The Battle for Donbas rages on as the Russian army tries desperately to encircle Ukrainian forces in the east, while the defenders of Mariupol make their last stand in the ruins of the sprawling Azovstal metallurgical plant. Meanwhile, the Ukrainian army presses in on Russian-occupied territory in the East from Kharkiv and the West toward Kherson. Ukraine has begun receiving shipments of heavy weapons in order to take the fight to the enemy. At the 37-minute mark, Anthony recounts a reporting tr...
Apr 25, 2022•55 min•Season 1Ep. 19
Russian soldiers have retreated from northern Ukraine and will try to re-focus on Donbas, but what they left behind is a path of destruction that must be called a genocide. There have been multiple statements from the Russian government showing genocidal intent, and that intent was followed with action. Evidence of mass murder and other crimes is found in nearly every location that Russia occupied. To sort through some of the issues regarding genocide and denial, we speak with scholar Joey Ayoub...
Apr 06, 2022•1 hr 16 min•Season 1Ep. 18
Anthony Bartaway and Romeo Kokriatski talk about the current situation in the Russo-Ukraine War. Russian advances around Kyiv, Chernihiv, Sumy, and Kharkiv have been stopped by Ukrainian defenders, but have been replaced with artillery fire and rocket strikes. Along the Black Sea coast, the Russian army has been turned away from Mykolaiv, but is committing horrible war crimes to try and break Mariupol. In the second segment, they sit down with Kiril, an open-source intelligence analyst with the ...
Mar 23, 2022•50 min
The state of the Russo-Ukraine War as it stood on March 5th. Russia is making gains in the South, but stalling out in the North, leading to their increased reliance on indiscriminate bombardments of civilian areas. While the Russian army is suffering from low morale and poor logistics, the Ukrainian people rally to defend their homes. We go into some of the important topics that come up so far, such as the Russian use of saboteurs and the threat posed to critical infrastructure such as the Zapor...
Mar 06, 2022•39 min•Season 1Ep. 16
Short emergency episode: the long-feared war has come. https://twitter.com/HypeUkraine https://www.patreon.com/UkraineWithoutHype
Feb 24, 2022•10 min•Season 1Ep. 15
Russia begins a barrage of both artillery fire and misinformation to drum up any excuse to go to war. Their claimed "troop withdrawal" turned out to be just another misdirection. Diplomatic efforts to calm the situation continue to fail. The Russian legislature asks Putin to recognize the occupation authorities in Donbas as sovereign nations, but is rebuffed for now. A Russian cyber attack brings down Ukraine's largest banks for a few hours. Russian "naval exercises" bring most of the Black Sea ...
Feb 20, 2022•1 hr 9 min•Season 1Ep. 14
New Patreon page, so please help us spread the news about Ukraine: https://www.patreon.com/UkraineWithoutHype Ukraine and its allies continue to try to head off the possible Russian offensive, but there is tension between Kyiv and Washington over how severe the threat may be. Then, in local news, a mass shooting by a National Guardsmen of his fellow soldiers and a corruption scandal at the Chornobyl Exclusion Zone regarding nuclear waste. Next, we list some of the most frequent errors made by fo...
Feb 03, 2022•1 hr 30 min•Season 1Ep. 13
As the Russian military buildup continues on the Ukrainian border, diplomats from Ukraine, Russia, the UK, and the EU meet to avert catastrophe - to little effect thus far. A likely Russian or Belarusian-based hack of multiple Ukrainian government-connected websites was mostly just an inconvenience. But, it highlights the years-long trends of both cyber warfare and using false flags to try and hurt Ukrainian-Polish relations. Protests in Kazakhstan are met with lethal force by the government, wh...
Jan 19, 2022•1 hr 1 min•Season 1Ep. 12
The New Year is right around the corner and our last episode of the year is a big one. Anthony Bartaway talks about what he saw and heard in some of the conflict-affected places in Donbas. Then he and Romeo Kokriatski get into the weeds about the likelihood of a renewed Russian invasion of Ukraine. The episode wraps up with news of former President Petro Poroshenko being accused of treason and how much it can be considered a power grab. З Новим Pоком!
Dec 30, 2021•1 hr 14 min•Season 1Ep. 11
After a far too long August hiatus, Ukraine Without Hype is Back. Anthony Bartaway runs down some of the top news stories that we missed while we were away. These include the current Russian military buildup, Belarus spurring on a migrant crisis, an update on the Nordstream 2 pipeline, the end of the war in Afghanistan and Ukraine's role in evacuating refugees, Zelensky's bizarre presser and how it relates to press freedoms, the Crimea Platform, the Pandora Papers, checking in on the far-right p...
Dec 10, 2021•33 min•Season 1Ep. 10
For the August 3rd edition of Ukraine Without Hype, Romeo Kokriatski and Anthony Bartaway go over the large-scale personnel changes at the top of the Ministries of Defense and Internal Affairs, the Security Service of Ukraine, and the Ukrainian military. Most of the attention goes to the newly-minted Minister of Internal Affairs Denys Monastyrsky. Then, on to a recent law that protects the rights of the indigenous peoples of Ukraine. We wrap up with some comments on Belarus trying to kidnap one ...
Aug 03, 2021•34 min•Season 1Ep. 9
For the July 21st edition of Ukraine Without Hype, Romeo Kokriatski and Anthony Bartaway go over a bombshell story from the week: the irreplaceable Interior Minister Arsen Avakov has finally been replaced. Then, we cover how Ukraine is implementing one of the reforms most demanded from international partners: the opening up of agricultural land for purchase, something that was previously banned. Finally, a small section on the arrest of a left-wing activist on manufactured charges and his possib...
Jul 21, 2021•38 min•Season 1Ep. 8
For the July 5th edition of Ukraine Without Hype, Romeo Kokriatski and Anthony Bartaway go over Ukraine's most recent attempts to spur NATO leadership into moving forward with its ascension into the alliance. Then, we cover the next oligarch to have come into the sights of the current, though flawed, push for de-oligarchization: Dmytro Firtash. We close with some brief thoughts on William Shatner's new business relationship with Russia Today, which even he seemed confused about, and the unfoldin...
Jul 05, 2021•39 min•Season 1Ep. 7
For the June 8th edition of Ukraine Without Hype, Romeo Kokriatski and Anthony Bartaway cover delve into the story of pro-Russian oligarch Viktor Medvedchuk, his treason investigation, and what that means in terms of a larger "de-oligarchization" effort. Then, updates on the situation in Belarus, where the Lukashenko regime is making such flagrant use of torture that they invited Russian militants from Donbas to help them do it.
Jun 08, 2021•32 min•Season 1Ep. 6
For the May 25th edition of Ukraine Without Hype, Romeo Kokriatski and Anthony Bartaway cover the still-breaking news about Belarus forcing down a Ryanair flight en route to Vilnius in order to kidnap an opposition journalist. Then, the ridiculous case of a pro-Russian member of the Verkhovna Rada who bumbled and bribed his way into a doctorate.
May 25, 2021•29 min•Season 1Ep. 5
For the May 10th edition of Ukraine Without Hype, Romeo Kokriatski and Anthony Bartaway delve into revelations about Russia's covert operations in Europe following a round of antagonistic diplomatic actions between Czechia and its allies, and Russia. Then, we discuss the career of possibly the most corrupt judge in Ukraine, Pavlo Vovk, and whether it might be coming to an end.
May 10, 2021•49 min•Season 1Ep. 4
For the return of Ukraine Without Hype, Romeo Kokriatski and Anthony Bartaway look at the Russian military buildup that had positioned itself for war and set Ukraine on edge before the Kremlin announced it was only a military exercise. Then, we narrow our scope to look into the Ukrainian protest movement that has been built around supporting jailed right-wing leader turned anti-corruption activist Serhiy Sternenko.
Apr 26, 2021•34 min•Season 1Ep. 3
On this week's episode of Ukraine Without Hype, Romeo Kokriatski and Maria Romanenko discuss the aftermath and early results for local elections in Ukraine, a controversial Constitutional Court decision that could spell the end of anti-corruption efforts in the country, and protests in Poland following the Polish government's total ban on legal abortions.
Oct 31, 2020•31 min•Season 1Ep. 2
On this newly returned episode of Ukraine Without Hype, hosts and journalists Romeo Kokriatski and Maria Romanenko discuss the biggest stories of Ukraine, and the region. This week - the upcoming Ukrainian local elections, the players, the numbers, the parties, and much, much more!
Oct 23, 2020•35 min•Season 1Ep. 1
