Krynytsya (The Well), your wellspring for Ukraine and Ukrainians

As of November 29, 2022, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees reports that almost 7.9 million Ukrainian refugees have been recorded across Europe. The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services reports in December 2022 that more than 82,000 Ukrainians and their immediate family members have been paroled into the U.S. under the Uniting for Ukraine (U4U) process since the Russian invasio...

Denys Gurak, the CEO and cofounder of the 3D bioprinting company A.D.A.M., has made significant contributions to Ukraine's economy for many years. Now based in the U.S., he is a partner in the ff Blue and Yellow Heritage Fund that plans to make a major investment in Ukrainian tech startups. He reviews his career and discusses why Ukrainian tech startups are positioned to make key contributions to...

Vadim Granovskiy is a well known Ukrainian coffee entrepreneur and the founder of Coffee in Action. His charity fund supports the Armed Forces of Ukraine through the Coffee Care project which supplies high quality coffee and brewing equipment to Ukrainian soldiers. Vadim talks about how he became a world renowned coffee entrepreneur and why he transformed his Kyiv Podil cafe into a major effort to...

Since the Russo-Ukrainian war began in February 2022, the Ukrainian agricultural sector has faced many very difficult challenges in its effort to keep operating as a major player in the global economy. Alex Lissitsa is an agribusiness expert, a Presidium member with the Ukrainian Agribusiness Club and CEO of the Warsaw-listed agricultural company IMC. He reviews what has happened with Ukrainian ag...

In 2016 journalist and writer Bohdan Logvynenko created Ukraїner as a volunteer media project. Through in-depth research called "expeditions", the multimedia platform aims to create an understanding of who Ukrainians are and to put the findings in an easily accessible mass media format online. Yuliia Tymoshenko, editor-in-chief of the English language edition of Ukraїner, talks about its content a...

Ukraine has experienced repeated attacks on its energy infrastructure by Russian missiles and drones. Andrian Prokip, an energy analyst with the Wilson Center's Kennan Institute, talks about the October 2022 attacks and what needs to be done to repair the damage. He also reviews what steps must be taken to prevent future attacks. https://www.wilsoncenter.org/person/andrian-prokip

Marina Sorina, a Ukrainian emigre from Kharkiv, Ukraine, arrived in Verona, Italy in 1995. She is a tour guide and and an active volunteer member of "Malve di Ucraina" cultural association . Marina talks about the development of the Ukrainian community in Italy at the end of the 20th century and reviews the current situation for Ukrainian war refugees. She had an unsuccessful bid in September 2022...

The career of Ukrainian Canadian Michael Bociurkiw as a global affairs analyst, speaker and journalist in both print and live media spans several decades. Early in his career, he covered the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear disaster as a correspondent for The Ukrainian Weekly. Michael is a a frequent commentator on BBC World Television, BBC World Service Radio, CNN, Bloomberg TV, CTV, CBC and Al Jazeera. He...

October 14, 2022 marks the 80th anniversary of the founding of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (Ukrainska Povstanska Armiia, "UPA") in Western Ukraine. From 1942 to 1954 this group of young Ukrainian partisans fought against Germany, the Soviet Union and Poland for Ukrainian independence. Christina Kotlar, the daughter of Julian "Levko" Kotlar, talks about her father's activity in UPA from 1944-1947...

Yurii Kovryzhenko is a Ukrainian chef and cofounder of the London neo bistro Mriya (the Dream). He talks about his vision for this new restaurant and how it should become a very special Ukrainian cultural gathering place in the UK. The restaurant was opened on August 31, 2022. In an effort to help these newcomers in London, Mriya is staffed solely by Ukrainian refugees. https://www.facebook.com/mr...

Urban Space Radio was started by the NGO Teple Misto ("Warm City") in the western Ukrainian city of Ivano-Frankivsk in 2015. Initially the media platform only offered popular music produced by Ukrainian musicians, but added podcasts in 2018. CEO Nadiia Hulchuk talks about the history of the media platform and its efforts to bring together, inform and entertain Ukrainians around the country and abr...

Volodymyr Yermolenko is a Ukrainian philosopher, editor-in-chief of UkraineWorld, director of analytics at Internews Ukraine and host of the "Explaining Ukraine" podcast. In this interview, he explores Ukraine's national identity and how it was shaped. He also looks at Putin's views about Ukraine and why he thinks a diplomatic solution to the war in Ukraine is almost impossible at this point. http...

Since Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24, 2022, it is estimated that nearly 12.8 million people have been displaced. About 7.7 million people are internally displaced within Ukraine and in need of housing. Slava Balbek, the founder and CEO of the architectural firm Balbek Bureau, and John Shmorhun, the Chairman of the NGO MoveUkraine, discuss their respective plans to provide housing for Ukrain...

Jaroslaw (Slavko) Martyniuk is a retired energy economist and sociologist. He was born in Ukraine at the start of World War II. His family made a narrow escape from Communism and settled in Regensburg, Bavaria, Germany. Eventually, the family emigrated to Chicago in the U.S. Some members of his extended family who remained in Ukraine ended up in the Gulag in the Soviet Union. Martyniuk worked for...

Meest-America, the international package and freight delivery service for Eastern Europe, has played a key role in delivering much-needed humanitarian supplies to Ukraine during the war. COO Natalia Brandafi talks about how the company was forced to pivot from its primary mission after the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 to transport humanitarian supplies to Ukraine. Its work with maj...

On June 23, 2022 the European Union formally approved Ukraine's candidate for membership status. Prof. Alexander Motyl, professor of political science at Rutgers-Newark University in Newark, N.J. and an expert on Ukraine, Russia and the USSR, talks about the significance of EU candidate member status for Ukraine and what the next steps might be to full membership. He also provides a recap of Ukrai...

Sergiy Kyslytsya was appointed by President Zelenskyy as the Permanent Representative of Ukraine to the United Nations in 2019. He is a career diplomat who has served Ukraine in various roles since 1993. In this interview, Ambassador Kyslytsya talks about various aspects of the Russo-Ukraine war and his efforts to gain greater assistance and support for Ukraine from the global community. https://u...

Ostap Kryvdyk is a foreign policy and international security expert. His many roles include advisor and consultant to important Ukrainian government and education institutions. Mr. Kryvdyk talks about the Russian occupation of southern Ukraine and the growing resistance to it and partisan activity. His personal profile. https://www.linkedin.com/in/kryvdyk/

Drones are playing a key role in the defense of Ukraine in the war with Russia. Valerii Iakovenko, a cofounder and the CEO of the Ukrainian tech firm DroneUA, points out that his company's primary mission is to provide drones for agriculture. However, it had to pivot to assist Ukraine's military during the Russo-Ukraine war with drones for air reconnaissance, directing weapons fire and conducting...

What do you get when you mix Ukrainian folk music and American bluegrass and Western Swing music? The Lemko Bluegrass Band. Musician Rost Tatomyr founded the group in 2012. They continue to play this exciting blend of traditional music from the Carpathian Mountains and beyond in a variety of venues in Ukraine, Poland and elsewhere. Rost Tatomyr talks about how he formed the group, their approach t...

What is the current state of the economy of Ukraine after 54 days of war with Russia? What will it take to rebuild Ukraine when the war ends and who will pay for it? Natalie Jaresko is an international financial executive and the former Minister of Finance of Ukraine from 2014-2016. She discusses these issues and also talks about her personal efforts to support Ukraine during the war. https://www....

Alexander Motyl, a professor of political science with Rutgers University in Newark, N.J. and a well known speaker, writer and artist, talks about his family, his distinguished career and the future of Ukraine. This interview was produced in July 2021. https://www.newark.rutgers.edu/about-us/have-you-met-rutgers-newark/alexander-motyl

Andrew Mac is a partner in the international law firm Asters and is based in Washington, D.C. He is a non-staff, non-paid adviser to the President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy. He discusses how the president has been able to effectively engage Western countries to actively support Ukraine during the current war with Russia. https://www.asterslaw.com/our_team/mac/

Dora Chomiak is the president of Razom, an international grass-roots organization established during Ukraine’s Euro-Maidan revolution in 2014. Razom now has 100,000 active volunteers and donors, and, since Russia launched its full-scale war on Ukraine on February 24, the organization has raised more than $12 million for the purchase and delivery of humanitarian and other relief aid to Ukraine. Ms....

Oleksandr Kosovan is the CEO of MacPaw and cofounder of the SMRK venture capital fund and a well respected technology sector business leader in Ukraine. He offers his perspective on what it is happening in the IT industry and tech startups in Ukraine during the Russia-Ukraine war. https://macpaw.com/ https://humanitarian-aid.macpaw.com/