“First, they pulled the nail off my little finger. Then my middle finger. The second time was not as painful as the first time. The pain was so immense I didn’t know what hurt more: when they were making a meat chop out of me with the rifle butt or when I stopped feeling my hands. They tortured me with an electric current. They called this ‘electrophoresis’ or ‘a phone call to Zelenskyi’,” says Oksana Minenko from Kherson. Her story is an account of the horrific crimes committed by the Russian occupiers in Ukraine. Oksana is 43 years old. For the past four years, she was happily married to 37-year-old Oleksiy Khvostyk, a lieutenant of the National Guard of Ukraine.Translated by Tetiana SykesRead this article in Ukrainian

The Intercept news outlet, which specializes in investigations, discovered evidence of cooperation between Russia and China in the field of propaganda. Leaked correspondence from the Russian State Television and Radio Company (VGTRK) reveals that government officials and media executives from Russia and China discussed the exchange of news and social content as early as 2021. TEXTY publishes the main excerpts of the investigation. These documents are also available in the Aleph database that provides access to leaked correspondence of Russian officials.Read this article in Ukrainian

Russians are desperately trying to hide their concerns about Ukraine’s rearmament behind fake optimism. While seeking international support for their aggression, they keep fueling internal conflicts in Ukraine by calling its people to rise against the government and dishing dirt on both Zelenskyy and Zaluzhnyi. This monitoring report covers these and other topics of the disinformation spread by Russian state media and online parajournalists to manipulate public opinion.

TEXTS spoke with a soldier who is currently fighting in a frozen trench in eastern Ukraine. The military asked not to be named.Translated by Dmitry Lytov & Mike Lytov.Read this article in Ukrainian

There are many parallels between the history of Ukraine and Kazakhstan. In particular, both countries were once Soviet republics and both have been going through a painful process of decolonization in recent years. The sooner they both go through this path, the sooner they can move on.As the Kazakh academic Aynash Mustoyapova notes, there are two important things that our peoples should realize in order to achieve a new interpretation of history.We published the abstracts of her speech on the YouTube channel of the Center for Middle Eastern Studies.You can subscribe to the channel about Ukraine and the Middle East here (in Ukrainian)Translated by Dmitry Lytov & Mike LytovRead this article in Ukrainian

Last week’s publications on Russia media kept the focus on Russian army's battlefield success and swore that Russia would soon have hi-tech weapons no other country can match. They also painted a bright future for the Russian car industry (which is only as bright as the screen you are reading this from) and offered fake sympathy to Germans who have been allegedly fleeing to Russia for a cheap winter break. On top of it all, they came up with a story about an Islamic mufti who had been sent to Crimea by the SSU to destabilize the local religious communities.

The new sanctions which target Russia’s energy sector are making Russian economy suffer. With no battlefield success to report, Russian propagandists have been gloating about the discomfort caused by the recent blackouts in Ukraine and once again attempting to sow the seeds of discord among the Ukrainian people.This monitoring report covers these and other topics of the disinformation spread by Russian state media and online parajournalists to manipulate public opinion.

Last week, Russian media quoted Putin’s bluster and calls to the Russian people to stand as one with the government. The hackneyed Russian fakes never stopped coming: the propagandists claimed that it was only mercenaries who were fighting for Ukraine while Western arms were being sold to terrorists. This monitoring report covers these and other topics of the disinformation spread by Russian state media and online parajournalists to manipulate public opinion.

Russia is systematically shelling electrical substations throughout Ukraine. We tried to analyze where Russian missiles are most often aimed at and what targets they choose.Earlier, we wrote about how Russian propagandists rejoice in response to attacks on Ukrainian power grids. We tried to investigate in more detail where the Russian forces were directing their strikes and saw how they are trying to isolate Ukraine's power grid and divide it into separate pieces. Notably, a lot of effort is being made to cut off electricity from the north of the country (Kyiv and Kharkiv).Translated by Dmitry Lytov & Mike LytovRead this article in Ukrainian

Recently, in one of the Russian propaganda talk shows, the head of RT, Margarita Simonyan, said that Russia will not launch a nuclear attack on Kyiv because "our sanctuaries" are there. At the same time, she claimed that Western capitals can be bombed with little to no hesitation because "none of our sanctuaries are located in there." The map of Russian churches in Europe, which TEXTY published last week as part of the "Germs of the Russian World" project, proves the opposite. Translated by Dmitry Lytov, Mike LytovRead this article in Ukrainian