Shows / Explaining Ukraine
Explaining Ukraine
A podcast by UkraineWorld.org, a multimedia project about Ukraine run by Internews Ukraine. Explaining Ukraine, its politics, society and its culture. Support us: patreon.com/ukraineworld
Episodes
Explaining UkraineWhere Is This War Going?
Ukraine might be facing the most difficult winter in its recent history due to Russian strikes on vital civilian infrastructure. But the crisis is already…
Explaining UkraineUnderstanding Ukrainian Resistance. Volodymyr Yermolenko, Marci Shore and Kateryna Mishchenko at the Frankfurt Book Fair
What are the roots of Ukrainian resistance? Why can we describe Ukrainian culture and statehood not as something that exists thanks to favorable circumstances…
Explaining UkraineReligion in Ukraine - with Cyril Hovorun
What role does religion play in Ukraine? How pluralistic is the country’s religious landscape? Which Christian denominations are the most influential, and how…
Explaining UkraineWhy Shevchenko Is Still Central to Ukrainian Identity - with Rory Finnin
Why does Taras Shevchenko remain the central figure of Ukrainian culture? Why is a poet who lived in the 19th century still perceived in Ukraine almost as a…
Explaining UkraineTimothy Snyder on the Deep Layers of Ukrainian History
Studying Ukrainian history can be far more fascinating than you might think. It can reveal deeper layers of our past than we ever imagined and help us better…
Explaining UkraineThe Magic of Ukrainian Traditional Music - with Mariana Sadovska and André Erlen
Ukrainian traditional music has preserved one of the richest traditions of polyphonic singing in the world. It has survived centuries of oppression, oblivion…
Explaining UkraineThe Steppe Origins of Russian Imperialism - with Michael Khodarkovsky
How did the vastness of the Eurasian steppe shape the political model of Russian imperialism? What does the Russian Empire have in common with other Eurasian…
Explaining UkraineThe War, Without Illusions - with Andriy Zagorodnyuk
How can Ukraine protect itself against Russia’s ballistic missile threat? What role can Europe play, particularly through joint production? Can Ukraine develop…
Explaining UkraineUnmasking Russian Propaganda - with Thomas Kent
Why should we take Russian propaganda seriously? Why is it so deeply rooted in Russia’s authoritarian vision of society and politics? What lessons can we learn…
Explaining UkraineWhat You Need to Know About Ukrainian Society - with Maryna Starodubska
What values define Ukrainian society? How accurate is it to say that Ukrainians have high levels of horizontal trust—trust in one another—but low trust in…
Explaining UkraineWhat Are the Hidden Risks of a Ceasefire? We Asked Chatham House Experts
When people look at this war from the outside, they often ask one question: When will it end? Many assume that if a ceasefire is reached, the war will be over…
Explaining UkraineIs the War Approaching a Turning Point? - with Tetyana Ogarkova
Many things have changed this year. Ukraine is now striking targets deep inside Russian territory on a regular basis. Russia’s traditional strengths—its vast…
Explaining UkraineGreece, Ukraine, Communism, War, Europe - with Christos Chomenidis
I read this book with absolute passion. While it is a novel, it is truly an epic—the story of a family told through the greatest upheavals and disasters of the…
Explaining UkraineForeign Fighters in Ukraine: What Are Their Stories? - with Colin Freeman
Although Russia claims to be waging a war against the so-called West, no other country has officially deployed its military to fight alongside Ukraine…
Explaining UkraineMariupol: Inside Russia’s Massive War Crime - with James Verini
On March 16, 2022, the Russian army committed one of the gravest war crimes of its invasion of Ukraine. It dropped air bombs on the Mariupol Drama Theatre…
Explaining UkraineHow Russians Are Erasing Life in Ukraine’s South - with Zarina Zabrisky
The Russian army is hunting people in Kherson, a major city in the southern part of Ukraine. It is estimated that 700 Russian drones attack Kherson region…
Explaining UkraineWhy Europe must fix its defence now - with Moritz Schularick
Ukraine has won time for Europe. A vast amount of time. But the price of this time has been tremendous. It is measured not in money, but in human lives. Dozens…
Explaining UkraineHow Russia can be defeated - with Lesia Ogryzko
In recent months, Ukrainian deep strikes into Russia have outnumbered Russian strikes on Ukraine. Ukraine has managed to build its military capacities…
Explaining UkraineOdesa in love and war - with Julian Evans
Let’s travel for a moment. Imagine you are on the shore of the Black Sea, in Odesa—one of the most beautiful cities in Eastern Europe. Odesa possesses multiple…
Explaining UkraineCan Europe become a security union? - with Borja Lasheras
Can Europe become a genuine security union? Is it truly aware of the 21st-century geopolitical dangers that threaten its very existence? How central is Ukraine…
Explaining UkraineWhat Black Americans and Ukrainians can tell each other
What do Ukrainians and Black Americans share in their historical and cultural experiences? Can we draw comparisons between serfdom and slavery, or find…
Explaining UkraineWhy Ukraine's resistance starts with ordinary people
How did two friends save hundreds of civilians? How did one restaurant feed tens of thousands in a besieged city? What does a former entrepreneur feel while…
Explaining UkraineWhy the world needs Ukraine’s war tech - with Yulia Marushevska
Why has Ukraine rapidly emerged as a global leader in advanced defense technology? What is the secret behind this innovation? How has warfare evolved over the…
Explaining UkraineDecoding Trump’s Ukraine policy - with Christopher Atwood
Since Donald Trump’s return to the U.S. presidency, Russia has drastically escalated its missile and drone strikes on Ukrainian cities. In January 2026…
Explaining UkraineRussia's energy terror against Ukraine - with Oksana Ishchuk
During this record-breaking cold winter, millions of Ukrainians are regularly left without electricity, water, or heat as temperatures plummet to -20°C and…
Explaining UkraineCan Ukraine win the technological war? - with Volodymyr Havrylov
What are the prospects for peace talks — and why are many Ukrainians skeptical about them? Does Ukraine have technological parity with Russia on the…
Explaining UkraineCities without kings: humanity's prehistory on Ukrainian soil — with David Wengrow
What can the deep past of Ukrainian lands reveal about the global story of humanity? Six thousand years ago, "mega-sites" flourished in what is now central…
Explaining UkraineUkraine in 2025: can peace talks succeed?
In 2025, Ukraine is facing unprecedented pressure from one of its key partners, the United States. The Trump administration has chosen not to act as Ukraine’s…
Explaining UkraineHow Ukrainians fund their own defense: the story of “Come Back Alive”
Imagine an NGO that has raised over one billion dollars to support the Ukrainian army. Imagine a civil society initiative that purchases armaments and military…
Explaining UkraineUkrainian geopolitical thought - with Danylo Lubkivsky
Ukraine has its own tradition of geopolitical thinking — a tradition that reaches deep into the past and continues to shape the country’s strategic imagination…
Explaining UkraineWhy the Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church is unique - with Natalia Shlikhta
What makes the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church so unique? Why is it such a remarkable attempt to bridge the divide between Eastern and Western Christianity?…
Explaining UkraineUkrainian culture: how to reassemble a broken picture - with Olesia Ostrovska-Liuta
Ukrainian cultural heritage is not something that quietly settles into national archives. In reality, it is the result of a dramatic struggle against…
Explaining UkraineHow Russia built its myth of Kyiv - with Kateryna Dysa
Russian propaganda claims that Ukraine is not a separate nation, but merely a “preliminary form” of Russia. Today’s Kremlin ideology seeks to annex Ukrainian…
Explaining UkraineNobel Laureate Oleksandra Matviychuk on Ukraine’s Moral Core
She is not only a Nobel Peace Prize laureate. She is not only one of the most visible human-rights defenders in Europe in recent decades. She is not only a…
Explaining UkraineBeing a Ukrainian soldier - what is it like? - with Vladyslav Urubkov
How is the life of a soldier different from that of a civilian? Which aspects of it are hardest for civilians to understand? What is happening on the frontline…
Explaining UkraineWhy Europe’s security depends on Ukraine - with Yevhen Hlibovytskyi
Ukraine is not a burden for Europe — it’s a chance for Europe. Today, European security is unthinkable without Ukraine. Ukraine has the strongest army in…
Explaining UkraineHow to rediscover Ukraine: the story of Ukraïner - with Julia Tymoshenko
In this episode, we will talk about “Ukraïner”: a great initiative that has done a great deal to help rediscover Ukraine — both from within and from abroad…
Explaining UkraineUkrainian children, kidnapped and reprogrammed by Russia - with Kateryna Rashevska
In this episode, we discuss how Russia destroys Ukrainian families, kidnaps Ukrainian children — including those who have parents — and reprograms them…
Explaining UkraineWhere Ukrainians get their news in war - with Kostiantyn Kvurt
Where do Ukrainians get their news? What are the key trends in Ukraine’s media sector during the war? Do citizens trust information coming from the government?…
Explaining UkraineTimothy Snyder on why history matters — and how we get it wrong
In September 2025, in Kyiv, a prominent American historian Timothy Snyder received the Vasyl Stus Prize — a Ukrainian award honoring the name of Vasyl Stus…
Explaining UkraineA Brief History (and Present) of Ukrainian Theatre — with Mayhill Fowler
What do we know about theatre — the most ephemeral of the arts — in Ukraine? What role did Ukrainian theatre play in Soviet times? How is the heritage of the…
Explaining UkraineHow Poetry Shaped the Ukrainian Nation — with Rory Finnin
Why is Taras Shevchenko not only the founding father of Ukrainian poetry but also of Ukrainian identity? What aspects of his legacy remain alive today? And how…
Explaining UkraineNiall Ferguson on Empires, Networks, and Ukraine
Are all empires equally bad? If some were better than others, what criteria can we use to make such judgments? Why must we study networks, not only…
Explaining UkraineHow Ukraine fights Russian drones - with Taras Tymochko
Let’s take a deeper look into drone warfare and the long-term changes it is bringing to the battlefield. How is Ukraine countering Russian drone attacks? How…
Explaining UkraineHow Ukraine's IT keeps surprising the world - with Taras Tymoshchuk
How is Ukrainian IT transforming the country’s defence? Why is technology key to success in today’s war? Why is Ukraine one of the world’s most dynamic IT…
Explaining UkraineWhy Ukrainian History Matters Globally — with Yaroslav Hrytsak
Yaroslav Hrytsak is one of Ukraine’s leading historians and public intellectuals. His recent book in Ukrainian, "Overcoming the Past: A Global History of…
Explaining UkraineCan Security Guarantees Stop Russia’s War? — with Hanna Shelest
If Ukraine does not receive real security guarantees, the war will continue—and is likely to spill over into the rest of Europe. But what kind of guarantees…
Explaining UkraineСaptivity, torture, violence, and love - with Maksym Butkevych
Maksym Butkevych is a prominent Ukrainian human rights defender. Before the Russian full-scale invasion of Ukraine, he dedicated his efforts to the protection…
Explaining UkraineUkraine vs Russia: who leads the tech battle? - with Glib Voloskyi
Why is technology playing such a decisive role in this war? Who is ahead in technological innovation—Ukraine or Russia? How are drones reshaping the…
Explaining UkraineHow Russians hunt civilians in Kherson - with Zarina Zabrisky
Kherson may be the most dangerous regional center in Ukraine. Occupied by Russian forces in 2022, its residents were subjected to torture and intimidation. The…
Explaining UkraineWhy Trump’s Ukraine plan won’t work - with Tetyana Ogarkova
Trump is set to meet with Putin in Alaska on August 15. Media reports and leaks ahead of this meeting, along with statements by President Trump and members of…
Explaining UkraineRussian war crimes explained by Nobel-winning Ukrainian NGO - with Oleksandra Romantsova
Russia has committed over 160,000 war crimes in Ukraine, according to Ukraine's Prosecutor General's office. What kinds of crimes are most widespread in…
Explaining UkraineWhat research tells us about the Ukrainian army - with Oleksiy Moskalenko
How can we understand what’s happening inside the Ukrainian army? How do soldiers feel? What challenges do they face? What parts of military life do they…
Explaining UkraineHow Does Ukraine Talk to the Wider World? We Asked the Ukrainian Institute
Ukraine wants to be heard around the world. But we must also learn to listen to the wider world in return. The Ukrainian Institute — the country’s leading…
Explaining UkraineWhy colonialism is more complicated than you think - with Botakoz Kassymbekova
What’s the difference between colonialism and imperialism? What types of colonialism can we identify — and which of them are playing out in Russia’s invasion…
Explaining UkraineWhy Russia fears Ukrainian literature - with Myroslav Shkandrij
Myroslav Shkandrij is a prominent scholar of Ukrainian cultural history and Professor Emeritus at the University of Manitoba in Canada. He has written…
Explaining UkraineHis callsign is Caesar, he’s British, and he fights for Ukraine
There are foreigners fighting for Ukraine in this war — but their numbers are small. They are not sent by their governments; they come as volunteers, driven by…
Explaining UkrainePropaganda: shaping narratives in times of war. A public discussion at CEU, Vienna
Propaganda has long been a powerful tool for shaping public opinion, influencing international discourse, and justifying military actions. In Russia’s war…
Explaining UkraineNobel-Winning Economist Joseph Stiglitz on the Failures of Neoliberalism and Sanctions Against Russia
Joseph Stiglitz is a world-renowned economist and thinker who was awarded the Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences in 2001. I met him in Tbilisi, the capital of…
Explaining UkraineHow Drones Are Dramatically Changing the War – with Nataliya Gumenyuk
This is a new kind of war. Drones have fundamentally changed its nature—and continue to do so every day. The threats now come from above, not just ahead. If…