For centuries, Kyiv maintained close ties with European countries through diplomacy – although diplomatic relations looked quite different in medieval times. The families of Rus princes Volodymyr the Great and Yaroslav the Wise built connections with royal families in France, Norway, Sweden, Hungary, Poland, Byzantium, and beyond. These dynastic connections helped shape long-lasting links across the continent. Through royal courts and family connections, traditions and ideas travelled across 11th-century Europe – from Anna of Kyiv becoming Queen of France and participating in political life to Elisiv of Kyiv bringing the connections of Rus to the Norwegian royal court through her marriage to Harald Hardrada. Discover some of the dynastic marriages that connected Rus with royal courts across Europe.

The United Nations officially added russian armed and security forces to its annual blacklist of parties credibly suspected of committing conflict-related sexual violence in Ukraine. The UN's designation follows the verification of hundreds of severe abuses primarily targeting Ukrainian prisoners of war and civilian detainees. The UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine verified 310 cases of conflict-related sexual violence. Documented atrocities include rape, gang rape, genital mutilation, forced nudity, and electric shocks. While overwhelmingly targeted at men, the victims documented by the UN also include 26 women and four girls. The majority of the verified instances of sexual violence occurred inside russia or russian-occupied territories of Ukraine, predominantly used as a weapon to humiliate, punish, or extract confessions from prisoners. russian culture

This is just beautiful ✨ sharing some healing violin from the very heart of Kyiv with you , remembering to breathe in between air raid siren alerts and drone and missile threats

‼️  « Je tiens tous les Russes 🇷🇺collectivement responsables de ce mal et de ce génocide du peuple 🇺🇦. Ils sont responsables de leur silence, de leur complaisance et de leur inaction! » 👉🏼C’est ce qu’affirme également Kasparov ✨👇🏼👇🏼

“People's talents in their previous lives turned into talents in a refugee shelter that could help save and solace many of their country people.” I talk to author James Verini about stories of extraordinary courage inside the Mariupol Theater, site of one of Russia’s greatest wartime atrocities.

No, sweetie. Donetsk was a city of a million roses when its own Ukrainian flag flew above it. Back then, it was also the fastest-growing and most rapidly prospering city in Ukraine -- home to what was the finest regional airport in Eastern Europe, one of the world's best football stadiums, a state-of-the-art railway terminal, and one of the cleanest, best-maintained cities in the region. Its elites were running Kyiv, and every time I visited Donetsk as a student, riding the famous trolleybus Route No. 2 through the city, I was amazed by how many new office buildings were appearing, how much money was flowing into the city, and how many international companies were opening their doors there. Fifteen years ago, to us kids from Donbas, Donetsk felt like the center of the universe because it had everything one could possibly dream of. It was a young city of universities and libraries, where the overwhelming majority of boys and girls from across Donbas went to study, including those from my own small hometown an hour away by bus. Names like Liverpool or Detroit Rock City may mean nothing to you, but our Ukrainian Donetsk was a city of great rock clubs and unforgettable concerts. We traveled there to see Western bands perform. We bought rock merchandise at the legendary Right House store near Krytyi Market. Scorpions, Rihanna, and Beyoncé performed at the famous Donbass Arena. Schoolchildren from across Donbas were bused in to watch Shakhtar Donetsk matches. The city even had a famous monument to The Beatles. It was a city where we sang songs on guitars in its beautifully maintained parks and along the Kalmius embankment before heading out to buy the famous "green Donetsk burgers." Our older friends moved there after graduation, formed rock bands, recorded full albums, and held wedding celebrations in the squares around Donbas Arena. We traveled there to visit the legendary Radio Market in search of films, music, and books. And then you arrived. And you turned the wealthiest, most prosperous Ukrainian city into a piece of shit. You deceived many of its people with sweet promises of Russian oil-fueled prosperity broadcast from television screens, but what you brought instead was war. You transformed a thriving city into a criminal wasteland ruled by ethnic gangs from Russia, into a kingdom of Stalinist terror straight out of the 1930s, complete with torture chambers in the infamous Izolyatsia prison camp. You turned the magnificent Donetsk Airport into lifeless gray rubble, while the vast stands of Donbas Arena have spent a second decade slowly being reclaimed by weeds instead of hosting Champions League finals and Metallica concerts. You swept away an entire generation of the city's men through your forced mobilization and threw them against Ukrainian machine guns until there were barely enough people left to keep basic municipal services running. Because of you, prosperous Donetsk became a withered desert without reliable water, because your war destroyed the canal system that carried water from the Siverskyi Donets River into Donbas. For years now, people have lived with chronic water shortages and have been reduced shitting into plastic bags forever. You dragged Donetsk back like seventy years in time. You turned it into a depressed backwater, devoid of hope and future. Even ten years ago, tens of thousands of people, the most active, the most talented, the most entrepreneurial, fled the city and found refuge in Kyiv and elsewhere in Ukraine. Many of them still remember our Donetsk with tears in their eyes, the Donetsk that existed before the arrival of the "Russian World." You transformed it into something that even my pro-Russian acquaintances are shocked to see when they return after years of occupation. It was you who trampled the million roses of our Ukrainian Donetsk into shit beneath the tracks of your tanks and the boots of your death troops, turning them into a foul swamp of death and despair. And that stain will forever remain on the conscience of fascist Russia, which brings nothing but destruction, decay, and death wherever it goes.

Scandal brewing in “neutral” Ireland after revelations that one Russian-affiliated plant there has been supplying over 83% Irish exports of alumina to Russia where it’s smelted into aluminum, a critical component for war production. Aughinish Alumina in County Limerick, Europe’s largest alumina refinery, owned by United Company Rusal (Russia’s largest aluminium producer), whose parent EN Group was founded by sanctioned oligarch Oleg Deripaska. An investigation by the Irish Times, OCCRP and other outlets, drawing on confidential documents, customs data and satellite imagery, established the supply chain. The Irish government tried to deflect but when a reporter filmed the plant with signs in Russian, they could no longer deny it. Now internal documents were leaked showing that the company is threatening the Irish government with loss of jobs and all sorts of things if it tried to curb its exports to Russia. The newest defense is that alumina isn’t under EU sanctions so technically no rules were broken. Except Ireland had no problem defying the EU and forging ahead with its own restrictions on imports from Israel with its Occupied Territories Bill. Because… reasons (or maybe Russian occupation of Ukraine is OK while Israeli occupation of Palestinian lands is not). Australia stopped its alumina exports to Russia because the material is so necessary for the war (its main exporter was also 20%-owned by Deripaska). The neutral Irish government is operating under different standards, where morality is spelled in Russian. I wonder what the Irish people, who overwhelmingly support Ukraine (in fact, they are among the strongest supporters in Europe when it comes to economic and financial aid), think about all of this.

Одеса … Залишу це тут … цей бородатий красень - не випускник, він хресний , який вирішив допомогти дівчині 💔💔💔🫶

Beautiful. “How can one not love you, Kyiv of mine…”

Meanwhile in Russia: hosts Ivan Kamenev and Kristina Busarova bashed Poland, Ukraine, Norway, America, and Armenia. They called for the destruction of the Ukrainian cities and referred to Ukrainians as "animals and insects." youtube.com/watch?v=V_MlQkqa…

La journaliste ukrainienne décédée, Victoria #Rochina, s'est fait casser l'os occipital dans la maison de détention provisoire de Taganrog C'est ce qu'a déclaré le chef adjoint de la direction de la police nationale ukrainienne, Dmitry Shevchuk. La fracture de Victoria Rochina a été découverte lors d'une expertise médico-légale. Selon la police ukrainienne, Rochina était détenue dans une cellule insalubre, où il lui était interdit de s'asseoir et de se coucher pendant la journée, et elle n'avait que trois minutes pour manger et laver la vaisselle. Elle a été soumise à des violences systématiques pour avoir enfreint les règles, déposé des plaintes sur les conditions de détention et refusé de chanter l'hymne russe. Selon ses codétenues, la journaliste est arrivée à la maison de détention provisoire de Taganrog avec des traces de blessures par arme blanche et a parlé de tortures par électrocution. Avant son transfert à la maison de détention provisoire de Kizele dans le kraï de Perm en septembre 2024, une semaine après lequel Victoria est décédée, elle était déjà extrêmement épuisée et perdait régulièrement connaissance. Le corps de la journaliste n'a été rapatrié que en février 2025, avec des traces de torture et sans certains organes internes, ce qui rend impossible de déterminer la cause exacte de la mort. Victoria aurait eu 30 ans cette année. En été 2023, elle s'est rendue dans les territoires ukrainiens occupés par la Russie pour rechercher des endroits où des Ukrainiens enlevés étaient détenus, et elle a elle-même été capturée.

Putin’s attack - including a hypersonic missile - was designed to terrorize and kill civilians. Pure evil. Now, even with its advance stopped, Moscow’s desire to invade Europe remains. Deterrence requires the West to impose costs on Russian military and dual use infrastructure. The people and leaders of Ukraine are defending their nation’s sovereignty.  All of Europe should support them, and American sovereignty benefits from Ukrainian security and victory as well.

Russian attack on Kyiv. Only civilian targets were attacked: ▫️ the building of the Ukrainian Ministry of Foreign Affairs; ▫️ the Chernobyl Museum; ▫️ the Institute for Religious Studies; ▫️ the Podil Opera and Ballet Theatre; ▫️ the Tax Authority building; ▫️ the Kyiv School of Economics; ▫️ the Kvadrat supermarket; ▫️ the market near Lukianivska station; ▫️ schools; ▫️ high-rise buildings; ▫️ civilian water supply infrastructure. Europe: "We stand firmly with Ukraine." That's all.

У Польщі четверо чоловіків побили 20-річного українця. За даними правоохоронців, вони напали на нього, бо той не зміг заспівати польські пісні. Про це повідомили у прокуратурі Радом-Схід, передає TVN24 hromadske.ua/europa/264619-u…

Well well well. Yes, he should be fined, no questions. But right-wing Joanna here, who is using her non-existing “connection to Ukraine” for fundraising $$$ for herself, is now calling to crucify Ukrainian blogger and calling us cunts and stupid. So maybe don’t trust her.

Та підпишіть люди, залишилось кілька днів. Пліз. Цей «герой Украіни» вже десятиліття не живе в Україні, ніяк нас не захищає в Олімпійських комітетах і заробляє гроші на окупованих територіях. ПІДПИШІТЬ будь-ласка.

Как твитер вчера смотрел на русню.

Петиція про накладення санкцій на Сергія Бубку за його антиукраїнську діяльність та подальше позбавлення його державних нагород перетнула позначку 14 тисяч підписів 🔥 Залишилося ще 11 тисяч підписів і 7 днів. Дуже дякую, що долучаєтеся та поширюєте! petition.kmu.gov.ua/petition…

Vance: ​"There's been no President who's done more to ensure that Ukraine survived invasion of Russia than Trump. As he said, 'Obama gave them sheets, I gave them Javelins,' and those Javelins ensured that Ukraine still has its territorial sovereignty." This is simply a lie. It was 360 Javelins. They mattered, they helped, but they are not the reason Ukraine survived or kept its sovereignty. Ukraine survived because millions of us have been fighting and sacrificing for more than four years, against all odds and expectations. Our defenders are the main reason Ukraine survives. Military and financial assistance from all countries, including the United States, does play a role, and we very much appreciate it. But Trump is not the president who provided it.

In recent months, several international federations have started restoring Russian and Belarusian participation under national symbols. Paralympics 2026 allowed Russian and Belarusian participation. Wrestling lifted sanctions. Gymnastics removed restrictions. World Aquatics lifted most of the restrictions on Russian athletes. At the same time, nothing changed on the Russian and Belarusian side. Russia continues its daily missile and drone attacks against Ukrainian cities, while Belarus remains complicit in this aggression and has allowed its territory to be used for attacks against Ukraine. Russia has long used sport as a political tool – for propaganda, crimes whitewashing, and normalising aggression. Its sports system remains deeply connected to state and military structures, while many athletes publicly support the war against Ukraine. More than 660 Ukrainian athletes and coaches have been killed since the start of the full-scale invasion. Over 830 sports facilities have been damaged or destroyed. Sport cannot speak about fairness, dignity, and respect while normalising aggression. "Normal" cannot mean allowing the flags and anthems under which Ukrainian cities are bombed, civilians are killed, people are tortured, and children are deported back onto the international stage. Allowing aggressor states to return while the war continues undermines the values sport claims to defend. There can be no real fair play while Russia, with Belarus's support, continues its war against Ukraine.