Author: Sam Skove / RFE/RL

KHARKIV REGION, Ukraine – Standing in a trench not far from the Russian border, a drone operator from the Ukrainian military unit Khartia didn’t look up at the sound of Russian shells slamming into the ground a few kilometers to his left. Instead, his attention was fully focused on trying to get an experimental Ukrainian-made...

KHARKIV, Ukraine – Tamara Halishnikova doesn’t remember how long the attack targeting her and other residents trying to escape the Russia-occupied village of Kurylivka lasted. All she remembers are the sounds that rang out as the column of vehicles made its way along a railway embankment that late-September morning. “There was an explosion, then automatic-weapons...

KYIV – Ruslan, a 41-year-old former sales manager who asked that his surname be withheld for security reasons, started learning the ropes of drone warfare in the immediate wake of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February. Ruslan’s unit of part-time reservists was near Kyiv’s Hostomel airport on the first day of the war when...

KYIV – When Russia launched its massive invasion of Ukraine on February 24, the residents of Myrnohrad knew what they needed to do: Start digging. The small city, which sits within artillery range of Russian forces in eastern Ukraine, endured six months without water in 2014, after the war between the government and Kremlin-backed forces...