Ukraine News

KYIV, Ukraine—In a televised address Sunday, Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk announced he would step down Tuesday, marking the end of a two-month-long political crisis. “We cannot allow destabilization of the executive branch during a war,” Yatsenyuk said. Ukrainian forces are still battling combined Russian-separatist forces in a 2-year-old war that has killed more than…

LOBACHEVE, Ukraine—War is absurd sometimes. The SUV clambered along the pothole-speckled dirt road, which was now more mud than dirt in the wake of melting snow and spring rains. The driver, a 30-year-old Ukrainian soldier named Andriy, held a pistol in his steering hand as he navigated through no man’s land near the separatist-controlled city…

SHCHASTYA, Ukraine—The late winter weather in Ukraine alternates among frigid, cool, snow, and rain—teasing the arrival of spring. The 2-year-old war, which has ravaged eastern Ukraine, killing more than 10,000 and displacing more than 1 million, is as fickle as the weather—teasing the possibility of peace without ever achieving it. Both sides of the conflict renewed…

KYIV, Ukraine—Vadym Krypychenko was sure he was going to die. His vehicle had broken down along the front lines in eastern Ukraine near the village of Verkhniotroitske. It was Aug. 10, 2015, only four days before the end of his military service commitment and his scheduled return home. Krypychenko, a private in the Ukrainian army’s…

KYIV, Ukraine—Ivona Kostyna couldn’t leave the war even if she wanted to. It was December 2014 and, at age 18,  the civilian volunteer was delivering supplies to Ukrainian troops stationed in the front-line town of Debaltseve. Her car broke down, and in the six days it took to make repairs she lived among the soldiers….

KYIV, Ukraine—The two-year-old Ukraine war has hit a grim milestone amid the longest and most durable lull in fighting since the conflict began. Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko last week said 2,269 Ukrainian soldiers have died since the conflict in eastern Ukraine began in spring 2014. That toll almost matches the 2,381 American troops killed during roughly…

KYIV, Ukraine—Orthodox Christians celebrate Christmas on Jan. 7. So in Ukraine’s capital city, the holiday season is still in full swing. The festivities in Kyiv leading up to Thursday reflect the continuance of normal life despite the frozen conflict in eastern Ukraine and looming battles on the nation’s domestic political front. At the Gulliver shopping mall, children line…

KYIV, Ukraine—There’s a saying in Ukraine about the four stages of being poor. It goes like this: First, you don’t have any hryvnias (the Ukrainian currency). Second, you don’t have any food. Third, you don’t have any dollars. And finally, you don’t have your $2 bill. For Ukrainians, dollars are a precious and jealously guarded rainy-day…

KYIV, Ukraine—One Ukrainian National Guard soldier died and more than 100 law enforcement personnel and civilians were injured, several critically, after violent protests erupted outside Ukraine’s parliament on Monday. Ukrainian Interior Minister Arsen Avakov said a demonstrator threw fragmentation grenades into a line of Ukrainian National Guard soldiers and law enforcement personnel guarding the entrance…

URZUF, Ukraine—The vehicle yard at the Ukrainian National Guard Azov Battalion’s base here looks like the set of a Mad Max movie. There is a semi-truck tractor covered in welded black armor parked next to a fleet of busses, minivans, pickup trucks and hatchback Volkswagens all painted in camouflage patterns—some sporting bullet holes. The up-armored…

SARTANA, Ukraine—A biography of Winston Churchill sits on Stephan Machsma’s desk. Machsma is the mayor of Sartana, Ukraine, and he is leading the town’s approximately 10,000 residents through their own darkest hour. On Sunday night, starting around 10 p.m., combined Russian-separatist forces shelled Sartana with 122-mm and 152-mm artillery for about 25 minutes. The attack…

MARIUPOL, Ukraine—A mortar killed Daniel Kasyanenko on a battlefield in eastern Ukraine. He was 19 years old. He died on Aug. 6, almost six months after the Feb. 12 cease-fire. He was one of 18 Ukrainian soldiers to die in a 10-day stretch from Aug. 1 to Aug. 10; 98 Ukrainian soldiers were wounded in…

MARIUPOL, Ukraine—Thunderstorms hovering over the Sea of Azov caught the setting sun, turning orange and then pink. A cool end-of-day breeze kicked up. Later Sunday night in downtown Mariupol when the artillery started, the booms and flashing lights over the rooftops looked like lightning and sounded like thunder. To the trained ear, however, the sounds…

DERRY, N.H.— During a campaign stop at a town hall in New Hampshire today, Ohio Gov. John Kasich said the United States should be aiding Ukraine against Russian aggression. “For the life of me, I cannot understand why we are not giving the Ukrainians [the ability] to defend themselves against Putin and the Russians,” Kasich…

KYIV, Ukraine—It was called position 18. The house, which was yellow and had its roof caved in from artillery hits, was only a hundred meters or so behind the front-line trenches in Pisky, Ukraine. Shrapnel and bullet holes had shredded the exterior walls, leaving the yellow paint polka-dotted by the grey concrete underneath. The soldiers…