Society & Culture

During the pseudo-referendum held late September, the invaders counted the "votes" of even those Ukrainians who had left the occupied territories for the government-controlled parts of Ukraine. That’s according to the latest intercepted phone call, released by the Security Service of Ukraine, Ukrinform reports. As noted, a Russian serviceman, who is part of the invasion force, discussed the issue over the phone with his wife. His unit is believed to have been surrounded on the eastern front. His wife told him the latest news about the “referendum” spectacle in captured parts of Ukraine: "In Kherson region, they even offered to…

The Russian invaders took 76 more orphans from the captured Luhansk region to the Russian Federation. "The occupiers continue to irrevocably take children out of Luhansk region. Another 76 orphans were transferred to Russian social rehabilitation centers for minors located in Moscow region," Serhiy Haidai, Head of the Luhansk Regional Military Administration, posted on Telegram. According to Haidai, "currently, four regions of Russia have to accept them as part of family groups." In addition, he noted,104 more children who now stay in social institutions of the so-called "LPR" will soon be transferred to Russian families. "This allows the occupiers to…

Dmytro Lubinets, the Verkhovna Rada Commissioner for Human Rights, compiled a list of Kremlin-hired "observers" for pseudo-referenda in temporarily occupied areas. Lubinets calls on the Security Service of Ukraine and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to respond to the illegal stay of the said persons on Ukrainian soil, according to Ukrinform. "Our team analyzed open sources. For the most part, these ‘referendum observers’ are long-time Kremlin stooges. It can be seen that the Russian Federation (compared to 2014) is finding it increasingly difficult to find someone who would look respectable and be ready to cooperate with an aggressor and terrorist…

Thousands of Hasidic Jewish pilgrims flocked to central Ukraine’s Uman, where Rabbi Nachman of Breslov, a revered Hasidic rabbi, is buried. Crowds mark the Jewish new year there annually, this year ignoring repeated travel warnings amid the ongoing war, according to The Times of Israel, Ukrinform reports. “We are not afraid. If we come to Rabbi Nachman, he will protect us for the whole year,” said Nahum Markowitz from Israel, who has been visiting the site since 1991. He added that he is already familiar with the risk of war and the wail of sirens that comes from living in…

Ukraine’s First Lady Olena Zelenska took part in the discussion "Preservation of Ukrainian culture during the war" at the Ukrainian Museum in New York City and talked about the condition of Ukrainian cultural sites in the conditions of Russian aggression. "For half a year, we have had more than 500 damaged or destroyed cultural heritage sites. These are museums, historical buildings, temples. Everything that was built and created by generations of Ukrainians. For me, as the First Lady of my country and a citizen of Ukraine, the answer is clear: this is a war against our identity. The Russian invaders…

More than 1,500 people have been evacuated from Kharkiv region over the past week. Iryna Vereshchuk, Deputy Prime Minister - Minister for Reintegration of the Temporarily Occupied Territories, said this on the air of Ukrainian TV channels, an Ukrinform correspondent reported. "Over the past week, more than 1,500 people have been evacuated from Kharkiv region, and this evacuation will continue. We are currently trying to get to hard-to-reach settlements. Once again, I thank our army, the Armed Forces of Ukraine, they help, and in fact they carry persons with reduced mobility, elderly people in their arms," the official said. She…

Pope Francis has warned religious leaders from various faiths that religion cannot be used to justify the “evil” of war. The statement came as the pontiff spoke at the Seventh Congress of Leaders of World and Traditional Religions in the Kazakh capital of Nur-Sultan on September 14, RFE/RL reports. "God is peace. He guides us always in the way of peace, never that of war. If the creator, to whom we have devoted our lives, is the author of human life, how can we who call ourselves believers consent to the destruction of that life?" Francis said in his opening…

Activists of the "Yellow Ribbon" resistance movement are distributing pro-Ukrainian leaflets across the streets in a number of cities in the Russian-occupied Crimea. That’s according to the movement’s Telegram posting, Ukrinform reports. "Feodosia, Yalta, Simferopol. Crimea is Ukraine, activists of the ‘Yellow Ribbon’ movement, despite all risks, continue to operate in the temporarily occupied Crimea, which is waiting so much to be freed from the yoke of ruscism!" the posting reads. Read also: Local resistance in Kherson region gives Russians no opportunity to even simulate "referendum" - intelligence As Ukrinform reported earlier, the "Yellow Ribbon" movement previously posted leaflets with…

The Armed Forces of Ukraine, along with the local population, which has put up massive resistance to the Russian invasion forces, give the occupiers no opportunity to hold a sham referendum on the region’s accession to Russia. That’s according to the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ministry of Defense, Ukrinform reports. "Of course, they could announce some kind of an event, but in the essence of any pseudo-referendum, after all, lies an imitation of some legitimacy of the process. Thus, neither the Armed Forces of Ukraine nor society as a whole give the Russians even the opportunity to imitate the…