A NOTE: Our Russia-Ukraine Resources are updated weekly - if you're accessing the page three or more weeks past the below date, pieces mentioned in this post may have been removed to make room for up-to-date resources.
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Updated Resources - April 24, 2024
Two Ukrainian youth stand in front of a statue in central square in Kherson following the city's liberation by Ukrainian forces. (President Of Ukraine from Україна, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons)
KEY DEVELOPMENTS
Kyiv Independent: Newsfeed
Novaya Gazeta Europe: Newsfeed
The Insider: Newsfeed
The Telegraph via Apple Podcasts - Ukraine: The Latest
Rep. Jasmine Crockett (TX-30) with the American Coalition for Ukraine, displaying the flag of Ukraine in April 2024. (Jasmine Crockett, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons)
WHAT'S ON OUR MIND
In addition to our weekly resource update, today we also offer an updated collection of pieces on the Israeli-Hamas war.
If observers of the war were to agree on a descriptor for the latter half of 2023 and the beginning of 2024, it would likely be ‘stalemate’. Forces on the front remained locked in a contentious dance, one step forward and another back, with only incremental progress on either side. Challenges at home - both of and beyond the war - in myriad forms trickled through society.
In recent months, Ukraine has faced large scale attacks on energy infrastructure, shake-ups in military leadership, tenuous foreign aid commitments, and - most recently - a flagging frontline defense and a legislative battle for mobilization reform. Faced with these dilemmas, last week’s significant steps toward renewed US aid comes at a welcome - and perhaps pivotal - moment. In today’s resource update, our attention returns once more to the nation at war’s epicenter, including insights into the latest foreign aid developments for Ukraine, mobilization efforts, societal complexities, and more.
We start with the news out of Washington, where the House of Representatives passed two bills on the provision of aid to Ukraine. The Kyiv Idependent covers both, with an explainer on the House’s passage of a $61bn foreign aid package, and a brief look at an additional bill allowing for the seizure and transfer of frozen Russian assets for redistribution to Ukraine. Kyiv Post augments this coverage with a more detailed look at the domestic political dynamics that saw this aid delayed for months.
Frontline Ukraine’s supply shortages and their human cost are revealed in pieces from both Foreign Policy and The Kyiv Independent. An episode of The Telegraph’s Ukraine: The Latest podcast provides updates from the frontline and analysis of the latest mobilization drive. Ukrainian mobilization is further explored in both Meduza and Foreign Affairs. The former publication outlines the fraught legislative path to achieve this reform, while the latter delves deeper into the current societal climate in which it goes into effect.
Next we look to the ‘helpers’. The Moscow Times publishes an entreaty from the head of a small Kharkiv-based charity whose work focuses on rebuilding the region, offering perspective on what Ukrainians have endured and underscores the dire need for international support. In a second podcast, The Telegraph’s Ukraine: The Latest interviews a team of international volunteers on how their experiences in Ukraine have changed over time, as well as hosts a discussion on the ramifications of Iran’s strike on Israel for Ukraine. A Ukrainian social media influencer who has leveraged his voice and his online presence to raise over $50m for the war effort is profiled in The Kyiv Independent.
Finally, we examine the war’s impact on Ukrainian society at large. Following months of Russian strikes on Ukrainian infrastructure, the Kyiv Post proffers that an energy transition is vital for the system’s reconstruction and resilience, and a UN report analyzes war’s damage to the Ukrainian science sector. The former publication also provides a report on the human rights situation during Russia’s occupation and its lasting effects. Doctors and patients speak about the failing state of healthcare in the occupied regions in a piece from Meduza. The Wilson Center examines the plight of Ukrainians in Russian imprisonment. Across the border, the Kyiv Post queries the fate of the Ukrainian diaspora in Russia, including its waning visibility, ongoing harassment, and intersections with Russian society.
In the overview, we learn of the diplomatic efforts from the earliest days of the war that did not come to fruition, including the insights they may offer for future negotiation. In videos, a discussion on the international legal, financial, and political aspects of reallocating Russia’s frozen assets for Ukraine, as well as one on the global financial efforts to rebuild the nation’s economy and infrastructure. Find also a look inside the grassroots movement to free Ukrainians from Russian captivity. In the arts, Ukrainian teenage playwrights reflect on their wartime experience on the stage and hacked emails reveal Russian intelligence’s infiltration of the country’s performing arts industry.
Find these stories and more in today’s Russia-Ukraine resource update. Head to our blog for new resources on the developing situation in the Middle East.
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