A spectacle to horrify the world’: what the papers say about Trump and Vance’s meeting with Zelenskyy; The Guardian, February 28, 2025

Guardian staff , The Guardian; A spectacle to horrify the world’: what the papers say about Trump and Vance’s meeting with Zelenskyy

"The unprecedented scenes in the Oval Office dominated the front pages on Saturday, with the papers united in their horror. Adjectives including disastrous and vile were used to describe the meeting in which Donald Trump and his vice-president JD Vance openly berated the Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelenskyy...

The Daily Mail called the meeting “A spectacle to horrify the world” and said that during the “shouting match in the Oval Office” a “raging Trump humiliates Zelensky on live TV”...

The Daily Mirror went for “Shock & War” as its front page headline, with subheads reading “Trump stuns the world with vile rant at Zelensky” and “Ukraine hero forced home without a deal.”...

The Sun declared “Ukraine hero ambushed” above the splash headline “The Fight House”, alongside a picture of Trump wagging his finger at Zelenskyy...

The Independent said “Zelensky ambushed by Trump, calling the meeting a “disastrously bad-tempered summit”."

Mr. President: Putin is THE dictator and 10 Ukraine-Russia war truths we ignore at our peril; New York Post, February 20, 2025

Douglas Murray, New York Post; Mr. President: Putin is THE dictator and 10 Ukraine-Russia war truths we ignore at our peril

"In Trump’s rush to end the bloodshed, these are also the truths against which any deal will be judged and which will define him when the history books are written.

To ignore them or not treat them with the gravity they deserve will also have enormous consequences for decades to come:

Truth No. 5

Putin is a dictator. Putin has ruled Russia with an iron KGB fist since coming to power in 1999. He has ruthlessly quashed independent media, ended free and fair elections, crushed civil society and killed his political opponents. And not just inside Russia, but around the world. People who live inside Russia and express any opposition to the war are imprisoned.

Truth No. 6

Zelensky is not a dictator. A political outsider, Zelensky won the 2019 presidential election, which was relatively free and fair. He has a 57% approval rating, not the 4% Trump claimed.

Unlike in Russia, Ukraine has vibrant independent media that hold the government to account — despite claims to the contrary by internet swamp creatures and Russian bots.

Many Ukrainians freely criticize the government’s conduct of the war. When Britain was fighting for its survival against the Nazis in the 1940s, it too did not hold elections.

The Russian ambassador to the UK spent yesterday crowing that he’s “not sure” Zelensky would be re-elected if there were elections today. But we all know one thing for sure. Whether or not Zelensky would be re-elected in Ukraine, Putin will always be re-elected in Russia. Because his elections are con jobs, pageant shows. Putin hasn’t won a free and fair election in his life. Because he doesn’t hold them."

Ukrainians Rally Around Zelensky as Trump and Putin Denigrate Him; Time, February 21, 2025

 HANNA ARHIROVA / AP, Time; Ukrainians Rally Around Zelensky as Trump and Putin Denigrate Him

"After Trump called Zelensky a “dictator”—for legally postponing an election last year—and as reports emerged of U.S. and Russian officials meeting in Saudi Arabia to discuss a possible ceasefire without input from Ukraine, even some of Zelensky’s harshest domestic critics have begun defending him.

“We may have different opinions about Zelensky, but only Ukrainian citizens have the right to judge his support,” said Yaroslav Zhelezniak, a lawmaker from the opposition party Holos. “And to publicly criticize him too, because, in the end, he is our elected leader.”

Trump’s harsh words for Zelensky have drawn criticism from Democrats and even some Republicans in the U.S. Congress, where defending Ukraine from Russia—with tens of billions of dollars in military aid—has had bipartisan support. But Vice President J.D. Vance admonished Zelensky for publicly warning Trump about falling for Russian disinformation...

A poll released Wednesday by the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology put public trust in Zelensky at 57%. The survey was conducted Feb. 4 to Feb. 9 among 1,000 people living across Ukraine in regions and territories controlled by the Ukrainian government."

Nearly Twice as Many Americans View Trump as 'Dictator' Than Zelensky; Newsweek, February 20, 2025

Mandy Taheri, Newsweek; Nearly Twice as Many Americans View Trump as 'Dictator' Than Zelensky

"Nearly twice as many Americans view President Donald Trump as a "dictator" compared to Volodymyr Zelensky, according to a new poll. Trump recently used the word to describe the Ukrainian president...

A YouGov poll of 4,071 Americans conducted on February 19 asked participants whether they believe Zelensky, Trump and Putin are dictators.

The poll found that 41 percent of participants view Trump as a dictator, just below the 45 percent who do not. Gender played a role in participants answers, as among women, 46 percent consider Trump a dictator, compared to 35 percent of men.

The divide also falls along political lines, with 80 percent of Republicans saying Trump is not a dictator, while 68 percent of Democrats believe he is.

Fourteen percent of respondents said they were unsure if they consider him a dictator or not.

When participants were asked if they considered Zelensky a dictator, as Trump did on Wednesday, 22 percent said yes, while 45 percent said no. A larger share of participants, 33 percent, were unsure.

A majority of Democrats, 63 percent, said the Ukrainian leader is not a dictator, with only 15 percent believing he is. Republicans were fairly split among the three responses, with 36 percent unsure, 31 percent saying no and 33 percent saying yes."

Fox News’ Mark Levin criticizes Trump for attacking Zelensky: ‘MAGA doesn’t support Putin; New York Post, February 20, 2025

 Ronny Reyes, New York Post; Fox News’ Mark Levin criticizes Trump for attacking Zelensky: ‘MAGA doesn’t support Putin’

"Fox News host Mark Levin, a longtime supporter of President Trump, is breaking with the commander-in-chief over his recent attacks on Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, warning Trump that “MAGA doesn’t support Putin.”

Speaking on the Mark Levin Show on Wednesday, Levin offered a rare criticism of the president as he backed Zelensky for maintaining order in Ukraine following Russia’s invasion in 2022.

Levin’s segment appeared to be a direct response to Trump’s claims that Zelensky is a dictator that the Ukrainian leader is stopping free elections and only has a very low approval rating. 

The Fox News host said both of those assertions are false."

Russia’s War on Ukraine: Three Years, Three Hundred and Two False Claims; NewsGuard's Reality Check, February 21, 2025

Eva Maitland and Madeline Roache, NEWSGUARD, NewsGuard's Reality Check; Russia’s War on Ukraine: Three Years, Three Hundred and Two False Claims

"As the war in Ukraine approaches the three-year anniversary of the Russian invasion that launched the conflict, NewsGuard has now identified and debunked 302 false claims relating to the war, nearly all of them originating as Russian propaganda.

These 302 claims appear in NewsGuard’s Misinformation Fingerprints proprietary database of viral false narratives that NewsGuard analysts have identified and debunked. NewsGuard analysts have identified 551 websites spreading these false claims...

AI IN ACTION: HOW ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE SUPERCHARGES PRO-KREMLIN PROPAGANDA

In 2022, NewsGuard debunked just one AI-generated falsehood emanating from Russia. In the second year of the war, NewsGuard debunked five AI-generated false claims, and there were 16 in the third. Indeed, as AI tools became more readily available, the easy access to AI image, audio, video and text generators has enabled Russia and its allies to reach more people, in more languages, with more convincing false claims...

HOME-GROWN, FOREIGN-TRAINED: THE AMERICAN PROPAGANDIST BEHIND 14 FALSE CLAIMS ABOUT ZELENSKY

The driving force behind these false corruption claims that have amassed so many millions of views appears to be John Mark Dougan, a Florida deputy sheriff turned Kremlin propagandist. Dougan is part of a Russian influence operation dubbed by Microsoft as Storm-1516. It appears to be an offshoot of the Internet Research Agency, a disbanded Russian troll farm.

NewsGuard has debunked 37 false narratives linked to Dougan and Storm-1516 targeting Ukraine, the U.S. 2024 election, the 2024 Paris Olympics, and the German 2025 election."

‘Carved on bodies and souls’: Ukrainian men face ‘systemic’ sexual torture in Russian detention centres; The Guardian, October 29, 2024

Emma Graham-Harrisonand Artem Mazhulin in Kyiv, The Guardian; ‘Carved on bodies and souls’: Ukrainian men face ‘systemic’ sexual torture in Russian detention centres

"The UN commissioner for human rights has documented hundreds of cases of sexual violence perpetrated by Russian troops since the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. Two-thirds of the victims are men and boys who were tortured in Russian jails.

Russia deploys systematic sexual torture against Ukrainians, both civilians and prisoners of war, in “almost all” detention centres where they are held, the UN found.

That includes “rape, attempted rape, threats of rape and castration, beatings or the administration of electric shocks to genitals, repeated forced nudity and sexualised humiliation”.

“The numbers in Ukraine are quite startling,” said Charu Lata Hogg, the executive director of the All Survivors Project, which supports men and boys who have endured sexual violence.

The organisation keeps a global database of cases that stretches back three decades, and the scale of new abuse recorded in Ukraine is unprecedented, she said. Sexual violence against men “happens all over the world, but the struggle is always getting documented cases”.

In Ukraine, the UN has recorded 236 incidents of sexual violence against men and two against boys in under three years."

Trump Suggests Abraham Lincoln Should've Let the South Keep a Little Slavery; Vanity Fair, October 18, 2024

 Bess Levin, Vanity Fair; Trump Suggests Abraham Lincoln Should've Let the South Keep a Little Slavery

"Donald Trump appeared on Fox News this morning, where, during a characteristically bizarre interview, he suggested Abraham Lincoln could have avoided the Civil War by cutting a deal with the South—which, as a reminder, wanted slavery to remain legal.

Asked by a 10-year-old who his favorite president was when he was “little,” Trump began by saying he “liked Ronald Reagan.” (Note: Trump was 34 when Reagan first took office, and 42 when he left.) Then he turned to Lincoln, who he believes was a great president—but could’ve been better if he’d “settled” the Civil War.

“Great presidents?” Trump said. “Lincoln was probably a great president, although I’ve always said, why wasn’t that settled? You know, I’m a guy that—it doesn’t make sense we had a Civil War…. You’d almost say, like, why wasn’t that [settled]? As an example, Ukraine would have never happened, and Russia, if I were president. Israel would have never happened; October 7 would have never happened, as you know.”"

Russian court jails US-Russian woman for 12 years over $50 charity donation; The Guardian, August 15, 2024

Associated Press via The Guardian; Russian court jails US-Russian woman for 12 years over $50 charity donation

"A Russian court on Thursday sentenced the US-Russian dual national Ksenia Khavana to 12 years in prison on a treason conviction for allegedly raising money for the Ukrainian military.

The rights group the First Department said the charges stemmed from a $51 (£40) donation to a US charity that helps Ukraine.

Khavana, whom Russian authorities identify by her birth name of Karelina, was arrested in Ekaterinburg in February. She pleaded guilty in her closed trial last week, news reports said.

Khavana reportedly obtained US citizenship after marrying an American and moving to Los Angeles. She had returned to Russia to visit her family."

‘They burned books, like the Nazis did 80 years ago’: Russia’s deadly attack on Ukraine’s biggest printing house; The Guardian, June 30, 2024

 Luke Harding , The Guardian; ‘They burned books, like the Nazis did 80 years ago’: Russia’s deadly attack on Ukraine’s biggest printing house

"Hryniuk said she did not know if the Russian military had deliberately targeted her workplace or had attempted to hit a train repair workshop next door...

In occupied areas, the Kremlin has forbidden the Ukrainian language, removed books from schools and imposed a patriotic pro-Russian curriculum. Statues of the Ukrainian poet Taras Shevchenko have been torn down. Vladimir Putin insists Ukraine does not exist. Its land, he says, is a part of “historical Russia”.

The strike on the factory wiped out 50,000 books. Among them were works of children’s literature and Ukrainian school textbooks – 40% of them were printed by Factor Druk – due to be sent to classrooms for the new September academic year...

“For me it’s so symbolic. They burned books, like the Nazis did 80 years ago. We have so many historical examples of Russia trying to kill off Ukrainian culture,” said Oleksiy Sobol, the head of the pre-press department. The Russian empire banned Ukrainian-language texts from the 17th century onwards, with follow-up edicts. Under Stalin, in the 1930s, Ukrainian poets and writers were shot – a generation known as the “executed renaissance”.

Since 2022, Russia has erased 172 libraries and nearly 2m books, according to the Ukrainian Book Institute...

Emily Finer, who heads a research team working on Ukrainian children’s literature at the University of St Andrews, called the attack a tragedy. “The priority given to publishing trauma-informed children’s books in wartime Ukraine is unprecedented,” she said. “Over 120 picture books in Ukrainian have been printed since 2022 to help children cope with their wartime experiences now and in the future.”

The strike took place a week before the Arsenal book festival, Kyiv’s biggest literary event. Many of the destroyed books were due to be sold there...

The Howard G Buffett Foundation, meanwhile, last week pledged €5.1m (£4.3m) to restore the printing house. “They can destroy books but not Ukrainian resilience and commitment,” said Buffett, the son of the billionaire US investor Warren Buffett."

What Elizabeth Gilbert's publication delay reveals about the ethics of writing fiction; CBC, June 15, 2023

 Jen Sookfong Lee and Laisha Rosnau , CBC; What Elizabeth Gilbert's publication delay reveals about the ethics of writing fiction

"Elizabeth Gilbert, the bestselling author of Eat Pray Love, is delaying publication of her latest novel after facing a backlash from some Ukrainians who said it's the wrong time to put the novel — which is set in Russia — into the world.

Authors Jen Sookfong Lee and Laisha Rosnau unpack Gilbert's decision, and get into the real-world ethical dilemmas facing fiction writers today."

‘Our mission is crucial’: meet the warrior librarians of Ukraine; The Guardian, December 4, 2022

Stephen Marche, The Guardian; ‘Our mission is crucial’: meet the warrior librarians of Ukraine

"The work of the state archivists during the course of the Ukrainian war is simple – to keep what they have out of Russian hands and in existence. “Our mission is crucial because the destruction of archives can be seen as part of cultural genocide,” Khromov says. Russians have destroyed more than 300 state and university libraries since the start of the war. In May, the National Library conducted an online survey on the state of its system. By then, 19 libraries were already completely destroyed, 115 partially destroyed and 124 permanently damaged. The Russians have destroyed libraries in Mariupol, Volnovakha, Chernihiv, Sievierodonetsk, Bucha, Hostomel, Irpin and Borodianka, along with the cities they served. They have destroyed several thousand school libraries at least."

Call Number Podcast: Support for Ukraine; American Libraries, August 12, 2022

American Libraries; Call Number Podcast: Support for Ukraine

Episode 74 highlights efforts to preserve information, raise funds, and help refugees

"Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has dominated headlines this year. The ongoing war has affected people globally, including American librarians and their work. In Episode 74, the Call Number podcast team looks at the ways the profession is supporting Ukraine.

First, Call Number host Diana Panuncial speaks with Kristin Parker, lead curator and manager of the arts at Boston Public Library. Parker is part of a network of first responders working against the clock to preserve Ukraine’s cultural history and provide preservation advice to library workers on the ground.

Next, American Libraries Editor and Publisher Sanhita SinhaRoy speaks with Michael Dowling, director of ALA’s International and Chapter Relations Office, about the Association’s Ukraine Library Relief Fund and how donations are being used.

Finally, Panuncial talks to Millicent Mabi, director of community engagement and programming at Regina Public Library in Saskatchewan, about how her institution is helping Ukrainian refugees—from teaching them English to improving their literacy to connecting them with community resources." 

Ukraine’s information war is winning hearts and minds in the West; The Conversation, May 12, 2022

 Michael Butler,Associate Professor of Political Science, Clark University, The Conversation; ; Ukraine’s information war is winning hearts and minds in the West

"Weaponizing information

Russia’s use of propaganda and symbols during the conflict, most recently in the “Victory Day” celebrations attempting to draw its own distorted parallels to World War II, has gotten a lot of attention. In the process, Ukraine’s skillful use of information warfare should not be overlooked. 

Information warfare entails one party denying, exploiting or corrupting the delivery and function of an enemy’s information. It is used both to protect oneself against the enemy’s information and to create a favorable environment for one’s own information.

With the charismatic President Volodymyr Zelenskyy leading the way, Ukraine’s savvy use of traditional and social media as well as direct appeals to the U.S. Congress, European Parliament and the court of world opinion have provided a clear and compelling framing of the war. 

That frame is structured around five affecting themes: the inherently just cause of Ukrainian self-defense; the tenacity of Ukrainian resistance; the barbarity of Russian conduct; Russia’s flawed military strategy and general ineptitude; and Ukraine’s desperate need for more, and more sophisticated, military hardware. 

Ukraine’s successful strategy in the battle over information demonstrates the connection between armed conflict and information warfare. Ukraine has forged a stalemate with Russia by stressing these themes of a just war for national liberation using not only traditional tools of warfare – bullets, missiles, tanks – but also by shaping the Western public’s perceptions of the war."

The Information War in Ukraine Is Far From Over; The New York Times, May 5, 2022

 SERGE SCHMEMANN, The New York Times; The Information War in Ukraine Is Far From Over

"As a former K.G.B. agent, Mr. Putin sees the world as a battleground of conspiratorial maneuvers. In his speeches, the color revolutions in Ukraine and other former Soviet republics and the Arab Spring and other global upheavals are machinations to bolster American domination. As an heir to the Soviet worldview, he believes more than many Western leaders do in the importance of information warfare, both to give his regime a veneer of legitimacy and to challenge liberal democracy. On this battlefield, lies are ammunition in Mr. Putin’s long and increasingly personal struggle to stay in power.

As the war enters a new phase, as the images and horrors become familiar and the costs rise, it will become ever more difficult for the Biden administration and for Mr. Zelensky to sustain their early lead in the information war. That makes it all the more imperative for the West to press the message that this is not a war Ukraine chose and that the cost of allowing Mr. Putin to have his way in Ukraine would be far higher than the sacrifices required to block him."

Russian artist faces jail over peace protest using supermarket price labels; The Guardian, April 13, 2022

AFP in Saint Petersburg , The Guardian; Russian artist faces jail over peace protest using supermarket price labels

"A Russian court has ordered an artist to be held behind bars for allegedly replacing supermarket price labels with messages protesting against Moscow’s military campaign in Ukraine.

Alexandra Skochilenko faces up to a decade in jail for her stealth protest, after she was charged under a new law banning “fake news” about Russia’s armed forces...

Investigators accused her of “putting fragments of paper in place of price tags, containing knowingly false information about the use of the Russian armed forces” in a Perekryostok supermarket on 31 March.

They described her motive as “political hatred for Russia”, which means she faces a harsh sentence if found guilty, ranging from a fine of 3m roubles (£27,000) to between five and 10 years in jail."

Ominous rhetoric gains grounds in Russia as its forces founder in Ukraine; The Washington Post, April 13, 2022

Robyn Dixon, The Washington Post; Ominous rhetoric gains grounds in Russia as its forces founder in Ukraine

"In late March, the head of Russia’s Investigative Committee launched a probe into whether Ukrainian students’ textbooks “target children with hatred of Russia and the Russian language” and “distort history.” There already is evidence, Finkel noted, of Russian soldiers in Ukraine going through libraries and schools and destroying books in Ukrainian or those about the country’s history and struggle for independence.

“I think there is a clear indication that [the Russians] are targeting quite deliberately everything and everyone that is associated with Ukrainians as a national identity,” he said."

Open source intelligence observers gain growing role in how war is viewed; Stars and Stripes, March 29, 2022

 ALISON BATH, Stars and Stripes ; Open source intelligence observers gain growing role in how war is viewed

"Citizen intelligence analysts are spotlighting the Russian navy’s role in its war on Ukraine, using publicly available information to report on missile launches, blockades and other actions in the Black and Mediterranean seas.

The information gathered using open-source intelligence, or OSINT, offers a glimpse into Russia’s maritime war activities and sometimes challenges information released by government sources.

Dozens of private citizens are parlaying their prior military experience, specialized knowledge of the Russian navy and online information-mining skills into robust, almost-real-time coverage of Russia’s full-scale invasion, which began Feb. 24."

Names on a list: Fleeing Mariupol, one checkpoint at a time; Associated Press, March 21, 2022

MSTYSLAV CHERNOV, Associated Press; Names on a list: Fleeing Mariupol, one checkpoint at a time

"The absence of information in a blockade accomplishes two goals.

Chaos is the first. People don’t know what’s going on, and they panic. At first I couldn’t understand why Mariupol fell apart so quickly. Now I know it was because of the lack of communication. 

Impunity is the second goal. With no information coming out of a city, no pictures of demolished buildings and dying children, the Russian forces could do whatever they wanted. If not for us, there would be nothing.

That’s why we took such risks to be able to send the world what we saw, and that’s what made Russia angry enough to hunt us down. 

I have never, ever felt that breaking the silence was so important."

Ukrainian President Zelenskyy says US businesses should pull out of Russia, calls for more aid; USA Today, March 16, 2022

Joey GarrisonCelina TeborLedyard KingJohn BaconRick RouanMatthew Brown, USA Today; Ukrainian President Zelenskyy says US businesses should pull out of Russia, calls for more aid

""Being the leader of the world means to be the leader of peace," he Zelenskyy said in remarks livestreamed at the U.S. Capitol. He added, “I call on you to do more."