We interviewed a bunch of Ukrainian artists to hear about their individual experiences in the war. This episode includes an actor serving in the army, an acrobat stuck in the occupied city Kherson, and an illustrator who tells about how they conceived the artwork for a bittersweet story of a dying man trying to serve his country as best as he can.

In this week's episode we talk to experts Inna Nelles and Daria Kaleniuk, and comb through massive amounts of reporting, to find out whether corruption, and Ukraine's effort to get rid of it, was the real reason Putin invaded the country in 2022. 

Who better to tackle the logistics of how to get medicine and food into Ukraine than a team of Ukrainian wedding planners? In this story we look at that team and their collaboration with Project Nadiya, an aid organization based in Germany. 

We talk with Mattia Nelles, a political analyst who has been studying Ukraine for nearly a decade and discuss efforts in the country after the 2014 revolution to reform corruption in Ukraine, efforts that have now been stalled by the Russian invasion. And we hear a story from inside the legal system of Kherson, about three men who are working to overthrow the city's legally-elected government, to establish a Russia-friendly territory.

We investigate a convoy of white trucks that showed up in Kherson, Ukraine in early March, 2022, a few days after the city fell under Russian control. Through interviews with locals and eyewitnesses we try to get to the bottom of the reason the trucks travelled to Kherson,  and whether they were bringing actors there to participate in Russian news broadcasts. 

We hear from Anna, who is hiding out with her family up in the Carpathian Mountains in Western Ukraine. And we hear from Oleg, a 24 year old law student struggling to bring food and medical supplies to people in his hometown of Kherson in Eastern Ukraine, which is currently occupied by Russian forces.