Noah Caldwell

All week, the world's attention has been focused on the death and destruction that's been discovered in towns north of Kyiv, after Russian forces withdrew. One of those towns: Borodyanka.

Misha Smetana lives in Kyiv, and has stayed there throughout Russian attacks on Ukraine. He tells NPR's Scott Detrow what that's been like, and about the communities forming between people who stayed.

The People's Friendship Arch was gifted to Ukraine by the Russian government and opened in Kyiv in 1982. Ukrainians weigh in on the future of the enormous monument, in the midst of war with Russia.

Though the city still feels empty, people are slowly starting to return to Kyiv. Signs of war are everywhere in the form of sandbags and big steel and concrete barricades in the streets.

In the western Ukraine city of Ivano-Frankivsk, a bakery that closed for two weeks during Russia's invasion has resumed business, feeding the masses and providing refuge in wartime.

Some people who fled Kyiv because of the war in Ukraine are starting to return. At the train station, they share their reasons for returning and fears about the future.

Once war began in Ukraine, COVID ceased being the top-level medical concern. NPR's Scott Detrow spent 24 hours with a doctor doing everything he can to help with a whole new overwhelming crisis.

NPR's Scott Detrow speaks with Yulia Gorbunova, a researcher with Humans Rights Watch, about her reporting of alleged human rights violations in Russia-controlled areas of Ukraine.

The Wave of Lviv is a radio station known for pop music and banter. Since the war began in Ukraine, though, they've been working to balance their irreverent tone with news from the front lines.

Throughout the pandemic, we've been remembering the lives of some of the nearly 1 million people who have died in the U.S. from COVID. Aaron Kim was a father, a husband and a restaurateur from Ohio.