Sir Laurie Bristow, former UK amb to Russia: If you want to know what Putin thinks, listen to what he says. He’s saying it out loud & clear & has been for many years. The problem is we haven’t wanted to hear. Btw, it’s different from him telling us what he’ll do. That’s another matter altogether.”

In buff.ly/lmoERvQ the Repainted Fox podcasters use Oleksii Storozhenko's 'Lovestruck devil' to prompt discussion of: living peaceably with people of other persuasions; learning to live with uncertainty; self-discipline; training oneself to manage stress; interaction with AI, robots and gadgets.

In this episode of the Ukrainian podcast I Hear Others Yevhen Hlibovytsky offers fascinating observations on: security not being a 'given'; Europe's timid response to the war and Ukraine's greater readiness for an unstable world; possible Ukrainian futures. hromadske.radio/podcasts/ya-...

In buff.ly/28BEvVi the Repainted Fox podcasters use Lesya Ukrainka's play "Rufin and Priscilla" to discuss the need for: self-knowledge; foundations that can't be taken away; responsibility; the need, when making any major change, not to start with destruction, but first to preserve what's good.

We’d kinda noticed New US security strategy aligns with Russia's vision, Moscow says www.bbc.com/news/article...

In this episode of "I hear others", Daria Kaleniuk talks with Maksym Butkevych and Daria Bura about corruption, describing defeating corruption as integral to Ukraine's victory and survival and calling on President Zelenskyy to admit his mistakes and lead the effort. hromadske.radio/podcasts/ya-...

I have a strange feeling that this has been blindingly obvious since about 1 March 2022

In this absorbing interview, Maksym Butkevych recounts to Volodymyr Anfimov something of his experience of being both a human rights activist and a soldier, about his 2+ years in Russian captivity, about his attitude towards Russian people, and much else besides. podcasts.nv.ua/episode/4949...

In this episode of "I hear others", Maksym Butkevych and Darya Bura discuss with Valentina Potopova the 'insane' amounts of money Russia is pouring into 're-educating' Ukrainian children in the occupied territories. hromadske.radio/podcasts/ya-...

In youtu.be/vj4eVG74qSU?... the Repainted Fox podcasters use a selection of short stories by Geo Shkurupiy to prompt discussion of such themes as valuing oneself/valuing others, and being motivated by external pressures vs finding an internal drive that comes from the essential you.

It's kind of frustrating when world leaders have to take days out of their schedules to discuss a Russian wish list that's been run through Google Translate by a real estate broker working for a convicted criminal.

Well, this is an extract from an email I wrote to my Member of Parliament on 17 February 2025, a few months after he had been elected:

Today is День пам’яті жертв Голодомору (Holodomor Remembrance Day). The USA has finally stopped pretending to help you and the lights are going off all over Ukraine, but Ukrainians: there are many people in many parts of the world who remember you and are on your side. You are not alone. #ukraine

This is a bit more like it

“This is a Russian-led settlement translated into English by Americans …”

Wow! Witkoff is actually good at something! Taking dictation.

The whole absorbing interview (you'll need to understand Ukrainian, however) youtu.be/2m5Ns_wgjI8?...

In this episode of 'I hear others', Maksym Butkevych and Daria Bura discuss with Iryna Fedorovych discrimination in Ukraine. Against whom, in what forms, who to turn to for help and redress. And is stereotyping discrimination, and is all selectivity banned?

In the final story in this collection, 'The Mary Figurine' by Bohdana Matiiash, a family Christmas is darkened by a long-running feud. www.yakaboo.ua/ua/take-rizn...

Even if there is an element of wishful thinking or “reaching” here, I want to amplify this piece, because it’s critical that the brainless regurgitation of the Russian narrative is stopped and that the baseless Russian narrative itself is replaced.

In this episode of 'I hear others', Yuliia Sachuk talks with Maksym Butkevych and Darya Bura about problems faced by Ukrainians with disabilities - problems exacerbated by Russia's war, with so many requiring evacuation, and disabling injuries being suffered by new people every day.

So the publisher Anetta Antonenko, who asked me to translate extracts of Liubko Deresh's novel "Medusa's Gaze", has now asked me to translate an extract of Yevhenia Kononenko's literary non-fiction book "Той божевільний рік".

In 'Three Christmases for Vera', by Kateryna Mikhalitsyna, Vera twists her ankle fetching Christmas decorations from the attic. While she is stuck up there, she looks back over her life, particularly at her marriage to Karpo, who drank, then contracted cancer ... www.yakaboo.ua/ua/take-rizn...

In this episode of the podcast 'I hear others', Serhii Danylov talks with Maksym Butkevich and Darya Bura about the three areas of Ukraine occupied by Russia: Crimea, Ordlo, and the newly-occupied. Differences between them. Who is still there. Collaboration. Irreversible changes.

In this special episode of the podcast 'I hear others', Maksym Butkevich and Darya Bura talk with the former Mayor of Kherson, Volodymyr Mykolaienko, who spent over three years imprisoned by the Russians after Kherson was initially overrun by Russia in April 2022.

This episode of the podcast 'I hear others' features an illuminating interview with Veronika Plotnikov of the 'The Coordination Center for the Support of Victims and Witnesses' - whose work is cut out for the foreseeable future, with 187,000+ Russian war crimes already recorded.

In “DO YOU KNOW HOW TO SING KOLYADKY?” Dorje Batuu gives us a young postgrad for whom a chance Christmas meeting in Kyiv with two American tourists revolutionises her attitude to her overbearing professor - and does more for her besides! www.yakaboo.ua/ua/take-rizn...

Irina Slavinska's 'The bell' gives us two perspectives on the same unexpected events of one particular Christmas. www.yakaboo.ua/ua/take-rizn...

In 'Danko of Chekhov Street', a woman lying in hospital has a chance meeting with someone now living in the very house where her own first love, Danko, once lived. The encounter prompts a sequence of memories. www.yakaboo.ua/ua/take-rizn...

ТАКЕ РІЗНЕ РІЗДВО (“Such a different Christmas“) is a collection of 14 short stories by contemporary Ukrainian writers. In Nadiika Herbish’s Salam, Bacha, and Merry Christmas a veteran thinks back over time spent in an Afghan prison and a Christmas Eve miracle in Iraq. www.yakaboo.ua/ua/take-rizn...

In youtu.be/B0m7QLPBUp0?... the Repainted Fox podcasters use Ivan Franko's Для домашнього огнища to launch discussion of the difficulties of a long distance relationship; difficulties faced by women in making ends meet; openness vs sparing the other's feelings; double standards of 19th cent. men.

Wow this is interesting. And very Stalinist. How many times I heard Markov on Echo of Moscow faithfully advocating putin and putinism, explaining how the British secret services poisoned the Skripals, etc. Suck it up, Sergei. You’ve been had. You’ve all been had. Your Nazi leader is no one’s friend.

The next time we partners of Ukraine have doubts over scrambling against four drones in our airspace, we could have a look at this

This was part of the great terror of the late 1930s which radiated out from Stalin in Moscow, starting in 1929 and peaking in 1937-38. This purge swept away so much talent: Ukraine’s Executed Renaissance, Belarus’s Murdered Poets; so many others. This is the history Russia is so anxious to repeat.

This is a fascinating interview with Denys Kazanskyi about the situation in the occupied parts of Ukraine. Differences between Luhansk and Donetsk regions, the situation in 2014, over time, and now. And a possible future (spoiler: bleak. These regions are ruined). hromadske.radio/podcasts/ya-...

In this episode of the podcast Я чую інших, Maksym Butkevych and Daria Buria discuss with Inna Miroshynenko the problems of children in care in Ukraine, failures of state systems, problems around adoption and guardianship, and the like. Absorbing material. hromadske.radio/podcasts/ya-...

In this episode of the podcast Я чую інших ("I hear others"), Vyacheslav Likhachov (Ukrainian Center for Civil Liberties) discusses xenophobia in Ukrainian society against whom do Ukrainians have prejudices and how do such prejudices arise?

In buff.ly/D9zGOgP the Repainted Fox podcasters use Serhiy Zhadan's "Depeche Mode" to prompt discussion of generational change in Ukraine.

This interview with Oleksandr Demchenko sensitively unpacks the topic of Ukrainians in the occupied territories: why they stayed, collaboration vs survival, and the attitudes of other Ukrainians towards those who stayed - both now and in various possible futures.

In Bohdan Kolomiichuk’s “Etretat” a man wakes in his Lviv apartment with no idea who he is. Prompted by a single memory, he makes his way to Etretat in Normandy - on Christmas Day - where he pieces his own story back together.

In Petro Yatsenko’s short story Шопка на шпалах (“Crib scene on sleepers”) a crabby narrator is stuck on a train to Lviv on Christmas Eve. His sardonic commentary becomes part of a reenactment of the Christmas story. www.yakaboo.ua/ua/take-rizn...

Thank you so much, BBC, for badging this as a Zelenskyy failure rather than, for example, the refusal of a Russian asset to disobey orders. Or even simply trump’s refusal. Zelensky fails to secure Tomahawk missiles at talks with Trump www.bbc.com/news/article...

In Штука (The Unit) Kateryna Babkina explores the emotions of a woman forced by pandemic closures to spend Christmas in a tiny room at an airport instead of with her husband and young child. www.yakaboo.ua/ua/take-rizn...

ТАКЕ РІЗНЕ РІЗДВО is a collection of short stories by contemporary Ukrainian writers. In Гніздо (The Nest) Krystia Venhryniuk gives us a retired schoolteacher alienated from her own family and former colleagues but transformed by caring for an injured swallow. www.yakaboo.ua/ua/take-rizn...

ТАКЕ РІЗНЕ РІЗДВО is a collection of 14 short stories by contemporary Ukrainian writers. In Liudmila Taran’s Miracle on Zhemaitiia Street, a garrulous woman regales her patient friend with the story of a miracle in Vilnius. www.yakaboo.ua/ua/take-rizn...

ТАКЕ РІЗНЕ РІЗДВО is a collection of 14 short stories by contemporary Ukrainian writers. In Vasil Makhno’s New Rochelle, a Ukrainian emigree to New York finds her past unexpectedly mixing with her present. www.yakaboo.ua/ua/take-rizn...

ТАКЕ РІЗНЕ РІЗДВО is a collection of short stories by contemporary Ukrainian writers. In Contra spem spero, Kostyantin Moskalets riffs on Lesia Ukrainka's poem to give us the story of a depressed down and out given unexpected new strength by a meeting with a stranger. www.yakaboo.ua/ua/take-rizn...

ТАКЕ РІЗНЕ РІЗДВО is a collection of short stories by contemporary Ukrainian writers. In Dzvinka Matiiash's Вертеп, кекс та інші чудеса ('A crib scene, a cake, and other wonders'), a family Christmas is enriched by a desire to find wonders and the ability to see them. www.yakaboo.ua/ua/take-rizn...

The Ukrainian-language podcast Я чую інших ('I hear others') is a human rights-oriented podcast hosted by Maksym Butkevych and Daria Bura. In this episode they discuss how, in practice, prisoner exchanges are effected.

Ми повертаємось додому ('We're on our way back home') by Dzvinka Matiiash is a thought-provoking novel in nice, straightforward Ukrainian whose heroine/narrator is Agata, a girl of ten, tall for her age, a misfit. There's much food for thought here about normality and 'fitting in'.