The world seems to hold the view that Ukraine is a developing place. In some ways, especially in regional towns and country areas, it certainly still is. Any car trip reminds your ass of that undeniable fact. But there are so many ways that Ukraine is actually more modern than…

Pushkin Pushed Out More than 200 street names in Kyiv have been changed in recent months. It’s a de-Russification and de-Sovietisation. My ‘hood includes the recently renamed Yevhen Chykalenko Street. …

Yesterday, outside a site destroyed by a Russian drone, and on the edge of a recently planted wheat field, I was told to check my privilege. This happened at Rzychiv, a small town 80 kilometres south of Kyiv on the Dnipro River, where a technical college and the four blocks…

I no longer look at photographs of ruZZian destruction of Ukraine. If I’m honest, it’s not because the material — as distressing as it is — freaks me out. It’s because: a) I now choose not to give ruZZian abominations a share of my eyeballs or my headspace; b) For…

In what is the worst April Fool’s jokes of all time, the Russian Federation will take over the chair of the United Nations Security Council on April 1st. It was good to be invited by the Ukrainian Security and Cooperation Centre and to be here at Kyiv’s Ukraine Crisis Media…

When I’m in Kyiv, it’s my (very fortunate) habit to walk around Shevchenko Park in the dignified downtown area in the mornings. People with dogs, early-arriving old-man chess players, street sweepers.. Improbable calm in a nation victimised with violence. I notice that the kids’ playground – where I’ve played in…

The 17th century Saints Peter and Paul Church — known as the Garrison Church — in downtown Lviv is being carefully restored. During the Soviet era and beyond, it was used as a document storage facility and went into decline and decrepitude. …

Vera’s garden started at the cement steps from the back of her fibro house and stopped at the splintered wooden palings that separated her from the Dobrowskis over the back fence and toward Wollongong Beach. Between the steps and the fence, the garden was always full and in different stages…

There can be great satisfaction from ritual. One of the finest rituals is writing correspondence. Putting pen to paper; considering your salutation, your content and your closing; dating your letter or card; noting where in the world you are writing from; correctly addressing your envelope; placing the right postage on…