PEREMOHA, Ukraine — The Russian soldier’s hand reaches from the earth. His digits have retracted into a misshapen claw, a shape no living hand would willingly form. Some creature has already chewed on two of the fingers. A dog sits at the edge of the ...
The Story of Denys Antipov, a Fallen Ukrainian Soldier
KYIV, Ukraine — The Russian drone orbited over the Ukrainians’ position all day. Denys Antipov, a first lieutenant in Ukraine’s 95th Airborne Assault Brigade, recognized the silhouette of an Orlan-10, an unmanned aerial vehicle typically used for ...
DISPATCH: After Russian Occupation, One Ukrainian Village Starts Picking Up the Pieces
MOSHCHUN, Ukraine — The destruction is offensive. It violates your vision. You try to look away and find some safe place to rest your eyes. But there is none. No building left untouched. Some with only a wall or two caved in from the explosions; ...
DISPATCH: In Ukraine, Victory Day Belongs to the Future, Not the Past
KYIV, Ukraine — The crowd gathered in front of St. Michael’s Golden-Domed Monastery and spoke in whispers. Many of their hands held evenly numbered bundles of fresh flowers. That’s the tradition here: an even number of flowers for a ...
Ukrainian Journalist Who Voluntarily Returned to Active Duty Killed in Combat
KYIV, Ukraine — A prominent Ukrainian journalist was killed in combat on Wednesday, May 4, while serving as a front-line soldier near the town of Izyum in Ukraine’s Kharkiv region. A combat veteran of Ukraine’s military campaign in the Donbas, ...
Two Americans, Both Former Army, Wounded by Artillery in Ukraine Combat
KYIV, Ukraine — Two Americans volunteering in Ukraine’s armed forces were wounded by artillery fire during combat in southeastern Ukraine on Wednesday, April 27. US Army veterans Paul Gray and Manus McCaffery were on a mission to destroy a ...
DISPATCH: Kyiv’s Territorial Defense Troops Deploy to Eastern Front
KYIV, Ukraine — Two months into Russia’s full-scale war, Ukrainian forces have won the Battle of Kyiv, and some of the capital city’s territorial defense volunteers have repositioned to defend against a large-scale Russian offensive in eastern and ...
Russian Bombardments in Eastern Ukraine Signal ‘New Phase’ in War
KYIV, Ukraine — Russia has launched barrages of artillery and rocket attacks at multiple locations in Ukraine’s eastern Donbas region, underscoring what is likely a “new phase” in the full-scale war, Ukrainian officials said. The Russian attacks ...
DISPATCH: A Crash Course in Combat First Aid for Ukraine Soldiers and Civilians
KYIV, Ukraine — Amid the sounds of steady explosions and the intermittent wail of air raid sirens, Liudmyla Bileka, a volunteer combat medic and first-aid instructor, gave a command and a group of about 50 trainees sprawled on the ground and cinched ...
DISPATCH: Kyiv Breathes Easier as Ukrainian Forces Gain Ground, US Vets Among Them
KYIV, Ukraine — On a brisk and breezy afternoon, Yevheniy and Liudmyla sat on a bench at an overlook above the Dnipro River in central Kyiv. With the intermittent boom of shelling somewhere in the distance, Liudmyla, 80, pointed her face to the sun ...
DISPATCH: Interview With a Ukrainian MiG-29 Pilot
KYIV, Ukraine — Emotional compartmentalization is among the fighter pilot’s most essential skills. Especially in wartime, when there is little time to reflect on one’s mortality, or to honor the dead. Apart from their fears and sorrows, however, ...
DISPATCH: On the Eve of Battle With an American Volunteer in Ukraine
KYIV, Ukraine — The nearby shelling is loud enough to rattle the walls. From the upper-story balcony of this safe house on the edge of Kyiv, a thick, black plume of smoke is seen rising from a scene of destruction a couple of kilometers away at most. ...
DISPATCH: ‘This Is Hell’: Survivors of the Mariupol Siege Share Their Stories
KYIV, Ukraine — For more than three weeks, Russian forces have bombarded Mariupol, a Ukrainian port city of some 430,000 people. Russia’s relentless shelling and airstrikes have persistently targeted civilians in a bid to break the city’s will to ...
DISPATCH: Kyiv’s Warrior Monks Prepare for Battle
KYIV, Ukraine — Should the rosary go under or over the body armor vest? After trying both options, Archimandrite Makariy settles on under. That way the wooden cross won’t get in the way of his Kalashnikov, he reasons. With the assistance of a ...
Caught Living in a War Zone, An American Veteran Vows to Stay in Ukraine and Help
KREMENCHUK, Ukraine — John Chaney held his wife’s hand while he explained why they decided to stay in Ukraine after Russia’s full-scale invasion. “I have friends all over the country, I have friends who are fighting. It would be hard to leave ...
DISPATCH: Life Carries On in Wartime Kyiv
KYIV, Ukraine — Near sunset, a small group of civilians and soldiers gathered at an overlook by Andriivs'kyi descent in central Kyiv. They stood in silence, looking northward over Kyiv’s Vozdvizhenka neighborhood toward the distant horizon while the ...
DISPATCH: Inside a Ukrainian Hospital and the Terrible Toll of War
POLTAVA, Ukraine — In his novel All Quiet on the Western Front, Erich Maria Remarque wrote, “A hospital alone shows what war is.” This Ukraine hospital is no exception, offering evidence of the many ways in which modern war can damage the human ...
With Russian Invaders at Their Doorstep, a Ukrainian City’s Civil Society Rises
HORISHNI PLAVNI, Ukraine — Some brought their donations in big boxes or within heavy sacks slung over their shoulders. Some carried plastic bags filled with food and clothes and medicine. One woman, in her 80s, arrived with two glass jars ...
DISPATCH: How One Ukrainian City Is Preparing To Resist the Russians’ Arrival
POLTAVA REGION, Ukraine — Ilya opened the rusty metal door to the storage shed and led the way. Within the space, which was dark and dank and smelled of rusted metal, he shined a flashlight on a stockpile of some 1,500 Molotov cocktails. “When the ...
DISPATCH: Ukraine Fortifies Its Entire Territory as Russian Assault Stalls
HORISHNI PLAVNI, Ukraine — With Russian forces stalled in their advances on Kyiv and Kharkiv, Ukrainians are taking advantage of the time to dig in to defend their country’s entire territory. If Moscow attempts to press its disarrayed invasion ...
Kyiv’s Citizens Endure in Wartime
KYIV, Ukraine — After living under a Russian siege for four days, the population of Kyiv has already adapted to a wartime rhythm of life. During moments of relative calm, they try to maintain some habits of their normal lives. But when the air raid ...
Kyiv Under Siege: Russians Enter City After Second Night of Missile Strikes
KYIV, Ukraine — Russian special operations soldiers entered Ukraine’s capital city today, Feb. 25, following two nights of missile attacks and a nationwide military offensive. The fighting occurred in a northern district of Kyiv called Obolon, which ...
Kyiv Civilians Flee as Russian Ground Forces Draw Near
KYIV, Ukraine — They bore the burden of the bags into which they’d packed all they could. They held children’s hands. They emerged from the city’s shadows and formed on the sidewalks and seemed to swell in number as they neared the rail station. They ...
Russia Attacks Ukraine, Targets Key Military Sites as Ground Forces Move In
KYIV, Ukraine — Early this morning Russia began a major military offensive against Ukraine. Russian missile attacks targeted key Ukrainian military sites in advance of a full-scale ground invasion from multiple directions, which remains ...
With Ukraine’s Reserves Activated, Combat Veterans Face Their Demons Again
KYIV, Ukraine — In a national address Tuesday night, Feb. 22, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy ordered the call-up of Ukraine’s first operational reserves — a pool of reservists, aged 18 to 60, many of them combat veterans of the ongoing war ...
Putin Recognizes Russian-Occupied Eastern Ukraine and Deploys Forces, Raising Risk of All-Out War
KYIV, Ukraine — After nearly eight years of undeclared war against Ukraine, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed decrees on Monday, Feb. 21, recognizing Russian-occupied territory in eastern Ukraine as two independent states. Putin also authorized ...
US Warns of False Flag as ‘Centralized Evacuation’ of Civilians Ordered in Russian-Occupied Eastern Ukraine
KYIV, Ukraine — Events are rapidly unfolding in Ukraine’s war zone, raising the specter of a full-scale Russian invasion in the coming days. On Friday, the leader of a Russian puppet government in occupied eastern Ukraine announced a “centralized ...
Fighting in Eastern Ukraine Sparks Fears of Russian False Flag To Justify Invasion
KYIV, Ukraine — Intensified combat erupted overnight and throughout the day along the front lines in Ukraine’s eastern Donbas region, raising fears that Russia is orchestrating a false flag propaganda pretense to justify a full-scale invasion of ...
Tough Choices in Ukraine: Fight, Flight, or Ride Out the Storm
KYIV, Ukraine — On Thursday evening, Feb. 10, a group of Americans and Ukrainians gathered at Pizzeria Avtostantsia in Kyiv’s Podil district to bid farewell to a US Embassy diplomat who was scheduled to depart Ukraine early the next morning. Despite ...
‘This Is Their 1776’: US Army Veterans Train Ukraine Civilians in Resistance Warfare
KYIV, Ukraine — During his two tours in Afghanistan as an Army Ranger, Adam never wrote a death letter to his mother. After just two days in Ukraine, he’s finally ready to write that last farewell. Although he’s come to help train civilians in ...