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The Kyiv Independent
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News, analyses, investigations, opinions, podcasts and more. On-the-ground reporting from Ukraine
founded 4 months ago
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General Staff: Russia has lost 1,011,490 troops in Ukraine since Feb. 24, 2022
(kyivindependent.com)
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Ukrainians forcibly deported by Russia held in basement without food, water, media reports
(kyivindependent.com)
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Ukraine planning diplomatic overhaul to win stronger global support against Russia
(kyivindependent.com)
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Trump administration sends layoff notices to 600 Voice of America staff, NYT reports
(kyivindependent.com)
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NATO summit to sideline Ukraine, focus on flattering Trump, Politico reports
(kyivindependent.com)
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Russia has over 1,950 strategic missiles, Ukraine's military intelligence tells media
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Russia 'afraid to admit' scale of losses, trying to hide by dumping soldiers' bodies on Ukraine, Zelensky says
(kyivindependent.com)
Russia is using the return of war dead as a tool for manipulation to obscure the scale of its military losses from the public, President Volodymyr Zelensky said during a briefing on June 20 attended by the Kyiv Independent.
According to Zelensky, Ukrainian authorities have confirmed that at least 20 of the bodies Russia returned as Ukrainian were actually Russian soldiers.
"Sometimes these bodies even have Russian passports," Zelensky said. He also cited the case of a deceased Israeli citizen fighting on Russia's side, whom Moscow had passed off as a Ukrainian soldier.
"Putin is afraid to admit how many people have died. Because if the moment comes when he needs to mobilize, his society will be afraid," he said.
Zelensky's remarks follow the June 2 prisoner and body exchange agreement in Istanbul, the most extensive of the full-scale war. Under that deal, Ukraine recovered 6,057 bodies of its fallen soldiers. Russia, according to Kremlin aide Vladimir Medinsky, took back only 78.
Explaining the difference between the two numbers, Zelensky said that the bodies of the vast majority of Russian soldiers currently killed on the battlefield remain in Russian hands.
"They were advancing, and their dead remained in the territory where they were," he said.
According to the president, exchanges of bodies and even severely wounded soldiers have taken place on the battlefield, but such exchanges are typically not publicized.
President Volodymyr Zelensky presents evidence to the media in Kyiv on June 21, 2025, showing that Russia handed over the bodies of its own soldiers during exchanges. (Presidential Office)
President Volodymyr Zelensky presents evidence to the media in Kyiv on June 21, 2025, showing that Russia handed over the bodies of its own soldiers during exchanges. (Presidential Office)
Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko earlier confirmed a case in which the remains of Alexander Viktorovich Bugaev, a Russian soldier from the 39th Separate Guards Motorized Rifle Brigade, were returned to Ukraine disguised as a Ukrainian casualty.
"This shows how little human life means to Russia. Or maybe it's just a way to avoid paying compensation to the families. But they will have to pay anyway: we are returning these bodies," Klymenko said on June 19.
Ukraine's General Staff said on June 21 that Russian forces have sustained over 1,010,000 casualties — killed and wounded — since launching the full-scale invasion in February 2022.
Independent Russian outlet Mediazona, along with the BBC Russian Service, has verified the identities of 111,387 Russian soldiers killed, emphasizing that the actual number is likely much higher.
Russia has continued to deny the scale of its losses, often inflating Ukrainian casualties and spreading false narratives. Zelensky warned that this is part of a broader propaganda effort to "break the reality in which we live," in which Russian forces are suffering far greater losses.
The June 2 negotiations in Istanbul led to the most extensive prisoner and body exchange agreement of the full-scale war, although no ceasefire was achieved.
On June 7, Russia accused Kyiv of rejecting a proposed body return, releasing footage that allegedly showed Ukrainian corpses stored in refrigeration units. Ukraine dismissed these claims, saying that the footage was shot on Russian territory, not at a designated handover site.
Kyiv has consistently called for an "all-for-all" exchange of prisoners of war, but Moscow has so far refused to agree to a comprehensive swap.
Read also: ‘All of Ukraine is ours’ — Putin on Russia’s territorial ambitions in Ukraine
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Dutch protesters who regularly call for an end to military aid to Ukraine will descend on The Hague next week to protest the upcoming NATO summit, which is set to take place on June 24-25.
The group will protest against NATO alongside several other organizations and has urged supporters on social media to sign a petition calling on NATO to stop military aid to war zones and to reject what it calls "economically devastating sanctions warfare."
Operating under the name “Vredesdemonstratie” meaning “Peace Demonstration” in Dutch, the movement poses as a peace initiative but is known for making its demands solely of Ukraine and its supporters, and never of Russia.
The group’s demonstrations often feature Russian flags and sometimes include cultural performances, such as singing traditional songs, dancing, and wearing traditional attire.
In an earlier investigative story, the Kyiv Independent reported on a February event where members of the Peace Demonstration group appeared in Amsterdam with placards reading: "Ukraine is evil for Dutch taxpayers” and “Zelensky! Stop killing your people!"
Another read “Sponsoring Kiev is sponsoring terrorism against Ukrainians,” using the Russian spelling for Ukraine’s capital city Kyiv.
Demonstrators hold banners in a photo-op protest aimed at discrediting the Ukrainian government at Dam Square in Amsterdam on Feb. 16, 2025. (The Kyiv Independent)
This year’s NATO summit is hoped to bring clarity on the future of defense spending amid internal divisions and growing pressure from U.S. President Donald Trump, including demands to increase defense budgets across all member states.
The alliance plays an important role in coordinating military aid and funding weapons supplies to support Ukraine’s defense against Russian aggression.
With U.S. support for Ukraine looking ever more uncertain, an increase in defense spending would therefore be crucial to maintaining consistent military support for the country. NATO member states are expected to agree on raising defense spending per country from the current 2% to 5% of GDP.
Anti-Nato propaganda spread on the Vredesdemonstratie Facebook group. (Vredesdemonstratie/Facebook)
The anti-NATO demonstration on June 24-25 is organised by the People for Peace collective. It aims to bring together activists from across the ideological spectrum, though it contains several radical left-wing organizations.
These groups are often associated with controversial figures and Kremlin sympathizers, including Ab Gietelink, host of Alternatief TV, who has interviewed Russian ambassadors and pro-Kremlin activists; Marie-Thérèse Ter Haar, a founder of the Russia & Eastern Europe Academy in the Netherlands, known for organizing cultural trips and promoting emigration to Russia; and Gideon van Meijeren, a MP from the far-right Forum for Democracy (FvD). All are listed among the event’s registered speakers.
In addition, on Sunday, June 23, a separate anti-NATO demonstration will be held in The Hague by a different group, the Counter-Summit Coalition for Peace and Justice, which chose to distance itself from the main protest taking place during the summit.
Participants at a rally hold a banner reading “Vrede met Rusland” (“Peace with Russia”) alongside a stylized Russian flag in an undated photo.. (Vredesdemonstratie/Facebook)
Natalia Vorontsova (C) holds a Russian flag, while another Russian, Elnara Muermans, sings and plays the accordion during a "peace demonstration" at Dam Square in Amsterdam on March 31, 2024. (Screenshot / Potkaars-live)
Protesters in Netherlands march with a banner reading “Geen wapens voor vrede” (“No weapons for peace”) during a demonstration organized by the Peace Demonstration group in an undated photo.. (Vredesdemonstratie/Facebook)
Efforts by various groups to undermine NATO often echo anti-imperialist rhetoric, yet Russia is pursuing a deeply imperialist agenda through war, the occupation of Ukrainian territory, and the expansion of its sphere of influence.
EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas recently warned that failing to step up military and financial support for Ukraine could leave Europe increasingly exposed to Russian influence. She pointed to a sharp rise in Russia’s military spending, now surpassing the combined military budgets of EU member states.
Ukraine’s path to NATO membership is unlikely to be on the agenda at this year’s summit. Unlike in previous years, the final communique may omit any reference to Ukraine’s membership or direct mention of Ukraine and Russia, as NATO looks to avoid tensions with Trump. Still, Ukraine was ultimately invited, despite earlier speculation about possible U.S. opposition.
The demonstrations will also feature activists from established pro-Palestinian movements who are calling for NATO withdrawal in protest against Israel’s military actions in Gaza and the West Bank and continued Western military support for Israel.
Read also: Exposed: The ‘Stop Zelensky’ protesters sowing Russian disinfo across Europe
From The Kyiv Independent - News from Ukraine, Eastern Europe via this RSS feed
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'In any case, the aggressor loses' — Zelensky urges Trump to 'make the right choice for history'
(kyivindependent.com)
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Ukraine asks allies to earmark 0.25% of GDP for joint defense production, Zelensky says
(kyivindependent.com)
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How 3 years of war have ravaged Ukraine’s forests, and the people who depend on them
(kyivindependent.com)
Editor's note: This story was published in conjunction with Grist.**
Twenty-two-year-old software developer Artem Motorniuk has spent his entire life in the Zaporizhzhia region of Ukraine, living in the north and visiting his grandparents in the south. It’s been almost four years since he’s seen them in person.
"My grandparents right now are under occupation," he says. "We can reach them once a month on the phone."
Motorniuk and his family’s story is a common one in eastern Ukraine. Since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of the country in February 2022, the war has devastated both occupied and liberated regions. Over a million people have been killed or injured in the war, according to recent estimates. The vast majority of civilian deaths have been Ukrainian. Whole cities and towns in Ukraine have been flattened and infrastructure destroyed, leading to almost 6 million people displaced internally and 5.7 million refugees taking shelter in neighboring European countries. For those who remain, the psychological toll is mounting.
"They shoot rockets really close to Zaporizhzhia,” Motorniuk said. “[Last August] they got the region with artillery shells, and they hit in the place where children were just hanging around and killed four children."
A toy truck lies outside the Levada children’s cafe in the central park, damaged by a Russian artillery shell strike in Malokaterynivka village, Zaporizhzhia Oblast, Ukraine, on Aug. 20, 2024. (Ukrinform / NurPhoto via Getty Images)
The war has become highly politicized in the U.S. in recent months. The U.S. in April signed a deal with Ukraine to establish a joint investment fund for the country’s eventual reconstruction, in exchange for access to its wealth of critical minerals. At the same time, U.S. President Donald Trump has increasingly aligned himself with Russian President Vladimir Putin, at one time even questioning which country started the war, and U.S. attempts to advance a ceasefire have stalled.
Now, just past the three-year mark, the war’s long-term costs are becoming more apparent, including the damage to the country’s natural resources. Missiles, artillery shelling, and explosive devices, such as land mines, have ravaged Ukraine’s landscapes and ecosystems. Over a third of all carbon emissions in Ukraine stem from warfare — the largest share of any sector in the country.
Fighting has triggered destructive wildfires in heavily forested and agricultural grassland regions of eastern Ukraine. From February 2022 through September 2024, almost 5 million acres burned, nearly three-quarters of which are in or adjacent to the combat zone.
But not all missiles explode when they’re shot, and mines only go off when they’re tripped, meaning these impacts will linger long after the war ceases.
This is why a collective of forestry scientists in Ukraine and abroad are working together to study war-driven wildfires and other forest destruction, as well as map unexploded ordnance that could spur degradation down the road. The efforts aim to improve deployment of firefighting and other resources to save the forests. It is welcome work, but far from easy during a war, when their efforts come with life-threatening consequences.
The Serebryansky Forest serves as a strategic passing point for Russian forces and a key defense point for Ukrainian forces. To completely occupy the Luhansk and Donetsk regions, Russia has to pass through the forest. Holding the line here has allowed Ukraine to stop the Russian advance, but at a steep cost.
"The shelling, it’s an explosive wave, the fire makes everything unrecognizable," a medic with the National Guard 13th Khartiya Brigade told the Institute for War & Peace Reporting in March. "When they get up, the forest is different, it has all changed."
When you introduce war, you create fires that can’t be effectively extinguished.
"You cannot fly aircraft to suppress fire with water because that aircraft will be shot down," Maksym Matsala, a postdoctoral researcher at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, told Grist.
Forests and agricultural land are woven together across Ukraine, meaning wildfires also endanger the country’s food supply. Battle-sparked blazes destroy harvests and eliminate the trees that shelter cropland from drying winds and erosion that can lead to drought — leaving those on the military front lines and Ukrainian citizens at risk of food insecurity.
A forest burns after Russian shelling in Raihorodok, Donetsk Oblast, Ukraine, on July 19, 2024. (Ethan Swope / Getty Images)
Preventative measures like removing unexploded ordnance that could ignite or intensify fires are now unimaginably dangerous and significantly slower when set to the backdrop of explosions or gunfire, said Sergiy Zibtsev, a forestry scientist at the National University of Life and Environmental Sciences of Ukraine and head of the Regional Eastern Europe Fire Monitoring Center. In a country as heavily covered in mines as Ukraine, this turns small embers into out-of-control blazes.
Matsala added that forests under these war-ravaged conditions may not ever truly recover. Consistent shelling, explosions, and fires leave a graveyard of charred trees that barely resemble a woodland at all. Consistent fighting since February 2022 has left the Serebryansky Forest an alien landscape.
"The local forest now looks like some charcoal piles without any leaves, and it's just like the moon landscape with some black sticks," Matsala said.
In liberated regions of Ukraine, the wildfire management strategy involves removing land mines one by one, a process known as demining. It’s a multistep system where trained professionals first survey a landscape, sometimes using drones, to identify regions where mines are likely to be found.
They then sweep the landscape with metal detectors until the characteristic pattern of beeps confirms their presence. Next, they must disable and extract it. Even without the risk of accidentally triggering unexploded ordnance, demining in an active war zone is incredibly dangerous. Deminers elsewhere have been killed by enemy combatants before. And a misstep can cause an explosion that sparks a new fire, which can spread quickly in Ukraine’s war-denuded landscape. Demining is a "square meter by square meter" process that must be done meticulously, said Zibtsev.
These challenges are what spurred Brian Milakovsky and Brian Roth, two professional foresters with Eastern European connections, to found Forest Release in 2023.
Ukrainian National Guard soldiers examine a Russian rocket that crashed but did not explode in Serebryansky forest in Donetsk Oblast, Ukraine, on June 26, 2024. (Pablo Miranzo / Anadolu via Getty Images)
The U.S.-based nonprofit helps coordinate and disseminate monitoring research in Ukraine’s forests. Using satellite products that take into account vegetation greenness, Milakovsky, Roth, and their collaborators can identify particular forests in Ukraine that might be under the most stress from fires. Forest Release can then send this information to local firefighters or forest managers in Ukraine so they can tend to those forests first.
It also collects firefighting safety equipment from the U.S. to donate to firefighters in Ukraine. Both of these activities allow Forest Release and its Ukrainian counterpart, the Ukrainian Forest Safety Center, to support organizations in Ukraine who train foresters to fight fires.
To make drone-based mine detection more effective and safe, two other American researchers launched an AI-powered mine-detection service in 2020 that’s being used in Ukraine: Jasper Baur, a remote sensing researcher, and GabrielSteinberg, a computer scientist, founded SafePro AI to tap artificial intelligence to more autonomously and efficiently detect land mines in current and former warzones.
"I started researching high-tech land mines in 2016 in university,” Baur told Grist. "I was trying to research how we can detect these things that are a known hazard, especially for civilians and children."
Surface land mines, as Baur explained, can seem particularly innocuous, which makes them even more dangerous. "They look like toys," he said. He and Steinberg worked to turn their research project into a tangible application that would help deminers globally.
SafePro AI is trained on images of both inactive and active unexploded ordnance — everything from land mines to grenades. The model works by differentiating an ordnance from its surroundings, giving deminers an exact location of where a land mine is. When not being trained on images from Ukraine, it learns from images sourced elsewhere that Baur tries to ensure are as close to reality as possible.
"A lot of our initial training data was in Oklahoma, and I've been collecting a lot in farmlands in New York," he said. "I walk out with bins of inert land mines, and I scatter them in farm fields and then I try to make [the conditions] as similar to Ukraine as possible."
Because a lot of land mines are in fields adjacent to Ukrainian forests, focusing removal efforts at the perimeter can stop fires before they spread. SafePro AI has team members in the U.S., the U.K., and also in Ukraine. In fact, Motorniuk, from Zaporizhzhia Oblast who also works for SafePro AI as a developer, said that his work has shown him that he can make a difference without picking up a gun. SafePro AI has received funding from the United Nations Development Programme to deploy the technology in Ukraine through humanitarian land mine action organizations. So far, the company has surveyed over 15,000 acres of land, detecting over 26,000 unexploded ordnance.
An aerial view of a charred pine forest contaminated with mines and unexploded ordnance in Svyatohirsk, Donetsk Oblast, Ukraine, on Sept. 27, 2024. (Pierre Crom / Getty Images)
Much of the protection of Ukraine’s forests in and around the war is predicated on information. Can land mines be located? Can wildfires be slowed or stopped? In a geospatially data-poor country like Ukraine, Matsala highlights that this kind of work, and the creation of robust datasets, is necessary to ensure the survival of Ukraine’s natural ecosystems. It also offers a chance to rethink the country’s forestry in the long-term.
"This is a huge opportunity to change some of our… practices to make the forests more resilient to climate change, to these large landscape fires, and just [healthier]," Roth, of Forest Release, said.
Roth agrees with Matsala that Ukraine’s stands of highly flammable pine trees pose a prolonged threat to the country’s forests — particularly as climate change increases drought and heat wave risk throughout Europe. In Roth’s opinion, losing some of these forests to wildfires during the war will actually allow Ukrainian foresters to plant less flammable, native tree species in their place.
The scientific and humanitarian collaboration unfolding to protect Ukraine’s forests amid war may also provide a record that would allow the country to claim legal damages for ecosystem destruction in the future.
Matsala recalled what happened in the aftermath of the Gulf War in the early 1990s. Amid fighting, invading Iraqi forces destroyed Kuwait’s oil facilities, leading to widespread pollution throughout the region. Although Iraq was forced to pay out billions of dollars to Persian Gulf countries including Kuwait, Iran, and Saudi Arabia for both damages and remediation, the payments may not have covered the totality of the environmental impacts.
Following the war, neighboring Iran requested millions of dollars in damages for a myriad of environmental impacts, including for acid rain caused by oil fires. The United Nations Compensation Commission ultimately found that Iran had "not provided the minimum technical information and documents necessary" to justify the claims for damages from the acid rain. Matsala worries that without extensive data and reporting on the war with Russia, future Ukrainian claims for environmental reparations might go nowhere.
Whether that tribunal comes to fruition, or the forests are properly rehabilitated, remains to be seen. But the work continues. And with the war still raging, and no clear end in sight, it will continue to be dangerous.
From The Kyiv Independent - News from Ukraine, Eastern Europe via this RSS feed
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Russia recruits Central Asia migrants as 'cannon fodder' in Ukraine war, HUR says
(kyivindependent.com)
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Love, sex, survival — Ukrainian author on how war shapes intimacy in Ukraine
(kyivindependent.com)
In Ukraine, Russia’s war of aggression has upended not just borders but the country’s cultural landscape. Conversations about identity, gender, and sexuality have gained new urgency. Women are increasingly stepping into combat roles once dominated by men, while relationships can dissolve as quickly as they form. Many people now live as if there might be no tomorrow.
Ukrainian author and singer Irena Karpa has never been afraid to dive into these topics, having challenged long-standing taboos and patriarchal norms in Ukraine from the very beginning of her career. Karpa’s words cut through the sometimes stifling silence imposed by traditions, daring to speak openly of female sexuality, longing, and the quiet revolutions raging beneath the surface of a society in flux.
In an interview with the Kyiv Independent during the Book Arsenal Festival, the largest international literary event in Ukraine, Karpa reflected on the evolving roles of women in Ukrainian society and the military, the raw intensity of love and desire in times of crisis, and the emotional aftermath that will shape a new generation of Ukrainian storytellers.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
The Kyiv Independent: As someone who writes extensively about womanhood, how do you see gender roles in Ukraine?
Irena Karpa: When I first started writing in my early 20s, it felt really rebellious to talk openly about female sexuality, women’s choices, and subjectivity — I’m not sure if that’s the right word in English, but you know what I mean. The idea that a woman isn’t just a "nice lady," a toy in a man’s bedroom, or a decorative part of his life. For me, it was a challenge. I kept wondering: Why is it always the man who gets to choose? Even as a kid, that felt deeply unjust to me.
I grew up in the Carpathian Mountains, among the Hutsuls, and there was this awful saying: "An unbeaten woman is like a blunt tool – you can’t harvest with it." It’s horrifying, right?
I always pushed back against that mindset. I told myself no man would ever touch me against my will or hurt me, even though that kind of behavior was often normalized in the patriarchal society around me.
So my writing became a form of resistance. It was about young, brave, decisive women who wanted to make their own choices — who didn’t want to be just someone’s wife or mother or endlessly accommodating to others. Of course, that kind of writing wasn’t always well-received.
Especially because if you don’t win the so-called genetic lottery — being the stereotypical "ideal" Ukrainian woman — then it’s even harder. I didn’t fit that mold either.
So you have to find something else — you need to tap into a strong inner force to show the world who you really are. That’s why I turned to alternative music. I couldn’t see myself going into pop — I didn’t fit the mold.
It was the same with literature. I didn’t quite fit the typical profile there either. There weren’t many women writing in the way I wanted to write. Probably the most prominent figure (in Ukrainian literature) was [Oksana Zabuzhko](https://kyivindependent.com/oksana-zabuzhkos-the-longest-journey-an-excerpt/) — she still is. I read her work and thought, “Wow, you really can talk openly about sex.”
Of course, she used different language — more literary terms for private parts and so on — but still, it was powerful. I remember one part that really struck me: she wrote about male arousal and a woman approaching him. I must’ve been around 18 at the time when I read it, and I was stunned — not because it was the first sexual scene I’d ever read. I had read (Guy de) Maupassant, for instance, since I grew up with a lot of French literature. And in the '90s, we had this funny tabloid called “Pan plus Pani,” which was full of erotic stories.
Ukrainian writer Oksana Zabuzhko attends a press conference prior to the opening of the 74th Berlinale in Berlin, Germany, on Feb. 15, 2024. (John Macdougall / AFP via Getty Images)
But Zabuzhko was different. She was older than my parents, and here she was, unapologetically writing about sex. I thought, “Wow, she’s a woman and she can do this?” That felt like permission — like she opened a door for the rest of us.
Then there were other writers — like Yuri Izdryk or Yuri Andrukhovych — who also wrote about the body and physical experiences, in very bold and different ways. Sure, there were patriarchal elements in some of their work, but I never felt like I had to accept "secondhand sex," you know? Just because I’m a woman doesn’t mean I’m beneath a man. Never. It always felt equal — or at least, it depended on the person. If someone’s clearly less intelligent than me, why should his opinion carry more weight just because he’s a man? No way.
The Kyiv Independent: Do you feel that the war has shifted these patriarchal ideas about gender roles?
Irena Karpa: Things are changing a lot now. In the beginning, if you listen to activists or women in the military — like Maria Berlinska — she’ll tell you how bad it was. There wasn’t even basic underwear designed for female soldiers. The uniforms didn’t fit: too tight around the chest, too loose elsewhere. There was nothing made for women — it was all designed with men in mind.
And even if a woman was trained to be a shooter, they’d still list her as a kitchen worker. It was absurd.
But now, things are shifting. The last numbers I saw said there are around 75,000 women serving in the Ukrainian army, and many of them hold commanding positions. So yes, the war is forcing these roles to evolve.
We’re seeing incredible women rise — like Natasha, the woman who made headlines for shooting down a Russian missile. Before the full-scale war, she was a kindergarten teacher. That kind of transformation is powerful.
We’re also hearing many more female voices — not just in the military but across the volunteer sector and civil society. We still don’t have enough women in politics, but there are many leading in business. Though even there, they face sexism. I have friends who head major companies, and they still get talked down to like they don’t belong.
But it is changing — and it’s changing fast.
I really hope I live to see the day when a woman becomes president of Ukraine. And in the U.S. too — we all had hopes. A woman of color in leadership should be normal by now. People need to accept that change is here. The time for sexism and racism should be over, but the fight goes on. And it will continue.
Read also: Ukrainian Valkyries: Women embrace military training to learn to defend their homeland (Photos)
The Kyiv Independent: As a storyteller, how do you see the ways in which wartime is reshaping intimacy between people?
Irena Karpa: Life speeds up — and when it does, everything within it starts moving faster too.Relationships, love stories — it’s all true. I know people who lived through three or even five love stories just during the war. And each time, it felt like: “This is the one.”
People get married quickly, and often very young, because you never know — tomorrow might not come. So why wait? Why postpone something meaningful, some experience you deeply want to live? You live fast because there's no guarantee of later.
I really hope that kind of urgency won't become the norm for the younger generation — but who knows anymore? In Ukraine today, no one is truly safe — not even in (western cities like) Lviv.
Relationships, especially in times like these, are about shared values. Not hormones. Not a piece of paper. But something deeper — something forged in the intensity of shared experience.
Back in my youth, we had the luxury of time — to fall in love slowly, to live with someone, to figure it out. Young people today don’t have that. Over three years of their lives have already been stolen by war. Before that, it was Covid.
It’s heartbreaking. They missed school, missed university. Now, they live in constant anxiety, in a permanent state of risk. So of course, they live fast. It’s not surprising they get married quickly, divorce quickly.
I’ve seen it firsthand. As a storyteller, I even wrote about one such woman in my (upcoming) book. She fled to France with her teenage daughter. From that distance, she began to see her past relationships for what they were — dead long before she left. Sometimes, distance gives you clarity.
It’s the same for a soldier. If his wife is emotionally disconnected — whether she’s in Ukraine or abroad — and there's a woman beside him, maybe a volunteer or fellow fighter, someone who shares his values in the here and now… naturally, a connection forms.
Because relationships, especially in times like these, are about shared values. Not hormones. Not a piece of paper. But something deeper — something forged in the intensity of shared experience.
It was like that during the Maidan revolution, too. So many couples got married right there, in the tents. It was romantic, yes — but also fast, impulsive, driven by adrenaline and the sense that time was running out.
War is like that, but even more intense. Because when death is near, every emotion is amplified. You feel things more deeply. Life becomes sharper, more vivid. Even the smallest decisions feel profound.
A bride and groom kiss during their wedding in Kharkiv, Ukraine, on May 18, 2024, amid the Russian invasion. (Kostiantyn Liberov / Libkos / Getty Images)
As a writer, I use those stories. I just finished writing a book called “My Boyfriend Comes Back on Sunday.” It’s dedicated to a different kind of hero — not the ones who act fast, but the ones who wait. And the ones who are waited for. The novel is about a long-term, long-distance relationship between two people who have never met — but they're in love.Imagine loving someone you may never actually see in person. And yet, people stay faithful, deeply committed to each other, even with that uncertainty. It's another way of experiencing the war — through emotion, through longing, through love that exists in absence.
I find it incredibly compelling to explore these emotional landscapes — the different kinds of relationships, the transformations of the human soul under pressure. The events of the war — the battles, the destruction — those are being documented everywhere already: in videos, in news reports, in documentaries. They don't need me for that.
As a writer, what interests me is something else entirely: the passion, the sexuality, the bonds, the commitments — how all of that shifts and evolves during wartime.
The Kyiv Independent: We're talking about how many things are changing and becoming more open — but what taboos do you think the next generation of Ukrainian authors will have to contend with?
Irena Karpa: Oh, I think there will be a kind of emotional low tide after all this. I wonder what it will look like — like post-war fashion, for example, where designers use colors to compensate for the heaviness, like Dior with their floral dresses.
There will definitely be a new subculture born from this — a fresh expression of society. I don’t know exactly what it will be yet, but, like after every war, there will be a very empty, quiet moment.
There will be grief — because right now, we don’t even allow ourselves to fully mourn those we’ve lost, our loved ones. Afterward, society will have to adjust to many people living with the physical consequences of war — those with prosthetics, new faces of a changed community.
Even our perception of sexuality and what we consider sex symbols will shift. It’s already changing right now.
Writers will need to explore all this — the loneliness many will feel, because a lot of people will be left alone.
I try to focus on brighter sides, but there will be a lot of PTSD among civilians and especially those returning from the front lines. The adrenaline, the sense of purpose, the support of true friends — all of that will be gone, making everything feel dull and gray.
I believe this moment — this aftermath — will be a rich, complex subject for many writers to explore in the years ahead.
Note from the author:
Hi there, it's Kate Tsurkan, thanks for reading my latest interview. It's really important for me to do my own small part to promote Ukrainian authors in the English-speaking world. Irena Karpa is one of my favorites because she's such a great role model for women — beautiful, strong, and fearless. If you like reading this sort of thing, please consider supporting us and becoming a member of the Kyiv Independent today.
Read also: 10 authors shaping contemporary Ukrainian literature
From The Kyiv Independent - News from Ukraine, Eastern Europe via this RSS feed
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Ukraine war latest: Kyiv calls on West to isolate Moscow after Putin claims 'all of Ukraine' belongs to Russia
(kyivindependent.com)
Key developments on June 20:
"All of Ukraine is ours" — Putin on Russia's territorial ambitions in UkraineUkraine, Russia carry out 2nd prisoner swap this week under Istanbul deal"Massive" Russian drone attacks on residential buildings in Odesa kill 1, injure 14Ukraine imposes new sanctions on Russian, Chinese, Belarusian companies involved in drone production
Russian President Vladimir Putin said "all of Ukraine" belonged to Russia in a speech on June 20 at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum, amid increasingly aggressive official statements about Moscow's final territorial ambitions in Ukraine.
Putin's claim was based on the false narrative often pushed both by himself as leader and by Russian propaganda that Russians and Ukrainians are "one people."
The narrative has long figured prominently in Putin's rhetoric, often brought up as justification for its aggression in Ukraine.
In July 2021, just half a year before the full-scale invasion, the Russian leader stoked fears of a larger attack when he wrote and published an essay on the "historical unity of Russians and Ukrainians."
In response to the speech in St Petersburg, Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha condemned Putin’s comments as "cynical," saying it showed "complete disregard for U.S. peace efforts."
"While the United States and the rest of the world have called for an immediate end to the killing, Russia's top war criminal discusses plans to seize more Ukrainian territory and kill more Ukrainians," he wrote in a post on X.
Putin made several other statements at the forum, some contradictory, about Moscow's aims in the war going forward.
"Wherever the foot of a Russian soldier steps is Russian land," Putin said, directly implying Russia's intention to continue occupying more than just the five Ukrainian regions that Moscow has illegally laid claim to: Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia, and Kherson oblasts, as well as the Autonomous Republic of Crimea.
Sybiha said that "Russian soldier's foot" brings only "death, destruction, and devastation." He accused Putin of indifference toward his own troops, calling him “a mass murderer of his own people.”
"He already disposed one million Russian soldiers in a senseless bloodbath in Ukraine without achieving a single strategic goal. One million soldiers. Two million feet," the minister said.
"And, while Putin is busy sending Russian feet to invade other countries, he is bringing Russians inside the country to their knees economically."
As per the "peace memorandum" presented by the Russian delegation at the last round of peace talks in Istanbul on June 2, Moscow demands Kyiv recognize the oblasts as Russian and hand over all territory not yet controlled by Russian forces into occupation, including the regional capitals of Kherson and Zaporizhzhia.
Asked whether Russia aimed to seize the regional center of Sumy in Ukraine's northeast, Putin said that while such a mission has not been assigned, he wouldn't rule it out.
Russian ground attacks into Sumy Oblast have intensified along the northeastern border in the past weeks, having first crossed the border after Ukraine's withdrawal from most of its positions in Kursk Oblast in March.
Sybiha urged the West to ramp up military aid to Ukraine, tighten sanctions against Russia, designate Moscow a terrorist state, and "isolate it fully."
"His cynical statements serve only one purpose: to divert public attention away from the complete failure of his quarter-century rule," the minister added.
When asked if Moscow requires the complete capitulation of Kyiv and the Ukrainian leadership, Putin denied this, saying that Russia instead demands the "recognition of the realities on the ground."
Ukraine, Russia carry out 2nd prisoner swap this week under Istanbul deal
Ukraine has brought home another group of prisoners of war released from Russian captivity, President Volodymyr Zelensky said on June 20, following another prisoner exchange a day earlier.
"Most of the warriors returning today from Russian captivity had been held for over two years. And now, at last, they are home," Zelensky said on X, without revealing how many captives were exchanged.
Russia's Defense Ministry also said that a group of Russian soldiers had been released by the Ukrainian side, without specifying the number of personnel involved.
This week's exchanges follow four similar swaps carried out last week in accordance with Ukraine-Russia agreements reached at peace talks in Istanbul on June 2.
The latest swap was another in a series focusing on seriously ill and wounded prisoners, Ukraine's Coordination Headquarters for the Treatment of the Prisoners of War (POW) said.
"These are defenders of Mariupol, Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia, Kherson, Kharkiv, and Chernihiv regions. Warriors of the Armed Forces, the National Guard, and the Border Guard Service," Zelensky said.
The released POWs included privates and non-commissioned officers, some of whom were captured after the siege of Mariupol in 2022, according to the Coordination Headquarters. The oldest one is 60 years old, said Ombudsman Dmytro Lubinets.
Read also: Russia’s war-fueled economy is running on empty, Central Bank chief warns
"Massive" Russian drone attacks on residential buildings in Odesa kill 1, injure 14
Russian forces struck residential buildings in Odesa overnight on June 20, killing a civilian and injuring at least 14 others, including three emergency workers, the Prosecutor General's Office reported.
The attack, which the service described as "massive," rang out around 1 a.m. local time. The attack drones struck over 10 targets, including seven residential buildings, and led to multiple large-scale fires.
At the site of one of the attacks, a 23-story residential building caught fire between the 18th and 20th floors, and led to the evacuation of over 600 people.
In a separate attack on a four-story building within the city, three firefighters were injured when structural elements collapsed on the responders. The building is described as being "completely engulfed in flames," according to the State Emergency Service.
The aftermath of a Russian drone attack on a residential building in Odesa on June 20, 2025. The attacks on the city injured at least 13 people, including three firefighters. (Odesa Oblast Governor Oleh Kiper/Telegram)
The three injured firefighters are currently hospitalized in stable condition. Additional information on the attacks, as well as casualties, is being clarified as search efforts under rubble and debris continue.
In addition to the buildings, Odesa's main train station also had infrastructure damaged as a result of the drone attack, Ukraine's railway agency Ukrzaliznytsia reported.
Odesa, a port city on Ukraine’s Black Sea coast with a population of around 1 million, has been a frequent target of Russian attacks throughout the full-scale war.
"The overhead contact line and the rail and sleeper grid were affected," the agency wrote in a statement, adding that no injuries had been reported.
Ukraine imposes new sanctions on Russian, Chinese, Belarusian companies involved in drone production
President Volodymyr Zelensky signed a decree on June 20, imposing sanctions on 56 individuals and 55 Russian, Chinese, and Belarusian companies involved in the production of Russian drones and sanctions circumvention.
Ukraine introduced new restrictions as Russia has escalated drone attacks against Ukrainian cities over the past weeks, launching record 400-500 unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) per night.
Individuals and legal entities subject to Ukrainian sanctions cannot do business and trade in Ukraine, cannot withdraw their capital from the country. In the meantime, their assets are blocked, as well as their access to public and defense procurement, and entry into the territory of Ukraine, among other restrictions.
The new package of sanctions targets individuals and entities involved in the development and production of Russian drones such as Geran, Orlan-10, SuperCam, and first-person-view (FPV) drones, according to a decree published on the Presidential Office's website.
The Belarusian Precision Electromechanics Plant and six Chinese enterprises located in Hong Kong and in the provinces of Shandong and Shenzhen are among the sanctioned entities.
The sanctions list includes equipment suppliers to Alabuga Machinery, a Russian manufacturer of machine tools and gears, and individuals who import components for the sanctioned Kronshtadt JSC, a drone producer that developed Banderol UAVs with jet engines.
Note from the author:
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Russia's Oreshnik missile production can be halted by 'urgent' sanctions, Zelensky says
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President Volodymyr Zelensky on June 20 said sanctions are "urgently" needed on more Russian defense companies in order to stall the mass-production of the Oreshnik intermediate-range ballistic missile (IRBM).
Speaking at a press briefing attended by the Kyiv Independent, Zelensky said a "large number" of companies were involved in the manufacture of Oreshnik which Russia has launched at Ukraine once, and used the threat of more launches to intimidate Kyiv and its Western allies.
Russia first launched the experimental Oreshnik missile in an attack against Dnipro on Nov. 21. Putin claimed the strike was a response to Ukraine's use of U.S. and British long-range missiles to attack Russian territory.
While little is known about the missile, defense experts say it is likely not an entirely new development, but rather an upgraded version of Russia's RS-26 missile. The RS-26, also known as the Rubezh, was first produced in 2011.
While Putin has announced plans for mass production of the Oreshnik, a U.S. official previously told The Kyiv Independent that Russia likely possesses only a small number of these experimental missiles.
Zelensky said 39 Russian defense companies were involved in its production, 21 of which are not currently under sanctions.
"And this means that they receive parts and components for the Oreshnik, and they need it, because without these parts there will be no Oreshnik," he said.
Highlighting apparent difficulties Russia was already having in mass-producing the missile, Zelensky said it is "absolutely incomprehensible why sanctions should not be imposed urgently."
An infographic titled "Russia's new missile Orehsnik" created in Ankara, Turkiye on November 29, 2024. (Omar Zaghloul/Anadolu via Getty Images)
The Financial Times (FT) reported on Dec. 27. that the upgrades were developed using advanced manufacturing equipment from Western companies, despite sanctions.
Two key Russian weapons engineering institutes — Moscow Institute for Thermal Technology (MITT) and Sozvezdie — were named by Ukrainian intelligence as developers of the Oreshnik.
According to the FT, they posted job listings in 2024 that specified expertise in operating German and Japanese metalworking systems.
The listings cited Fanuc (Japan), Siemens, and Haidenhein (both Germany) control systems for high-precision computer numerical control machines essential for missile production.
Despite sanctions slowing the flow of such equipment, FT analysis found that at least $3 million worth of Heidenhain components were shipped into Russia in 2024, with some buyers closely tied to military production.
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