Emily S.

People think they know what war is. Here’s what I learned in seven years on Ukraine’s frontline Tanks, soldiers, explosions and tears are the cliches that movies and news reels show us. The reality is an integration of horror and the mundane, as those who have chosen to stay cling to as much normality as they can

People think they know what war is. Here’s what I learned in seven years on Ukraine’s frontline

Eyewitnesses to a war crime Ukraine’s 20,000 stolen children are on the Trump administration’s radar. But will it help get them back? — Meduza More than two weeks have passed since U.S. President Donald Trump welcomed Vladimir Putin in Alaska, and by all appearances, this controversial show of diplomacy yielded no tangible results. Despite t...

Each of Ukraine’s 20,000 stolen children are the eyewitness to a war crime. Now that they’re on the Trump administration’s radar, will it help get them back from Russia? My latest. meduza.io/en/feature/2... @meduza.io

We need your help An urgent appeal from the Meduza team — Meduza Dear Meduza in English readers,

Dear readers, we urgently need your help.
Without at least 15,000 regular supporters, Meduza as you know it will cease to exist. But if you come through, you know we’ll keep working for you.
Please, read our full statement here:
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Dispatch from Dobropillia As peace talks stall and Russia closes in, civilians flee another town in Ukraine’s Donetsk region — Meduza The frontline in Ukraine’s Donetsk region has been creeping towards Dobropillia for the past 18 months. Located not far from the hotspot of Pokrovsk, this coal mining town has served as a refuge for t...

On July 16, Russia dropped a half-ton bomb on the main shopping center in Dobropillia. For many residents, this proved to be the last straw. @meduza.io reports on the evacuation of this frontline town against the backdrop of faltering peace talks. meduza.io/en/feature/2...

‘Space is already militarized’ Space lawyer Michelle Hanlon explains why international law still matters in a new era of astropolitics — Meduza In recent years, Washington and Moscow have traded increasingly sharp accusations of “militarizing” outer space. After Russia shot down one of its own satellites in a 2021 test that created a massive…

Washington and Moscow keep accusing each other of “militarizing” outer space. But is international law ready for a new era of conflict in orbit? To find out, Meduza spoke with space lawyer Michelle Hanlon.
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Opinion | A Star in Russia’s Media World Joins Ukraine’s Army On the ground in Kharkiv, the choices are starkly different.

In Opinion | “Until a couple of years ago Peter Ruzavin was a wunderkind of Russian opposition journalism,” M. Gessen writes. “Now, at 34, he is a corporal in uniform — a Ukrainian uniform. He serves with a drone unit in Kharkiv. ‘I feel lucky,’ he told me.”

‘What was difficult was to remain silent’ Meduza’s interview with Telo Tulku Rinpoche, Russia’s first religious head to condemn the war in Ukraine — Meduza In September 2022 — seven months after Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine — Telo Tulku Rinpoche, then the spiritual leader of Kalmykia’s Buddhists, became the first active religious le...

You’ve heard of the Chicago Pope — now meet the Philly Lama.

I spoke to someone I’d been wanting to interview for years: Telo Tulku Rinpoche, who served as the head of Buddhists in Russia’s Kalmykia for decades until he denounced the war in 2022.
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Many, many years ago, when I was thinking through what non-Russian Soviet world had to teach us about the shape of political power in a globalizing world, I wrote a thing. Now it's published and open access! modernismmodernity.org/forums/posts...

What it would take to save Ukraine Donald Trump is pledging more weapons to Kyiv, but U.S. stockpile drawdowns are falling short in a war of attrition — Meduza Donald Trump announced on Monday that the U.S. is sending additional weapons to Ukraine, including sought-after interceptor missiles for Patriot air defense systems capable of shooting down ballistic ...

With Trump’s waffling act still rolling, it’s still (always) a good time to consider what constraints the White House faces when it comes to arming Ukraine, even if the Donald makes the unlikely decision to go all in.

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Hunted in Kherson What Russia’s deliberate drone attacks on Ukrainian civilians say about the future of war crimes — Meduza After Russian forces seized the city of Kherson in March 2022, occupation authorities put up billboards that said, “Russia is here forever.” Eight months later, in November 2022, the Ukrainian…

Short-range drones are now the leading cause of civilian casualties in Ukraine, according to the UN. Meduza spoke to HRW’s Belkis Wille about how drone warfare impacts civilians in the city of Kherson and facilitates Russian war crimes.
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‘A false semblance of choice’ Putin’s latest passportization deadline dials up the pressure on civilians in Ukraine’s occupied territories — Meduza Ukrainians living under occupation have long faced pressure to assume Russian citizenship. But in March, Vladimir Putin turned things up a notch. In a decree aimed at boosting the Kremlin’s campaign t...

“When Russia says they’re ‘deporting’ someone, they’re not deporting them back to Ukraine.”

My story on how Putin’s latest attempt to force Russian passports on Ukrainians paves the way for more war crimes in the occupied territories. meduza.io/en/feature/2... @meduza.io

“Russia’s Africa pivot is already taking on the characteristics of a state-backed mega-project.”

Big update for The Beet: We now have our own landing page on @meduza.io! 🎉 Pay it a visit if you’re looking to subscribe to the newsletter or want to read any of our top reporting from the last year-ish. meduza.io/en/specials/...

Between independence and survival Economic pressure brings global press freedom to ‘unprecedented’ low in 2025, says Reporters Without Borders — Meduza The state of press freedom worldwide has reached an “unprecedented, critical low” this year due to economic pressure, according to the annual World Press Freedom Index from Reporters Without Borders…

The latest World Press Freedom Index from Reporters Without Borders paints a grim picture around the planet, but things are especially bleak in Russia, which ranks 171st out of 180. (Ukraine scored 62nd.) meduza.io/en/feature/2...

Body of Ukrainian journalist who died in Russian captivity repatriated with organs removed and other signs of torture — Meduza Before Russian authorities returned the body of Ukrainian journalist Victoria Roshchyna to Ukraine last week, several organs, including her eyes and brain, had been removed, according to a new joint…

Before the Russian authorities returned the body of 27-year-old Ukrainian journalist Victoria Roshchyna to Ukraine last week, several organs, including her eyes and brain, had been removed, according to a new investigation.
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Ukraine has finally brought back the body of journalist Viktoria Roshchyna, which Russia failed to hand over for months after reporting her death last September. “Given the torture and the condition of her body, Roshchyna’s family requested not one, but several DNA examinations.”

Breaking the ice As the U.S. and Russia tease Arctic cooperation, climate science could offer common ground — but neither side seems interested — Meduza Since returning to the White House, Donald Trump has overseen a rapid thaw in relations with Moscow. Among the more curious points of alignment: a renewed focus on the Arctic. Despite Russia’s…

As thawing U.S.-Russia relations take a turn toward the Arctic, scientific research appears to be the easiest — and least politically fraught — arena for renewed engagement. Even there, though, the two sides may be further apart than they seem.
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‘Partisans should work with whoever they want’ Wealthy Russians have a history of funding the anti-Putin opposition. Here’s how they do it — and what’s in it for them. — Meduza For several months, a fierce debate has raged in Russian opposition circles over the funding of political organizations, encompassing everything from the ideal level of transparency for anti-Kremlin g...

This is probably the longest translation I’ve ever done for @meduza.io. And it tackles a question I’ve long wanted to know the answer to: Who funds the Russian opposition — and what’s in it for them? If you’re looking for a weekend read, this is it! meduza.io/en/feature/2...

Photos of the aftermath of Russia's Palm Sunday strike on Sumy On April 13 — Palm Sunday — Russia forces launched a missile strike on the Ukrainian city of Sumy. According to the latest reports, 34 people were killed, including two children. At least 119 others…

Meduza shares photos of the aftermath of Russia’s missile attack on Sumy, which killed at least 34 people, including two children.
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At least 21 killed and 83 injured in Russian missile attack on Ukraine’s Sumy — Meduza Russian forces launched two missile strikes on the Ukrainian city of Sumy on Sunday, local authorities reported. According to the latest figures from Ukraine’s Interior Ministry, at least 21 people…

Russian forces launched two missile strikes on the Ukrainian city of Sumy on Sunday. According to the latest figures from Ukraine’s Interior Ministry, at least 21 people were killed. At least 83 others were injured, including seven children.
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‘We are here. Join us.’ What the trial of two Wagner Group promoters in Poland reveals about Russia’s covert campaign in Europe — Meduza In mid-February, a court in Krakow sentenced two Russian citizens to five and a half years in prison for posting hundreds of recruitment ads for the Wagner mercenary group in Polish cities. Convicted ...

Two Moscow soccer fans are now sitting in prison in Poland for papering downtown Krakow with Wagner Group ads. How did they get there? And what does it tell us about Russia’s covert operations in Europe? Agnieszka Pikulicka-Wilczewska reports for @meduza.io meduza.io/en/feature/2...

Surveilling Putin’s ‘shadow fleet’ Meduza’s dispatch from the Baltic Sea, where a new NATO mission aims to protect undersea infrastructure as tensions rise with Russia — Meduza The Baltic Sea handles around 15 percent of global shipping traffic — approximately 2,500 vessels daily, according to researcher Julian Pawlak. A rising number of these ships belong to Russia’s…

After a series of undersea cable breaches in the Baltic Sea late last year, NATO announced a new monitoring mission. Meduza boarded one of its ships to learn how the operation works — and what its encounters with Russia’s “shadow fleet” look like.

‘A devil’s bargain’ Cold War historian Sergey Radchenko explains why talk of a ‘New Yalta’ between Putin and Trump misses the mark — Meduza Ahead of a call between Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump on March 18, a Russian state media reporter asked Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov if the two leaders planned to discuss a “new Yalta.” Peskov…

In our latest Q&A, Cold War historian Sergey Radchenko (@radchenko.bsky.social) explains why talk of a “New Yalta” between Putin and Trump misses the mark.

‘There has to be a cost’ Russian sabotage spiked in Europe last year. So why don’t Western officials do more to stop it? — Meduza Russia intensified its sabotage efforts in Europe last year as part of a violent campaign against both European and U.S. targets on the continent, according to a new report from the Center for Strateg...

Russian sabotage spiked in Europe last year in an apparent bid to undermine Western support for Ukraine, according to a new @csis.org study. Is the Kremlin’s covert campaign effective? And what can the West do about it? I asked the report’s author, Seth G. Jones meduza.io/en/feature/2... @meduza.io

The destruction of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty is so utterly devastating.

Despite all the attempts to shut them down in Kyrgyzstan, they remained by far the most trusted source of news. Same goes for the rest of the region

In Fox News interview after Oval Office disaster, Zelensky thanks America repeatedly for support and stresses historical moment for U.S.-Ukrainian partnership — Meduza In an interview with Bret Baier of Fox News on Friday evening, President Volodymyr Zelensky repeatedly thanked the American people and the White House leadership for the nation’s strong partnership wi...

Wrote up a summary of Zelensky’s interview with Fox News. I believe you can criticize Zelensky’s past and present navigation of U.S. politics, but he’s doing the absolute best he can here.

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It Was an Ambush Today marked one of the grimmest days in the history of American diplomacy.

Today was a grim, terrible day for the United States and the cause of democracy. Putin, along with other dictators around the world, can finally look at Trump with confidence and think: one of us.

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‘On their TV screens, they’re at war with NATO. Outside my window, there’s war every single day.’ Meduza’s readers in Ukraine and Russia reflect on how the war has shaped their lives — and deepened divisions — Meduza Three years ago today, Russia launched a full-scale war against its neighbor, Ukraine. Even as the war rages on, it has already wrought untold destruction, claimed countless lives, torn families…

Three years ago today, Russia launched its full-scale war on Ukraine. Every day, Meduza asks readers of its Russian-language site to share how the war has affected them. Here are a few of their responses, translated into English.

Riddle Russia, an excellent outlet working in exile, has lost their core grant. They're facing a possible shutdown unless they can come up with an infusion of cash to buy them time to look for new funding.

A decimation of independent Russian media is happening as we speak.

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