Explaining Ukraine

Jonathan Littell is a Franco-American writer and journalist. He is the author of the bestselling novel The Kindly Ones, a story of a Nazi SS officer on the Eastern front during World War II. Littell has also reported on the wars in Chechnya, Syria, and Ukraine. Volodymyr Yermolenko, Ukrainian philosopher and chief editor of UkraineWorld, spoke to Jonathan Littell in Lviv, during Lviv Book Forum, a...

Russia's grain blackmail has failed, as Moscow showed it was incapable of blocking Ukrainian food exports. The next big battle will be over Kherson, with the Russians preparing to defend the occupied city. Ukraine is still suffering from massive blackouts. Kyiv Mayor Vitaly Klychko says the city is making contingency plans to evacuate 3 mln people from Kyiv in case of a total blackout in the winte...

Philippe Sands is a British and French writer and lawyer. He is a Professor of Law and Director of the Centre on International Courts and Tribunals at University College London. He also wrote the bestsellers East West Street: On the Origins of Genocide and Crimes against Humanity (2016) and The Ratline: Love, Lies and Justice on the Trail of a Nazi Fugitive. His latest book is The Last Colony: A T...

4-8 hours of blackouts per day: Ukrainians are facing rolling electricity outages after Russian missiles have hit civilian infrastructure in the previous weeks. Russia's warships are damaged in Sevastopol by drone strikes; in response, Russia withdraws from the grain agreement, which could result in a new global food crisis. Learn more from the weekly digest of our Explaining Ukraine podcast. Host...

Luke Harding is The Guardian’s correspondent on Ukraine, Russia, and Eastern Europe. He is the author of books "Mafia State", "Collusion", "A Very Expensive Poison", and "The Snowden Files" - books about Russia and its devastating influence on global politics. His upcoming book is called "Invasion: The Inside Story of Russia's Bloody War and Ukraine's Fight for Survival". Volodymyr Yermolenko, Ukr...

Russian troops are preparing for street fighting in Kherson, as they cannot hold back the Ukrainian counteroffensive in the South. There is a risk that they will blow up the dam at the Nova Kakhovka hydroelectric power plant, provoking one of the worst environmental disasters in Eastern European history. Learn more from the weekly digest of our Explaining Ukraine podcast. Hosts: Volodymyr Yermolen...

This episode of the Explaining Ukraine podcast is made in partnership with Fiction/Non/Fiction podcast. With this podcast’s hosts V.V. Ganeshananthan and Whitney Terrell we discuss the Russian invasion of Ukraine through the lens of Fyodor Dostoevsky’s Crime and Punishment. We talk about how Russian literature and Russian culture have separated crime from punishment, creating a society that distru...

We went to Kharkiv region again, to learn more about the life of Ukrainians near the frontline and in liberated villages and towns. In this episode of the Explaining Ukraine podcast, we tell you the story of the mass grave in Izyum, of an 8-year-old girl killed in Bezruky, of a Ukrainian writer who went missing in Kapytolivka, his autistic son, and of how Kharkiv remains brave and strong with a vi...

Russia is using Iranian kamikaze drones to attack Kyiv, the Ukrainian capital. On October 17th, several drone strikes on Kyiv killed at least 4 people, including a pregnant woman and her husband. Russia is continuing its state terrorism against Ukraine. The increasing number of missile and drone strikes on civilian targets testifies to Russia’s incapacity to win this war on the ground. This is the...

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...