Good morning to readers; Kyiv remains in Ukrainian hands.

For years I thought I was done with Maria Butina, the Russian agent linked with the NRA that I uncovered.

But after she was released from prison, she went back to Russia to become a legislator with Putin’s party... … and I became a resident of Kyiv, a city being relentlessly attacked by the forces she so vigorously supports.

This is the inside story of how I came to unmask Maria Butina.

Good morning to readers; Kyiv remains in Ukraine’s hands.

Poland and Ukraine are strong allies.

But unresolved historical tensions strain their relations, threatening Ukraine's accession to the EU.

Many Poles, like ambassador Bartosz Cichocki, cannot forgive the Volhynian massacre. More than 80 years ago, Ukrainian nationalists killed thousands of Poles in the western regions of Ukraine. They targeted children, women, the elderly, and other civilians. In retaliation, Poles carried out numerous revenge attacks against the Ukrainian population.

Good morning readers, Kyiv remains in Ukrainian hands.

A Russian documentary that whitewashes the crimes of the Russian military in Ukraine has turned out to be funded by Canada.

Olha Glotka, who saw these crimes with her own eyes, is outraged by the film's debut in Toronto. This Friday, a documentary film about Russian soldiers illegally occupying Ukraine will make its North American debut at the Toronto Film Festival.

The movie – titled 'Russians at War' – has been criticized by Ukrainians and pro-Ukrainian Canadians as overtly propagandistic.

Good morning to readers; Kyiv remains in Ukrainian hands.

So does the city of Sudzha.

Russia justifies its invasion by reclaiming “historic” territories.

But the past of Kyiv's seized areas in Russia, like Sudzha — a former Ukrainian city — shows the absurdity of such claims. The history of Sudzha, like many cities along the Russian-Ukrainian border, has ties to both nations.

Putin’s imperial logic would suggest Ukraine would have a claim on this territory – something the Ukrainians themselves have rejected.

Good morning to readers; Kyiv remains in Ukrainian hands.

The Red Cross’s job is to monitor/facilitate international law. In Ukraine, it’s obvious that it has failed.

Meet Illia: His family didn't know he was alive because the Red Cross lost his info while he was a POW. When Ukrainians were beaten to death in Russian prisoner of war camps, the Red Cross was nowhere to be seen.

The organization left Mariupol early in the full-blown war when more than 300,000 civilians were surrounded by occupation troops, leaving them to their fates.

NEWSFLASH: Children's hospital struck in brazen Russian daylight attack

Just a week ago we profiled the work of the Okhmatdyt Children's Clinic in Kyiv. Today, it was hit. We rushed to the scene to report. In central Kyiv, you can hear the difference between outgoing air defense missiles, firing up over the city: a hollow ‘poof!’ sound.

And then there’s the kind of explosion you don’t want to hear:

…a crunchier, sharper sound indicating something on the ground has been hit.

While China calls for the death of current Taiwanese independence advocates, we went to where it all started.

Peng Min-min is the godfather of the Taiwanese independence movement, and sacrificed his closest relationships for what he believed in.

Here is his story. Prophets often stand alone, misunderstood – sometimes even condemned by their own people.

As a godfather of Taiwanese independence, Professor Peng Ming-min knows this better than anyone.

Good morning to readers, Kyiv remains in Ukrainian hands.

A Russian attack on one of Europe's largest printing houses destroyed 50k books and 40% of Ukr printing capacity.

For Olena Rybka, it represented the heart of Ukrainian culture. Book lovers will find this heartbreaking. Olena Rybka remembers how terrifying it was to see that Factor Druk’s binding shop in Kharkiv was destroyed by a missile.

The pain of losing her colleagues was compounded by the sight she was confronted with: every book was destroyed, all of the works turned to ashes by the Russian attack on May 23 this year.

When SARS broke out in Taiwan in ‘03, the WHO denied Taiwan’s request for the virus’ DNA to combat it.

The WHO told Taiwan’s health minister at the time to ask China.

China refused the request and 137 people died in the following four months. Taiwan has been denied WHO membership for five decades due to political reasons, says Dr. Chien-Jen, Taiwan’s Minister of Health at the time of the SARS outbreak.

This has cost Taiwan innocent lives.

Good morning to readers, Kyiv remains in Ukrainian hands.

Today’s issue – in honor of AAPI heritage month – revolves around what it’s like to be an Asian journalist in Ukraine.

... in a weird way, I found it liberating. In the U.S. I found race to be the central way in which people saw me.

In Ukraine, with so few Asians around, there are essentially no stereotypes around it – and so no presumptions made.

Good morning to readers; Kyiv remains in Ukrainian hands.

War has brought destruction to the waters around Ukraine.

15-20% of the Black Sea dolphin population perished after the full-scale invasion.

But some of these dolphins have a secret… they are trained Russian agents. In a country at war, death is all around.

But for Pavel Goldin, he’s focused on a particular kind of collateral damage – an aquatic mammal he’s spent much of his life studying.

Good morning to readers, Kyiv remains in Ukrainian hands.

Russia's 3am attacks do not only physical damage.

Frequent strikes have caused collective harm to the psyche of millions of Ukrainians: wounds without physical marks.

Myroslava and I explore effects on Ukrainian sleep. The seemingly random timing of the Russian military’s middle-of-the-night attacks damages more than just the targets of the missiles.

The effect of these attacks over the last two years has caused collective harm to the psyche of millions of Ukrainians: wounds without physical markings.

Good morning to readers, Kyiv remains in Ukrainian hands.

But in Andriivka, an accused collaborator still walks amongst his neighbors.

Meet Mykola, a man claiming to be a monk, who allegedly helped the Russians when they occupied his village.

We went there to track him down. "If I had a gun, I would shoot him myself,” said a woman known as Grandma Sofia.

Already over 80 years of age, she's the sort of person in a small village who knows everything about everybody.

She’s the talkative type, the kind that trades the local gossip.

Good morning to readers; Kyiv remains in Ukrainian hands.

But the tensions are high in Zakarpattia region, which remains a stumbling block in relationship between Ukraine and Hungary.

This is where a Ukrainian artist reconstructs a Hungarian castle, fostering peace between two nations. The westernmost region of Ukraine has been a source of heated debate after 2010, when far-right candidate Viktor Orbán rose to power as a prime minister of neighboring Hungary.

Good morning to readers; Kyiv remains in Ukrainian hands.

But it might not be, had the Battle of Antonov Airfield had gone another way.

Ahead of its anniversary, we collected dozens of eyewitness testimonies for an intimate account about the most important battle of the war. “Where’s my artillery?” demanded the voice on the phone.

It was Valerii Zaluzhnyi, the commander-in-chief of the Ukrainian armed forces.

Russian paratroopers had landed on Antonov Airfield, 20 miles northwest of central Kyiv.

counteroffensive.news/p/the-epic-bat…

Here’s what we are reading today:

EU approves €50 bln aid package for Ukraine.

After months of Orban vetoing aid to Ukraine, the EU has abandoned their softer approaches and has threatened to kick Hungary out of the EU voting process or cut all EU funding to Hungary. 207 Ukrainian POWs were returned in a prisoner swap yesterday.

This follows Russia accusing Ukraine of downing a plane with Ukrainian POWs last week. Russia has given no proof and has shown “no readiness” to return the bodies of the POWS, a spokesperson for Ukraine’s MOD said.

Good morning to readers; Kyiv remains in Ukrainian hands.

War brings out the fiercest of emotions - we often report on hate or loss but today we look at love.

Some brides confronted the dilemma of weddings during war. While for others, the war brought an end to their marriages. Ivan proposed to Khrystyna 10 days before the full scale war.

But 6 months later she felt conflicted about having a celebration, and toyed with canceling the party she’d so wanted. "I didn't know how morally right it was," Khrystyna said.

Good morning to readers, Kyiv remains in Ukrainian hands.

There’s a Ukrainian Christmas carol you hear every year without knowing it.

‘Shchedryk’, known in the US as ‘Carol of the Bells’, is deeply personal to Maria, who began learning Ukrainian by reading its lyrics... For her, just like thousands of Ukrainian-Americans, the beloved Christmas hit embodies ancestral pride, inseparable from deep-rooted historical trauma.

‘Schedryk’ is a carol that embodies Ukraine's soft power influence in the world.

Good morning to readers; Kyiv remains in Ukrainian hands

I left my house to go to an interview here.

And yet, minutes later I was kneeling besides a man I had never met before, with my fingers on his carotid artery, feeling a fading heartbeat. His skin was already blue-ish gray.

His limbs were splayed out in inhuman directions. Blood flowed from his face.

Placing the back of my palms on his chest, I felt for rise and fall – he’s not breathing. His skin color reflected that awful fact.

Here's what The Counteroffensive is reading today:

The First Lady of Ukraine, Olena Zelenska, expressed deep concern about the West’s recent inability to provide timely financial and military aid.

“If the world gets tired, they will simply let us die,” she said to the BBC. A recent nationwide poll has found that Ukrainians resoundingly think elections should be postponed until after the war.

8/10 Ukrainians think parliamentary and presidential elections should be moved until after the war.

Good morning to readers; Kyiv remains in Ukrainian hands.

And many here are watching the Polish elections today... recent spats have weakened ties between the allies.

A Ukrainian refugee on the receiving end of worsening relations shares her struggles.

counteroffensive.news
Ukrainian Maria Haiseniuk is growing increasingly pessimistic about her surroundings.

When she initially fled Kyiv for Krakow in the early days of the invasion, she felt tremendous levels of support.