Ukraine Without Hype    In this episodes... : The Kyiv Independent releases a new documentary which I narrated on the torture of Ukrainian POWs in Russian custody : In the Start of Winter, a huge storm hits the Black Sea while Russia ups its drone attacks on Kyiv in the early phases of an expected winter...

Ukraine Without Hype    Olga Tokariuk is a Ukrainian journalist and Chatham Fellow who was there when the history of Ukraine and the world changed forever on the night of November , . Former President Yanukovych had gone back on his promises of European Association, and fully chose Russia. What followed was...

Ukraine Without Hype    In this episode... : : Combat update Avdiivka will be the focal point of the war for at least the rest of the year. : : General Valerii Zaluzhnyi, Commander in Chief of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, writes an article in the Economist about what Ukraine needs to break out of...

Ukraine Without Hype    Some outside pressure is asking why Ukraine won’t be having wartime elections. We start by going over why that would be impossible, then dig deeper into Ukrainian electoral politics and would would come of an election. : : Holding elections in Ukraine would be illegal, dangerous, and...

Ukraine Without Hype    In this episode... : Anthony recounts a reporting trip to Kharkiv and back to the former Kakhovka Reservoir : Russia launches a massive assault on Avdiivka, and takes massive casualties in the process. Meanwhile, Ukraine launched a large but secretive incursion across the Dnipro River....

Ukraine Without Hype    We are joined by Joey Ayoub, PhD, host of The Fire These Times, about the recent massacre by Hamas in southern Israel and Israel’s subsequent retaliation against Gaza’s civilian population. The ferocity of Hamas’ attack was unprecedented, but so was the systemic weakness and dysfunction of the...

Ukraine Without Hype    In this episode... : Russia hits a grocery store and cafe holding a wake for a deceased community member in a village in Kharkiv region, killing over people. : Ukraine advances beyond the second line of defenses in the Tokmak direction : After heavy attacks on the Russian...

Ukraine Without Hype    In this episode... : : Visiting a Hungarian speaking town in the Zakarpattia region : : The anniversary of the assassination of Ukrainian journalist Georgiy Gongadze in , and how the protest movement against it helped form Ukraine’s democratic path. : : A trade dispute...

Ukraine Without Hype    In this episode... : : Ukrainian forces begin to pierce Russia’s second line of defense in the south, and retake positions near Donetsk city. : : Russia caught by the Cuban authorities illegally trafficking potential soldiers. : : Russia looks to North Korea as a source of arms...

Ukraine Without Hype    In this episode... : : Despite naysaying in the Western press, the Southern offensive makes a major breakthrough by taking Robotyne and pushing forward. : : How Ukraine, the country that barely has a navy, is taking the fight to the Russians in the Black Sea and Dnipro River : : ...

Ukraine Without Hype    Anthony has returned from a reporting trip to the south of Ukraine and relays what he saw on the ground. : : Odesa’s Transfiguration Cathedral was badly damaged by the recent Russia strike on the city landmark, but Odesa is undeterred from the August vacation season. : : We had a bit...

Ukraine Without Hype    In this episode... : : Announcements; join our Discord : : Russian counterattack thwarted in the Luhansk Oblast while progress continues in the south and Bakhmut : : Russia cancels grain deal, then bombs Odesa city center and port infrastructure : : The Ballad of Igor...

Ukraine Without Hype    In this episode... : Ukrainian army attacks the first line of Russian defense in the south while making gains around Bakhmut. Meanwhile, deep attacks take down the Crimean Bridge and an assassination of a Russian submarine commander. : An update on the after effects of the Wagner Coup...

Ukraine Without Hype    In this episode... : The Ukrainian counteroffensive lurches forward across the front lines : Wagner Group and its leader Yevgeniy Prigozhin launch a day long uprising against the Russian government. What happened Why What now : A locked Kyiv bomb shelter leads to the death of a...

Ukraine Without Hype    Following the Russian destruction of the Kakhovka Hydroelectric Dam in the Kherson region, the area downstream was flooded, causing a massive amount of destruction. Anthony went to the city to cover the aid efforts in a city in which he has memories of a better time. While there, the Russians fired...

Ukraine Without Hype    Dylan Burns is a political streamer on YouTube and Twitch who has made multiple reporting trips to Ukraine. We talk about his coverage of demining efforts and other topics, what it means to be a political streamer with a younger audience who stepped into the world of journalism, and the...

Ukraine Without Hype    In this episode : What is it like to go through a mass suicide drone attack : Combat update: Ukraine continues to advance around Bakhmut, but major shifts are unlikely until the counter offensive. They also continue to hit strategic Russian points. Meanwhile, Russia struggles to find...

Ukraine Without Hype    In this episode : Russian forces take control of the ruins of Bakhmut : A questionable group of Russian volunteer soldiers fighting for Ukraine launch a raid into Belgorod Oblast of Russia and take a strangely long amount of time to be driven off. : With the Russian success in...

Ukraine Without Hype    In this episode : An overview of the evolving situation in the war. Ukraine has made a series of localized micro offensives throughout the front line resulting in numerous small victories against the Russian occupiers. Most importantly, in the area around Bakhmut, where they have retaken...

Ukraine Without Hype    Ukraine without Hype is joined by Armenian political scientist Karena Avedissian. Karena specializes in governance, access to justice, social movements, and new media communications in Eurasia. We asked her about the background of the Armenian Azerbaijan conflict over the contested Nagorno Karabakh...

Ukraine Without Hype    In this Episode... : Combat Update: Ukraine pushed back to the last few neighborhoods in Bakhmut, while a raid in Kherson Oblast gains attention as paving the way for the coming offensive. : Putin visits occupied Kherson Oblast...maybe : Wagner fighters blow the whistle, having...

Ukraine Without Hype    In this Episode... : War Updates: The Russians advance through the city center of Bakhmut, but it seems pretty certain that the city will not be surrounded. No Russian progress around Avdiivka, and most other advances have ground down. : The Wagner Group circulates a video of themselves...

Ukraine Without Hype    In this News Digest... : War Updates: The focus of the war is on Bakhmut and Avdiivka, two cities that have been largely destroyed and are threatened by attempted Russian encirclements. Russia knocks a US surveillance drone out of international skies, while Slovakia supplies Ukraine with...

Ukraine Without Hype    James is a US Army veteran who supported Ukraine for years before the full scale invasion and enlisted when the time came. We talk to him about how his many years living in Russia opened his eyes to the country’s simmering fascism and his path into the Ukrainian army. Since he also has a YouTube...

Ukraine Without Hype    : Combat Update, including the increasingly brutal fight to defend the strong point of Bakhmut while preparing a counter offensive. : A militia made up of Russian dissidents fighting for Ukraine makes a cross border raid into Bryansk region of Russia in order to get the rest of the...

Ukraine Without Hype    The glory of Ukraine has not yet perished, nor the will. Still upon us, young brothers, fate shall smile. Our enemies shall vanish, like dew in the sun. We too shall rule, brothers, our country. February th is the anniversary of the full scale Russian invasion of Ukraine, a day that shall live...

Ukraine Without Hype    For this week’s combat update, Russia continues to grind away at Bakhmut, making the most progress in the northern suburbs while being fought back in the south. In what appears to be the start of their much awaited Spring offensive, most other fronts are successfully holding the Russians off. Then....

Ukraine Without Hype    The second half of January has been extremely busy and there are many headlines to cover. : Combat Update: Russian forces make troubling gains to the north and south of Bakhmut, but Bakhmut still stands. Russia fails in offensives along the southern line at Orikhiv and Vuhledar. Ukraine...

Ukraine Without Hype    After months of little but continuous defeat, the Russian military looks like it is on the verge of taking the Donbas salt mining town of Soledar. The battle is ongoing, but the situation is dire and would leave northern Bakhmut more vulnerable. We go into what little we know about the situation on...

Ukraine Without Hype    On the last day of a very difficult year, we do a news roundup of the last headlines of . President Zelensky leaves Ukraine for the first time of the full scale invasion to hold a joint presser with President Biden, then a speech before a joint session of Congress. In other news, Russia sends...

Ukraine Without Hype    Our news update covers the continuing Russian offensive on Bakhmut while Ukraine steps up its campaign of HIMARS strikes and partisan sabotage behind enemy lines, the coming and going power blackouts, the award of the Nobel Peace Prize to a Ukrainian NGO, and what may be the final death of the...

Ukraine Without Hype    Kyiv is suffering from increasingly severe power outages as Russia focuses it strategy on making Ukraine as unlivable as possible for the civilian population during the winter. Then : we take our time to remember the Holodomor following its remembrance day on November th. What is was, why...

Ukraine Without Hype    In a rustic candlelit recording session, Anthony covers the liberation of Kherson the steps that led to the victory, the immediate priorities for the civilian population, and where the fighting is likely to shift to. Twitter Anthony: Bartaway Romeo: RomeoKokriatski Ukraine Without Hype...

Ukraine Without Hype    Recorded and edited during the windows where everyone has electricity, this episode traces what led Russians to change strategies to targeting civilian infrastructure. Frustrated by continuous battlefield failures, the Russians can only take comfort in making Ukrainians as miserable as they can....

Ukraine Without Hype    Greetings Comrades This is a crossover episode with the Eastern Border podcast where Anthony and Kristaps discuss their recent reporting trip to the city of Mykolaiv and the nearby frontlines. But first, a combat update regarding the rapid Ukrainian advances on both the Kharkiv and Kherson fronts....

Ukraine Without Hype    It is a short form on the road episode by Anthony Bartaway, but these are all developing stories that deserve more focus. First up, the Ukrainian advance in the Kharkiv region and northern Donbas is continuing to roll forward and retake occupied territory, but they are discovering all of the...

Ukraine Without Hype    While the Russian army was focused on defending its holdings in Kherson, Ukraine pulled off a stunning offensive to the east of Kharkiv. In less than a week, the Russian garrison in the Izyum salient completely disintegrated, leading to them abandoning Kharkiv Oblast to the west of the Oskil River....

Ukraine Without Hype    This episode is dedicated both to Ukraine’s Independence Day and the th month anniversary of the war that threatens that independence. In our news round up we cover: : : The combat update, including the long awaited kinetic phase of the Kherson Offensive. : : Russia has been staging...

Ukraine Without Hype    In a brief news update, Russia focuses its efforts in Donbas on the Donetsk suburb of Pisky, which guards the way to the vital strategic Ukrainian fortress city of Avdiivka. On the Kherson front, the Russian army pours into the region in order to forestall a Ukrainian offensive, but by doing so put...

Ukraine Without Hype    In a brief news update, Russia shifts away from the Sloviansk front to Avdiivka in Donbas, while building up its defenses against the awaited Ukrainian offensive in Kherson. Meanwhile, they continue their intense missile strike campaign, especially against Mykolaiv and are suspected of an unusual...

Ukraine Without Hype    Ukraine struck a deal to secure its grain exports, but Russian perfidy meant Moscow broke the agreement almost immediately. Following the end of the battle for Lysychansk, fighting on the front lines has slowed considerably, though that is very relative. Russia has not made any advances since then...

Ukraine Without Hype    A rapid Russian advance finishes off the long battle for Luysychansk, allowing them to occupy the entirety of Luhansk Oblast. The Battle for Donbas shifts westward to the Seversk Bakhmut line. Elsewhere, Ukrainian forces continue to make grinding progress around Kherson and Zaporizhia and force...

Ukraine Without Hype    A rapid Russian offensive captures territory around Lysychansk, leading to the Ukrainian withdrawal from Severodonetsk, with a tough fight still to come. The Ukrainian parliament ratifies the Istanbul Convention, a landmark treaty against domestic and gendered violence. Ukraine is granted...

Ukraine Without Hype    Severodonetsk becomes the centerpiece of the war, as fierce urban fighting claims hundreds of lives. Russian cruise missiles destroy a Kyiv civilian railcar repair plant in the first strike on the city in a month, increasing the difficulty of Ukraine’s ability to export grain. Three foreign born...

Ukraine Without Hype    Brief news update: While Russia advances through the streets of Sieverodonetsk, Ukraine breaks through enemy lines in an offensive on the Kherson region. The US agrees to send Ukraine a new type of long range rocket artillery after some very confusing negotiations. The branch of the Russian...

Ukraine Without Hype    Anthony Bartaway goes over the latest updates from the Russian invasion of Ukraine. : The fears of Russian general mobilization on Victory Day proved to be false. : The defenders of Mariupol finally surrender, and their future is uncertain. : The Ukrainian counter offensive in...

Ukraine Without Hype    The Russian offensive in Donbas becomes bogged down outside of Izyum and Sievierodonetsk, with only minor forward progress since our last update. Meanwhile, Ukrainian forces take the initiative around Kharkiv and score more hits against the Russian Navy and its positions on occupied Snake Island in...

Ukraine Without Hype    The Battle for Donbas rages on as the Russian army tries desperately to encircle Ukrainian forces in the east, while the defenders of Mariupol make their last stand in the ruins of the sprawling Azovstal metallurgical plant. Meanwhile, the Ukrainian army presses in on Russian occupied territory in...

Ukraine Without Hype    Russian soldiers have retreated from northern Ukraine and will try to re focus on Donbas, but what they left behind is a path of destruction that must be called a genocide. There have been multiple statements from the Russian government showing genocidal intent, and that intent was followed with...

Ukraine Without Hype    Anthony Bartaway and Romeo Kokriatski talk about the current situation in the Russo Ukraine War. Russian advances around Kyiv, Chernihiv, Sumy, and Kharkiv have been stopped by Ukrainian defenders, but have been replaced with artillery fire and rocket strikes. Along the Black Sea coast, the Russian...