mirovalev

Despite the pomp, Russia-Iran ties are a marriage of convenience dictated by "pragmatism,” Nikita Smagin, an expert on Russia-Iran ties and best-selling author, told me. “They don’t like each other.” aljazeera.com/features/longf…

In Donbas, separatists torture and kill pro-Ukrainian activists or businessmen who refuse to "share" their wealth. But Chinese businessmen don't have to worry - at least 17 Chinese companies operate in the Russia-occupied areas. aljazeera.com/news/2026/5/21…

Dark magic realism, raw emotions, stories by real soldiers and their family members in the Veterans' Theater in Kyiv aljazeera.com/news/2026/4/9/…

Prison wardens said a Tajik man will be placed in a cell with HIV-infected inmates who'd gang-rape him unless he “volunteered” to fight in Ukraine. “They said, ‘Oh, you’ll put on a skirt now, you’ll be raped,’” he told me. aljazeera.com/features/2026/…

What’s really harrowing is to hear two or three drones at once – I sardonically call it “stereo” and “Dolby surround” – while the arrhythmia of bass drum-like air defence explosions coincides with your heartbeat. aljazeera.com/news/2025/12/2…

“Instead of taking a bath or a shower, the kids wipe themselves with a wet cloth. Donetsk is now [the] Sahara.” aljazeera.com/news/2025/10/2…

“They chase ambulances every other day. They definitely targeted us.” aljazeera.com/features/2025/…

“I’m here, in the heart of Russia – if it still has a heart,” #Zelenskyy joked in 2014 near the #Kremlin. “You can say, ‘hail #Ukraine’ in #Moscow, and nothing serious will happen to you. Nothing that can’t be handled by modern medicine.” aljazeera.com/features/2025/…

“We have a [technological] leap. [#Russians] have a leap. And then they begin to scale it all up because over there, everything is on a government level. They have unreal budgets.” #Ukraine #drones aljazeera.com/features/2024/…

“My mum is happy that I found myself. And I did find myself here. Found friends, colleagues, brothers and sisters,” a "#Bucha Witch" who trains to shoot down Russian drones told me. #Ukraine aljazeera.com/features/2024/…

The commanders “abandoned us, don’t give a damn about us, left us to die”, one of the captured conscripts said #Kursk #Ukraine #Russia #Putin aljazeera.com/news/2024/8/8/…

#Ukraine's identity wars with #Russia: the #Nutcracker banned, no more Dead Souls, the #Devil in #Stalinist #Moscow and the canceling of #Shakespeare because of #Trump aljazeera.com/features/2024/…

“Only recently, my son stopped being frightened by the sound of planes. The daughter sometimes weeps at night, wants to go back to her past life, to her pillow with [the images of] cats,” a woman from #Mariupol told me #Ukraine #Russia #Zelenskyy #Putin aljazeera.com/news/2024/2/24…

“I’m like Lord #Voldemort. #Putin cannot say my name out loud,” Alexey #Navalny told me six years ago. aljazeera.com/news/2024/2/16…

“We dug out a guy, alive, but his family – a wife and an eight-year-old daughter – were dead," an emergency worker told me in #Kharkiv after a Russian missile killed ten and wounded 60. #Ukraine #putin aljazeera.com/news/2024/1/29…

#Russia's films propagating #Crimea's annexation, #Donbass separatists and the #Ukraine war flop because of the ideological void in the Kremlin and corruption in the Russian film industry. aljazeera.com/features/2023/…

“A drone hangs in the sky, and he watches [Russians] crawl across the forest. And he kills them. And then they crawl again” towards ruins, trenches and tunnels, fields and forest studded with landmines, explosion craters and remnants of Russian soldiers. aljazeera.com/news/2023/11/7…

If #Muslim migrants refuse to enlist and eventually end up in #Ukraine, they face the “threat of deportation of families from #Russia, the planting of drugs, an intolerable atmosphere for business.” aljazeera.com/news/2023/11/1…

How #Ukraine destroys the #BlackSeaFleet it could have owned #Sevastopol aljazeera.com/news/2023/10/6…

"Russian mercenaries are here to stay. It might be in a less charismatic form, but they’ve created the market for themselves and for others probably, too.” #Wagner #Prigozhin #Ukraine #Putin aljazeera.com/news/2023/8/28…