Author: Reporter

Forced separations are an all too common condition as war rips young Ukrainian family apart

University student Vlada Yushchenko was still in her teens and nearly three months pregnant when she hugged her husband at the border, turned away and walked into Moldova. Now she is in Romania, one of the millions of Ukrainians forced to flee Russia’s invasion. Her baby, Daniel, was born there eight months ago and still hasn’t met his father Yaroslav, who is 21 and, like most men of fighting age, prohibited from leaving Ukraine. “Nobody expected the war was coming and that we weren’t going to be together,” said Yushchenko, who has settled for now in the central Romanian...

Read More

Russia diverts attention from continued military blunders with terror attacks on Ukrainian civilians

Russia used strategic bombers, cruise missiles and killer drones in a wave of attacks across Ukraine on February 10, while Moscow’s military push that Kyiv says has been brewing for days appeared to pick up pace in eastern areas ahead of the one-year anniversary of its invasion. Russian forces have launched 71 cruise missiles, 35 S-300 missiles and seven Shahed drones since February 9, Ukraine’s military chief, General Valerii Zaluzhnyi said. Ukrainian forces downed 61 cruise missiles and five drones. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who has campaigned for more Western support against Russia’s military ambitions, said: “This is terror...

Read More

Report details how Ukrainian health care system was deliberately and indiscriminately targeted by Russia

Valentyna Mozgova sweeps shattered glass and other debris from the vacant halls of the bombed-out hospital where she began her career. Living in the basement, the 55-year-old lab technician now works as its solitary guard. Russian artillery strikes targeted Marinskaya Central District Hospital in 2017 and again in 2021. But numerous barrages over the last seven months forced the hospital’s medical staff to flee, destroying key departments such as neurology and gynecology, as well as a general medical clinic in the process. Mozgova chose to stay. Having worked in the hospital’s laboratories since graduating from medical school in the...

Read More

Cambodian mine clearing experts train Ukrainian soldiers how to safely remove Russian mines at home

Cambodian experts, whose country has the dubious distinction of being one of the world’s most contaminated by landmines, walked a group of Ukrainian soldiers through a minefield being actively cleared recently, hoping their decades of experience would help the Europeans in their own efforts to remove Russian mines at home. Wearing protective body armor, helmets and visors, the group of 15 Ukrainians were guided along cleared routes through the former battlefield in northwestern Battambang province by trainers with the Cambodian Mine Action Center, a government agency that oversees the clearing of land mines and unexploded ordnance in the country....

Read More

More than a thousand words: Photojournalists capture a year of Russia’s brutality in searing images

A man runs after recovering items from a burning shop following a Russian attack in Kharkiv, Ukraine, March 25, 2022. 📸 Felipe Dana Russia’s invasion of Ukraine a year ago brought death, destruction and hardship to the country, and awakened fears of a new Cold War. The February 24 attack resulted in more than 8 million Ukrainians fleeing their country in what was the greatest exodus of refugees Europe has witnessed since World War II. Moscow’s war machine has bombarded civilian infrastructure. Missiles, rockets and artillery shells have indiscriminately hit homes, hospitals and other public buildings, killing and wounding...

Read More

Kyiv Stands: President Joe Biden makes surprise visit to Ukraine in defiant display of Western solidarity

President Joe Biden swept unannounced into Ukraine on February 20 to meet with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in a defiant display of Western solidarity with a country still fighting what he called “a brutal and unjust war” days before the first anniversary of Russia’s invasion. “One year later, Kyiv stands,” Biden declared after meeting Zelenskyy at Mariinsky Palace. Jabbing his finger for emphasis on his podium, against a backdrop of three flags from each country, he continued: “And Ukraine stands. Democracy stands. The Americans stand with you, and the world stands with you.” Biden spent more than five hours in...

Read More