Author: Reporter

The long border between Finland and Russia runs through thick forests and is marked only by wooden posts with low fences meant to stop stray cattle. Soon, a stronger, higher fence will be erected on parts of the frontier. Earlier this month, Polish soldiers began laying coils of razor wire on the border with Kaliningrad, a Russian exclave wedged between Poland and Lithuania. Cameras and an electronic monitoring system also will be installed on the area that once was guarded only by occasional patrols of border guards. The fall of the Berlin Wall more than 30 years ago symbolized...

Olga Lehan’s home near the Irpin River was flooded when Ukraine destroyed a dam to prevent Russian forces from storming the capital of Kyiv just days into the war. Weeks later, the water from her tap turned brown from pollution. “It was not safe to drink,” she said of the tap water in her village of Demydiv, about 40 kilometers (24 miles) north of Kyiv on the tributary of the Dnieper River. Visibly upset as she walked through her house, the 71-year-old pointed to where the high water in March had made her kitchen moldy, seeped into her well...

A punishing new barrage of Russian strikes on Ukrainian infrastructure on November 23 caused power outages across large parts of the country as well as neighboring Moldova, piling more damage onto Ukraine’s already battered power network and adding to the misery for civilians as winter begins. Multiple regions reported attacks in quick succession and Ukraine’s Energy Ministry said that “the vast majority of electricity consumers were cut off.” Officials in Kyiv said three people were killed and nine wounded in the capital after a Russian strike hit a two-story building. Russia has been pounding the power grid and other...

When the power is out, as it so often is, the high-rise apartment overlooking Ukraine’s war-torn capital feels like a deathtrap. No lights, no water, no way to cook food. And the risk of not being able to escape from the 21st floor in time should a Russian missile strike. Even when electricity comes back, it is never on for long. The situation in Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, and other major cities has deteriorated drastically following the largest missile attack on the country’s power grid on November 15. “Russian strikes are plunging Ukraine into the Stone Age,” says Anastasia Pyrozhenko....

Powerful explosions from shelling shook Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia region, the site of Europe’s largest nuclear power plant, the global nuclear watchdog said on November 20, calling for “urgent measures to help prevent a nuclear accident” in the Russian-occupied facility. A heavy barrage of Russian military strikes — almost 400 on November 20 alone — also hit Ukraine’s eastern regions, and fierce ground battles shook the eastern Donetsk province, Ukraine’s president said in his evening update. Rafael Mariano Grossi, the director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, said multiple explosions near the plant — on November 19 and again on...

Amid the ruins of war outside of Milwaukee’s Sister City of Irpin, the flowerings of art continues to appear. A delicate painting of a gymnast doing a handstand has popped up on the wall of a wrecked building outside of Kyiv and appears to be the work of the British graffiti artist known as Banksy. The anonymous British artist has not previously shared any information about his location. However, because his distinctive style of art has been popping up all over Ukraine, it caused speculation about his whereabouts. Banksy recently posted photos on his Instagram page of the artwork...