Матеріали автора Valeriia Pavlenko

The MiG took off, the bus pulled to a stop, and the driver switched off the engine. The people in the cabin were quiet, hoping the driver would ignore it and it would come through. But the driver came out of his cab and said in irritation, “Alright, looks like the air raid alert is on, here we are. Time to hop out.” Kyiv remains one of only three Ukrainian regional centers where public transport stops during air raids. No such ban exists even in Kharkiv, Odesa, Dnipro, and Zaporizhzhia, where shelling occurs more frequently than in the capital.Читати українськоюText by Valeriia Pavlenko. Data Analysis by Vlad Herasymenko. Design by Nadia Kelm.

In February 2024, a video went viral on social media in which British paramedic Peter Fouché addressed the governments of Western countries and said, barely holding back tears, "I am ashamed to be a Westerner." Long months of aid blockage in the US Congress, coupled with what Peter deemed insufficient support from other countries, led to the British volunteer's pain and frustration. A few months later, in June 2024, Peter Fouché died.Читати українською

"My family plans to return. Because there is no right to leave a country for a father who wants to see his children, wants them to remain Ukrainians and wants his family not to fall apart. I've seen many good families fall apart since 2022 simply because they were separated. I don't want that to happen to my family," says Oleksii Erinchak, the founder of the "Sens" bookstore in Kyiv.

On 9 May, at 7 am, I woke up to a loud explosion that shook the whole house. The night before Orthodox Easter, I couldn't sleep — I was tossing and turning from the sounds outside. A "Shahed" was flying by, and ukrainian soldiers tried to shoot it down. And every day, I would shudder from the explosions of artillery shells. This is how I remember my six days in Nikopol.Читати українськоюOn 1 July 2022, the first shell hit the city, and since then, russian army continue to terrorise the city almost every day.

"Russians take children out of town, dress them in military uniforms, give them certain roles, such as a drone operator, sapper or paratrooper, and then organize 'military-patriotic games'. But everyone realizes that this is actually a way to prepare children in the occupied territories to be drafted in the war," says Stanislav Zakharevych, head of the occupied community in Zaporizhzhia Oblast.Читати українською

"Inside, the ceiling and walls are completely cracked, offices, locker rooms, gyms, and a medical room are destroyed. Only the entrance is left of the gym. Some of the walls have completely crumbled," says Oleksandr Yegorov, director of the Lokomotiv sports complex in Kyiv. These are the consequences of the Russian missile attack on Kyiv on 23 January.Читати українською

People in the flooded Oleshky, Nova Kakhovka and neighboring villages were trapped. The occupation authorities prevent people from evacuating.Translated by Dmitry LytovRead this article in Ukrainian

After the start of the full-scale invasion of Russia, Ukrainians are actively switching from speaking Russian to Ukrainian. This is visible in the information space and at the everyday level - many have acquaintances who started speaking Ukrainian last year. For example, a third of the 67,000 surveyed users of the "Kyiv Digital" application answered that they started to communicate in Ukrainian during this period.Translated by Dmitry Lytov & Mike LytovЧитати українською

On July 29, a message in Russian was sent to the group chat of the teachers from Kherson secondary school No. 46: “On July 30, 2022, at 10:00 a.m., an inventory of the school will be conducted. You are requested to prepare the documentation and property items specified in the inventory list. The attendance of the entire teaching team is mandatory.”Translated by Dmitry Lytov & Mike LytovЧитати українською

Buying train tickets abroad through the website of Ukrzaliznytsia (The Ukrainian Railroads, further UZ), as well as its mobile application or chatbots is a complicated and confusing process. Meanwhile, one can buy a bus ticket to EU countries in a few clicks.UZ sells tickets online only for a few destinations in Poland. Technically, one can get to Austria, Hungary and Slovakia by a direct train from Ukraine. But where can one find the schedule and prices for these destinations, and is it possible to buy tickets for them on the Internet?In addition, tickets to Poland are impossible to find in the new UZ application. The train to Warsaw is generally something mythical. Tickets for this train are permanently unavailable on the UZ website.With our research, we are looking to clarify the complicated system of selling tickets for UZ trains abroad, which 600,000 passengers have already used after the closure of the airspace on February 24.Translated by Dmitry Lytov, Mike LytovRead this article in Ukrainian