Aleksander Palikot is a Kyiv-based journalist reporting on war and its impact on society, culture, and politics.
“Putin wants us to live in fear, but for us he is no one.” For decades at Rosh Hashanah, Hasidic pilgrims have flocked to the grave of a spiritual leader who died in Uman, Ukraine, over 200 years ago. This year, the tradition lived on despite Russia’s war.
Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksiy Reznikov has said Kyiv's lightning offensive in the Kharkiv region has gone "better than expected." RFE/RL spoke to Ukrainian military analysts about the genesis of the assault and how the military situation has changed.
Dnipro, a hub for the displaced by the war and a key line of defense against Russian aggression, gears up for winter as the war rages on in three directions. Meanwhile, despite unity in the face of the invasion, relations with Kyiv are chilly.
Six months after Russia launched its invasion, polls point to increased unity among Ukrainians, with 85 percent saying they consider themselves first of all citizens of their country and almost as many saying they will accept no territorial concessions. But a closer look tells a more complex story.
Ahead of Ukraine's Independence Day – and the six-month mark since the Russian invasion on February 24 -- RFE/RL spoke with Yaroslav Hrytsak, a prominent Ukrainian historian and public intellectual. At stake in the war, he said, is “is the very existence of Ukrainians as a nation.”
Before the Russian invasion, the EBSH sport club was like any other gleaming gym in a well-heeled neighborhood, frequented by upwardly mobile members seeking to get fit. Now it hosts combat-training courses, which are in high demand in Ukraine's capital as war rages to the south and east.
Crowded beaches, bustling cafes, sirens, and curfews: As fighting rages in the Donbas and a major battle for southern Ukraine looms, Kyiv residents adjust to life in the relative safety of the capital, which has so far escaped the worst of the Russian assault.
Before February 24, Ihor Husev found considerable success with his dreamlike, apolitical paintings. But that’s “all irrelevant now,” says the Odesa artist, who’s mixing black humor and biting commentary in a series of drawings that take aim at the Russian invasion.
