Following the launch of Russia’s long-feared attack on Ukraine in the early hours of February 24, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) is covering events as they unfold, round the clock. RFE/RL’s Ukrainian Service and Current Time digital network are providing live coverage and, together with our Russian and Belarus services, also live blogging about the developing situation. The best company-wide coverage is available on RFE/RL’s English-language news site, including our Live Briefing on breaking events.
Uniquely positioned to cover the situation from all sides, RFE/RL’s journalists are reporting from across the region. See our latest Ukraine coverage on Twitter here and follow our correspondents:
- Sergei Dobrynin | @pustota
- Mike Eckel | @Mike_Eckel
- Steve Gutterman | @sgutterman
- Mark Krutov | @kromark
- Marian Kushnir | @MaryanKushnir
- Tetiana Yakubovych | @Tykubovych
To schedule an interview with these or any of RFE/RL's other journalists, contact Martins Zvaners in Washington (zvanersm@rferl.org; +1.202.457.6948) or Karin Maree in Prague (@rferl.org; +420.221.122.074).
Latest reporting:
- On February 24, the Ukrainian Service spoke to Kyiv residents about their plans in the wake of Russia’s attack on Ukraine.
- Current Time aired live Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s briefing on Russia’s attack on his country, with simultaneous Russian translation.
- RFE/RL’s Todd Prince dissected President Vladimir Putin’s February 21 speech, pointing to falsehoods and fabrications. Robert Coalson explored Russians’ reactions to the invasion.
- Siberia.Realities reported on picketing against the war by residents of Siberia and Russia’s Far East. Crimea.Realities covered the confusion Sevastopol residents are experiencing as a result of pro-government local news and social media.
- Current Time interviewed retired Lieutenant General and Deputy Chief of the General Staff of the Ukrainian Armed Forces Igor Romanenko about Vladimir Putin's plan to seize Ukraine.
- RFE/RL journalist Marian Kushnir on February 19 captured eyewitness video of Ukrainian Interior Minister Denys Monastyrskiy and international journalists coming under mortar and artillery fire on the line of contact between Ukrainian forces and Russia-backed separatists north of Donetsk.
- Kushnir reported on February 22 about increased shelling of areas near the separatist-held city of Horlivka, and Ukrainian soldiers’ sense that, with Putin’s recognition of the separatist authorities, the crisis will soon escalate further.
- Correspondent Mike Eckel and Kushnir filed reports this week from the Ukrainian line of contact at Novoluhanske, where local civilians came under artillery bombardment, and also from the town of Tryokhizbenka, northwest of separatist-held Luhansk, where they spoke with survivors of Grad rocket launcher attack.
- RFE/RL Russian Service journalists, working with Bellingcat investigators, revealed that a February 18 Telegram video announcing the allegedly “emergency” evacuation of residents from separatist-held “Donetsk People’s Republic” to Russia had actually been pre-recorded two days earlier.
- RFE/RL reporters covered the arrival of Donetsk evacuees in the Russian city of Rostov, finding that many said they left not out of fear, but to collect payments and gifts promised by Putin, as well as the plight of evacuees in Taganrog, Russia, who were kept waiting for hours on freezing buses without food, water, or access to bathroom facilities.
- RFE/RL journalists filed reports from a number of locations along Ukraine’s threatened border, including the Ukrainian villages of Kozacha Lopan and Gorodishche , as well as documenting war preparations in the capital, Kyiv and the Kherson region where Russia-occupied Crimea connects to mainland Ukraine.
- Current Time provided extensive live coverage of the past week’s top level diplomatic activity around the crisis, including love coverage of the February 14 joint news conference of German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy; February 15 speech by U.S. President Joe Biden (with simultaneous Russian translation); February 15 joint news conference of German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and Russian President Vladimir Putin; and February 18 remarks by President Biden (with simultaneous Russian translation).
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