Aleksander Palikot is a Ukraine-based journalist covering politics, history, and culture. His work has appeared in Krytyka Polityczna, New Eastern Europe, Jüdische Allgemeine, and beyond.
Russia has opened an energy front' in its war against Ukraine, launching massive attacks that caused power outages while killing dozens of people. But as citizens, authorities, and energy companies learn to deal with the blackouts, there are growing indications that Moscow's efforts may fall flat.
"If a year ago somebody had told me I'd become a partisan or kill somebody, I'd have laughed at them. But here we are," says Vladyslav Nedostup, a sociology graduate and car-parts dealer who sought "bloody revenge" after a former classmate and her daughter were killed by a Russian missile.
After the Russian retreat from Kherson, power outages and other problems did not dim the euphoria as Ukrainians celebrated the liberation a key city. Invading forces across the river and bangs of artillery in the background served as reminders that the war is far from over and the danger persists.
Determined to stay put, Volodymyr survived the long Russian occupation of Velyka Oleksandrivka, a Kherson region town that was left in ruins when the invaders pulled out. But like other Ukrainians whose lives have been torn apart, he has lost a great deal, and there’s no way back to his past life.
As the battle for the strategically important city of Kherson looms over the region and Russian occupation authorities deport civilians to the eastern bank of the Dnieper River, civilians in villages under fire are crossing the front line to get to Ukraine-controlled territory.
The Russian invasion left many civilians in eastern Ukraine trapped between bad choices or deprived of any choice at all. The ongoing Ukrainian counteroffensive has brought an end to the brutal occupation -- but many have been left with their lives shattered.
Determined to escape as shelling threatened their village in eastern Ukraine, two dozen desperate people thought they were taking a safe route out -- but it all went bad quickly. At a Kharkiv hospital, survivors recall an ambush that authorities say killed 13 children and 11 adults.
Long before the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Kharkiv artist Hamlet Zinkivskiy was known for the spare, thought-provoking murals that changed the face of his beloved city. Now he is turning its walls into a record of wartime experiences.
“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.
