Latest news with #UkrainianService
Yahoo
11-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Radio Liberty's Ukrainian Service cuts down on broadcasts, places staff on leave
Radio Liberty's Ukrainian Service is scaling back its broadcasts and placing some staff on leave due to financial difficulties. The final episode of the morning programme, was aired on 11 April. Source: Radio Liberty's Ukrainian Service Quote: "Radio Liberty's Ukrainian Service is reducing its broadcasting due to financial challenges. The last episode of the stream was aired on 11 April." Details: The editorial office highlighted that the stream had been broadcast on Radio Liberty's YouTube channel and on the Espresso TV channel for over two years. According to Espresso, this project was one of the highest-rated on the channel's programme. "We were among the first to report on the sinking of Russian warships in the Black Sea, the blowing up of the Kakhovka Hydroelectric Power Plant dam, and [Wagner Private Military Company's financier Yevgeny] Prigozhin's march on Moscow. We shared the stories of those who turned to us for help and demanded answers from the authorities, such as the soldiers of the 155th Territorial Defence Brigade. We hosted leading speakers, government officials and lawmakers. Our audience also included viewers from the occupied territories seeking objective and honest information," said Anna Tokhmakhchi, managing editor of The editorial office will also be sending its staff in Kyiv and Lviv on leave from 14 April. Quote from Mariana Drach, director of Radio Liberty's Ukrainian Service: "This is a necessary step while Radio Liberty is fighting for the right to receive funding from the US Congress in American courts. Before that, on 1 April, a part of the staff in Prague from various language services went on partially paid leave." Details: In addition, due to limited funds, Radio Liberty has also significantly reduced its cooperation with freelancers. It is noted that in March, Radio Liberty suspended the podcasts Dialogues with Portnikov and Historical Freedom, which featured freelance authors Vitalii Portnikov and Dmytro Shurkhalo. Shortly after, historian Dmytro Shurkhalo applied to a Ukrainian recruitment centre and was drafted into the Armed Forces. Meanwhile, the editorial office emphasises that Radio Liberty continues to cover events at the front, provide information to residents under occupation through the and projects, conduct investigative journalism through the Schemes project, and analyse events every weekday evening in the Freedom Live news and analysis programme. Background: On 14 March, US President Donald Trump signed a decree to eliminate the US Agency for Global Media (USAGM), which funds Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) and Voice of America (VOA). Kaja Kallas, High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, noted that the EU does not have the ability to automatically take over funding for Radio Liberty but emphasised that the situation should be studied to determine how the EU can support the project. On 19 March, RFE/RL filed a lawsuit in a federal court in Washington against the Trump administration and Kari Lake over the decision to cut off funding for the organisation. The plaintiffs argue that such actions violate US law. Earlier, the EU, commenting on the decision of Trump's administration to cut off funding for Radio Liberty and the actual cessation of broadcasting by Voice of America, said that this would play into the hands of common enemies. Support Ukrainska Pravda on Patreon!
Yahoo
17-03-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Critical Ukraine coverage at risk as Trump slashes Radio Free Europe funding
The U.S. decision to cut off funding for Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty came as a surprise for the outlet's newsroom, a source in the RFE/RL's Ukrainian Service told the Kyiv Independent. 'We understood that the U.S. president, to put it mildly, does not like us,' the source said on March 17. 'But there is bipartisan support, there is approved funding, and we had an (approved) budget at least until the end of this fiscal year. No one expected that they would cut off funding in the middle of the year like that.' U.S. President Donald Trump eliminated seven federal agencies on March 14, including the U.S. Agency for Global Media (USAGM), which oversees RFE/RL and Voice of America (VoA). The decision terminated the Congress-authorized grant that funded RFE/RL, while the Voice of America's employees were put on administrative leave. The move seeks to effectively end over seven decades of work of the U.S.-sponsored media outlets, launched to promote democracy and counter propaganda in authoritarian countries. The decision was welcomed by Russian propagandists, who took to Russian state TV to praise it. In Ukraine, the decision comes as a yet another blow to the country's media, which has already suffered greatly from the freeze of the USAID programs in January. The freeze left many Ukrainian independent media outlets, including local front-line newsrooms and investigative projects, without funding. Now, Ukraine's media landscape may risk to lose the robust local RFE/RL bureau. For years, RFE/RL has been one of the most reliable sources for millions of Ukrainians. Around 14% of Ukrainians regularly tuned into the RFE/RL's coverage, according to a Gallup World Poll, conducted in July 2023. The same poll showed that '95% of the audience' trusted the Radio's coverage. As of late 2024, the company employed a team of more than 100 people in Ukraine, said Maryana Drach, RFE/RL's Ukrainian Service director. For the Kyiv-based bureau, the halt would bring an end to several prominent projects, including investigations of corruption and Russian aggression, front-line coverage, and coverage of Ukraine's occupied territories. The team in Kyiv continues work, reportedly hoping to restore or replace the lost funding. 'Everyone is in a waiting mode,' the source told the Kyiv Independent. 'Today we heard at one of the meetings with the management that they keep fighting.' The RFE/RL's Ukrainian Service began operation on Aug. 16, 1954, in Munich under the initial name Radio Liberation, becoming one of the view free media outlets reachable by the citizens of the Soviet the Cold War, RFE/RL faced surveillance, provocations, and even terrorist attacks. In 1981, a bomb was planted at the headquarters of RFE/RL in Munich, injuring six people. In modern Russia, Radio Free Europe has witnessed a similar fate. In 2017, Russia labeled Voice of America and Radio Free Europe 'foreign agents.' Five years later, Moscow added RFE/RL to the list of 'undesirable' organizations. The registries have been widely used to target and silence groups and individuals who are critical of the government, including independent journalists, activists, and NGOs. RFE/RL President and CEO Stephen Capus said that the cancelation of the organization's funding 'would be a massive gift to America's enemies.' 'The Iranian Ayatollahs, Chinese communist leaders, and autocrats in Moscow and Minsk would celebrate the demise of RFE/RL after 75 years. Handing our adversaries a win would make them stronger and America weaker,' he said. Read also: US foreign aid transformed Ukraine. Its suspension threatens decades of work In Ukraine, the funding freeze risks ending several projects that were a long-time staple of local journalism, including coverage of occupied territories and investigations unveiling top-level corruption. Since its launch in 2014, the Schemes investigative journalism program, a unit of the Radio's Kyiv bureau, has been investigating corruption and wrongdoing of Ukrainian elites. They have not shunned from investigating oligarchs and sitting presidents, having published investigations featuring President Volodymyr Zelensky and his predecessor, Petro Poroshenko. After the start of Russia's full-scale invasion, the Schemes project started investigating Russian war crimes and Russian officials, while also continuing to uncover corruption in Ukraine. The other two trademark projects of RFE/RL in Ukraine — Crimea Realities and Donbas Realities — served as the key sources of information about the Russian-occupied territories. Ukrainian journalist Artem Lysak worked as a reporter for Crimea Realities from 2016 to 2019. He used to visit the Russian-occupied peninsula undercover. He covered the persecution of Crimean Tatars and the illegal construction of the Crimean Bridge. 'The Crimea Realities project is as important now as it was from the beginning of (Russia's) invasion (of Crimea). Since we know that there is practically no freedom of speech in Crimea, just like in Russia,' Lysak told the Kyiv Independent. 'It remains one of the media outlets that constantly monitors the situation and gives at least some kind of true picture for the people in Crimea. There are no other projects like Crimea Realities in Ukraine, unfortunately,' he said. During his reporting trips, Lysak faced interrogations and surveillance by Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB) in Crimea. When his lawyer suspected that a criminal case might be fabricated against the journalist, Lysak decided to leave the peninsula. For their work, RFE/RL's journalists have repeatedly faced persecution by the Kremlin. Mykola Semena, a former observer of Crimea Realities, faced Russia's trumped-up charges for his journalism in Crimea in January 2016. He was able to leave the peninsula in 2020. Another Ukrainian RFE/RL journalist, Vladyslav Yesypenko, was illegally detained in Crimea by Russia in 2021 and remains behind bars to this day. Writer and former journalist Stanislav Aseyev, who worked for RFE/RL, said that he was tortured in Russian-occupied Donetsk for being affiliated with Radio Liberty. 'I once was electrocuted only for writing for Radio Liberty: I was told that it was 'a CIA structure and an enemy of Russia,' and for that reason alone I was already guilty,' Aseyev wrote. The writer was abducted by Russian proxies in 2017 and jailed in the infamous Izolyatsia prisoner camp in Donetsk. He was released in December 2019 in a prisoner exchange. 'Now, the 'enemy of Russia' is being destroyed by America itself, and my torture seems in vain,' Aseyev said. Days after the U.S. decision, Ukrainian journalists of RFE/RL continue their work, although the service's future remains unclear. The source in RFE/RL's Ukrainian Service told the Kyiv Independent that there's funding through the end of March. 'The management hopes to get support from (U.S.) Congress, other organizations. There is hope that we will use this time effectively and will be able to somehow return back. There is an expectation that there will be some dissatisfaction in Congress, or maybe we can somehow, so to speak, cancel President (Trump's) decision,' the source said. According to the source, support from the European Union is also considered as an alternative source of funding. EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said EU foreign ministers discussed the functioning of RFE/RL at a meeting in Brussels on March 17. The bloc cannot automatically fund Radio Free Europe, she said, adding that the EU will look into potential options. Czech Foreign Minister Jan Lipavsky did not rule out that the European Union can buy Radio Free Europe from the U.S. Lysak said, citing his colleagues, that the Ukrainian Service has in the meantime parted ways with its freelance journalists. The RFE/RL source confirmed to the Kyiv Independent that contracts with all freelancers have been terminated, adding that the decision, however, was made about a week ago. This move was made to save money amid the U.S. budget uncertainty. 'If a week ago we were wondering where to get money to pay back the freelancers, now the question arises whether the service will work at all,' they said. Read also: Who is to gain more from a ceasefire — Russia or Ukraine? We've been working hard to bring you independent, locally-sourced news from Ukraine. Consider supporting the Kyiv Independent.
Yahoo
28-02-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Ukrainian Air Force reveals tactics of Russian drone attacks on Ukraine: 50% of aerial assets are live, 50% decoys
Russian forces have been relentlessly launching numerous drones on Ukraine every night. In most instances, 50% of the Russian-launched aerial munitions are Shahed drones, with the other half being decoy drones designed to drain Ukrainian air defences. Source: Colonel Yurii Ihnat, Head of the Communications Department of the Ukrainian Air Force Command, in an interview with Radio Liberty's Ukrainian Service Quote: "It's a 50-50 situation today: 50% of the drones are Shaheds, while the other 50% are decoys. Their purpose is to overwhelm our air defence system, forcing the launch of [costly air defence] missiles to intercept decoys that cost next to nothing. This is why they are launched in such large numbers. Looking at the Virazh-Planshet system, everything is red, [drones are] coming from different directions. Russia has been launching Shaheds from seven different directions, often followed by ballistic or cruise missiles." [The Virazh-Planshet is an automated system for collecting, processing, displaying and analysing air situation intelligence – ed.] Details: Reports indicate that Russian forces have attacked Ukraine with 208 Shahed-type loitering munitions and various types of decoy drones since the evening of 27 February. A total of 204 drones have failed to reach their target. Support Ukrainska Pravda on Patreon!
Voice of America
22-02-2025
- Politics
- Voice of America
As war rages, Ukraine's politicians circle presidential ‘electric chair'
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has been branded 'a dictator without elections,' but rivals are already circling for his job as expectations mount of a vote later this year. U.S. President Donald Trump's broadside at Zelenskyy hit a sensitive spot. Presidential elections in Ukraine should have been held in March or April 2024. But they were not — due to Russia's full-scale invasion. Ukraine's constitution bars elections during martial law, which was imposed by Kyiv just a day after the Kremlin launched its all-out war in February 2022. There are also major security concerns. Packed polling stations would make tempting targets for a Russian military that has repeatedly struck civilian targets, including schools, hospitals and apartment buildings. RFE/RL's Ukrainian Service found people in Kyiv opposed to the idea when it spoke to them on Feb. 20. 'We have Russian-occupied territory where people will not be able to vote and will not be able to make their own choice,' said one woman. 'Who can run a campaign in a time of war?' said another voter. The same day, some 130 Ukrainian civic groups issued a joint statement declaring the impossibility of holding elections under current circumstances. 'Only after the end of the war and the achievement of a stable peace … will it be possible to organize elections freely, fairly, democratically, and accessibly,' they wrote. Nevertheless, presidential hopefuls are already making what appear to be their first cautious moves. There's expectation in the air that some kind of ceasefire or peace deal will emerge this year, making elections possible within a matter of months. Former President Petro Poroshenko has even given a date, Oct. 26, which he says was revealed by insiders in Zelenskyy's office and which would coincide with other elections. 'According to the constitution, there should be parliamentary elections at the end of the year. Although they should have taken place two years ago. And at the end of October, we should have had local elections," he said. Zelenskyy's party denied any plans for Oct. 26. The president has said elections could take place this year if martial law is lifted — something that would be possible after a deal to stop the fighting. Pro-Russian figures have also started getting active. Yuriy Boyko, who came in fourth in the 2019 election, launched a TikTok campaign in December that echoed Kremlin talking points and earned him an invitation for questioning from Ukraine's Security Service. Sergey Lagondinsky, a member of the European Parliament for Germany's Green Party who grew up in Russia in Soviet times, wrote recently: 'Putin hates Zelenskyy because he ruined his plans to subjugate Ukraine. And he dreams of getting a pro-Russian candidate after a grueling war.' But many analysts believe the aim of getting a pro-Kremlin puppet elected has little chance after three years of war in which Russian forces have killed tens of thousands of Ukrainian soldiers and civilians. Still, when the election does come, it could be brutal. 'Everyone will be accusing each other of being at fault at the start of Russia's full-scale invasion,' said Oleh Saakyan, co-founder of the National Platform for Resilience and Cohesion, a civic group. Speaking to Current Time, he predicted a battle of 'veterans against veterans, soldiers against soldiers.' 'The president's seat right now is an electric chair,' he said. Zelenskyy's hottest potential challenger has not made any public moves. In fact, he's not even said he wants to run. Yet former army commander-in-chief Valeriy Zaluzhniy is widely regarded as waiting in the wings from his current position as Ukraine's ambassador in London. Opinion pollsters are already asking the public what they think — and Zaluzhniy has been coming out on top. But a lot can happen between now and any future polling day. Much will depend on what kind of diplomatic deal is struck, if any, to silence the guns.
Yahoo
14-02-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Over 150 Ukrainian soldiers may be held captive in Russia's Chechnya, Radio Liberty says
Over 150 Ukrainian soldiers may be held captive in Chechnya, with a high likelihood that they are in the city of Grozny. [The Chechen Republic, also known as Chechnya, is a federal subject of the Russian Federation; the Ukrainian parliament has recognised it as the temporarily Russian-occupied territory of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria – ed.] Source: Radio Liberty's Ukrainian Service, citing Ukraine's Coordination Headquarters for the Treatment of Prisoners of War Quote from the Headquarters: "POWs could be transferred to places of detention on the territory of Chechnya, where, as in other places of captivity, humanitarian law and the Geneva Convention are violated. [Ramzan] Kadyrov's regime uses them as a human shield for military facilities and a lever to lift sanctions against his family." Details: Radio Liberty reports that the International Committee of the Red Cross cannot confirm that Ukrainians are being held captive in Chechnya. The Coordination Centre is also unaware of any visits by the humanitarian organisation to Ukrainian prisoners in Chechnya. Even if the Red Cross receives all the necessary information about Ukrainian prisoners of war in Chechnya, it will not be able to assist in the exchange as it does not have access to the territory. Background: On 30 October 2024, Kadyrov stated that he had ordered the commanders of Akhmat, a Chechen armed formation fighting on Russia's side, to cease taking Ukrainian troops prisoner. However, on 2 November, Kadyrov noted that he had rescinded his order to Akhmat fighters not to take Ukrainian soldiers prisoner. In December 2024, Kadyrov supposedly visited Ukrainian POWs and threatened to use them as human shields against drones attacking Chechnya. Support UP or become our patron!
