Explaining Ukraine

Russia carries out one of the most massive and horrible missile barrages on Ukraine since the beginning of the full-scale invasion in February. 83 missiles were launched at various Ukrainian cities, including the center of Kyiv, Ukraine’s capital. Civilians have been killed and wounded, dead bodies are lying on the streets in downtown Kyiv. - Learn more from our podcast “Explaining Ukraine”. Hosts...

Russia has made a new illegal annexation of the Ukrainian territories by grabbing 15% of the Ukrainian lands that it occupied in the past 8 years. This is the biggest annexation in Europe since World War II. Ukrainians responded by continuing their counter-offensive and taking control over the first annexed territories. Learn more from the weekly digest of our “Explaining Ukraine” podcast. Hosts:...

What are the cultural origins of Russian disinformation and propaganda? What is the attitude of the Russian intellectual tradition towards rationality and empirical truth? How can this intellectual tradition explain Russian habits of disinformation? Learn more in the new episode of the “Explaining Ukraine” podcast. Hosts: Volodymyr Yermolenko, Ukrainian philosopher and journalist, chief editor of...

The first episode of a new podcast series by UkraineWorld called “Thinking in Dark Times.” UkraineWorld’s chief editor, philosopher Volodymyr Yermolenko, talks to world famous historian Timothy Snyder - about Ukraine, Eastern Europe, dissidents, climate change, tyranny, freedom and the plurality of values. The goal of the new series is to make Ukraine and its current war a focal point of our commo...

447 bodies have been found in a mass grave in Izyum, a liberated town in Eastern Ukraine's Kharkiv Region. 30 bodies bear signs of torture. Izyum is another example of Russian war crimes and atrocities. Russia declared partial “mobilization” is now holding fake “referenda” on the occupied territories of Ukraine. Learn more from the weekly digest of our “Explaining Ukraine” podcast. Hosts: Volodymy...

Crime without punishment and punishment without crime. This is the formula which describes the psychology of Russian impunity during this war. Breaking this link between crime and punishment destroys the balance of justice and encourages the seeking of perverted forms of freedom in transgressing all possible rules and laws. In this episode of the “Explaining Ukraine” podcast we try to understand t...

We are witnessing a remarkable counter-offensive of the Ukrainian army in the Eastern part of the country. Ukrainians liberated more territories in 4 days than Russians took in 4 previous months. Let’s try to understand the Ukrainian successes. This is the weekly digest of our Explaining Ukraine podcast. Hosts: Volodymyr Yermolenko, Ukrainian philosopher and journalist, chief editor of UkraineWorl...

The Ukrainian Armed Forces have launched a counter-offensive against the Russian-occupied South of the country. Its aim is not to recapture territories immediately, but to disrupt Russia’s military logistics and make Russia's hold there untenable. IAEA experts came to the Russian-occupied Zaporizzhia Nuclear Power Plant to deter a potential nuclear disaster. We also analyze the weapons Russia is u...

Wounds of war are visible and felt in places from which the war left five months ago. Buildings are destroyed, and human destinies have been destroyed too. We traveled to places around Kyiv and we felt again the pain of what happened in February and March. Learn more from our new episode of the “Explaining Ukraine” podcast. Hosts: Volodymyr Yermolenko, Ukrainian philosopher and journalist, chief e...

Ukraine celebrated its independence day on August 24th amidst fears that Russia will use this date for major strikes against Ukrainian targets, including Kyiv. However, the doomsday didn’t happen. Does this mean that Moscow has no real military tools to achieve a breakthrough in this war? This is the weekly digest of our “Explaining Ukraine” podcast. Hosts: Volodymyr Yermolenko, Ukrainian philosop...

Ukraine celebrates its independence day. This is not a usual independence day. It is full of pain, destruction and death. But over 90 per cent of Ukrainians believe Ukraine will be victorious against the Russian invasion. In this episode of the “Explaining Ukraine” podcast we explain the origins and meaning of the Ukrainian independence. Hosts: Volodymyr Yermolenko, Ukrainian philosopher and journ...

Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second largest city, is under Russian missile strikes every night. Situated 40 km from the Russian border, the city is wounded but remains strong. We went to Kharkiv with a volunteer and cultural trip. We’re telling you the Kharkiv story in a new episode of our “Explaining Ukraine” podcast. -- Hosts: Volodymyr Yermolenko, Ukrainian philosopher and journalist, chief editor of Ukr...

Targets in Russian-occupied Crimea are regularly under attack now, which shows Russian weakness to defend the Ukrainian peninsula it occupied back in 2014. The war is severely damaging the Ukrainian economy and energy sector, with many regions risking to stay without electricity and heating during the upcoming winter. Ukrainian volunteers buy a space satellite for the Ukrainian army on money raise...

Russia has taken Europe’s biggest nuclear plant as a hostage and threatens to provoke a major nuclear disaster in Ukraine. At the same time, Russians are showing weakness with apparent incapacity to defend targets in the occupied Crimea. -- This is the weekly digest of our “Explaining Ukraine” podcast. Hosts: Volodymyr Yermolenko, Ukrainian philosopher and journalist, chief editor of UkraineWorld....

Imagine a village near a European capital . Within several weeks, this village is totally destroyed by Russian troops. In its outskirts, you can barely find a house, out of hundreds, which is not either totally destroyed or severely damaged. The village is called Moshchun, near Kyiv. We have visited it, talked to its inhabitants, and are here to tell its stories. Hosts: Volodymyr Yermolenko, Ukrai...

We are analyzing the key features of the Ukrainian civic and political identity: a long history of fighting against tyranny, a culture of self-organization, dynamism of social change, and a bottom-up understanding of politics. This episode is made in partnership with VoiCEE, a podcast from Central and Eastern Europe, launched by Notes from Poland together with several independent media outlets in...

Amnesty International published a report in which it blamed Ukraine for “violating international humanitarian law” by “establishing bases and operating weapons systems in populated residential areas”. The report faced harsh criticism in Ukraine, both from the government, human rights defenders and journalists. – Russians are sending more troops to the South in an attempt to counteract a possible U...

Over 50 Ukrainian prisoners of war were killed in an explosion in Olenivka, a town on the Russian-occupied territory in Eastern Ukraine. Earlier, a video circulated in Russian social networks showing a Russian soldier castrating and then killing a Ukrainian prisoner of war. We analyze these crimes, as well as the trends on the frontline and in the newly occupied territories, in our weekly digest o...

Olha Sukhenko, the village head of Motyzhyn, near Kyiv, was tortured and killed by Russian soldiers, together with her husband and her son. We went to Motyzhyn and talked to a local woman who closely knew her. Regardless the exact causes of the murder, it is clear that Olga Sukhenko has always showed a remarkable solidarity with her people. – We also went to Makariv and talked to a woman who left...

Andriy Andrushkiv, a Ukrainian activist who runs an NGO reforming Ukraine’s institutions, became a volunteer soldier after February 24th. Andriy is also a theologian, and regularly publishes commentary on the Bible, trying to present the Gospels’ stories as if they were happening with us, now. We sent Andriy our questions through a messenger, and he replied to them using a smartphone dictaphone fr...

Agreements aimed to unblock Ukrainian grain exports were signed this week in Istanbul. The very next day, Russia attacked Ukraine's most critical port in Odesa. The three port complexes of Odesa are key to export Ukrainian food worldwide. – This is the weekly digest of our “Explaining Ukraine” podcast. Hosts: Volodymyr Yermolenko, Ukrainian philosopher and journalist, chief editor of UkraineWorld....

Makariv, a town near Kyiv, suffered from heavy fighting in February and March 2022. We visited Makariv and talked to its residents. Listen to our stories – about a director of a culture centre who evacuated town residents under the shelling, about a woman who lived for almost a month under occupation, about another woman who was raped by a Russian soldier and whose husband was killed when he tried...

Why is Ukraine constantly asking for weapons? Can it defend itself with the weapons it already has? Can it mount a counter-offensive against the Russians army with the weapons available to it now? How have the armaments supplied by Ukraine’s international partners made a difference on the frontline? – Listen to our conversation with Alina Frolova, Ukraine’s former deputy defense minister and curre...

Russians continue their missile strikes against civilians in Ukrainian cities. Horrible attack on Vinnytsia (at least 24 people dead, many wounded and missing); attacks on Chasiv Yar, Dnipro, Kharkiv, Mykolaiv. Russian “operational pause” in the Eastern Ukraine. Prominent human rights activist Maksym Butkevych is in Russian captivity. We focus on these key developments in this week’s episode of th...

One of Ukraine’s finest reporters, Nataliya Gumenyuk has traveled across many Ukrainian regions to understand the Russian invasion, Ukrainian resistance, and grassroots Ukrainian democracy. In this episode of the “Explaining Ukraine” podcast, she shares her reflections on what she has seen. Host: Volodymyr Yermolenko, Ukrainian philosopher and journalist, chief editor of UkraineWorld.org. Support...