MEDUZA/EN/VHF
794 episodes - English - Latest episode: almost 2 years ago -Unofficial text to speech broadcast of meduza.io/en front-page articles.
**experimental**
Voices and audio post-processing are periodically tuned.
GitHub.
Apple Podcasts Google Podcasts Overcast Castro Pocket Casts RSS feed
Episodes
‘It’s impossible for the system not to change’: patch from a Buryatian village where one percent of residents have joined the war in Ukraine
June 12, 2022 23:52 - 2 seconds - 128 KBSince Russia's invasion of Ukraine began, 23 men from Selenduma, a village in Buryatia, have joined the war; that's about one percent of the village's population. In late March, the village buried Andrey Dandarov, the first resident to return from the war in a body bag. A week later, residents held a patriotic motor rally, lining up their cars to form the Z symbol. In early May, the local magazine Lyudi Baikala (LB; "People of the Baikal") published a report about how young men from ...
‘It’s impossible for the system not to change’: patch from a Buryatian village where one percent of residents have joined the war in Ukraine
June 12, 2022 23:52 - 2 seconds - 128 KBSince Russia's invasion of Ukraine began, 23 men from Selenduma, a village in Buryatia, have joined the war; that's about one percent of the village's population. In late March, the village buried Andrey Dandarov, the first resident to return from the war in a body bag. A week later, residents held a patriotic motor rally, lining up their cars to form the Z symbol. In early May, the local magazine Lyudi Baikala (LB; "People of the Baikal") published a report about how young men from ...
‘We want to die for the motherland too!’: st after officials bulldozed flowers left at a WWII monument Protesters sang Soviet songs and used pro-Russian symbols the day after Latvia officially commemorated the victims in Ukraine
June 12, 2022 23:47 - 5 minutes - 5.4 MBOn May 10, a spontaneous protest broke out in Riga's Victory Park after city officials used a bulldozer to remove the flowers left at the park's Monument to the Liberators of Riga. Residents who were upset by the authorities' actions started bringing new flowers to the monument, and a crowd formed. The impromptu gathering, which included demonstrations of Russian symbols and Soviet songs, spurred outrage among other residents -- and the country's leaders. Original Article: https://me...
Russia supporters in Riga staged a protest after officials bulldozed flowers left at a WWII monument: Russian troops
June 12, 2022 23:46 - 17 minutes - 16.4 MBAccording to Russian officials, roughly 1 million people have been forced to evacuate from Ukraine into Russia since Moscow began its full-scale invasion on February 24. In many areas, evacuating civilians into Ukrainian-controlled territory is simply impossible due to Russian shelling. Left with no other way to safety, refugees are being forcibly deported to Russia via the Kremlin-controlled "Donetsk People's Republic" (DNR) and occupied Crimea. Along the way, they are subjected to ...
‘I’ve never been so scared’: oes The Kremlin is renaming streets across the country in honor of Donbas combatants, hoping to ‘prime public opinion’ for another annexation
June 12, 2022 23:43 - 8 minutes - 7.64 MBOn May 9, when Russia celebrates the USSR's victory against Nazi Germany, several regions across the country announced that they were renaming local streets in honor of soldiers and political figures from the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic (DNR). For example, the cities of Grozny, Yakutsk, and Omsk dedicated streets to Alexander Zakharchenko, the DNR's leader until his assassination in August 2018. Other cities announced streets named after Vladimir Zhoga, also known by hi...
Russians, meet your new heroes: ussia’s war, Ukraine’s president is more popular than ever. Here’s how his team rallied a nation — and the West.
June 12, 2022 23:42 - 14 minutes - 13.3 MBOn the eve of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, President Volodymyr Zelensky's rating was less than 25 percent. Moscow waging an all-out war turned Zelensky into a national hero -- one who now enjoys more than 90 percent support among Ukrainians. For Meduza, journalist Konstantin Skorkin breaks down how Zelensky and his team are running the country, managing Ukraine's defense, and cultivating the president's image as a wartime leader. Original Article: https://meduza.io/en/fea...
The collective Zelensky: Ukraine and Russia are facing the same two problems on the eastern front: enemy fire and the Siverskyi Donets river
June 12, 2022 23:40 - 9 minutes - 9.02 MBIn early May, both Russian and Ukrainian troops launched offensives on eastern Ukraine across different parts of the less-than-mighty Siverskyi Donets river (which crosses from Russia into Ukraine before flowing parallel to the Ukrainian-Russian border). Since then, it's been the same story over and over again: one side's troops try to cross the river to launch an attack, but enemy artillery thwarts their attempts, destroying whatever bridge they've built and their forward guard. Eve...
Deadlock in the Donbas: , crossed ourselves, and bid our lives farewell’ Three Azovstal steel plant workers tell the story of their escape
June 12, 2022 23:38 - 21 minutes - 19.7 MBThe Azovstal steel plant remains the sole point of resistance against the Russian invaders in Mariupol. Though fighting has been ongoing outside of the plant for almost two months, none of the civilians hiding inside were evacuated until April 30. Azovstal workers Ilya and Pavlo (names changed) were some of the first civilians to escape the plant; they're now safe in Zaporozhye. They spoke to Meduza along with Azovstal HR director Ivan Goltvenko, who left the city on March 9 and has ...
‘We comforted the kids, crossed ourselves, and bid our lives farewell’: sian volunteers who helped Ukrainian refugees reach Estonia
June 12, 2022 23:33 - 22 minutes - 20.4 MBUp until the end of April, a group of volunteers were working in Penza to help Ukrainian refugees get to St. Petersburg and, from there, to Estonia. However, threats from anonymous Telegram channels and direct pressure from unknown parties -- graffitied doors, slashed tires -- forced the Penza volunteers to shut down their efforts. Journalist Vladimir Sevrinovsky spent several days with the last group of refugees from Mariupol whom the Penza group was able to help get out of Russia. ...
‘Ukro-Nazi enablers’: e’re being protected’ How residents of Russia’s Belgorod region are learning to live with shelling. Meduza and 7×7 report.
June 12, 2022 23:30 - 13 minutes - 12.4 MBSince the first days of the war, Russia's Belgorod region has been on the frontline. The regional center is located just 39 kilometers (24 miles) from the Ukrainian border, and its suburbs are even closer. Uniformed men and military equipment patrol the streets of Belgorod, where tent hospitals now stand alongside coffee shops and parking lots. Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov regularly reports incidents of shelling, but life goes on. In this joint report, Meduza and Russian news outlet 7...
‘The trenches mean we’re being protected’: o Russians support the war against Ukraine? Shura Burtin investigates.
June 12, 2022 23:26 - 1 hour - 63.5 MBFor more than two months now, many Russians have openly supported the Kremlin's "special military operation" in Ukraine -- choosing to close their eyes to executions and rapes, the shelling of peaceful cities, unthinkable destruction, and millions of people losing their homes. Journalist Shura Burtin spent several weeks talking to Russian citizens about their thoughts and feelings about the war. For Meduza, Burtin recounts how fear and a sense of humiliation defeated Russians' humani...
Feeling around for something human : ad now’ In Russia’s Buryatia, soldiers killed in Ukraine are buried daily. Has this changed how locals feel about the war?
June 12, 2022 23:09 - 26 minutes - 24.4 MBAs Russia's military casualties in Ukraine continue to mount, Buryatia has emerged as the country's second-hardest hit region in terms of losses. The only place losing more men is Dagestan. Nevertheless, the speeches at the near daily funerals in Ulan-Ude and other Buryatian cities still resound with support for Russia's war against "Nazis" and gratitude for the fallen soldiers not being "left behind," but shipped home for burial. At the end of April, the local magazine People of the...
‘Everything here smells like the dead now’: urn’ Why is the Kremlin incorporating Soviet symbols into its war propaganda?
June 12, 2022 23:03 - 5 minutes - 5.17 MBRussia's war propaganda has begun co-opting Soviet symbols with increasing frequency. Monuments to the "grandmother with the Soviet flag," for example, have popped up across the country. And both Kremlin officials and propaganda narratives continue to frame Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine as an extension of the "Great Patriotic War." Meduza special correspondent Andrey Pertsev looked into the Kremlin's "Soviet" agitprop and learned how it's connected to Moscow's drive to anne...
‘It’s a reference to the USSR — to its return’: rities' new strategy for preventing protests
June 12, 2022 23:02 - 7 minutes - 6.83 MBOn May 13, the St. Petersburg news outlet Bumaga published an in-depth investigation into a new method the city's police have devised for suppressing protests: shortly before planned protest rallies, security officials use bomb threat charges to detain large groups of activists and hold them in detention facilities for 48 hours, causing them to miss the protests. On March 5, just one day before a nationwide protest rally against the war, St. Petersburg police used this method to arre...
‘Telephone terrorism': we’re fighting for’ How Russia threatens contract soldiers who refuse to fight in Ukraine
June 12, 2022 23:01 - 14 minutes - 13.2 MBMoscow has yet to confirm the exact number of Russian soldiers currently fighting in Ukraine. According to various estimates, Russia's full-scale invasion has involved up to 100,000 troops. In interviews with Meduza, several relatives of contract soldiers said that it's impossible for them to resign from military service -- those that attempt to quit are threatened with criminal charges of desertion and treason. Meduza correspondent Sasha Sivtsova reports on how Russian soldiers are ...
‘We have no idea who we’re fighting for’: rnalists interview ‘Granny Anya,’ the elderly Ukrainian woman whose Soviet nostalgia made her an icon of Russian war propaganda
June 12, 2022 22:58 - 8 minutes - 7.88 MBSince early April, Kremlin propaganda has celebrated "Granny Anya" as a symbol of supposed Ukrainian popular support for Russia's "special military operation." Anna Ivanovna Ivanova, a 69-year-old woman who lives in Velyka Danylivka (a town outside Kharkiv), became an icon in Russia after appearing in a viral Internet video where she greeted a group of soldiers with a Soviet flag and said she was praying for Vladimir Putin. More recently, however, Ukrainian officials released an inte...
‘Maybe the Lord Himself sent me’: nians in charge of newly Russian-occupied territories
June 12, 2022 22:56 - 14 minutes - 13.7 MBThe first step of Putin's "special military operation" against Ukraine ended with the creation of an occupied bridgehead in the south of the country that's adjacent to Russian-annexed Crimea on one side and to the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic on the other. Russia's military has captured the majority of the Kherson region and part of the Zaporizhzhia region. In the occupied cities, Russian occupants and their collaborators have set up "civilian-military administrations," ...
Meet the collaborators: ave been forgotten’ Parents of Russian conscripts who disappeared aboard the Moskva still seeking answers one month later
June 12, 2022 22:54 - 8 seconds - 216 KBA month has passed since a Ukrainian missile strike sank the Russian warship Moskva. In total, there were around 500 people aboard the vessel, which was the Black Sea Fleet's flagship. The Russian Defense Ministry has only acknowledged that one sailor was killed, while claiming that another 27 are missing. On condition of anonymity, the mother of a conscripted sailor who disappeared aboard the Moskva told Meduza about her month-long battle with the Russian authorities for information...
‘Apparently our guys have been forgotten’: d you' The story of a Ukrainian man whose home was occupied by Russian troops as he took shelter underneath
June 12, 2022 22:54 - 6 seconds - 194 KBBohdan is an airfield service employee at Hostomel Airport, which was the site of heavy fighting at the very start of the war. For three weeks, he and his family lived in the basement of their apartment building, right across from the occupied airport. The building, which came under heavy fire at times, was occupied first by Chechen riot police, then by an airborne assault unit from Omsk. In mid-March, all of the basement's inhabitants were forcibly taken to Belarus. Bohdan told Medu...
‘Apparently our guys have been forgotten’: d you' The story of a Ukrainian man whose home was occupied by Russian troops as he took shelter underneath
June 12, 2022 22:52 - 4 minutes - 4.57 MBBohdan is an airfield service employee at Hostomel Airport, which was the site of heavy fighting at the very start of the war. For three weeks, he and his family lived in the basement of their apartment building, right across from the occupied airport. The building, which came under heavy fire at times, was occupied first by Chechen riot police, then by an airborne assault unit from Omsk. In mid-March, all of the basement's inhabitants were forcibly taken to Belarus. Bohdan told Medu...
‘You’re lucky it was us Chechens who found you': afraid of us’ Meduza reports from Kharkiv, where Ukrainians are cleaning up the mess left by the city's failed invaders
June 12, 2022 22:52 - 7 minutes - 6.86 MBOn May 15, Western military experts declared that Ukraine had won the "battle for Kharkiv." Analysts pointed to the retreat of Russian detachments around Kharkiv in the face of Ukrainian counterattacks. Russian troops had been fighting to take control of the city, which lies about 25 kilometers (15 miles) from the Russian border, since the beginning of the war. Residential areas on the city's outskirts were torn apart, and on March 2, a missile strike hit the city's central square. T...
‘You’re lucky it was us Chechens who found you': afraid of us’ Meduza reports from Kharkiv, where Ukrainians are cleaning up the mess left by the city's failed invaders
June 12, 2022 22:50 - 25 minutes - 23.4 MBOn May 15, Western military experts declared that Ukraine had won the "battle for Kharkiv." Analysts pointed to the retreat of Russian detachments around Kharkiv in the face of Ukrainian counterattacks. Russian troops had been fighting to take control of the city, which lies about 25 kilometers (15 miles) from the Russian border, since the beginning of the war. Residential areas on the city's outskirts were torn apart, and on March 2, a missile strike hit the city's central square. T...
‘We weren’t afraid of them — but they were very afraid of us’: raine will determine if Putin cancels Russia’s elections in September, sources tell Meduza
June 12, 2022 22:46 - 5 minutes - 4.95 MBOn May 17, lawmakers in the State Duma discussed the possibility of cancelling both gubernatorial and regional and municipal elections scheduled for September 11, 2022. The stated reason is the need to support the president unanimously during Russia's "special military operation" in Ukraine. Meduza special correspondent Andrey Pertsev learned that Vladimir Putin has yet to reach a final decision about postponing the elections, but the Federal Security Service and National Security Co...
‘We’re flying blind now’: is looking to sell Russian assets, sources tell Meduza. The company says otherwise.
June 12, 2022 22:44 - 3 minutes - 3.52 MBInternet giant Yandex is looking for buyers for its Russian assets Yandex Search, Yandex.Mail, and the movie database Kinopoisk, a source close to the company's co-founder Arkady Volozh told Meduza. This was corroborated by another source close to the company's management. Original Article: https://meduza.io/en/feature/2022/05/17/deal-or-no-deal
Deal or no deal?: here what they did in Mariupol’ Why Georgia's response to the war has been feeble — despite months of pro-Ukraine protests in Tbilisi
June 12, 2022 22:43 - 19 minutes - 17.5 MBSince the start of Russia's invasion of Ukraine, Georgian citizens have enthusiastically supported Ukraine: thousands of people have attended anti-war rallies in Tbilisi, the city is covered in Ukrainian flags, and some Georgians have even chosen to fight alongside Ukrainians as volunteers. Despite all that, official relations between the two countries remain strained. Ukraine withdrew its ambassador from Georgia a month ago and has criticized the country for imposing insufficient sa...
‘Russia would do here what they did in Mariupol’: amanin captures Russia’s ‘peaceful’ capital in wartime
June 12, 2022 22:39 - 2 minutes - 2.65 MBRussia has been waging a full-scale war against Ukraine for nearly three months. Photographer Petr Kamanin has spent this time taking pictures of Moscow and Muscovites, in an attempt to capture how ordinary, everyday scenes have changed since February 24. Meduza shares these snapshots of the Russian capital along with the photographer's commentary. Original Article: https://meduza.io/en/feature/2022/05/18/moscow-has-changed-for-me
‘Moscow has changed for me’ : adim Shishimarin is the first Russian soldier on trial for war crimes in Ukraine. Meduza interviewed his mother.
June 12, 2022 22:39 - 11 minutes - 10.5 MBA Kyiv court began the first war crimes trial for a Russian soldier on May 13. On Wednesday, May 18, the accused, 21-year-old Vadim Shishimarin, pleaded guilty to fatally shooting a civilian in Ukraine's Sumy region. Meduza interviewed Shishimarin's mother Lyubov, who lives in the town of Ust-Ilimsk in Russia's Irkutsk region (she asked that her surname, which isn't the same as her son's, not be disclosed). Original Article: https://meduza.io/en/feature/2022/05/19/they-won-t-turn-him...
‘They won’t turn him over’: Taken to the Russian Far East, refugees from Mariupol were promised housing and jobs. They have yet to receive either.
June 12, 2022 22:35 - 13 minutes - 12.8 MBFor three weeks, more than 300 refugees from Mariupol have been living in the town of Vrangel in Russia's Far Eastern Primorsky Krai. During Russia's weeks-long siege of Mariupol, which is now under occupation, many residents were unable to safely escape to territory controlled by Kyiv. Instead, some civilians seeking evacuation were forcibly deported to the Russian city of Taganrog. Upon arriving at the local train station, these refugees were talked into going to the country's Far ...
‘I don’t know what to do’: er sees it Journalist Dmitry Kolezev publishes messages from ‘Maria V.,’ revealing what one of the Russian president’s alleged children thinks about Crimea, the West, and more
June 12, 2022 22:33 - 3 minutes - 2.94 MBVladimir Putin's eldest known daughter, Maria Vorontsova, is reportedly active in a Telegram chat group used by alumni of Moscow State University's Medical Department, where she sometimes writes about current events. Dmitry Kolezev, the editor-in-chief of the website Republic, shared this information on Wednesday, May 18, 2022, posting several screenshots received from a member of that chat group showing Vorontsova's comments. The messages, if authentic, offer a rare glance at the po...
How Putin’s eldest daughter sees it: ts doubt on prisoner exchange for soldiers from Ukraine’s Azov regiment
June 12, 2022 22:31 - 5 minutes - 5.5 MBAfter weeks of defending the Azovstal steel plant as Ukraine's last stronghold in Mariupol, soldiers from the Azov Battalion began leaving the site on May 16. The troops were evacuated into Russian-controlled territory as part of what Kyiv describes as an ongoing "rescue operation." However, officials in Russia and the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic (DNR) have cast doubt on the possibility of swapping these soldiers in a prisoner exchange, calling instead for Azov troops t...
‘It was the only option’: me alone’ The first Russian soldier charged with a war crime in Ukraine testifies in court, confessing to following orders
June 12, 2022 22:30 - 6 minutes - 6.02 MBOn Thursday, the second court hearing of 21-year-old Russian Sergeant Vadim Shishimarin took place in Kyiv. Shishimarin is the first Russian soldier to face formal charges for war crimes in Ukraine. He is accused of murdering a 62-year-old man in the Sumy region named Oleksandr Shelipov. According to prosecutors, on February 28, Shishimarin and four other Russian servicemen ended up in the village of Chupakhivka after their convoy was attacked and dispersed. The soldiers then fired o...
‘I fired so they’d leave me alone’: yone’ Meduza spoke to five McDonald’s employees to find out what they think about the fast-food giant leaving Russia for good
June 12, 2022 22:29 - 11 minutes - 10.4 MBMcDonalds has announced that it is leaving the Russian market after 32 years of doing business there. Since mid-March, operations have been suspended at McDonalds' 850 restaurants across Russia. On May 16, the company confirmed that it will sell its Russian business. Existing locations will be rebranded, and the iconic Golden Arches will vanish. According to the state news agency TASS, the new restaurants could open as soon as mid-June. Before the invasion, McDonalds employed 62,000 ...
‘It would really suck to lose everyone’: Proekt collect data on the military officials commanding Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Many were born and raised there.
June 12, 2022 22:26 - 2 minutes - 2.65 MBThe investigative news website Proekt has published a database of information about Russian military units currently fighting in Ukraine. In total, the database names 166 commanding officers, offering varying degrees of detail about each individual's activities and biography, as well as information about their income, property, debts, and any recorded fines. Nearly two dozen of the officials identified were born or raised in Ukraine. Original Article: https://meduza.io/en/feature/202...
166 names: n’s new ‘son-in-law’ The Russian president’s daughter Katerina Tikhonova is in a relationship with a ballet star named Zelensky
June 12, 2022 22:26 - 13 minutes - 12.1 MBRussian ballet master Igor Zelensky may share a last name with Ukraine's current president -- but he's actually the father of Vladimir Putin's granddaughter. A joint investigation by Meduza, Current Time TV, and the Dossier Center has revealed that Zelensky has been in a years-long relationship with Putin's purported second daughter, Katerina Tikhonova. Until recently, Zelensky was based in Munich, where he worked as the director of the Bavarian State Ballet. And Tikhonova, who heads...
Meet Putin’s new ‘son-in-law’: ti-aircraft defense system’ The story of four young Kharkiv residents who have been living in a monastery since the war began
June 12, 2022 22:23 - 27 minutes - 24.9 MBOn February 23, four members of an Orthodox youth movement in Kharkiv set out on a four-day pilgrimage. Their plan was to return home on February 28. At 5:00 a.m on February 24, they got off their train in Kyiv and learned that Russia's invasion had begun. Ever since then, they've been living in a Ukrainian Orthodox monastery in the Kyiv region. Some of them have nowhere else to go because their homes have been destroyed; others have made the decision not to leave for religious reaso...
‘The monks’ prayers are an anti-aircraft defense system’: footage from a Russian soldier’s phone into a short documentary
June 12, 2022 22:18 - 8 minutes - 7.52 MBOn May 11, the online newspaper Ukrayinska Pravda released a short documentary called "The Occupant" ("Okupant," in Ukrainian), which tells the story of a Russian lieutenant named Yury Shalaev. According to the newspaper, 24-year-old Shalaev served as the commander of a motorized rifle platoon in a military unit based in Shali, Chechnya. He was deployed to Ukraine on March 3, as part of Russia's full-scale invasion -- and he recorded his wartime experiences on his phone. Shalaev was ...
‘It was hard to watch’: oice’ The soldier who documented the siege of Azovstal from the inside
June 12, 2022 22:15 - 2 minutes - 2.56 MBOn May 20, Azov regiment member and Mariupol defender Dmytro Kozatsky posted two farewell photos on social media as he left the Azovstal steel plant, where he had been living under siege for over two months. Original Article: https://meduza.io/en/feature/2022/05/25/azovstal-s-ears-and-eyes
‘Azovstal’s eyes and voice’: h Putin’ Meduza’s sources say a new wave of pessimism in the Kremlin has Russia’s hawks demanding more brutality in Ukraine while others scout for presidential successors
June 12, 2022 22:15 - 8 minutes - 7.63 MBAs of today, Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine has been underway for exactly three months. Throughout Moscow's "special military operation," representatives of the Russian elite have repeatedly changed their positions on the war in Ukraine and the crisis at home. Moderate optimism replaced what was initially extreme pessimism, only to be ousted by a wave of moderate pessimism. Sources close to the Kremlin told Meduza that these moods have shifted again, as more elites express d...
‘Almost nobody is happy with Putin’: Meduza’s interview with the wives and mothers of three Azov soldiers who defended Mariupol to the end
June 12, 2022 22:13 - 21 minutes - 19.6 MBMariupol's Azovstal steel plant was under continuous siege by Russian troops from early March until May 17. The last place unoccupied by Russian troops in the city, the plant was completely cut off from the outside world. Ukrainians managed to defend it up until May 16, when the General Staff of the Ukrainian Armed Forces ordered the commanders of the units in Azovstal to "save the lives of the personnel." The soldiers (the majority of whom belong to the Azov regiment, which was usin...
‘He dedicated his youth to Ukraine’: ’ An interview with Valentina Melnikova, who helps soldiers and their relatives navigate Russia's military bureaucracy
June 12, 2022 22:09 - 13 minutes - 12.5 MBSince the start of the war, the Russian government has repeatedly violated even the most basic rights of Russian soldiers. Those who don't want to join the war have been forced to sign contracts and sent into battle against their will. Meanwhile, families have been given little to no information about the fates of their missing husbands and sons -- nor, often, have they been given their dead loved ones' bodies. With the official system either overwhelmed by the sheer number of victim...
‘Chaos like we’ve never seen before’: ments, but you can hasten the end Croatian-Bosnian human rights activist Igor Blazhevich recalls his own personal reconciliation with Serbs and explains the merits of activism against armed aggression
June 12, 2022 22:05 - 14 minutes - 13.8 MBAccording to the Kremlin-controlled media, the overwhelming majority of Russians support the war against Ukraine. There is no mass movement against the invasion, the state's propagandists argue, and yet the authorities tirelessly track down and prosecute ordinary people for criticizing the "special operation" on social media and at small protests with banners that read, "No to the war!" But can these statements against the invasion change anything? Are they worth the risks? What's th...
You can’t end wars with antiwar movements, but you can hasten the end: t problems for Kyiv in the Donbas, where Russian troops seek a ‘new Mariupol’
June 12, 2022 22:03 - 4 minutes - 4.44 MBSince mid-April, Russia has focused its invasion of Ukraine on capturing the eastern region known as the Donbas. According to military reports, the fighting here has been largely positional battles without significant advancements by either side. Both Russia and Ukraine have built up their forces, regrouped, and continued artillery fire. In the last week, however, statements by officials in Kyiv have become more alarming, as if Ukraine's leadership is preparing the nation for a major...
‘We’re barely afloat’: — but what else would a brother tell his sister?’ Dmytro Kozatsky, whose photos gave the world a window into Azovstal, is now in Russian captivity. His sister told Meduza his story.
June 12, 2022 22:02 - 13 minutes - 12 MBDmytro Kozatsky is a soldier from Ukraine's Azov regiment and the photographer behind a now-famous collection of photos showing the defenders of the besieged Azovstal steel plant. On May 16, the General Staff of the Ukrainian Armed Forces ordered the commanders of the units in Azovstal to "save the lives of the personnel" there. Four days later, on May 20, Kozatsky reported that he had surrendered. Meduza spoke to his sister, Darya Yurchenko, about why Kozatsky originally decided to ...
‘He said he was fine — but what else would a brother tell his sister?’: war against Ukraine is a criminal offense in Russia. Here’s how investigators are building their cases.
June 12, 2022 21:59 - 24 minutes - 22.7 MBDays after launching its full-fledged invasion of Ukraine, Russia outlawed the spread of "knowingly false information" about the country's armed forces. The new law, which came into force on March 4, carries punishments of up to 15 years in prison -- and it has so far been used to persecute those who openly condemn Russia's war against Ukraine. Meduza looks into how state investigators are building criminal cases against anti-war Russians for sharing facts and opinions that stray fro...
‘Holding people liable for stating the facts’: his father (a veteran of the Second Chechen War) is also a portrait of Russian masculinity
June 12, 2022 21:54 - 7 minutes - 6.77 MBMoscow's Alexander Kudryashov Theater Company is an independent troupe staging low-cost plays for intimate audiences. Inside the company, Alexander Kudryashov plays the "roles" of playwright, director, and actor. His new play, "Bye, Dad," tells the story of his late father, a veteran of the Second Chechen War. And it's a rare example of theater that feels appropriate in wartime. It's also a remarkably candid work, even though the author himself avoids speaking of his feelings. Theate...
‘Bye, Dad’: the Russian dead better than they treat living Ukrainians’ An interview with the head of Ukrainian Railways, the backbone of Ukraine's evacuation efforts
June 12, 2022 21:53 - 17 minutes - 16.2 MBBefore Russia launched its full-scale war against Ukraine, Ukraine's state railroad company, Ukrainian Railways, was often criticized for being ineffective and suspected of corruption. Now, Ukrainian Railways is providing shelter for millions of refugees, transporting foreign leaders on official visits to Kyiv, and delivering humanitarian and military cargo to towns throughout Ukraine. Even Russian propagandists have marveled at the efficiency with which the company has mobilized its...
‘We treat the Russian dead better than they treat living Ukrainians’: resident on a personal mission to get pro-war symbols removed from the city
June 12, 2022 21:48 - 2 minutes - 2.61 MBSince the start of the war, St. Petersburg resident Alexey Lakhov has been sending complaints to various government agencies requesting that they remove pro-war symbols from public spaces. St. Petersburg news outlet Bumaga recently published a story about Lakhov and his small acts of protest. With their permission, Meduza is publishing a translation below. Original Article: https://meduza.io/en/feature/2022/05/27/it-s-a-small-way-for-me-to-channel-my-pain-and-rage
‘A small way for me to channel my pain and rage’: ldier captured by Ukrainian troops and traded back to Russia says he plans to return to the frontlines
June 12, 2022 21:21 - 4 minutes - 3.83 MBTwenty-four-year-old Dmitry Paramoshkin signed a contract with the Russian army in 2020, near the end of his conscription term. "It just sort of happened that way. They said there'd be exercises, [parachute] jumps, we'd ride around, and do that kind of stuff. So, I went ahead and did it," he told the news website Fontanka. On February 25, 2022, Dmitry and his fellow soldiers were told that they were headed to Crimea to join planned military drills. When they arrived, they were given ...
‘I’m a military man, a simple man’: Relatives fear for Lyman’s remaining residents as Russia claims control of strategic Donbas hub
June 12, 2022 21:20 - 11 minutes - 10.3 MBFor several days now, Russian forces have been trying to capture Lyman -- a strategic railway hub in Ukraine's Donetsk region. Russia is seeking to gain a foothold in Lyman in the hopes of pushing its offensive towards the cities of Slovyansk and Kramatorsk. Russian troops began storming Lyman on May 24, and Denis Pushilin -- the head of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic (DNR) -- claimed full control of the town on the morning of May 27. In turn, Ukrainian officials said ...
‘My mom says the town is in ruins’: Sources tell Meduza that the Kremlin is considering another assault on Kyiv and planning victory in Ukraine by the fall
June 12, 2022 21:18 - 5 minutes - 4.93 MBDespite failing to capture Kyiv at the outset of the war, the Kremlin is reportedly considering a second assault on Ukraine's capital, as Russian troops appear to be on the verge of seizing the entire Donbas region. Sources tell Meduza that advances in the east and expectations that Moscow can win a war of attrition against Kyiv and its Western allies have revived hopes in the Putin administration that a full-scale victory is possible in Ukraine before the end of the year. Original A...