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 recovering the bodies of fallen soldiers every day? What is life truly like under Russian occupation? And most importantly—why is the Ukrainian resistance impossible to grasp without understanding the role of ordinary people, like you and me?

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Explaining Ukraine is a podcast by UkraineWorld, an English-language media outlet covering Ukraine.

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

This episode features a conversation held at PEN Ukraine in late February with the authors of the book Dark Days, Determined People: Stories from Ukraine under Siege, written by journalists Bohdan Ben and Orysia Hrudka. Part of the "Ukrainian Voices" series, the book was published in English by Ibidem-Verlag and is available on Amazon. https://www.amazon.com/Dark-Days-Determined-People-Ukrainian/dp/3838219589

The book brings together 20 reportage stories documented between 2022 and 2024 across Ukraine. Originally published mostly by Euromaidan Press, these stories capture the lived experiences of Ukrainian soldiers, volunteers, artists, students, and children.

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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].

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CONTENTS:

00:00 — Why Ukrainian resistance is impossible to grasp without the effort of the ordinary people

01:51 — Writing a book together: natural or unthinkable?

04:40 — The first days of invasion: urgency to inform the world

06:20 — The “human spirit radar”: stories of unexpected courage

08:15 — Small decisions that changed the war’s outcome

09:30 — Beyond the headlines: the secret to Ukraine's first victories

10:45 — The political nature of freedom: why a state is a necessity

12:56 — Navigating hell: the raw motivation behind civilian evacuations

14:39 — When heroism isn't planned, but becomes survival

17:29 — Vulnerability revealed: when nothing is guaranteed anymore

21:00 — Farming in minefields: the sheer determination to feed a nation

23:15 — Stealing warmth: Russia’s war on basic human needs

25:19 — The psychological toll of recovering the fallen

27:45 — The physical limit: the truth about endurance

30:17 — A nation turned factory: drones, innovation and resistance

31:57 — Ukraine as Europe's military asset, not a victim

34:10 — Second Life: rediscovering the will to live

36:30 — Sniper theologian: when ethics collide with survival

41:24 — Orcs and adventures: how parents explain the war

45:23 — Why Ukraine needs its own films

51:30 — Rewriting in real time: the grind of wartime reporting

54:30 — Dark stories, real hope: what keeps them going

56:30 — Where Ukrainians find hope for the future

59:45 — Stories left untold: what didn’t make the book

01:02:45 — How the war shapes the Ukrainian society

01:05:30 — The intensity of life when facing death