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Head of the Luhansk Oblast State Administration Oleksii Kharchenko: on the (im)possibility of working with Luhansk tax offices, the (in)expediency of administration operations, and housing for IDPs

Head of the Luhansk Oblast State Administration Oleksii Kharchenko: on the (im)possibility of working with Luhansk tax offices, the (in)expediency of administration operations, and housing for IDPs

Right now, there’s a narrative about 4.5 million IDPs existing. Of course, it’s impossible – for any country in the world – to provide housing to 4.5 million of its citizens. We can only begin solving this problem with the state when we understand the real number of IDPs, not the declared one, and the real need for service housing...

"Next to them, we are a dying species". Luhansk journal

"Next to them, we are a dying species". Luhansk journal

There are a lot of non-russians. We’re not used to that. They work until the very end, until it gets dark. Ours don’t, not like that — our people take care of themselves. But these ones are quick, tireless. They can be on their feet for 12 hours, smiling. They need to feed their family, pay rent, secure a place here...

Diary of an 18-year-old volunteer’s mother: relationships between “locals and military” and “women and men”

Diary of an 18-year-old volunteer’s mother: relationships between “locals and military” and “women and men”

Lately, there’s been this vile trend in social media of people saying that some girls/women supposedly marry young assault soldiers up to three times: one gets buried, she collects the payout, marries the second… and so on — till the end of time...

"Putin wants Ukraine to initiate a capitulation scenario itself" — Kostiantyn Matviienko on the imitation of negotiations

"Putin wants Ukraine to initiate a capitulation scenario itself" — Kostiantyn Matviienko on the imitation of negotiations

In fact, no one in the world right now is putting pressure on him with demands to at least call a ceasefire and stop the killing of Ukrainians, so he’s trying to push this issue off the agenda...

Roman Svitan: Russia is hastily forming new reserves to intensify the offensive by the end of summer

Roman Svitan: Russia is hastily forming new reserves to intensify the offensive by the end of summer

Law enforcement officers must be brought into service. There are simply no other options. We can't buy North Korean soldiers. But we have our own. Hundreds of thousands of law enforcement and security personnel within the country who are trained at least for defensive actions. They don’t need to go on the offensive, just to hold the line. They know how to do that...

Diary of an 18-year-old volunteer’s mother: wound, sister, billboards with the fallen

Diary of an 18-year-old volunteer’s mother: wound, sister, billboards with the fallen

Mom, people are dying because of them! At our training base, a junkie was working in the kitchen. That’s disgusting! You come back from a forced march, and someone like that is serving you soup! It’s disgusting! He’s taking a spot that could go to a normal, decent person with a disability!

The kremlin is playing a "Minsk-3" game: Serhiy Harmash on the Istanbul negotiations, memorandums, and putin’s tactics

The kremlin is playing a "Minsk-3" game: Serhiy Harmash on the Istanbul negotiations, memorandums, and putin’s tactics

It can be said that the negotiations are not being conducted for results, but rather for the sake of one spectator sitting in the Oval Office. Both sides are interested in his favor, and each is trying to gain certain tactical preferences — whether it be prisoner exchanges or informational and political bonuses.

Diary of an 18-year-old volunteer’s mother: Baibak is “200”. I can’t sleep

Diary of an 18-year-old volunteer’s mother: Baibak is “200”. I can’t sleep

The instructors told us before deployment not to get too attached to each other, ‘cause many of us will be ‘200’, maybe all...

“No grounds for peace exist. And even putin is showing that”: military expert Serhii Hrabskyi on the situation at the front, negotiations, and mobilization

“No grounds for peace exist. And even putin is showing that”: military expert Serhii Hrabskyi on the situation at the front, negotiations, and mobilization

So all this talk about an imminent ceasefire is meaningless. Both putin through his actions and Ukraine through its resistance show that the situation is not yet ripe for any negotiations. Moreover for us, peace negotiations, as practice shows, can be deadly dangerous, because putin uses any pause in the war to his advantage...

Putin is trying to seize the initiative and calls for negotiations in Istanbul: what’s behind it

Putin is trying to seize the initiative and calls for negotiations in Istanbul: what’s behind it

What’s behind putin’s “Istanbul initiative”, why the russian dictator chose Turkey specifically, and whether there are real grounds for a peace process now...

Economic reservation from mobilization: case closed?

Economic reservation from mobilization: case closed?

In recent months, the topic of economic reservation from mobilization has practically faded away. While last year members of parliament, government officials, and even the president discussed possible parameters and details, today this topic is barely mentioned...

Trump’s plan to end the war: chances of implementation and next steps

Trump’s plan to end the war: chances of implementation and next steps

Trump needs a success in this area, and he will work on it. He understands that pressuring Ukraine is useless since neither the government nor society responds to or acknowledges his pressure. So maybe he’ll start putting pressure on russia...

Everything is “ownerless” and everything is mine: A review of media from occupied Donbas

Everything is “ownerless” and everything is mine: A review of media from occupied Donbas

Last week, media in the occupied Donbas explained how to carve up property stolen from Ukrainians and kept assuring locals that, once the choicest assets are turned into “federal” property, life will finally get better… It suddenly turned out that the non‑government‑controlled parts of the Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts contain huge amounts of “ownerless” real estate: industrial plants, farmland, shopping malls…

The russian myth of the "revival of Donbas". Construction boom or construction noise

The russian myth of the "revival of Donbas". Construction boom or construction noise

The “liberation” of Donbas, which russian propaganda has tirelessly repeated since February 2022, turned into total destruction of everything the occupier set foot on. No surprise that amid the bombed-out Ukrainian towns and villages, a myth had to be quickly implanted in the public consciousness: “russians don’t abandon their own and everything will be rebuilt better than before”...

The most important thing is not to compare! Luhansk journal

The most important thing is not to compare! Luhansk journal

The locals are completely bewildered. How were they allowed to return? It's not even about them, it's about us. How are we supposed to work with them and pretend everything is normal?

Defender of Mariupol Vladyslav Ivakhov: among the jailers were frenzied sadists

Defender of Mariupol Vladyslav Ivakhov: among the jailers were frenzied sadists

I would kill them. Or first, I’d do to them exactly what they did to us, put them on trial, and then… I’d kill them anyway. One of my comrades is still in captivity. I know exactly what he’s going through every second in those prison dungeons...

Putin’s response on the truce: was it a “yes” or a “no”?

Putin’s response on the truce: was it a “yes” or a “no”?

That was a “yes” to Trump but a “no” to Trump’s proposal for a quick truce. Yes, 25 years in power have made putin a skilled diplomat, teaching him how to say “no” while pronouncing “yes”. And in doing so, leaving hope for a “yes” without giving a reason to react to his “no”...

Serhiy Harmash: The question is not whether putin will agree to a truce, but why he would agree to it

Serhiy Harmash: The question is not whether putin will agree to a truce, but why he would agree to it

Why would putin publicly humiliate Trump by refusing when he could simply agree, present himself as a peacemaker, and then break the ceasefire anyway, while blaming Ukraine for it?

Serhiy Hrabsky: The cessation of hostilities today means catastrophe for Ukraine and Europe

Serhiy Hrabsky: The cessation of hostilities today means catastrophe for Ukraine and Europe

The situation is further complicated by the fact that we are moving out of the densely built-up urban areas of Donbas. In these open fields, maneuvering is difficult. It is one thing to fight the enemy in an area where we have been fortifying our defenses for years and know the terrain well, but if the russians break out into operational freedom with air support—where they have superiority—and employ large numbers of tanks, which they can deploy, they may be able to advance much farther...

The agreement of disagreement. How long can Kyiv keep Trump on the "hook" of vanity?

The agreement of disagreement. How long can Kyiv keep Trump on the "hook" of vanity?

Therefore, no illusions are needed: this Agreement does not guarantee us any benefits from the U.S., nor "colonial plundering", nor, even more so, a quick end to the war...

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