“I generally know when to speak and when to listen. Geopolitics isn’t my expertise but I am reading a lot about the war in Ukraine. It’s tragic and terrifying and senselessly cruel. And it matters not at all what I think.”
I couldn’t agree more. With that in mind, let’s learn together. Feel free to share any resources for making sense of what’s happening right now. Can you recommend journalists on the ground in Ukraine or experts you trust? Have you read any articles or listened to any podcasts that have provided context and insight? Are there poets or novelists (like Ilya Kaminsky) whose work is grounding you?
I'm re-reading Ilya Kaminsky's excellent poetry collection DEAF REPUBLIC. Kaminsky — in addition to being a very kind and thoughtful person, someone I'm always delighted to see at conferences and book festivals — is a deaf poet and from Odessa, Ukraine. This book is about an occupied territory where everyone loses their hearing after a deaf boy is shot and killed by police during a protest. Kaminsky writes from the perspective of different characters as he interrogates state violence, dissent and complicity. You've likely seen "We Lived Peacefully During the War," one of the poems from the book, being shared on social media. https://www.graywolfpress.org/books/deaf-republic
An expert I trust and follow on twitter is journalist and disinformation researcher Jane Lytvynenko @JaneLytv — someone who has family in Ukraine, and the expertise in thoroughly vet information before posting.
She was interviewed by Maria Ressa (Rappler) last night, where they discussed how the justification of this war came from disinformation narratives, to now where there has been a micharacterisation of what’s happening on the front lines with false videos, and how Facebook has made it harder to access data to investigate disinformation. Lytvynenko adds “Disinformation has been a weapon of those who don't want to build free nations.”
Anastassiia Lapatina, a journalist for The Kyiv Independent @lapatina_ on Twitter, Terrell Jermaine Starr host of the Black Diplomats podcast @terrelljstarr on Twitter, Kimberly St. Julian-Varnon an expert on Blackness in the USSR and a current PhD. candidate in History at UPenn @ksvarnon on Twitter. Solidarity.
My friend Andrew Leber is a political scientist, doesn't work on Ukraine but sent out this helpful list. Everything following is a quote from his email -
Given that Russia's invasion of Ukraine is in the news, and will result in horrific consequences for Ukrainians while impacting the rest of the world in myriad uncertain ways, I just wanted to pass along a few articles either by, or recommended by, friends who study/work on issues related to Eastern European politics:
In an explainer for Jewish Currents, journalist David Klion runs through several questions about the invasion
In a WaPo op-ed, Russia-focused political scientists Samuel Greene and Grame B. Robertson run through the domestic motivations for Putin to go to war (paywall)
In a blog post from last summer, Cheryl Rofer discusses how NATO enlargement may (and may not) have shaped Russian strategic thinking over the past 2 decades; Seva Gunitsky discusses this at Foreign Policy last month from the perspective of IR theory (paywall)
A dispatch from Ukraine on the morning of the invasion by Jack Crosbie for Rolling Stone
For those of you further to the Left, you may want to check out statements by anarchists in Ukraine and Russia on the conflict
Daniel Dale from CNN put together this partial list of journalists on the ground in Ukraine that I have been following on Twitter. Shocking, heartbreaking stuff being shared: https://twitter.com/i/lists/1494327296383021062
Isabelle Khurshudyan is a Washington Post reporter who is usually based in Moscow. She has been in Ukraine for a while and is now in Kharkiv, near the border. She speaks Russian (I can’t remember the details, but either her parents or grandparents are immigrants) and does good interviews with locals as a result. She is @ikhurshudyan on Instagram and Twitter.
Although not a deep dive, the What A Day podcast has been super useful for helping me keep up with the day-to-day developments and putting everything in context as we go along. They're also great about speaking to a variety of experts and on-the-ground reporters.
I'm re-reading Ilya Kaminsky's excellent poetry collection DEAF REPUBLIC. Kaminsky — in addition to being a very kind and thoughtful person, someone I'm always delighted to see at conferences and book festivals — is a deaf poet and from Odessa, Ukraine. This book is about an occupied territory where everyone loses their hearing after a deaf boy is shot and killed by police during a protest. Kaminsky writes from the perspective of different characters as he interrogates state violence, dissent and complicity. You've likely seen "We Lived Peacefully During the War," one of the poems from the book, being shared on social media. https://www.graywolfpress.org/books/deaf-republic
An expert I trust and follow on twitter is journalist and disinformation researcher Jane Lytvynenko @JaneLytv — someone who has family in Ukraine, and the expertise in thoroughly vet information before posting.
She was interviewed by Maria Ressa (Rappler) last night, where they discussed how the justification of this war came from disinformation narratives, to now where there has been a micharacterisation of what’s happening on the front lines with false videos, and how Facebook has made it harder to access data to investigate disinformation. Lytvynenko adds “Disinformation has been a weapon of those who don't want to build free nations.”
The Rappler interview can be found here: https://youtu.be/fXpgFW2wnjg
Anastassiia Lapatina, a journalist for The Kyiv Independent @lapatina_ on Twitter, Terrell Jermaine Starr host of the Black Diplomats podcast @terrelljstarr on Twitter, Kimberly St. Julian-Varnon an expert on Blackness in the USSR and a current PhD. candidate in History at UPenn @ksvarnon on Twitter. Solidarity.
My friend Andrew Leber is a political scientist, doesn't work on Ukraine but sent out this helpful list. Everything following is a quote from his email -
Given that Russia's invasion of Ukraine is in the news, and will result in horrific consequences for Ukrainians while impacting the rest of the world in myriad uncertain ways, I just wanted to pass along a few articles either by, or recommended by, friends who study/work on issues related to Eastern European politics:
In an explainer for Jewish Currents, journalist David Klion runs through several questions about the invasion
In a WaPo op-ed, Russia-focused political scientists Samuel Greene and Grame B. Robertson run through the domestic motivations for Putin to go to war (paywall)
In a blog post from last summer, Cheryl Rofer discusses how NATO enlargement may (and may not) have shaped Russian strategic thinking over the past 2 decades; Seva Gunitsky discusses this at Foreign Policy last month from the perspective of IR theory (paywall)
A dispatch from Ukraine on the morning of the invasion by Jack Crosbie for Rolling Stone
For those of you further to the Left, you may want to check out statements by anarchists in Ukraine and Russia on the conflict
Daniel Dale from CNN put together this partial list of journalists on the ground in Ukraine that I have been following on Twitter. Shocking, heartbreaking stuff being shared: https://twitter.com/i/lists/1494327296383021062
Isabelle Khurshudyan is a Washington Post reporter who is usually based in Moscow. She has been in Ukraine for a while and is now in Kharkiv, near the border. She speaks Russian (I can’t remember the details, but either her parents or grandparents are immigrants) and does good interviews with locals as a result. She is @ikhurshudyan on Instagram and Twitter.
Although not a deep dive, the What A Day podcast has been super useful for helping me keep up with the day-to-day developments and putting everything in context as we go along. They're also great about speaking to a variety of experts and on-the-ground reporters.
I thought this episode of by any means necessary podcast (the first part) offered useful context https://open.spotify.com/episode/3TOf6Tm3JVm3MIgT0ecK4j?si=0866f3abed8042e7
Citizen Scholar here on Substack has been posting about the conflict and offering reading recommendations for anyone who wants to understand how we got here. Today's post was really helpful: https://citizenscholar.substack.com/p/discussion-29-the-new-tsar-the-rise?r=r2lma&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=email