Dana Okomaniuk

In July 2024, Pulitzer-winning author Anne Applebaum published her latest book ‘Autocracy Inc: The Dictators Who Want to Run the World’, where she explores the status quo for modern-day autocracies, the ways they operate and cooperate, as well as how this ‘interlinkedness’ can be the reason of their downfall. Below we explore the ideas outlined in her book in light of current political events. 

On May 23rd, Russia destroyed a Ukrainian book printing facility in Kharkiv with missiles—killing 7 people and injuring 20+ more. Images of Ukrainian books burning horrified many across the world. Although there is truly no target off limits for Russia, what is the logic behind an attack on a warehouse with Ukrainian books?

Amid the war in Ukraine, women’s bodies are keeping score to a trauma that medicine often overlooks—the physical manifestation of profound emotional distress.

When a decision is made, it always comes with a known certainty—uncertainty. Safety is never truly guaranteed, risks are never fully outlined, and no answers or fix-all solutions are ever offered, but Ukrainian women refuse to simply give up.