By the numbers: Ukraine’s population losses amid war
The full-scale war in Ukraine has dramatically reshaped the country’s demographic landscape. Over two and a half years, the population has declined by at least 10 million.
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Russia’s airborne terror: how many missiles and drones have hit Ukraine
Missiles, drones, and guided bombs have become a daily threat to Ukrainian cities since the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion. Russia systematically targets residential neighborhoods, hospitals, schools, and markets—places with no military value.
The murder of Viktoriia Roshchyna shows: The Kremlin is losing control over its torturers
On August 8, 2025, people in Kyiv bid farewell to Viktoriia Roshchyna, a 27-year-old journalist tortured to death while in Russian captivity. Her killing shocked the international community and became another stark reminder of Russia’s brutality and lawlessness.
In a central Ukrainian city, families fight to reclaim dignity for their fallen soldiers
Local authorities promised to bury every fallen defender at public expense, yet the mourners who trailed a cortege of three soldiers through town witnessed indignities money had not fixed. Widows and mothers were left convinced that the state’s help fell short.
Racing against missiles and time, Ukrainian doctors deliver lifesaving heart transplants
An ambulance pulls away from Ukraine’s Heart Institute, a state-run facility in Kyiv, at 1 a.m. It speeds along at 150 kilometers per hour (93 miles per hour), occasionally turning on its sirens, as almost all the roads are empty. The destination: Korosten, a small town in the Zhytomyr region of northern Ukraine, approximately 90 miles (145 kilometers) west of Kyiv and near the border with Belarus. There, a deceased donor’s heart can save a seriously ill patient.
‘Who will take care of the flowers?’ — why one 73-year-old retiree refuses to leave her front-line city
Seventy-three-year-old Lidiia Burlatska has lived through two wars in one city. In 2014, she did not leave Sloviansk during the occupation, and now she refuses to evacuate, even though the front line is approaching and is only 25 kilometers from her home. During three years of full-scale war, the retiree lost her son-in-law, learned to fall asleep to the sound of shelling, and stopped watching the news “because it hurts.” More than 50 years of living in Sloviansk have convinced her that there is no point in running away from what she has built her whole life. A Frontliner reporter spoke with a woman who lives where war has become part of everyday life, but where people still continue to hope.
Trees of life born from rubble: artist creates mosaics from glass shattered by Russian missiles
Artist Valentyna Huk decorates the streets of Kharkiv with mosaics she has created herself. Today, six patterns made from the debris of windows that did not withstand Russian shelling hang on the city's buildings. Valentyna spends several weeks of painstaking work on each one, starting with searching for pieces of glass in the ruins and ending with assembling them into unusual “puzzles.” The artist showed Frontliner how sharp shards become “loud” street art under her delicate fingers.
Sky hunters. How anti-aircraft drones hunt enemy UAVs
Drones hunting enemy UAVs have become the latest twist in the battle of technologies. The war behind the controls and screens in a cozy dugout is somewhat reminiscent of a computer game, but the stakes are life itself. Frontliner visited the anti-drone drones of the 93rd Mechanized Brigade “Kholodny Yar” in the Donetsk direction and learned about the specifics of such hunting.
‘They beat me for speaking Ukrainian’: How an Azovstal defender survived three years of torture in Russian captivity
He survived the hell of Mariupol and several Russian prisons—and never broke. Oleksandr Savov, 33, was one of the last Ukrainian soldiers to surrender at the Azovstal steel plant — the vast industrial fortress in the besieged southern city of Mariupol— in May 2022. Three years later, on March 19, 2025, he stepped off a prisoner-exchange flight with broken ribs, missing teeth and a single thought: to hug his 12-year-old daughter.
Andriy & Inna’s Frontline Diary
Frontliner Reporter Andriy Dubchak and his colleague Inna Varenytsia have traveled to the Donetsk region to document life in frontline towns and villages. They will visit Ukrainian military positions, speak with locals, and share photos and reports from their journey. Follow their diary on the Frontliner website.
Surviving a double Tap: Rescuer Pavlo Petrov and the new norm of repeat strikes in Kyiv
During a recent mass missile-and-drone attack on Kyiv in the early hours of 6 June, a Russian kamikaze drone ignited a large fire in buildings on Vadym Hetman Street near Shuliavska metro station, a busy transit hub on the capital’s Red Line just west of the city center. As firefighters, rescuers and the DSNS press team worked the scene, a deliberate “double tap” drone strike — now a grim new norm in Kyiv — hit the same spot. With U.S. deliveries of air-defence munitions growing uncertain, such follow-on strikes threaten to become even more frequent and deadlier.
Restoring the name: how Ukraine identifies its fallen and brings them home
Following exchanges with Russia, Ukraine regularly receives the bodies of fallen soldiers, often by the hundreds. The process of identifying them can take weeks, relying on DNA testing, forensic databases, and biological samples provided by family members.
Russia’s war is not only killing people — it’s devastating Ukraine’s natural world
Russia’s full-scale invasion has inflicted catastrophic damage not only on Ukrainian lives and cities but also on the country’s rich and fragile ecosystems. The destruction of the Donbas forests, the occupation of the Askania-Nova biosphere reserve, and the deliberate explosion of the Kakhovka Hydroelectric Power Plant have led to the death of thousands of animals and plants.
“You Are Not Alone:” The American Surgeons Helping Ukraine’s Wounded Warriors
As Washington’s support for Kyiv falters, some of America’s leading plastic surgeons are stepping in to help in the hospitals of Ukraine.
Between pain and silence: how not to break a person with words
More and more Ukrainians are returning from the war—veterans, displaced civilians, and those from front-line or formerly occupied areas. They need not only medical, but also psychological support. A careless word or intrusive question can reopen wounds.
“1,000-for-1,000” prisoner swap: Who Ukraine brought home from Russian captivity
On May 25, another 303 Ukrainian service members were brought home as part of the large-scale "1000 for 1000" prisoner exchange.
When a nation remembers: why and how days of mourning are declared in Ukraine
What exactly is a Day of Mourning in Ukraine? Who has the authority to declare it, what rules apply, and why does it matter to society? Frontliner explains how both national and local mourning practices work to honor those lost in war.
Stolen future: how the enemy is deporting Ukrainian children—and why we must bring every one of them home
Since the first days of Russia’s full-scale invasion, the assault has gone beyond the destruction of Ukrainian towns and villages—it has targeted Ukraine’s future. As of 2025, more than 20,000 Ukrainian children are officially known to have been forcibly taken to the territory of Russia or temporarily occupied Crimea. These were not evacuations.
When guarantees mean nothing: a nuclear story that hurts Ukraine
After the collapse of the Soviet Union, Ukraine inherited the third-largest nuclear arsenal in the world. But in 1994, by signing the Budapest Memorandum, Ukraine voluntarily gave up all its nuclear weapons—in exchange for security assurances from the United States, the United Kingdom, and, notably, Russia. By 1996, the last warhead had left Ukrainian soil.
Andriy & Albina’s Frontline Diary
Frontliner reporters Andriy Dubchak and Albina Karman have traveled to the Donetsk region to document life in frontline towns and villages. They will visit Ukrainian military positions, speak with locals, and share daily photos and reports from their journey. Follow their diary on the Frontliner website.