Voices of Ukraine, Season 2, Episode 2: Donetsk Was My Second Home

Ukrainian writer and journalist Nikita Grigorov was a university student studying Russian literature at Donetsk National University when Russia launched its war in Donbas in 2014. He supported an independent Ukraine and watched in disbelief as friends turned against him, sometimes violently. Then he fled to Kyiv with his father. Listen to his story.

Spanish journalist Argemino Barro was one of the only foreign correspondents in Donbas when Russia ramped up its destabilization efforts there in 2014. He talks about what it was like to cover the story for a Spanish-language audience.

Tanya Kotelnykova was fourteen years old when Russian-backed separatists occupied Horlivka, her hometown in Eastern Ukraine. She was torn away from her family and has been displaced since.

Christopher Atwood lived in Donetsk in the early 2010s and found himself working in Russia during its initial invasion of Ukraine in 2014. Listen to his story.

Katia Shraga Davydenko was born in Kyiv in the 1960s. She immigrated to New York in 1992. Since 2014, she has dedicated all her free time to protesting Russia's aggression and volunteering to help Ukrainians.

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Daniel Brennan was a Peace Corps volunteer in Hlukhiv, Ukraine when was forced to evacuate because of the pandemic. He's been trying to go back since, but the war has upended his plans. Season 1 finale.

Volodymyr Rafeyenko, a Russian-speaking novelist, was living in Donetsk when Russia invaded the Donbas in 2014. He fled to Kyiv, learned Ukrainian and wrote Mondegreen in Ukrainian. Mark Andryczyk translated the novel and was planning to bring Rafeyenko on book tour to the U.S. when Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

Ivan Nebesnyy is a renowned Ukrainian composer whose music we've been using throughout the series. In this episode you'll get an introduction to Ivan and listen to some of his work.

The Kyiv Independent's Contributing Editor Lili Bivings talks about the state of journalism in Ukraine, the implosion of the Kyiv Post, the founding of the Kyiv Independent, and the publication's coverage of Russia's war against Ukraine.