Матеріали автора Olena Bondarenko

"No one knew for three months where I was. The children were told that I was no longer alive, they even showed them my grave. But I returned – and the work began."Translated by Dmitry Lytov & Mike LytovЧитати українською

“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

Vadym lives in Saltivka, a residential area in northeast Kharkiv. The windows of his apartment on the sixth floor face north. "For a long time, I could not understand what is that light shining on the horizon," Vadym begins his story.“Sometimes I was seeing bright shots of light rising up and then disappearing. I was thinking that perhaps it was our air defense working. I did not immediately realise what it was and how far it was from where I lived. Belgorod in Russia is 60 kilometres (~40 miles) from my house”, Vadym says.

Why are our guys not sent on rotation? Why are boys without combat experience sent to the front lines? And where are the Western weapons that can save them? People who are distant from the war keep asking these questions, inciting panic and the lamentations about the "naked, barefoot, and hungry in the trenches", which have been going on since 2014.Translated by Dmitry Lytov & Mike Lytov Read in Ukrainian here