As the fifth anniversary of Russia’s full-scale invasion approaches, the reality on the ground in Ukraine is fundamentally shifting. Drones dominate the skies, the safety perimeter for civilians is collapsing, and international support hangs in the balance following Donald Trump’s return to the White House.In this episode of In Solidarity, openDemocracy senior investigative reporter Sian Norris speaks about her fifth reporting trip to the frontlines of Kharkiv and the streets of Kyiv. Sian shares harrowing on-the-ground details, explaining how drone technology is drastically expanding the "killzone" for medical evacuations and why the capital is now under constant ballistic bombardment as Patriot missile supplies dry up.The conversation also explores how Russia is weaponising the looming winter freeze against the civilian population, and how the Kremlin's hybrid warfare strategy is spreading beyond Ukraine's borders - funding sabotage in the UK and stoking anti-migrant riots across Europe.
What we discuss in this episode:
- The New Drone Reality: How FPV drones have turned previously accessible suburbs like Saltivka into active threat zones, and why authorities have been forced to build brightly-coloured primary schools completely underground.
- The Missing Patriot Missiles: Why Kyiv is facing a barrage of ballistic missiles, and how the shifting foreign policy of the Trump administration has left the city more vulnerable to airborne attacks.
- Weaponizing Winter: A look at Russia's systematic attacks on energy infrastructure, targeting substations 94 times in a single week in a calculated attempt to break civilian morale ahead of the winter freeze.
- Life in the Crosshairs: The extraordinary resilience of ordinary Ukrainians, from mothers giving birth in frontline hospitals to civilians carrying on with Halloween celebrations while air defenses explode overhead.
- The Shadow War in the UK: How Russian operatives are enacting a campaign of sabotage and disinformation in Britain, including funding arson attacks and amplifying the rhetoric of far-right influencers like Tommy Robinson to fracture Western solidarity.
- The Geopolitical Shockwave: Why many Ukrainians view Donald Trump with outright horror, and how his subservience to Putin and echoing of Kremlin disinformation is upending the global order.
Credits:
Presented by James Battershill
Produced by Harry Beney