Ukraine Without Hype

After months of little but continuous defeat, the Russian military looks like it is on the verge of taking the Donbas salt-mining town of Soledar. The battle is ongoing, but the situation is dire and would leave northern Bakhmut more vulnerable. We go into what little we know about the situation on the ground. This is followed by a discussion on the mercenary company Wagner Group, who is leading t...

On the last day of a very difficult year, we do a news roundup of the last headlines of 2022. President Zelensky leaves Ukraine for the first time of the full-scale invasion to hold a joint presser with President Biden, then a speech before a joint session of Congress. In other news, Russia sends its New Year Greetings in the form of multiple murderous missile salvos against most of Ukraine's majo...

Our news update covers the continuing Russian offensive on Bakhmut while Ukraine steps up its campaign of HIMARS strikes and partisan sabotage behind enemy lines, the coming and going power blackouts, the award of the Nobel Peace Prize to a Ukrainian NGO, and what may be the final death of the corrupt Kyiv District Administrative Court. Plus, morbid packages are being sent to Ukrainian embassies t...

Kyiv is suffering from increasingly severe power outages as Russia focuses it strategy on making Ukraine as unlivable as possible for the civilian population during the winter. Then (@11:45) we take our time to remember the Holodomor following its remembrance day on November 26th. What is was, why it was a genocide by the Stalinist regime against the Ukrainian people, and what it may have been lik...

In a rustic candlelit recording session, Anthony covers the liberation of Kherson - the steps that led to the victory, the immediate priorities for the civilian population, and where the fighting is likely to shift to. Twitter Anthony: @Bartaway Romeo: @RomeoKokriatski Ukraine Without Hype: @HypeUkraine Patreon https://www.patreon.com/UkraineWithoutHype Music Celebration in liberated Kherson

Recorded and edited during the windows where everyone has electricity, this episode traces what led Russians to change strategies to targeting civilian infrastructure. Frustrated by continuous battlefield failures, the Russians can only take comfort in making Ukrainians as miserable as they can. Then, ANthony and Romeo discuss some of their recent travels from one side of the country to the other....

Greetings Comrades! This is a crossover episode with the Eastern Border podcast where Anthony and Kristaps discuss their recent reporting trip to the city of Mykolaiv and the nearby frontlines. But first, a combat update regarding the rapid Ukrainian advances on both the Kharkiv and Kherson fronts. And a special thank you to our fixers at the Ukraine Frontline Media Platform. Twitter Anthony: @Bar...

It is a short-form on-the-road episode by Anthony Bartaway, but these are all developing stories that deserve more focus. First up, the Ukrainian advance in the Kharkiv region and northern Donbas is continuing to roll forward and retake occupied territory, but they are discovering all of the horrors seen in all recovered territory. Putin swaps high-profile Ukrainian POWs for his flunky Medvedchuk....

While the Russian army was focused on defending its holdings in Kherson, Ukraine pulled off a stunning offensive to the east of Kharkiv. In less than a week, the Russian garrison in the Izyum salient completely disintegrated, leading to them abandoning Kharkiv Oblast to the west of the Oskil River. This offensive has not stopped, so this episode may become immediately out of date - in the time bet...

This episode is dedicated both to Ukraine's Independence Day and the 6th-month anniversary of the war that threatens that independence. In our news round-up we cover: 00:00:45 - The combat update, including the long-awaited kinetic phase of the Kherson Offensive. 00:19:00 - Russia has been staging continuous provocations at the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant that threaten a meltdown. The IAEA ha...

In a brief news update, Russia focuses its efforts in Donbas on the Donetsk suburb of Pisky, which guards the way to the vital strategic Ukrainian fortress-city of Avdiivka. On the Kherson front, the Russian army pours into the region in order to forestall a Ukrainian offensive, but by doing so put themselves in an extremely logistically precarious position. This is helped by Ukraine, somehow, blo...

In a brief news update, Russia shifts away from the Sloviansk front to Avdiivka in Donbas, while building up its defenses against the awaited Ukrainian offensive in Kherson. Meanwhile, they continue their intense missile strike campaign, especially against Mykolaiv and are suspected of an unusual mass execution in a prison camp in Olenivka. Then, we speak with Sarah Ashton, an American journalist...

Ukraine struck a deal to secure its grain exports, but Russian perfidy meant Moscow broke the agreement almost immediately. Following the end of the battle for Lysychansk, fighting on the front lines has slowed considerably, though that is very relative. Russia has not made any advances since then, and its artillery attacks are far less frequent. This is thanks in large part to the devastating eff...

A rapid Russian advance finishes off the long battle for Luysychansk, allowing them to occupy the entirety of Luhansk Oblast. The Battle for Donbas shifts westward to the Seversk/Bakhmut line. Elsewhere, Ukrainian forces continue to make grinding progress around Kherson and Zaporizhia and force Russia to abandon Snake Island. Next, we discuss the protests in the Karakalpakstan region of Uzbekistan...

A rapid Russian offensive captures territory around Lysychansk, leading to the Ukrainian withdrawal from Severodonetsk, with a tough fight still to come. The Ukrainian parliament ratifies the Istanbul Convention, a landmark treaty against domestic and gendered violence. Ukraine is granted European Union candidate status, paving the way for future membership. It has been the dream of a generation o...

Severodonetsk becomes the centerpiece of the war, as fierce urban fighting claims hundreds of lives. Russian cruise missiles destroy a Kyiv civilian railcar repair plant in the first strike on the city in a month, increasing the difficulty of Ukraine's ability to export grain. Three foreign-born fighters are sentenced to death by the Russian puppet authorities in Donetsk. We go over who these men...

Brief news update: While Russia advances through the streets of Sieverodonetsk, Ukraine breaks through enemy lines in an offensive on the Kherson region. The US agrees to send Ukraine a new type of long-range rocket artillery after some very confusing negotiations. The branch of the Russian Orthodox Church in Ukraine breaks away from Moscow and its future is uncertain. (08:00) We have an inte...

Anthony Bartaway goes over the latest updates from the Russian invasion of Ukraine. (1:00) The fears of Russian general mobilization on Victory Day proved to be false. (1:40) The defenders of Mariupol finally surrender, and their future is uncertain. (4:30) The Ukrainian counter-offensive in Kharkiv successfully drives Russian forces away from the city, in some places straight to the border. (7:50...

The Russian offensive in Donbas becomes bogged down outside of Izyum and Sievierodonetsk, with only minor forward progress since our last update. Meanwhile, Ukrainian forces take the initiative around Kharkiv and score more hits against the Russian Navy and its positions on occupied Snake Island in the Black Sea. Russia's effort to rope Transnistria into a suicidal war is subsiding, but still some...

The Battle for Donbas rages on as the Russian army tries desperately to encircle Ukrainian forces in the east, while the defenders of Mariupol make their last stand in the ruins of the sprawling Azovstal metallurgical plant. Meanwhile, the Ukrainian army presses in on Russian-occupied territory in the East from Kharkiv and the West toward Kherson. Ukraine has begun receiving shipments of heavy wea...

Russian soldiers have retreated from northern Ukraine and will try to re-focus on Donbas, but what they left behind is a path of destruction that must be called a genocide. There have been multiple statements from the Russian government showing genocidal intent, and that intent was followed with action. Evidence of mass murder and other crimes is found in nearly every location that Russia occupied...

Anthony Bartaway and Romeo Kokriatski talk about the current situation in the Russo-Ukraine War. Russian advances around Kyiv, Chernihiv, Sumy, and Kharkiv have been stopped by Ukrainian defenders, but have been replaced with artillery fire and rocket strikes. Along the Black Sea coast, the Russian army has been turned away from Mykolaiv, but is committing horrible war crimes to try and break Mari...

The state of the Russo-Ukraine War as it stood on March 5th. Russia is making gains in the South, but stalling out in the North, leading to their increased reliance on indiscriminate bombardments of civilian areas. While the Russian army is suffering from low morale and poor logistics, the Ukrainian people rally to defend their homes. We go into some of the important topics that come up so far, su...

Short emergency episode: the long-feared war has come. https://twitter.com/HypeUkraine https://www.patreon.com/UkraineWithoutHype

Russia begins a barrage of both artillery fire and misinformation to drum up any excuse to go to war. Their claimed "troop withdrawal" turned out to be just another misdirection. Diplomatic efforts to calm the situation continue to fail. The Russian legislature asks Putin to recognize the occupation authorities in Donbas as sovereign nations, but is rebuffed for now. A Russian cyber attack brings...