War

Natalya, 33, told how two Russian soldiers came to the family home near Kyiv and shot dead her husband in the front yardSoldiers then came into the house and raped her repeatedly for several hoursNatalya said she could hear her four-year-old crying whilst hiding in boiler room A Ukrainian woman who was gang-raped repeatedly for hours by drunk Russian soldiers whilst her four-year-old son hid crying in a boiler room, just moments after they shot dead her husband, has spoken for the first time of the horror she endured.  Natalya, 33, whose name has been changed, told how a Russian…

Great people of a great country! The 22nd day of our struggle, our defense against one of the world's largest armies is over. Which we make smaller every day. Every day. But it still has numbers, equipment and reserves. We have information that the Russian military is recruiting mercenaries from other countries, trying to deceive as many young people as possible into military service. We know that this will not help them. So now I warn everyone who will try to join the occupiers on our Ukrainian land. This will be the worst decision of your life. Long life is…

Тhe Ukrainian soldier warns me to speak no louder than a whisper. The enemy lines are less than 50 meters away, he tells me, and my voice — if too loud — can easily carry across no man’s land and invite gunfire from the other side. “We see each other, and we shoot at each other every day,” says the soldier, whose name is Mykhailo. “Everyone is afraid … we are afraid, and the Russians are afraid of us.” We’re standing at one end of a ruined factory on the outskirts of the city of Avdiivka in Ukraine’s eastern war…

Dozens of Ukrainian citizens originally from Afghanistan remain in the war-torn country, despite repeated pleas for evacuation. Ukrainians gathered near Hamid Karzai International airport in early September asking the Ukrainian president to evacuate them [Al Jazeera] Names marked with an asterisk* have been changed to protect identities. Abdul*, a Ukrainian citizen, is stuck in Khost, a large city in southeastern Afghanistan. As night falls, dogs bark in the background. But he is in no hurry to go to bed. He guards his house and family, embracing a gun, until morning. “Strangers wanted to get into my house. It is difficult…

Few countries have been willing to fly rescue missions into Afghanistan since the Americans left. Ukraine is an exception. It says it has a different definition of danger. KYIV, Ukraine — Before departing for Afghanistan, an elite team of Ukrainian troops gathered in a circle outside the airport and passed around a bottle of whiskey, a ritual meant to calm the nerves. It was early in the morning of Sept. 16, and the troops, members of Ukraine’s military intelligence service, known as the G.U.R., were about to embark on a daring plunge into the unknown: fly to Kabul and evacuate…