With tens of thousands of new COVID-19 cases daily and a vaccination rate of just 16.2 percent, Ukraine, Europe’s second-largest country after Russia, is facing a growing pandemic crisis. Current Time visited two of eight Ukrainian regions where the government has intensified COVID-19 restrictions.
Thirty-five years after the April 26, 1986 blast that made Chernobyl the world's worst nuclear-energy disaster, tens of thousands of visitors visit the site each year. Current Time traveled to Chernobyl and the surrounding area to learn more about this magnetic draw during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Following a Current Time report, Ukrainian Health Minister Maksym Stepanov earlier this month visited an ambulance station outside of Kyiv that, amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, only has one dilapidated, rusty ambulance to respond to emergency calls. This video shows the results.
Detainees at Kyiv's notoriously overcrowded Lukyanivska prison, parts of which are 160 years old, have been offered a way out of overcrowded cells with up to a dozen inmates and poor sanitation. But there's a catch. More spacious, refurbished cells, with fewer prisoners and modern bathrooms, come at a price.
The Ukrainian government suspected as early as January 8, the date of the fatal crash of Ukraine International Airlines Flight 752 outside Tehran, that an Iranian missile had shot down the Boeing 737-800, Ukrainian National Security and Defense Council Secretary Oleskiy Danilov told Current Time.
After five years of conflict in eastern Ukraine, the port of Mariupol is struggling to survive. With the loss of coal exports and Russia choking access to the Sea of Azov, the port's maritime traffic has been cut in half. But Mariupol hopes Chinese investment can revive its sinking fortunes.
Vladimir Balukh and Oleksiy Sizonovych were part of Russia and Ukraine's landmark September 7 exchange of 70 prisoners, seen by many as a step toward reducing hostility between the two countries. But for both men, their freedom does not mean they are home yet: Balukh is from annexed Crimea and Sizonovych from separatist-controlled Luhansk. With other Ukrainians still in Russian prisons, the two hope to use their freedom to spread the word about "what's really happening" in Crimea and Donbas.
A Ukrainian court ruled on August 28 to release Russian journalist Kirill Vyshinsky pending trial on charges of high treason. The head of Russia's state-run RIA Novosti's office in Ukraine, Vyshinsky was arrested in May 2018 amid accusations that the news agency was involved in an "information war."
