BRUSSELS – For nine agonizing minutes, images of the victims of Russia’s war in Ukraine flashed before the eyes of EU dignitaries in Brussels, the heart of Europe, on Sept. 5. The 6,400 photos, all verified by independent authorities, provide evidence of Russian war crimes committed against civilians in Ukraine. While the images, many graphic and disturbing, flashed across the screen, real intercepted phone calls of Russian soldiers gloating of their crimes played for all to hear. Russian wives

Membership in the European Union has long been Ukraine’s key aspiration. The EuroMaidan Revolution of 2013-2014 was spurred on by the popular desire to get closer to the European Union and, ultimately, gain membership. Ordinary Ukrainians took to the streets and overthrew pro-Russian rule under the stars of blue EU flags. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has confirmed years of concerns raised by both the ex-President Petro Poroshenko and President Volodymyr Zelensky governments before European offi

At the heart of the European Parliament in Brussels, a grand August Förster piano lies in pieces on the floor, blackened and burned. Now far from home, the instrument once stood proudly inside Irpin’s Central House of Culture, which was destroyed by shelling during the Russian army’s failed assault on the city. Just several months prior to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the piano had been used as part of numerous performances by Ukrainian musicians. Now, along with much of the city’s cultural he

A March 24 letter to the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), authored by influential Ukrainian civil society members and bearing over 3,800 signatures, criticized the humanitarian body for not doing enough to help Ukraine. The appeal accused the ICRC of prematurely pulling out of the encircled city of Mariupol, not working hard enough to reach hotspots and even taking Russia’s side. Despite its wide circulation in Ukraine and abroad, the call for action went unanswered by the ICRC

A large demonstration took place in Brussels on March 24, with protesters gathering to demand tougher sanctions against Russia on the occasion of U.S President Joe Biden’s visit to Brussels for a summit on Ukraine. The event, organized by Ukrainian-led advocacy group Promote Ukraine, took place in front of the Council of the European Union, where Joe Biden was concluding a summit with European leaders. The protesters, including the sizable Belgian-Ukrainian community and recently arrived refug

Russian invasion forces are expected to launch attacks against the Sumy, Chernihiv, Kherson, Zhytomyr, Kyiv, and Kharkiv regions during the early morning, Ukraine's Verkhovna Rada announced. Kyiv will be attacked at 3 a.m., media sources report. Citizens are encouraged to report enemy military activity to the military or local authorities.

Aircraft traveling through Ukrainian airspace will no longer be insured by international insurance companies from Feb. 14, forcing flights to be grounded or canceled, according to Ukrainian publication Ukrainska Pravda. The outlet quoted information from unnamed sources in the aviation industry. Anatoliy Ivantsiv, head of Ukrainian insurance firm Expo, told Interfax that British reinsurance giant Lloyds announced it would temporarily cease all conflict risk insurance over Ukrainian airspace fr

Ukraine is set to receive an additional $120 million in foreign aid from the United Kingdom in support of the country's “stable governance” and “energy independence,” according to a Feb. 1 statement by the British government. The announcement comes amid U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s visit to Kyiv, where he is scheduled to talk face-to-face with President Volodymyr Zelensky and other top government officials. The financial aid is part of the U.K’s “Good Governance Fund,” which is intended

The Kyiv Prosecutor’s Office charged Petro Panteleyev, deputy head of the Kyiv City Administration, with negligence on Jan. 31. He is a long-standing ally of Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko. Panteleyev is accused of failing to decontaminate the site of Kyiv’s former chemical plant Radikal, which according to prosecutors, led to severe environmental damage. Prosecutors allege that a failure to enact environmental measures at the plant, as well as the lasting effects of pollution in Kyiv's left-bank

A Sword of Damocles once again hangs over Ukraine. Since November, Russia has been amassing troops along Ukraine's eastern border, demanding sweeping concessions from the NATO alliance and threatening to plunge Ukraine back into Russia's sphere of influence once again. Many Western experts and governments now fear military incursion by Russian forces into Ukraine, with the Washington Post now estimating that as many as 175,000 combat personnel are poised to invade Ukraine in early 2022, citing

The frequency of a suspected Russian military shortwave radio broadcast, known as the “buzzer” for its recognizable repeating channel marker, has become the battleground for rival Russian and Ukrainian radio enthusiasts, who have been attempting to hijack the frequency to play memes and propaganda. The UBV-76 transmission, which can be listened to at 4625khz on shortwave radio, is suspected to be used by the Russian military for relaying coded messages to military forces. The signal has been tr

Following a global trend of dwindling demand, and severe staff shortages caused by the Covid-19 Omicron variant, fewer planes are now entering Ukrainian skies as Irish low-cost airline Ryanair cancels flights across Europe. In September, Ryanair stated that it planned to “expand aggressively” in Ukraine following the country's accession to the “Open Skies” agreement, which allows foreign airlines greater access to the Ukrainian market. This expansion, however, did not materialize. Instead, Ukr

Russian-led militants in the occupied city of Horlivka in Donetsk Oblast in eastern Ukraine released toxic ammonia gas into the atmosphere on Jan. 14, according to a report published on Facebook by the Defense Intelligence of Ukraine. The intelligence states that the release of chemicals could be part of a false-flag operation – a pretense for a further Russian invasion of Ukraine. The incident comes amidst the backdrop of increasing Russian aggression against Ukraine and warnings of planned f

The State Investigation Bureau seized 100% of the shares of Kyiv’s Bilshovyk machine-building plant on Jan. 11 over suspicions that it may have been knowingly undersold at its privatization auction, according to a post on the bureau's website on Jan. 13. The shares, which are owned by tycoon Vasyl Khmelnytsky, were frozen as part of the bureau's investigation into potential wrongdoing by officials from the State Property Fund, the body responsible for managing and privatizing state-owned assets

On Jan. 8, new amendments to Ukraine’s advertising laws came into force, targeting discriminatory hiring practices and advertising. It will now be forbidden to display sexist imagery or themes in adverts, as well as overtly sexual imagery. This includes objectifying bodies to attract customers, promoting the notion of gender superiority, displaying derogatory stereotypes about gender roles, showing gender-based violence, and unnecessarily using sexual imagery, text, or sounds to promote a prod