Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty

2022-05-04 10:58:01 Stanislau Shushkevich, , the first head of state of independent Belarus, one of the three leaders who signed the December 1991 agreement declaring that the U.S.S.R. had ceased to exist, has died after being hospitalized for complications caused by COVID-19.

https://www.rferl.org/a/shushkevich-obituary-belarus/31833591.html Open / Comment

2022-05-02 19:59:26 Relatives of people killed in the Kyiv suburb of Bucha are trying to identify and retrieve the bodies of family members. Ukraine says more than 1,000 bodies have been discovered in or around Bucha since Russian forces withdrew in April, with many showing signs of torture. Open / Comment

2022-04-30 11:52:57 British volunteer Chris Garrett is helping remove mines and other unexploded ordnance left by the Russian army north of Kyiv.

He says he came to Ukraine for the dangerous, profitless work because “you just know that with every single munition that you’re removing...you are removing a hazard for someone else. And the bulk of the time it’s civilians that are getting hurt long after the war is finished.”

https://www.rferl.org/a/ukriane-briton-clearing-bombs-garrett/31827258.html Open / Comment

2022-04-30 11:43:46 RFE/RL correspondent Maryan Kushnir met with Ukrainian soldiers fighting Russian forces in the Donetsk region in eastern Ukraine. One of the soldiers called the Russian troops "cannon fodder," describing their tactics as "desperate" and without any coherent strategy. Open / Comment

2022-04-26 20:30:32 Thousands of domestic dogs and cats have been lost or abandoned since Russia attacked Ukraine on February 24. One of the shelters where animals are taken from war zones is in the western Ukrainian city of Lviv, where 150 dogs and almost 200 cats are currently being looked after. Open / Comment

2022-04-25 17:57:36 Oleksiy Danylyak, first deputy prosecutor of the southern Kherson region, which has been occupied by Russian troops for most of the 2-month-old war, told RFE/RL his office had opened more than 1,000 cases into alleged violations during the occupation, including murder, kidnapping, deportation or forcible relocation, torture, and sexual crimes.

https://www.rferl.org/a/ukraine-war-crimes-rape/31818846.html Open / Comment

2022-04-22 23:20:46 A 25-year-old Russian soldier has posted a video blog of his time in Ukraine, showing him and his comrades firing at Ukrainian positions and cavorting in occupied apartments. Later, he laments, "we've had many losses." Open / Comment

2022-04-22 18:43:32 Ukrainian soldiers take cover as explosions rock the near distance, before launching Grad rockets toward the Russians. In footage shot on April 20, the fight for eastern Ukraine is seen moving into higher gear. Open / Comment

2022-04-21 15:22:53 Russian President Vladimir Putin has ordered Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu to cancel plans to storm the Azovstal steel plant in the besieged Ukrainian port city of Mariupol and instead blockade it in order to protect the lives of Russian soldiers.

Shoigu told Putin that more than 2,000 Ukrainian fighters were still holed up in the vast plant, which has a large underground component to it, and claimed that Russian forces only needed several days to "complete" the takeover of the compound.

Putin said during the meeting it would be "impractical" to storm the huge industrial complex as there was "no need to climb into those catacombs and crawl underground beneath those industrial facilities."

https://www.rferl.org/a/ukraine-invasion-mariupol-negotiations-russia/31813927.html Open / Comment

2022-04-19 13:04:32 The Ukrainian military says Russian forces have launched "aggressive actions" along almost the entire front line in eastern Ukraine, in what President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said was the start of the long-anticipated offensive in the eastern Donbas region.

https://www.rferl.org/a/russia-offensive-donbas-ukraine-zelenskiy/31810386.html Open / Comment