Tag Archives: russia

Reply of the Zaporizhzhian Cossacks

By Hugh Barnes The village of Robotyne stands on the high Zaporizhzhian steppe, a remote area that Ukrainians call the ‘wild fields’. Its wildness has only increased since the Russian invasion in February 2022. On the frontline in the war against Russia, halfway between Crimea and Donetsk, 150 miles in either direction, this battlefield withContinue reading “Reply of the Zaporizhzhian Cossacks”

In Bakhmut

Hugh Barnes watches a funeral on TV It was a Monday in September and all eyes were glued to a televised funeral. But the ceremony was taking place a thousand miles away from Westminster Abbey, at the National Opera House in Kyiv, mourning the loss of a 47-year-old Ukrainian ballet dancer. Oleksandr Shapoval, its principalContinue reading “In Bakhmut”

Nenets nightmare

Ada Wordsworth looks at what the climate crisis means for Russia’s reindeer herders THE indigenous Nenets people are nomads living in the icy tundra of Russia’s far north. For a thousand years Nenets reindeer herders have migrated to summer pastures on the Yamal Peninsula above the Arctic Circle, returning south in winter. This 800-mile journeyContinue reading “Nenets nightmare”

Germany in crisis

TOBY ABSE warns of the shadow of the Far Right looming over the country’s forthcoming general election LAST autumn’s elections in three East German Lander had a significance that went far beyond the local, or even the national, causing shock waves all over Western Europe. Not only did they ultimately bring down Germany’s federal coalition,Continue reading “Germany in crisis”