Borys Sachalko

Ukrainian soldiers are being treated to puppet shows to boost their morale. Valeriy Dzekh ran a popular puppet theater in Kharkiv before the war, and is now performing a new play about a man who loses and then regains his self-confidence.

Ukraine is evacuating the remaining residents of Kurakhove in the country's Donetsk region. Current Time's Borys Sachalko traveled with a police officer as he evacuated a local woman, driving at 150 kilometers per hour to avoid Russian kamikaze drones.

Some 80 percent of the high-rise residential buildings were damaged in Izyum in Ukraine's eastern Kharkiv region during the Russian occupation of the city between April and September 2022. Rebuilding has now finally begun, but could still take decades, the head of the city's military administration told RFE/RL.

A Kyiv church has installed heat pumps and a hospital in Odesa has built a solar panel station as groups across Ukraine look to alternative energy sources in the face of continued Russian attacks on Ukraine's infrastructure. Analysts say Ukraine can expect more long power cuts this winter.

As their country marks 1,000 days of war, Ukrainian soldiers on the front line spoke with Current Time correspondent Borys Sachalko about the ongoing conflict with Russia. Dmytro, a Ukrainian soldier who has been fighting since Moscow's 2022 invasion, said when the war started he had no fear, but now, after years of fighting, he feels like he has no more emotions.

The Russian Army is positioned only a few kilometers from Kupyansk, a city in Ukraine's Kharkiv region where some 4,000 people still live. Current Time correspondent Borys Sachalko spoke with locals about how they manage to live in the embattled city amid daily Russian attacks. One local woman said that her family had decided to evacuate as Russian forces inch closer to the city.

Ukrainian troops have complained that people are avoiding military service and leaving them outnumbered on the front line, in interviews near Kupyansk in northeastern Ukraine on November 20. With Russian forces advancing in the area, the few remaining civilians appeared stressed and depressed about the situation.

New defenses are being built just outside Pavlohrad in Ukraine's Dnipropetrovsk region as Russian forces slowly advance in the east. Meanwhile, more evacuees are arriving in the city, Current Time's Borys Sachalko reports.

In occupied parts of Ukraine, Russian forces have imposed a new Moscow-backed school curriculum, eliminating lessons in Ukrainian language and culture. But teachers who are dedicated to preserving those subjects have taken their lessons underground, offering clandestine online or in-person classes to thousands of students.

The song known in English as The Carol of the Bells is widely recognized as a Christmas melody. But in the Ukrainian city of Pokrovsk, residents know it as Shchedryk, a work by the local composer and teacher Mykola Leontovych. The tune is often heard there in the Christmas season, but this year, it's competing with the sound of shelling as Russian forces approach Pokrovsk.