PODCAST · news
Explaining Ukraine
by UkraineWorld
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
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Understanding Ukrainian Resistance. Volodymyr Yermolenko, Marci Shore and Kateryna Mishchenko at the Frankfurt Book Fair
What 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 that has survived and flourished despite oppression and countless obstacles? How does Ukraine’s struggle today fit into...
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Religion in Ukraine - with Cyril Hovorun
What 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 coexist with Islam and Judaism? Why is Ukrainian Orthodoxy divided, and what is the story behind the emergence of an...
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Why Shevchenko Is Still Central to Ukrainian Identity - with Rory Finnin
Why 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 does Shevchenko’s understanding of time and history differ from our present-day perspective, so focused on the immediate...
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Timothy Snyder on the Deep Layers of Ukrainian History
Studying 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 history of humanity as a whole. It can help us grasp why the interaction between settled and nomadic cultures has been so...
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The Magic of Ukrainian Traditional Music - with Mariana Sadovska and André Erlen
Ukrainian traditional music has preserved one of the richest traditions of polyphonic singing in the world. It has survived centuries of oppression, oblivion, marginalisation, and even physical extermination. Despite all this, there have always been people in Ukraine who travelled to villages,...
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The Steppe Origins of Russian Imperialism - with Michael Khodarkovsky
How 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 Ottoman, Persian, Mughal, Chinese, and others? What are the roots of Russia’s assimilationist imperialism and its claims to...
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The War, Without Illusions - with Andriy Zagorodnyuk
How can Ukraine protect itself against Russia’s ballistic missile threat? What role can Europe play, particularly through joint production? Can Ukraine develop its own anti-ballistic missile? And who is winning this war now? *** Explaining Ukraine is a podcast by UkraineWorld, an English-language...
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Unmasking Russian Propaganda - with Thomas Kent
Why 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 against Ukraine about information warfare? And how should the West change its strategies — and do so quickly? ***...
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What You Need to Know About Ukrainian Society - with Maryna Starodubska
What 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? How should we understand power distance in Ukraine? Is corruption really as great a threat as it is often portrayed, or…
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What Are the Hidden Risks of a Ceasefire? We Asked Chatham House Experts
When 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 return to normal. But we should not confuse a ceasefire with a lasting peace—or, more importantly, with a just peace that...
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Is the War Approaching a Turning Point? - with Tetyana Ogarkova
Many 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 abundant resources—are increasingly becoming liabilities. The war may be approaching a turning point. It is time to seriously...
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Greece, Ukraine, Communism, War, Europe - with Christos Chomenidis
I 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. Although it is set in Greece, we Ukrainians can deeply relate to this story: a narrative where global events shape your…
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Foreign Fighters in Ukraine: What Are Their Stories? - with Colin Freeman
Although 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 individuals from across the globe have made the personal choice to join the Ukrainian defense. Who are these foreign...
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Mariupol: Inside Russia’s Massive War Crime - with James Verini
On 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 thousand civilians were sheltering inside, seeking refuge from Russian shelling. It did so despite the huge…
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How Russians Are Erasing Life in Ukraine’s South - with Zarina Zabrisky
The 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 soldiers are targeting Ukrainian civilians, their cars, and their homes, as if they were on a safari. On the occupied lands...
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Why Europe must fix its defence now - with Moritz Schularick
Ukraine 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 hundreds of villages have been destroyed. Occupied territories, occupied people, occupied lives—an occupied future. Europe...
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How Russia can be defeated - with Lesia Ogryzko
In recent months, Ukrainian deep strikes into Russia have outnumbered Russian strikes on Ukraine. Ukraine has managed to build its military capacities practically from scratch, while Russia has made very little technological progress since 2022. Furthermore, Russia is losing more and more people…
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Odesa in love and war - with Julian Evans
Let’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 refuses to be trapped by a single definition. It is Jewish, French, Italian, Ukrainian, Crimean Tatar, Romanian, Moldovan,...
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Can Europe become a security union? - with Borja Lasheras
Can 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 self-defense, and does the continent understand—and adapt to—the changing nature of modern warfare? *** This is the…
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What Black Americans and Ukrainians can tell each other
What 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 traumas and the struggle for human dignity? Furthermore, what role do culture, identity, and language play in…
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Why Ukraine's resistance starts with ordinary people
How 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 of fallen soldiers every day? What is life truly like under Russian occupation? And most importantly—why is the...
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Why the world needs Ukraine’s war tech - with Yulia Marushevska
Why 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 how are these shifts manifesting not only in the Russo-Ukrainian war but also in the Middle East? Are new drone...
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Decoding Trump’s Ukraine policy - with Christopher Atwood
Since 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 sharp increase from approximately 2,000 in January 2025. The use of guided aerial bombs (KABs) also reached a record...
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Russia's energy terror against Ukraine - with Oksana Ishchuk
During 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 intend to make life in Ukraine unlivable? Can the country’s civilian infrastructure continue to withstand such a massive,...
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Can Ukraine win the technological war? - with Volodymyr Havrylov
What 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 Ukrainian civil society become one of the country’s greatest assets during the war? *** Host: Volodymyr Yermolenko, a...
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Cities without kings: humanity's prehistory on Ukrainian soil — with David Wengrow
What 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 be considered the world’s first cities? How were they organized without central authorities, and how do they challenge...
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Ukraine in 2025: can peace talks succeed?
In 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 a mediator between Ukraine and Europe on the one hand, and Russia on the other. This shift has fundamentally changed…
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How Ukrainians fund their own defense: the story of “Come Back Alive”
Imagine 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 a transparent organisation with an independent board and detailed reporting. This NGO exists — it is called “Povernys...
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Ukrainian geopolitical thought - with Danylo Lubkivsky
Ukraine 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 its key traits? Why was it developed more by writers than by statesmen? And how does it relate to Ukraine’s current...
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Why the Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church is unique - with Natalia Shlikhta
What 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 help us better understand the history of Europe and of the Christian religion? How has it shaped Ukrainian national...
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Ukrainian culture: how to reassemble a broken picture - with Olesia Ostrovska-Liuta
Ukrainian 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. This makes this heritage so magnetic—precisely because it is not always visible or accessible, yet can be reconstructed...
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How Russia built its myth of Kyiv - with Kateryna Dysa
Russian 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 justify its territorial aggression. But this myth has a birth certificate. It emerged in the 19th century, when the...
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Nobel Laureate Oleksandra Matviychuk on Ukraine’s Moral Core
She 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 profound empathy for others. She is also a thinker — someone who reflects deeply on the moral foundations of freedom…
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Being a Ukrainian soldier - what is it like? - with Vladyslav Urubkov
How 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 will the outcome of this war depend on the technological race? *** Host: Volodymyr Yermolenko, a Ukrainian philosopher,...
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Why Europe’s security depends on Ukraine - with Yevhen Hlibovytskyi
Ukraine 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 defense industry, and citizens with vast military experience. The real question is: to what extent does Europe itself...
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How to rediscover Ukraine: the story of Ukraïner - with Julia Tymoshenko
In 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 expeditions to villages and towns across the country, researched the lifestyles and cultures of Ukraine’s diverse...
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Ukrainian children, kidnapped and reprogrammed by Russia - with Kateryna Rashevska
In this episode, we discuss how Russia destroys Ukrainian families, kidnaps Ukrainian children — including those who have parents — and reprograms them, changing their identity, their way of thinking, their lifestyle, their homes. *** Host: Volodymyr Yermolenko, a Ukrainian philosopher,...
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Where Ukrainians get their news in war - with Kostiantyn Kvurt
Where 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 Ukrainian society so dependent on Telegram, a Russian social network? In this episode, we discuss a report, “Ukrainian media....
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Timothy Snyder on why history matters — and how we get it wrong
In 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 greatest poets and dissidents of the 20th century, killed by the Soviet regime in 1985. Founded in 1989 by Yevhen…
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A Brief History (and Present) of Ukrainian Theatre — with Mayhill Fowler
What 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 generation still alive today? And why are women in theatre so important — and yet so often ignored? *** The Explaining...
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How Poetry Shaped the Ukrainian Nation — with Rory Finnin
Why 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 a nation? *** Host: Tetyana Ogarkova, a Ukrainian literary scholar at Kyiv Mohyla Academy and journalist at Ukraine...
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Niall Ferguson on Empires, Networks, and Ukraine
Are 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 past, present, and future? What happens to societies in times of catastrophe, and who has the best chances of…
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How Ukraine fights Russian drones - with Taras Tymochko
Let’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 systems of drone interceptors? Are we moving toward a future where drones will fight other drones? And what skills must…
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How Ukraine's IT keeps surprising the world - with Taras Tymoshchuk
How 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 it still hold so much untapped potential? And finally, how has the IT sector become a driver of social change…
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Why Ukrainian History Matters Globally — with Yaroslav Hrytsak
Yaroslav 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 bestseller. His English-language book, "Ukraine: The Forging of a Nation", is now a key reference work on Ukrainian history....
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Can Security Guarantees Stop Russia’s War? — with Hanna Shelest
If 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 which of them are realistic? *** Host: Volodymyr Yermolenko, a Ukrainian philosopher, editor-in-chief of UkraineWorld,...
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Сaptivity, torture, violence, and love - with Maksym Butkevych
Maksym 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 rights were violated. When Russia launched its war against Ukraine, Maksym joined the Ukrainian army to defend his…
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Ukraine vs Russia: who leads the tech battle? - with Glib Voloskyi
Why 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 they also transform technologies of peace? And why must Europe step up its technological cooperation with Ukraine? ***...
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How Russians hunt civilians in Kherson - with Zarina Zabrisky
Kherson may be the most dangerous regional center in Ukraine. Occupied by Russian forces in 2022, its residents were subjected to torture and intimidation. The city was liberated by Ukrainian forces in November 2022 — but almost immediately came under daily bombardment and shelling from Russian...
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Why Trump’s Ukraine plan won’t work - with Tetyana Ogarkova
Trump is set to meet with Putin in Alaska on August 15. Media reports and leaks ahead of this meeting, along with statements by President Trump and members of his administration, suggest that the two leaders may have discussed a plan in which Ukraine would cede some or all of the occupied...
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ABOUT THIS SHOW
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
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How many episodes does Explaining Ukraine have?
Explaining Ukraine currently has 431 episodes available on PodParley. New episodes are automatically indexed when they're published to the podcast feed.
What is Explaining Ukraine about?
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
How often does Explaining Ukraine release new episodes?
Explaining Ukraine publishes regularly with 431 episodes available. Check the episode list for the typical release schedule.
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You can listen to Explaining Ukraine on PodParley by clicking any episode. We provide an embedded audio player for direct listening, and you can also subscribe via your preferred podcast app using the RSS feed.
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Explaining Ukraine is created and hosted by UkraineWorld.
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