RFE/RL Correspondent
"Every day I feel discomfort that the guys are still there and I am free," says former Kherson Mayor Volodymyr Mykolayenko, who spent three and a half years in Russian captivity.
Volodymyr Mykolayenko, the former mayor of the Ukrainian city of Kherson, spent more than three years in Russian captivity. Now 65, he is thin, frail, and recovering, but ready to help rebuild his war-torn hometown.
After refusing Russian passports, Ukrainians who left Crimea are losing their homes to forced sales. Rights groups say Russia's property seizures in occupied Crimea amount to systematic expropriation.
The first-ever Ukraine war crime trial is underway. Russian soldier Dmitry Kurashov, who was recruited from prison, is accused of executing a surrendered Ukrainian soldier and prisoner of war
RFE/RL has been given an exclusive tour of Ukraine's first underground field hospital. Surgeons, anesthesiologists, and other medical staff work 6 meters underground in steel bunkers equipped with ventilation systems, a water supply, and alternative power sources.
Residents in Ukraine's Kherson region say they are being stalked by Russian drones, which drop lethal grenades and mines on their community. Up to 40 drones a day have been spotted hunting civilians, cars, and cyclists in a terror tactic that has been called "human safari."
