Explaining Ukraine
by UkraineWorld
Latest episode
Fareed Zakaria on Ukraine, Trump, Wars, and the World Order
Fareed Zakaria on Ukraine, Trump, Wars, and the World Order
About this podcast
A podcast by UkraineWorld.org, a multimedia project about Ukraine run by Internews Ukraine. Explaining Ukraine, its politics, society and its culture. Support us: patreon.com/ukraineworld
Episodes
The newest 50 of 433 episodes
- Fareed Zakaria on Ukraine, Trump, Wars, and the World Order · 53 minDoes Ukraine’s fight have global significance? What might happen to the world if Russia wins? Is the liberal international order dead, or do we still have a chance to revive it?…
- Where Is This War Going? · 39 minUkraine might be facing the most difficult winter in its recent history due to Russian strikes on vital civilian infrastructure. But the crisis is already unfolding since August…
- Understanding Ukrainian Resistance. Volodymyr Yermolenko, Marci Shore and Kateryna Mishchenko at the Frankfurt Book Fair · 59 minWhat are the roots of Ukrainian resistance? Why can we describe Ukrainian culture and statehood not as something that exists thanks to favorable circumstances, but as something…
- Religion in Ukraine - with Cyril Hovorun · 40 minWhat role does religion play in Ukraine? How pluralistic is the country’s religious landscape? Which Christian denominations are the most influential, and how does Christianity…
- Why Shevchenko Is Still Central to Ukrainian Identity - with Rory Finnin · 40 minWhy does Taras Shevchenko remain the central figure of Ukrainian culture? Why is a poet who lived in the 19th century still perceived in Ukraine almost as a contemporary? How…
- Timothy Snyder on the Deep Layers of Ukrainian History · 45 minStudying Ukrainian history can be far more fascinating than you might think. It can reveal deeper layers of our past than we ever imagined and help us better understand the…
- The Magic of Ukrainian Traditional Music - with Mariana Sadovska and André Erlen · 46 minUkrainian traditional music has preserved one of the richest traditions of polyphonic singing in the world. It has survived centuries of oppression, oblivion, marginalisation…
- The Steppe Origins of Russian Imperialism - with Michael Khodarkovsky · 56 minHow did the vastness of the Eurasian steppe shape the political model of Russian imperialism? What does the Russian Empire have in common with other Eurasian empires — the…
- The War, Without Illusions - with Andriy Zagorodnyuk · 48 minHow can Ukraine protect itself against Russia’s ballistic missile threat? What role can Europe play, particularly through joint production? Can Ukraine develop its own…
- Unmasking Russian Propaganda - with Thomas Kent · 47 minWhy should we take Russian propaganda seriously? Why is it so deeply rooted in Russia’s authoritarian vision of society and politics? What lessons can we learn from Russia’s war…
- What You Need to Know About Ukrainian Society - with Maryna Starodubska · 44 minWhat values define Ukrainian society? How accurate is it to say that Ukrainians have high levels of horizontal trust—trust in one another—but low trust in public institutions?…
- What Are the Hidden Risks of a Ceasefire? We Asked Chatham House Experts · 52 minWhen people look at this war from the outside, they often ask one question: When will it end? Many assume that if a ceasefire is reached, the war will be over and life will…
- Is the War Approaching a Turning Point? - with Tetyana Ogarkova · 37 minMany things have changed this year. Ukraine is now striking targets deep inside Russian territory on a regular basis. Russia’s traditional strengths—its vast territory and…
- Greece, Ukraine, Communism, War, Europe - with Christos Chomenidis · 41 minI read this book with absolute passion. While it is a novel, it is truly an epic—the story of a family told through the greatest upheavals and disasters of the 20th century…
- Foreign Fighters in Ukraine: What Are Their Stories? - with Colin Freeman · 36 minAlthough Russia claims to be waging a war against the so-called West, no other country has officially deployed its military to fight alongside Ukraine. Instead, thousands of…
- Mariupol: Inside Russia’s Massive War Crime - with James Verini · 50 minOn March 16, 2022, the Russian army committed one of the gravest war crimes of its invasion of Ukraine. It dropped air bombs on the Mariupol Drama Theatre, knowing that around a…
- How Russians Are Erasing Life in Ukraine’s South - with Zarina Zabrisky · 52 minThe Russian army is hunting people in Kherson, a major city in the southern part of Ukraine. It is estimated that 700 Russian drones attack Kherson region every day. Russian…
- Why Europe must fix its defence now - with Moritz Schularick · 44 minUkraine has won time for Europe. A vast amount of time. But the price of this time has been tremendous. It is measured not in money, but in human lives. Dozens of towns and…
- How Russia can be defeated - with Lesia Ogryzko · 43 minIn recent months, Ukrainian deep strikes into Russia have outnumbered Russian strikes on Ukraine. Ukraine has managed to build its military capacities practically from scratch…
- Odesa in love and war - with Julian Evans · 42 minLet’s travel for a moment. Imagine you are on the shore of the Black Sea, in Odesa—one of the most beautiful cities in Eastern Europe. Odesa possesses multiple identities and…
- Can Europe become a security union? - with Borja Lasheras · 44 minCan Europe become a genuine security union? Is it truly aware of the 21st-century geopolitical dangers that threaten its very existence? How central is Ukraine to Europe’s…
- What Black Americans and Ukrainians can tell each other · 1 h 41 minWhat do Ukrainians and Black Americans share in their historical and cultural experiences? Can we draw comparisons between serfdom and slavery, or find parallels in the colonial…
- Why Ukraine's resistance starts with ordinary people · 1 h 9 minHow did two friends save hundreds of civilians? How did one restaurant feed tens of thousands in a besieged city? What does a former entrepreneur feel while recovering the bodies…
- Why the world needs Ukraine’s war tech - with Yulia Marushevska · 41 minWhy has Ukraine rapidly emerged as a global leader in advanced defense technology? What is the secret behind this innovation? How has warfare evolved over the past few years, and…
- Decoding Trump’s Ukraine policy - with Christopher Atwood · 50 minSince Donald Trump’s return to the U.S. presidency, Russia has drastically escalated its missile and drone strikes on Ukrainian cities. In January 2026, launches exceeded 6,000—a…
- Russia's energy terror against Ukraine - with Oksana Ishchuk · 39 minDuring this record-breaking cold winter, millions of Ukrainians are regularly left without electricity, water, or heat as temperatures plummet to -20°C and below. Does Russia…
- Can Ukraine win the technological war? - with Volodymyr Havrylov · 52 minWhat are the prospects for peace talks — and why are many Ukrainians skeptical about them? Does Ukraine have technological parity with Russia on the battlefield? And how has…
- Cities without kings: humanity's prehistory on Ukrainian soil — with David Wengrow · 52 minWhat can the deep past of Ukrainian lands reveal about the global story of humanity? Six thousand years ago, "mega-sites" flourished in what is now central Ukraine—but can these…
- Ukraine in 2025: can peace talks succeed? · 48 minIn 2025, Ukraine is facing unprecedented pressure from one of its key partners, the United States. The Trump administration has chosen not to act as Ukraine’s ally, but rather as…
- How Ukrainians fund their own defense: the story of “Come Back Alive” · 43 minImagine an NGO that has raised over one billion dollars to support the Ukrainian army. Imagine a civil society initiative that purchases armaments and military equipment. Imagine…
- Ukrainian geopolitical thought - with Danylo Lubkivsky · 48 minUkraine has its own tradition of geopolitical thinking — a tradition that reaches deep into the past and continues to shape the country’s strategic imagination today. What are…
- Why the Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church is unique - with Natalia Shlikhta · 49 minWhat makes the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church so unique? Why is it such a remarkable attempt to bridge the divide between Eastern and Western Christianity? How can its history…
- Ukrainian culture: how to reassemble a broken picture - with Olesia Ostrovska-Liuta · 46 minUkrainian cultural heritage is not something that quietly settles into national archives. In reality, it is the result of a dramatic struggle against destruction and oblivion…
- How Russia built its myth of Kyiv - with Kateryna Dysa · 42 minRussian propaganda claims that Ukraine is not a separate nation, but merely a “preliminary form” of Russia. Today’s Kremlin ideology seeks to annex Ukrainian history in order to…
- Nobel Laureate Oleksandra Matviychuk on Ukraine’s Moral Core · 47 minShe is not only a Nobel Peace Prize laureate. She is not only one of the most visible human-rights defenders in Europe in recent decades. She is not only a tireless activist with…
- Being a Ukrainian soldier - what is it like? - with Vladyslav Urubkov · 50 minHow is the life of a soldier different from that of a civilian? Which aspects of it are hardest for civilians to understand? What is happening on the frontline today — and how…
- Why Europe’s security depends on Ukraine - with Yevhen Hlibovytskyi · 46 minUkraine is not a burden for Europe — it’s a chance for Europe. Today, European security is unthinkable without Ukraine. Ukraine has the strongest army in Europe, a dynamic…
- How to rediscover Ukraine: the story of Ukraïner - with Julia Tymoshenko · 50 minIn this episode, we will talk about “Ukraïner”: a great initiative that has done a great deal to help rediscover Ukraine — both from within and from abroad. “Ukraïner” launched…
- Ukrainian children, kidnapped and reprogrammed by Russia - with Kateryna Rashevska · 44 minIn this episode, we discuss how Russia destroys Ukrainian families, kidnaps Ukrainian children — including those who have parents — and reprograms them, changing their identity…
- Where Ukrainians get their news in war - with Kostiantyn Kvurt · 46 minWhere do Ukrainians get their news? What are the key trends in Ukraine’s media sector during the war? Do citizens trust information coming from the government? And why is…
- Timothy Snyder on why history matters — and how we get it wrong · 1 h 32 minIn September 2025, in Kyiv, a prominent American historian Timothy Snyder received the Vasyl Stus Prize — a Ukrainian award honoring the name of Vasyl Stus, one of Ukraine’s…
- A Brief History (and Present) of Ukrainian Theatre — with Mayhill Fowler · 45 minWhat do we know about theatre — the most ephemeral of the arts — in Ukraine? What role did Ukrainian theatre play in Soviet times? How is the heritage of the Executed Renaissance…
- How Poetry Shaped the Ukrainian Nation — with Rory Finnin · 40 minWhy is Taras Shevchenko not only the founding father of Ukrainian poetry but also of Ukrainian identity? What aspects of his legacy remain alive today? And how does poetry shape…
- Niall Ferguson on Empires, Networks, and Ukraine · 33 minAre all empires equally bad? If some were better than others, what criteria can we use to make such judgments? Why must we study networks, not only hierarchies, to understand our…
- How Ukraine fights Russian drones - with Taras Tymochko · 47 minLet’s take a deeper look into drone warfare and the long-term changes it is bringing to the battlefield. How is Ukraine countering Russian drone attacks? How is it developing…
- How Ukraine's IT keeps surprising the world - with Taras Tymoshchuk · 45 minHow is Ukrainian IT transforming the country’s defence? Why is technology key to success in today’s war? Why is Ukraine one of the world’s most dynamic IT nations — and why does…
- Why Ukrainian History Matters Globally — with Yaroslav Hrytsak · 50 minYaroslav Hrytsak is one of Ukraine’s leading historians and public intellectuals. His recent book in Ukrainian, "Overcoming the Past: A Global History of Ukraine", became a…
- Can Security Guarantees Stop Russia’s War? — with Hanna Shelest · 57 minIf Ukraine does not receive real security guarantees, the war will continue—and is likely to spill over into the rest of Europe. But what kind of guarantees are truly needed, and…
- Сaptivity, torture, violence, and love - with Maksym Butkevych · 46 minMaksym Butkevych is a prominent Ukrainian human rights defender. Before the Russian full-scale invasion of Ukraine, he dedicated his efforts to the protection of people whose…
- Ukraine vs Russia: who leads the tech battle? - with Glib Voloskyi · 45 minWhy is technology playing such a decisive role in this war? Who is ahead in technological innovation—Ukraine or Russia? How are drones reshaping the battlefield, and how might…
