TRT: 29 minutes

US Major John Spencer is considered the world's leading expert on urban warfare. In February 2022, he wrote The Mini-Manuel for The Urban Defender, a guidebook for everyday people to defend their territory against military aggressors. The manual was posted online by the Ukrainian military and went viral, enabling Ukrainians to help their military to defeat the February 24 attack by Russia on Kyiv and other major cities.

Spencer discusses the concepts in his booklet and answers many questions about the war in Ukraine from the point of view of a military expert. He discusses why Russians bomb civilian targets, the purpose of F-16 planes that have just been granted to Ukraine, NATO, threats to Poland, nuclear weapons, the current character of this war and how warfare has changed, and more. He speculates about possible outcomes for Ukraine and Russia. Above all, he reminds us that war is ultimately a matter of politics, not weaponry.  

Major John Spencer is an award-winning scholar, professor, author, combat veteran, and internationally recognized expert and advisor on urban warfare and other military related topics to four-star generals and other senior leaders in the U.S. He currently serves as the Chair of Urban Warfare Studies with the Madison Policy Forum. He recently served as the Chair of Urban Warfare Studies at the Modern War Institute at West Point, Co-Director of the Urban Warfare Project, and host of the Urban Warfare Project podcast. He served as a Colonel in the California State Guard with an assignment to the 40th Infantry Division, California Army National Guard as the Director of Urban Warfare Training.

Music: Hey Hey Rise Up by Pink Floyd featuring Andriy Khlyvnyuk of Boombox

Ukraine 2 4 2 features interviews with experts, key people on the ground in Ukraine and many others affected, who can give direct and personal accounts of the unfolding of the war in Ukraine, how people of diverse backgrounds and professional skills rally in the fight for freedom and the historical context of Russia's invasion.  

Now available in Audioport.org under WEEKLY PROGRAMS
TRT: 29 minutes

Produced by Anne Levine, WOMR, Provincetown MA

Military analyst Oleksander Musiienko speaks about various current realities of the war in Ukraine from a Ukrainian analyst's perspective. He talks about various current events, including the second bombing of the Kerch bridge, Russian mercenary groups, the counteroffensive, Belarus, and the protection of Ukrainian art that has not yet been stolen or destroyed.

Musiienko is head of the NGO Center for military and legal studies and he is co-founder of the National Political Academy of Ukraine. He disassembles and communicates news of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Territorial Defense Forces.

Ukraine 2 4 2 features interviews with experts, key people on the ground in Ukraine and many others affected, who can give direct and personal accounts of the unfolding of the war in Ukraine, how people of diverse backgrounds and professional skills rally in the fight for freedom and the historical context of Russia's invasion.  

In the Izium region, Victoria Amelina uncovered the war diary of fellow Ukrainian writer Volodymyr Vakulenko, who buried the diary before he was killed by the occupying forces. She found it with the aid of his father in the backyard of the family home.

Amelina now also keeps a journal of the work being done by war-crimes researchers and she has become a successful poet published by papers such as the New York Times, and various anthologies.

Victoria Amelina has been a celebrated Ukrainian author of novels and children's books since 2015, when she won several literary awards for her first book, The Fall Syndrome, about the events at Maidan in 2014. In 2017 her novel Doms Dream Kingdom was released and was shortlisted for the prestigious LitAkcent literary award and the European Union Prize for Literature in 2019. Amelina is a member of PEN International.

Born in Belgium, Mariam lives in Amsterdam with her family and works in Ukraine, delivering humanitarian aid to the front lines. Mariam earned her call-name, Cinderella because she is a very petite and beautiful blonde who insists on sweeping the floor and doing the dishes at every safe house she visits. She also maintains a strict rule that she goes off duty at midnight to rest. 

She was recently in Bakhmut making a delivery under heavy shelling. and spoke to us afterwards from the Netherlands where she was picking up a large haul of humanitarian supplies prior to returning to deliver them to Ukraine. 

Ashton-Cirillo drew national media attention in 2021 when she released records of conversations from her time working with Republican candidates, documenting efforts to recruit members of the Proud Boys, a far-right group, for a planned "Brooks Brothers Riot" (alluding to the 2000 demonstration)[10] as part of efforts to overturn the outcome of the 2020 United States presidential election. In 2022, she leaked a text exchange with the Republican nominee for Nevada Attorney General, which became a key controversy in that election.

Starting in March 2022, Ashton-Cirillo reported on the Russian invasion of Ukraine from Kharkiv, Ukraine, primarily for LGBTQ Nation, often writing about the war's effect on LGBTQ people. A trans woman, she is thought to have been the first openly transgender war correspondent and the only transgender journalist covering the invasion. In Kharkiv, she worked closely with the Ukrainian military and police, and was appointed by the mayor of Zolochiv, Kharkiv Oblast, as a representative to advocate with aid groups. After witnessing and reporting on the October 2022 Kyiv missile strikes—including posting a controversial widely-shared video that showed a dead body—she resigned from LGBTQ Nation to become a combat medic in Ukraine's Noman Çelebicihan Battalion, a Crimean Tatar unit. In February 2023, she was wounded by Russian shelling while serving on the front lines in

Mendel speculates about the spring offensive. She also describes the early days when Zelenskyy was gaining sea legs in democracy, and her impressions of the 2019 Paris talks between Zelenskyy, Russian President Putin, French President Macron and German Chancellor Merkel. She also speaks about Russian weaponization of language and the struggle for self-determination experienced by post-soviet countries. 

Throughout her interview, Mendel positions Ukraine as the vanguard of resistance and self-determination in the region in the struggle between old and new ways, and gives voice to Ukrainians’ strong will, together with sadness and dread felt in her country over the violence and death they continue to experience and anticipate.

Iuliia Mendel was press secretary in the administration of Ukrainian President Zelenskyy from 2019 until 2021. She worked as a journalist for ICTV, Espreso TV, 112 Ukraine and Inter TV channels. Mendel became the first Ukrainian journalist to win the World Press Institute program.

She had previously worked as a Communications Consultant at the World Bank and had contributed journalistic reporting for The New York Times. Mendel had worked as a journalist for several other media outlets including Politico Europe, the Atlantic Council, Vice, Spiegel Online and Forbes. In April 2016, she was the producer of the first documentary about post-traumatic stress disorder, Shell-Shocked: Ukraine's Trauma. In October 2019, she was included in the rating of the 100 most influential women in Ukraine by Focus magazine.

However, Wishnick also discusses how the invasion of Ukraine raises problems with good reputation and trade relations with Europe, something China wants. In addition, the invasion jeopardizes China’s massive Belt and Road Initiative – its flagship program for ushering in infrastructure and commerce for Chinese-led economic growth in Asia, Africa, and elsewhere.

Dr. Elizabeth Wishnick is a Senior Research Scientist in the China and Indo-Pacific Security Affairs Division at the Center for Naval Analysis, on leave from her position as Professor of Political Science at Montclair State University. She is also a Senior Research Scholar at the Weatherhead East Asian Institute at Columbia University. Her current research focuses on international relations in Asia and Chinese foreign policy. She is the author of Mending Fences, which illuminates the forces driving Moscow’s China policy.

Music: Moonlight in the City sung in Mandarin by Ukrainian Artist Natalia
Editing by Ursula Rudenberg for the Pacifica Network
Recording by Michael Levine

Music: Misto Marii by Okean Elzy

Ukraine 2 4 2 features interviews with experts, key people on the ground in Ukraine and many others affected, who can give direct and personal accounts of the unfolding of the war in Ukraine, how people of diverse backgrounds and professional skills rally in the fight for freedom and the historical context of Russia's invasion.  

She just returned from a trip to Japan where she learned the Japanese governments attitudes towards the threat of nukes from Russia. What she learned in the talks was very surprising!

Olena is a board member of the Ukrainian NGO Anti-Corruption Action Center. She is also part of the International Center for Ukraine Victory. She worked as a Chief of International Advocacy at the Post-Maydan Reanimation of Package Reforms from 2015-2017. She was an Advisor to Members of Parliament from 2012 to 2014. She served as a Kyiv City Council Member and Deputy Chair of the Council Commission on Housing and Energy. An avid writer and political commentator, her works can be found in outlets such as The Washington Post, the Atlantic, Foreign Policy, EU Observer, and the Kyiv Post. Olena obtained a PhD from Kyiv National University in International Economics in 2016. Olena spoke to us from Warsaw Poland where she is currently working.

• Plokhy, Serhii. The Cossacks and Religion in Early Modern Ukraine, Oxford University Press, 2002. ISBN 978-0-19-924739-4
• Plokhy, Serhii. Tsars and Cossacks: A Study in Iconography, Ukrainian Research Institute, Harvard University, 2003. ISBN 978-0-916458-95-9
• Plokhy, Serhii and Frank E. Sysyn. Religion and Nation in Modern Ukraine, Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies, 2003. ISBN 978-1-895571-36-3
• Plokhy, Serhii. Unmaking Imperial Russia: Mykhailo Hrushevsky and the Writing of Ukrainian History, University of Toronto Press, 2005. ISBN 978-0-8020-3937-8
• Plokhy, Serhii. The Origins of the Slavic Nations: Premodern Identities in Russia, Ukraine and Belarus, Cambridge University Press, 2006. ISBN 978-0-521-86403-9
• Plokhy, Serhii. Ukraine and Russia: Representations of the Past , University of Toronto Press, 2008. ISBN 978-0-8020-9327-1
• Plokhy, Serhii. Yalta: The Price of Peace, Viking Adult, 2010. IS

Matviichuk frames the war in Ukraine  as a struggle over democracy or authoritarianism, and calls for the restoration of civil society and justice, pointing out the problem of processing so many cases of human rights violations. She describes how she is seeking to establish an international tribunal of crimes against humanity to bring justice for Ukrainians and prevent future wars of terror in the region. 

Trigger warning: this program addresses topics of extreme violence, torture, kidnap, murder, and rape. 

Oleksandra Matviichuk earned her law degree from Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv and became the first woman to participate in the Ukrainian Emerging Leaders Program of Stanford University.  In 2007, Matviichuk was awarded the Vasyl Stus Prize for 'outstanding achievements, and in  2015, she became a laurate of the Norwegian 'Lindebrække prize for democracy and human rights' and in  2016, 16 delegations to the OSCE recognized Matviychuk with their first Democracy Defender Award for 'Exclusive contribution to promoting democracy and human rights'. The U.S. Embassy to Ukraine recognized Matviichuk as Ukraine's Woman of Courage 2017 for 'her constant and courageous dedication in defending rights of Ukrainian people'. In 2021, Matviichuk was nominated to the United Nations Committee Against Torture and made history as Ukraine's first female candidate to the UN Treaty Body. She ran on a platform to limit violence against women and conflict. Since the 2014 Revolution of Dignity, she has focused on documentation and prosecution of war crimes. She met with Vice President of the United States Joe Biden in 2014, and advocated for more support to help end the Russian war against Ukraine.