Maria Kuchapska

Amid scorched battlefields, burnt-out tanks, and frozen trenches, ordinary people risk everything to defend freedom. Ukrainian combat medics share firsthand stories of evacuating the wounded under Russian fire, where survival is a race against time.

Refusing to bow to an occupier in Russia’s world labels you as “mentally ill.” Through forced diagnoses, drugging, and institutionalizing—even children—Russia’s modern occupation of Ukraine echoes a horrifying Soviet tactic: punitive psychiatry.

From the average Joe to the famous one—Rogan—Russian propaganda has successfully seeped into both everyday conversations and influential platforms, constructing anti-Ukrainian sentiments using sensationalism to elicit an emotional reaction from people otherwise unfamiliar with Ukraine, its culture, politics, and history.

“For the sake of every life” is the motto of Hospitallers, Ukraine’s volunteer paramedic force. These dedicated combat medics operate on the frontlines, saving others amid relentless Russian assaults. Having evacuated over 19,000 wounded since the full-scale invasion, their stories embody courage, sacrifice, and unwavering commitment—for the sake of every life.

"Current whereabouts remain unknown" is the reality for many Ukrainian journalists captured and detained by Russian forces. Even before the full-scale invasion in 2022, reporters covering Russian aggression in occupied territories faced arbitrary arrests, kidnappings, and torture—a pattern that continues today.

In 1984, Orwell wrote, “The Party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final, most essential command.” And so it was in the USSR, a dystopia paralleling the fictional Airstrip One where reality and official rhetoric inherently contradict one another.