Explaining Ukraine

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 tireless activist with profound empathy for others. She is also a thinker — someone who reflects deeply on the moral foundations of freedom and dignity.

Our guest today is Oleksandra Matviychuk, a prominent Ukrainian human-rights defender and head of the Center for Civil Liberties, which was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2022.

In this episode, we discuss the moral ideas that hold Ukrainian society together.

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Host: Volodymyr Yermolenko, a Ukrainian philosopher, editor-in-chief of UkraineWorld, and president of PEN Ukraine.

Explaining Ukraine is a podcast by UkraineWorld, an English-language media platform about Ukraine, run by Internews Ukraine.

Listen on various platforms: https://li.sten.to/explaining-ukraine

UkraineWorld: https://ukraineworld.org/en

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SUPPORT:

You can support our work on https://www.patreon.com/c/ukraineworld

Your help is crucial, as we rely heavily on crowdfunding.

You can also contribute to our volunteer missions to frontline areas in Ukraine, where we deliver aid to both soldiers and civilians.

Donations are welcome via PayPal at: [email protected].

***

CONTENTS:

00:00 Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Oleksandra Matviichuk: On Freedom, Dignity, and War

02:24 "Not Nobel Peace Prize changed my life - the large-scale war has changed my life"

08:32 Torture, rape, enforced disappearances, filtration camps — the reality of Russian occupation

11:55 Why are Ukrainians not "ideal victims"?

15:57 The horror of Russian captivity: Ihor Kozlovskyi`s experience

19:44 Why is freedom existential for Ukrainians?

24:16 Ukrainian strength lies in the people's belief that their efforts matter

31:38 Over 170,000 registered Russian war crimes in Ukraine

32:18 Why is justice important now, not after the end of the war?

35:41 Why is the Russian war against Ukraine genocidal?

43:50 What gives Oleksandra Matviichuk hope today?

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The podcast episode is produced by UkraineWorld with the support of the Askold and Dir Fund as a part of the Strong Civil Society of Ukraine - a Driver towards Reforms and Democracy project, implemented by ISAR Ednannia, funded by Norway and Sweden. The contents of this publication are the sole responsibility of UkraineWorld and can in no way be taken to reflect the views the Government of Norway, the Government of Sweden and ISAR

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 today — and how will the outcome of this war depend on the technological race?

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Host: Volodymyr Yermolenko, a Ukrainian philosopher, editor-in-chief of UkraineWorld, and president of PEN Ukraine.

Guest: Vladyslav Urubkov, a former soldier of the Ukrainian army and now a manager for military affairs at Come Back Alive (Povernys zhyvym) — one of Ukraine’s most prominent charitable foundations, supporting the military and veterans since 2014.

Come back alive: https://savelife.in.ua/

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Explaining Ukraine is produced by UkraineWorld, an English-language media outlet about Ukraine run by Internews Ukraine.

Listen on various platforms: https://li.sten.to/explaining-ukraine

UkraineWorld: https://ukraineworld.org/en

***

SUPPORT:

You can support our work on https://www.patreon.com/c/ukraineworld

Your help is crucial, as we rely heavily on crowdfunding.

You can also contribute to our volunteer missions to frontline areas in Ukraine, where we deliver aid to both soldiers and civilians.

Donations are welcome via PayPal at: [email protected].

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 Europe, a dynamic defense industry, and citizens with vast military experience.

The real question is: to what extent does Europe itself understand the threat posed by the new authoritarianisms? And to what extent does it realise that helping Ukraine is, in fact, a matter of its own survival?

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Host: Volodymyr Yermolenko, a Ukrainian philosopher, editor-in-chief of UkraineWorld, and president of PEN Ukraine.

Guest: Yevhen Hlibovytskyi, a prominent Ukrainian intellectual and director of the Frontier Institute.

Frontier Institute: https://frontier.pro-mova.com/en

***

Explaining Ukraine is produced by UkraineWorld, an English-language media outlet about Ukraine run by Internews Ukraine.

Listen on various platforms: https://li.sten.to/explaining-ukraine

UkraineWorld: https://ukraineworld.org/en

***

SUPPORT:

You can support our work on https://www.patreon.com/c/ukraineworld

Your help is crucial, as we rely heavily on crowdfunding.

You can also contribute to our volunteer missions to frontline areas in Ukraine, where we deliver aid to both soldiers and civilians.

Donations are welcome via PayPal at: [email protected].

***

CONTENTS:

00:00 Yevhen Hlibovytskyi, Ukrainian intellectual and director of the Frontier Institute.

02:04 Has the dynamic shifted, making Ukraine a supplier of security to Europe rather than just a recipient?

07:49 Is the acute 'need' driven by war a stronger motivator for entrepreneurship and creativity than peacetime opportunity?

10:25 Why is the historical understanding of the Russian threat still proving ambivalent in some Central and Southern European countries?

15:01 Should the European Union transform into a geopolitical union by adding a military security component to its integration?

22:36 Is the Ukrainian governance model inherently more resilient because of civil society?

27:59 Why is Europe failing to find the necessary political will to take decisive action on Russian assets, sanctions, and information warfare?

30:31 Is the perception of Ukraine as a 'burden' outdated?

35:03 What about NATO?

43:48 What long-term economic and demographic impacts will follow if the current threat isn't addressed?

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.

“Ukraïner” launched expeditions to villages and towns across the country, researched the lifestyles and cultures of Ukraine’s diverse communities, and created outstanding textual and visual projects that help us better understand our own land. It has also done much to tell the Ukrainian story to the world.

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Host: Host: Volodymyr Yermolenko, a Ukrainian philosopher, editor-in-chief of UkraineWorld, and president of PEN Ukraine.

Guest: Julia Tymoshenko, head of Ukraïner.

Ukraïner website: https://www.ukrainer.net/en/

***

Explaining Ukraine is produced by UkraineWorld, an English-language media outlet about Ukraine run by Internews Ukraine.

***

The podcast episode is produced by UkraineWorld with the support of the Askold and Dir Fund as a part of the Strong Civil Society of Ukraine - a Driver towards Reforms and Democracy project, implemented by ISAR Ednannia, funded by Norway and Sweden. The contents of this publication are the sole responsibility of UkraineWorld and can in no way be taken to reflect the views the Government of Norway, the Government of Sweden and ISAR

***

SUPPORT:

You can support our work on https://www.patreon.com/c/ukraineworld

Your help is crucial, as we rely heavily on crowdfunding.

You can also contribute to our volunteer missions to frontline areas in Ukraine, where we deliver aid to both soldiers and civilians.

Donations are welcome via PayPal at: [email protected].

***

CONTENTS:

00:00 - Intro

01:43 - The phenomenon of the Ukraїner project

15:13 - How did the full-scale invasion reshape the project

22:13 - Challenges of spreading Ukraine’s voice abroad

27:57 - Seeking stories that resonate with foreign audiences

33:48 - Shoving Ukrainians the world's perspectives

42:53 - Communication strategy of building a mutual understanding

48:51 - Outro

49:22 - Support us

In this episode, we discuss how Russia destroys Ukrainian families, kidnaps Ukrainian children — including those who have parents — and reprograms them, changing their identity, their way of thinking, their lifestyle, their homes.

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Host: Volodymyr Yermolenko, a Ukrainian philosopher, editor-in-chief of UkraineWorld, and president of PEN Ukraine.

Guest: Kateryna Rashevska, a Ukrainian human rights lawyer, expert at the Regional Centre for Human Rights, and a tireless fighter for the liberation of Ukrainian children.

***

Explaining Ukraine is produced by UkraineWorld, an English-language media outlet about Ukraine run by Internews Ukraine.

Listen on various platforms: https://li.sten.to/explaining-ukraine

***

The podcast episode is produced by UkraineWorld with the support of the Askold and Dir Fund as a part of the Strong Civil Society of Ukraine - a Driver towards Reforms and Democracy project, implemented by ISAR Ednannia, funded by Norway and Sweden. The contents of this publication are the sole responsibility of UkraineWorld and can in no way be taken to reflect the views the Government of Norway, the Government of Sweden and ISAR

***

SUPPORT:

You can support our work on https://www.patreon.com/c/ukraineworld

Your help is crucial, as we rely heavily on crowdfunding.

You can also contribute to our volunteer missions to frontline areas in Ukraine, where we deliver aid to both soldiers and civilians.

Donations are welcome via PayPal at: [email protected].

***

CONTENTS:

00:00 Kateryna Rashevska, a lawyer at the Regional Center for Human Rights

02:00 How many Ukrainian children were deported to Russia?

03:37 Why does Russia use words like "rescue" or "salvation" instead of "deportation"?

04:48 Ignoring the law: Why Russia refuses to return Ukrainian children

07:54 Militarizing Ukrainian children and the role of "UNARMIA" (Young Army)

08:25 Russia's plan to destroy the Ukrainian nation

10:36 Russia re-education: Children were taken to “camps” in Crimea and separated from their parents

15:33 The horror for parents: Losing contact and facing deprivation of parental rights as coercion

20:45 Will Putin or Lvova-Belova ever face justice?

25:33 Analysis of Melania Trump's letter to Putin

30:26 The humanitarian obligations Russia has failed to meet

35:05 Kateryna talks about her work: Submitting evidence to the ICC, proposing sanctions, and providing legal assistance

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? And why is Ukrainian society so dependent on Telegram, a Russian social network?

In this episode, we discuss a report, “Ukrainian media. News Consumption and Trust in 2025”—a new study conducted by Internews Ukraine with support from its partners.

Read the report: https://internews.ua/en/opportunity/media_trust_consumption_2025_release

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Host: Volodymyr Yermolenko, a Ukrainian philosopher, editor-in-chief of UkraineWorld, and president of PEN Ukraine.

Guest: Kostiantyn Kvurt, a Ukrainian media expert and chair of the board of Internews Ukraine, one of the country’s largest media NGOs.

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Explaining Ukraine is produced by UkraineWorld, an English-language media outlet about Ukraine run by Internews Ukraine.

Listen on various platforms: https://li.sten.to/explaining-ukraine

This episode podcast is created by Internews Ukraine as part of the project “Strengthening Truth, Transparency and Democracy to Counter Disinformation”, supported by the Government of Canada.

***

SUPPORT:

You can support UkraineWorld on https://www.patreon.com/c/ukraineworld

Your help is crucial, as we rely heavily on crowdfunding.

You can also contribute to our volunteer missions to frontline areas in Ukraine, where we deliver aid to both soldiers and civilians.

Donations are welcome via PayPal at: [email protected].

***

CONTENTS:

00:00 – Introduction and Context of the Research

03:42 – Main Trends in Ukrainian Media Consumption

06:00 – Trends of Different Media Platforms

14:06 – Government Communication and Electoral Logic

17:45 – Media Literacy and the Disinformation Gap

25:49 – Changing Perceptions of War Coverage in Ukrainian Media

36:16 – Russian Information Influence

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, one of Ukraine’s greatest poets and dissidents of the 20th century, killed by the Soviet regime in 1985. Founded in 1989 by Yevhen Sverstiuk, another prominent Ukrainian dissident, the prize is now awarded by PEN Ukraine, the publishing house Dukh i Litera, and the Kyiv-Mohyla Business School.

Before the award ceremony, we held a public conversation with Snyder on the good and bad ways of thinking about history. Since interpretations of history often lie at the heart of both the good and the evil that people do, this question remains vitally important.

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Host: Volodymyr Yermolenko, a Ukrainian philosopher, editor-in-chief of UkraineWorld, and president of PEN Ukraine.

Thinking in Dark Times seeks to find the light through — and despite — today’s darkness.

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UkraineWorld is an English-language media about Ukraine run by Internews Ukraine

Listen to our podcasts:

Explaining Ukraine: https://li.sten.to/explaining-ukraine

Thinking in Dark Times: https://li.sten.to/thinkinggg

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Special thanks to the Ukrainian History Global Initiative, PEN Ukraine, and the Kyiv-Mohyla Business School for helping organize this event.

This episode was made possible with the support of Politeia, a Ukrainian NGO dedicated to preparing a new generation of change-makers in Ukraine.

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You can also listen to several other conversations with Timothy Snyder from previous years:

On freedom: Timothy Snyder in Kyiv

https://ukraineworld.org/en/podcasts//ep-344

Timothy Snyder in Kharkiv: A conversation about freedom

https://ukraineworld.org/en/podcasts//ep-340

Freedom as a value and a task

https://ukraineworld.org/en/podcasts//ep-258

Ukraine, the war, and the plurality of values

https://ukraineworld.org/en/podcasts//ep-144

***

SUPPORT:

You can support UkraineWorld on https://www.patreon.com/c/ukraineworld

We rely on crowdfunding to continue our work.

You can also support our regular trips to the frontlines, where we provide support to both soldiers (cars) and civilians (books): PayPal, [email protected]

***

CONTENTS:

00:00:00 Timothy Snyder, world-known historian

00:03:04 What are the good and bad ways to use history to understand who we are?

00:08:53 How does a 'single line' view of the past, like Putin's or Trump's, take away our freedom?

00:25:18 Why recognizing the 'difference' of people in the past is a liberating act for us in the present?

00:49:55 Is the world truly living in a 'post-history' era where conflict and tragedy are safely in the past?

00:56:22 Does seeing a pattern in history mean the war is repeating, or is it a moment of new responsibility?

01:03:35 Was the US response in March 2022 a failure because American leaders were stuck in 'memory' instead of 'history'?

01:13:52 How does the power of data-driven tools force us to be careful about the human questions we ask?

01:24:21 Was the printing press as disruptive to society as social media is today?

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 Executed Renaissance generation still alive today? And why are women in theatre so important — and yet so often ignored?

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The Explaining Ukraine podcast is produced by UkraineWorld, an English-language media project about Ukraine run by Internews Ukraine.

Host: Tetyana Ogarkova, a Ukrainian literary scholar at Kyiv Mohyla Academy and journalist at Ukraine Crisis Media Centre. She also runs a French-language podcast, “L’Ukraine face à la guerre”.

Guest: Mayhill C. Fowler, historian and associate professor in the Department of History at Stetson University. Her first book, “Beau Monde on Empire’s Edge: State and Stage in Soviet Ukraine” (Toronto, 2017), tells the story of how theatre in Soviet Ukraine was formed, through a collective biography of young artists and officials in the 1920s and 1930s.

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This episode is produced in partnership with the Kyiv-Mohyla Academy and the project Heritage Ukraine, supported by the European Union’s Erasmus programme.

Special thanks to the Ukrainian History Global Initiative for helping organize this conversation.

***

SUPPORT:

UkraineWorld is an English-language media about Ukraine run by Internews Ukraine

You can support UkraineWorld on https://www.patreon.com/c/ukraineworld

We rely on crowdfunding to continue our work.

You can also support our regular trips to the frontlines, where we provide support to both soldiers (cars) and civilians (books): PayPal, [email protected]

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 does poetry shape a nation?

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Host: Tetyana Ogarkova, a Ukrainian literary scholar at Kyiv Mohyla Academy and journalist at Ukraine Crisis Media Centre who also runs a French-language podcast, “L’Ukraine face à la guerre”.

Guest: Rory Finnin, Professor of Ukrainian Studies at the University of Cambridge. He launched the Cambridge Ukrainian Studies programme in 2008.

His book “Blood of Others: Stalin’s Crimean Atrocity and the Poetics of Solidarity” has received numerous awards.

Find the book: https://utppublishing.com/doi/book/10.3138/9781487558253

Our earlier conversation about this book: https://ukraineworld.org/en/articles/russian-aggression/crimea-fresh-view)

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This episode is produced in partnership with the Kyiv-Mohyla Academy and the project Heritage Ukraine, supported by the European Union’s Erasmus programme.

Special thanks to the "Ukrainian History Global Initiative" for helping organize this conversation.

***

SUPPORT:

UkraineWorld is an English-language media about Ukraine run by Internews Ukraine

You can support UkraineWorld on https://www.patreon.com/c/ukraineworld

We rely on crowdfunding to continue our work.

You can also support our regular trips to the frontlines, where we provide support to both soldiers (cars) and civilians (books): PayPal, [email protected]

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 hierarchies, to understand our past, present, and future? What happens to societies in times of catastrophe, and who has the best chances of survival? And finally — why is Ukraine so important for the world today?

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Host: Volodymyr Yermolenko, a Ukrainian philosopher, editor-in-chief of UkraineWorld, and president of PEN Ukraine.

Guest: Niall Ferguson — a renowned British-American historian and author of numerous books, including “Empire”, “The Square and the Tower”, “The War of the World”, “Doom”, and others.

Ferguson is the Milbank Family Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution.

We had this conversation during the Yalta European Strategy Forum in Kyiv in September 2025.

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Thinking in Dark Times is a podcast of reflection from Ukraine. We try to see the light through — and despite — the current darkness.

This episode was made possible thanks to the support of Politeia, a Ukrainian NGO dedicated to preparing a new generation of change-makers in Ukraine.

***

UkraineWorld is an English-language media about Ukraine run by Internews Ukraine

You can support UkraineWorld on https://www.patreon.com/c/ukraineworld

We rely on crowdfunding to continue our work.

You can also support our regular trips to the frontlines, where we provide support to both soldiers (cars) and civilians (books): PayPal, [email protected]

***

CONTENTS:

00:00 - Intro: Niall Ferguson, a renowned British American historian and author of numerous books.

01:58 - Why does historian Niall Ferguson keep coming back to Kyiv, and what value does he find here?

04:06 - Does the war in Ukraine truly hold a global meaning?

10:01 - Was the British Empire good or bad for the world?

12:17 - What's the difference between a 'liberal' empire and an 'illiberal' one?

19:30 - Does the European Union find a balance between the Empire and the Nation-State?

26:59 - Can Ukraine become an 'antifragile' state?

28:48 - Is being threatened by a 'big bad neighbor' the key to becoming an innovative society?

31:07 - How did the last decade of Russian aggression ultimately lead to the birth of the Ukrainian nation?