The Long War #57
Special issue — Manslaughter, arson, collaboration, torture: inside Ukraine's wartime justice

eastradar.substack.com/p/the-long-w...

Yes?

A few months ago, Ukrainian Railways launched a webpage dedicated to train delays (there wasn't really a need for it before). At least 7 trains are currently delayed because of "combat actions", including one from Kyiv to Kovel (in the west of Ukraine) delayed more than 6 hours.

Wikipedia blacklists Archive.today after alleged DDoS attack | TechCrunch Wikipedia editors have decided to remove all links to Archive.today, a web archiving service that they said has been linked to more than 695,000 times across the online encyclopedia.

So, archive.today being apparently garbage, what are some other good resources to archive websites (saver for just downloading the page as PDF)? techcrunch.com/2026/02/21/w...

Kyiv’s great freeze Russian strikes have plunged Ukrainians into their hardest winter yet, but they still want to fight on

The chalkboard that hangs behind the bar at Squat 17b does not list the drink specials — it keeps a countdown of how many more days Ukrainians must endure the harsh winter that has gripped the war-weary country.

On Thursday, it read: “Days until spring: 24.”

w/ @fabricedeprez.bsky.social

Ukraine keeps trains running as end of line draws closer Railway company adapts to increasing Russian strikes on stations, depots and power lines

When I wrote this story in November, Ukrainian Railways had just closed the Kramatorsk train station & moved the terminus to Barvinkove. Russia is using more precise Shahed drones to hit individual trains & expand the "kill zone", the area under constant drone threat www.ft.com/content/6c58...

Those looking to go to Kramatorsk by train can currently only buy tickets to Lozova, 90 km west of the biggest Ukr-controlled city of the Donetsk region. Last leg of the journey can only be done in cars or buses, driving under anti-drone nets as they edge closer to Kramatorsk.

Ukrainian Railways writes this morning that the route from Lozova (in the Kharkiv region) to the Donbas fortress of Kramatorsk remains a zone "of increased risk", days after a Russian drone strike on a passenger train near Barvinkove killed 4 people.

More broadly, there is I think a general tendency to confuse (purposely or not) causes and choices: the causes of the 2022 Russian invasion are of course to be found on both sides of the war; but the choice of launching it only belongs to one actor.

The Long War #55 Dark Kyiv, Ukraine's regional shift, the Mariupol-Donetsk rivalry & more

The Long War #55: Dark Kyiv, Ukraine's regional shift, the Mariupol-Donetsk rivalry & more

eastradar.substack.com/p/the-long-w...

Very interesting post (“Russia was sucked into the Donbas conflict” is quite an incredible Sakwa quote).

Ukraine keeps trains running as end of line draws closer Railway company adapts to increasing Russian strikes on stations, depots and power lines

Ukraine keeps trains running as end of line draws closer- Ukraine’s sprawling railway network has emerged as an indispensable means of transport and a symbol of resilience in the wake of Moscow’s full-scale invasion in 2022…
www.ft.com/content/6c58... @fabricedeprez.bsky.social @financialtimes.com

La très longue guerre d'Ukraine : naissance d'une nation « L'Ukraine est en train de quitter un monde dangereux : le monde russe. » Comment la longue durée peut-elle aider à comprendre la guerre ? Pour l’historien et intellectuel ukrainien Yaroslav Hrytsa...

Mon interview de l'intellectuel et historien ukrainien Yaroslav Hrytsak dans @grandcontinent.bsky.social legrandcontinent.eu/fr/2025/09/1...

Libres de résister: enquête sur la mobilisation en Ukraine | Le Grand Continent Se mobiliser sans cesser de vivre ; tenir sans passer par l’économie de guerre. L’Ukraine a une stratégie pour articuler résistance et liberté. Mais face au manque d’hommes — et dans des expériences ...

"Libres de résister" : excellent tour d'horizon par @fabricedeprez.bsky.social des enjeux liés à la mobilisation en Ukraine depuis 2022, avec plein d'exemples et d'anecdotes parlantes.

A lire sur le @grandcontinent.bsky.social :

Ten die in ‘massive’ Russian attack on Ukrainian capital Zelenskyy calls for fresh sanctions on Moscow after worst attack on Kyiv in weeks

Ten die in ‘massive’ Russian attack on Ukrainian capital on.ft.com/45TE5l7

Libres de résister: enquête sur la mobilisation en Ukraine | Le Grand Continent Se mobiliser sans cesser de vivre ; tenir sans passer par l’économie de guerre. L’Ukraine a une stratégie pour articuler résistance et liberté. Mais face au manque d’hommes — et dans des expériences ...

Pourquoi l'Ukraine peine à mobiliser ? Une longue explication dans @grandcontinent.bsky.social :

legrandcontinent.eu/fr/2025/08/2...

Повітряні Сили ЗС України / Air Force of the Armed Forces of Ukraine ⚡️ ЗНЕШКОДЖЕНО 354 ЦІЛІ ➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖ У ніч на 23 червня (із 20.00 22 червня) противник атакував 368 засобами повітряного нападу: - 352 ударними БпЛА типу Shahed і безпілотниками-імітаторами різних типі...

Russia launched 352 drones as well as 16 missiles over Ukraine last night--with Kyiv being the main target for the fourth time in the past month, Ukraine's air force reports this morning t.me/kpszsu/36914

How AI guided Ukraine’s drones to hit Russian airfields Artificial intelligence took over the steering of unmanned quadcopters after losing signal

My look at the drone-focused technological arms race between Ukraine and Russia: interceptors, fiber optics drones, and the prospect of AI-powered autonomous UAVs looming over the battlefield www.ft.com/content/ccd8...

Guerre en Ukraine : à Kherson, la vie au rythme des attaques de drones L’armée russe multiplie depuis plusieurs semaines les frappes de drones sur Kherson, localité du sud de l’Ukraine envahie par les Russes au cours de la première année de la guerre, puis libérée fin 20...

Mon reportage sur l'impossible vie à Kherson, alors que des experts de l'ONU viennent de qualifier de "crime contre l'humanité" les attaques constantes de drones russes contre les habitants de cette ville du sud de l'Ukraine www.la-croix.com/internationa...

Guerre en Ukraine : à Kherson, la vie au rythme des attaques de drones L’armée russe multiplie depuis plusieurs semaines les frappes de drones sur Kherson, localité du sud de l’Ukraine envahie par les Russes au cours de la première année de la guerre, puis libérée fin 20...

Mon reportage sur l'impossible vie à Kherson, alors que des experts de l'ONU viennent de qualifier de "crime contre l'humanité" les attaques constantes de drones russes contre les habitants de cette ville du sud de l'Ukraine www.la-croix.com/internationa...

The Long War #50 Zelensky the dictator & Talking about Crimea

The Long War #50 eastradar.substack.com/p/the-long-w...

...signs of life to avoid having the property seized by the military of occupation authorities. They'd open the windows, turn on the lights from time to time, water the plants. But this has often stopped working as Ru authorities got more aggressive.

The piece also mentions how Russian authorities use the pretext of properties showing “signs of being ownerless”. For a while, many Ukrainians who fled the occupied territories stayed in touch with neighbors who would take care of their properties and maintain...

...which, as the piece highlights, involves going through FSB filtration at Moscow airport. Some Ukrainians have nevertheless done the grueling trip for fear of losing their homes (or so that they can sell it, rather than simply have it be taken from them)...

Really good piece on the way Russia is methodically dispossessing Ukrainians of their homes. It's of course not happening only in Mariupol. And, in the past months, it has pushed an unclear number of Ukrainians to make the dangerous trip to the occupied territories...

In Zelensky’s home town Kryvy Rih, residents fear more Russian strikes Two Russian strikes on Friday killed 20 in President Volodymyr Zelensky’s home town Kryvy Rih, in central Ukraine. While Russia said the attack was a "precision strike" on a meeting of Ukrainian and…

Moscow claims the strike in Kryvhyy Rih that killed 9 children targeted a restaurant where soldiers and "foreign mercenaries" had gathered. Footage found by @gullivercragg.bsky.social shows a near-empty restaurant, and no soldiers anywhere www.france24.com/en/europe/20...

I'm still very skeptical that Moscow has any intention to go for a ceasefire in the short term. But the one thing that could encourage Putin to agree to a ceasefire is the prospect of Ukrainian elections that would be fertile ground for destabilization.

Kremlin Doubles Down on Demand to Replace Zelensky, Risking Trump’s Ire - The Moscow Times The Kremlin is increasingly set on subjugating Ukraine by forcing a change in the country’s leadership as Moscow’s military efforts falter, five sources familiar with its thinking as well as independe...

"According to two Russian diplomats and a source close to the Kremlin, Moscow is now focusing on a third option: discrediting Zelensky in the eyes of Trump so that Washington will pressure Kyiv to hold presidential elections"

www.themoscowtimes.com/2025/03/30/k...

Explainer: Some Ukrainians speak Russian language — it doesn’t make them Russian Born in Crimea and raised in Kherson, journalist Yevheniia Virlych grew up speaking both Ukrainian and Russian in her daily life. It wasn’t until 2022, when she and her family lived through the Russia...

...and vice-versa: if it is unacceptable to speak Russian as a Ukrainian, then it has to be because, even in some tiny ways, speaking Russian does make someone a little bit Russian (something I don't think is true at all, to be clear) kyivindependent.com/explainer-wh...

Pure coincidence, but this piece from @kyivindependent.com also provides a great example of the tension at the heart of the language discussion in Ukraine. This quote and headline are mutually exclusive: if speaking Rus doesn't make one Russian, it can't be unacceptable to speak Russian...