Have unanswered questions about the war?
Dear Kyiv Independent community members,
We are ready to announce our next written war Q&A. We decided to make this a recurring feature earlier this year. If you have any unanswered questions about the war, from the anticipated counteroffensive to the military aid from Western countries, we’re ready to answer them.
If you have any questions about the war, please leave a comment below! You can also message us on Patreon or email your questions to community manager Brooke at brooke@kyivindependent.com.
We will collect the questions and answer them. The answers will be published as a Q&A on our website. We won’t publicly identify who asked the questions.
Our previous war Q&As can be found here and here.
We look forward to hearing from you!
Comments (16)
It’s great that Ukraine is doing well in many ways, including liberating some areas around Bakhmut. But why continue retrograde motion within the city?
There was a report about Ukrainian bloggers being arrested for uploading photos of the Patriot batteries being used with the possibility of the Patriot locations being revealed. This war is unlike any other with the amount of social media posts of war footage. Q: Is there a chance these posts were not intentional to reveal locations but just sharing footage? Are people, especially younger people, advised and educated to be careful of what is posted especially with regard to the upcoming counter-offensive? Many thanks for all Kyiv Independent's hard work and informative podcasts and videos and congratulations on your recent awards! Slava Ukraine, Heroyam Slava.
Is it true there was a power outage in many towns after the 16th or 18th May missile attacks?
Q: What can be done to cut off Prigozhin's sources of funding from, for example, exploiting natural resources in Africa? The mines seem to be operating full tilt, according to CBS News, link below. Where are the sanctions? I ask my own government ministers the same question. Has Ukraine requested sanctions against the russian dba companies operating around the world?
Illia Ponomarenko had said that there was an important question about how after the war Ukraine would safeguard itself in the long term from future Russian aggression. Wouldn't elimination of the Russian Black Sea fleet be a major part of security for Ukraine? If the ships are staying out of range of missile attack, are there alternative methods being considered?
Are Russian offensives in Kharkiv region intensifying? If so, then are they just local/tactical, are they part of trying to lock down Ukrainian troops ahead of the Ukrainian counteroffensive, or are there any indications of a larger Russian counteroffensive in Kharkiv region?
1. How big of a concern is it for Ukrainians that some of those who have sought refuge in other countries during the war won't come back once it's over? 2. When donating to the Ukrainian war effort, is there a difference in impact between giving to United24 versus giving to private efforts to procure supplies for the Armed Forces? (For example, a Ukrainian band that raises funds to buy drones for a Territorial Defense unit.)
Do you agree with the view that the headline below summarizes? Why or why not? “Russia exhausted in terms of offensive potential, but still has powerful defence – Head of Ukraine's Defence Intelligence [Kyrylo Budanov]” Source: Ukrainska Pravda (in English) https://www.pravda.com.ua/eng/news/2023/05/16/7402494/
If you are interested, there is a very well done analysis done by the Youtube channel Perun. His back ground is in defense logistics. It sounds boring. But, is really fascinating in light the war between Putin and Ukraine. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JIYC_WUSw4c
Have zoo animals been able to be evacuated? Are left behind dogs packing up?
Would Ukrainians see the death of Lukashenko as having a positive or negative effect for Ukraine during the war?
Why has Zakarpattia been relatively safe since the beginning of the war?
Two reasons that come to mind are that there is little infrastructure of military value ie. no useful military targets. A second reason is that it borders on several other countries. If a missile goes off course it may land in Poland, Slovakia, Hungary, or Romania... and that would cause a mess. A third possibility is the relative large number of Hungarian speaker. Hungary spend a good deal of time talking about how it needs to 'protect' Hungarian speakers in Ukraine. It would not look good if Russia started bombing them.
What was targeted in the recent giant explosion in Khlemnitsky? There seemed to be a single secondary explosion so it didn't look like an ammunition depot, was it fuel?
What's behind "Z" as a symbol? Where did it come from?
Last year I saw a graphic that stated that A was for special forces, Z was for Federation forces, O was for Belarussian axis forces, and V was for airborne (VDV). So russia likely named its forces after its scapegoat for the war, the AZOV regiment.