair shop and parked it under a leafy tree to hide it from a drone. Just a week [...] Continue Reading
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Human Toll of Broken Security Promises
“We were the first to meet the enemy,” said Tetiana Mironenko, representative of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, Commissioner for Human Rights Protection. We met in a spacious office in downtown [...] Continue Reading
On the Edge: Chernihiv’s Resilience Amid Russian Threats
Volodymyr is the mayor of Novoselivka, a village in northern Ukraine, located only 50 miles south of the border where Russian troops are conglomerating again. There are talks of a new offensive. A [...] Continue Reading
Ukrainian Displacement’s Impact on EU Elections
On Feb. 24, 2022, Olha was planning to take her 13-year-old cat Busynka to a vet for chipping and vaccination as they would have to flee Ukraine. The war could start at any moment. Living in [...] Continue Reading
At the Crossroads in Ukraine
At 10:30 p.m. Kyiv time, on April 14, by Odesa railway station, a short, middle-aged woman with a boyish salt-and-pepper haircut gets on the long-distance bus to Moldova and cries quietly, sunglasses [...] Continue Reading
Unprecedented Assault: Russia Attacks Odesa
Odesa, a major Black Sea port located in the south of Ukraine, was targeted by incessant drone and ballistic missile attacks in March 2024. After Russian President Vladimir Putin again announced Odesa [...] Continue Reading
Life and Loss in Kherson Two Years On
On Feb. 5, Russian artillery hit a southern regional center, Kherson, killing four civilians. With 70,000 Russian troops concentrated in Kherson and Zaporizhzhya oblasts along the Dnipro River, the [...] Continue Reading
Truskavets: Turbulent History and Ukrainian Resilience
Truskavets, a picturesque city 84 kilometers south of Lviv in Western Ukraine, is one of Europe’s oldest balneological resorts, offering unique mineral springs and a healing climate. Located in an [...] Continue Reading
Textile Workers Village Struggles to Survive
Poselok Tekstilshchikov, literally translated as Textile Workers Village, appeared in the 1960s in the Soviet Union. Almost 20,000 people, mostly women, worked at the Kherson Cotton Mill. The mill [...] Continue Reading
Kherson: A City in Ruins
The city of Kherson, located in the south of Ukraine, is facing extensive destruction due to Russia’s “scorched earth strategy.” This strategy involves the deliberate burning, destruction and removal [...] Continue Reading
Hasidic Rosh Hashanah in Uman
In 2022, amid Russia’s full-scale invasion, more than 23,000 Hasidic Jews marked Rosh Hashanah in Uman, Ukraine—which is, coincidentally, the city of the author’s ancestors. The pilgrims arrived from [...] Continue Reading
A Pearl by the Sea under Attack
On Aug. 14, Odesa faced yet another Russian military assault in the middle of the night. The Russians attacked the southern seaport with 15 Iranian-made Shahed drones and eight Kalibr missiles [...] Continue Reading