Southern Ukraine

Sushi rolls with cream cheese, a popular ingredient in Ukrainian sushi, are served at Island Sushi in Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine.

Sushi restaurants are thriving in Ukraine, bringing jobs and a 'slice of normal life'

5:02am January 13, 2024

Ukraine's economy is battered by Russia's full-scale invasion, but its consumer economy is still running — especially the country's popular sushi restaurants, where cream cheese is a key ingredient.

Dropping water levels in the Zaporizhzhia region of Ukraine have exposed fishing nets and roots of aquatic plants along the shoreline of the Dnipro river.

Russia is draining a massive Ukrainian reservoir, endangering a nuclear plant

12:44pm February 10, 2023

Satellite data show water levels plummeting at the Kakhovka Reservoir. The reservoir supplies drinking water, irrigates vast tracts of farmland, and cools Europe's largest nuclear plant.

Queue Listen Now

The building housing Mykolaiv's regional government, bombed early in the war, lies in ruins on Aug. 11. Governor Vitaliy Kim says he knew he was the target "because it was my window." Thirty-seven of his colleagues died in the bombing.

World News

Ukraine hunts for pro-Moscow collaborators suspected of helping Russia strike targets

4:40pm September 21, 2022

by Joanna Kakissis

The southern Mykolaiv region has seen targeted strikes, leading Ukrainian officials to round up hundreds of people suspected of leaking information to the Russians.

Queue Listen Now

Black smoke rises at the front line in southern Ukraine's Mykolaiv Oblast on Aug. 30 amid Russia's military invasion of the country. Ukraine has begun a major counteroffensive to retake areas in the south that Russia seized early in the war.

World News

Ukraine's southern offensive relies on heavy weapons. Soldiers say there aren't enough

4:01pm September 02, 2022

by Frank Langfitt

Progress has been slow but Ukrainian military officers say U.S.-supplied rockets and training are making a difference from when NPR visited in the spring.

Queue Listen Now

A motorcade transporting the International Atomic Energy Agency expert mission, escorted by the Russian military, arrives at the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant amid the conflict in Ukraine, outside the city of Enerhodar, Ukraine, on Thursday.

As inspectors leave Ukraine's nuclear plant, the mayor of a nearby town has high hopes

6:57pm September 01, 2022

by Ashley Westerman

Enerhodar Mayor Dmytro Orlov speaks to NPR about the risks of attacks and nuclear disaster with Ukraine's Zaporizhzhia plant under Russian occupation.

Ukrainian soldiers led NPR's team into the forest in the "gray zone" where they dug one of the defensive trenches used to stall Russia's advance.

World News

In the 'gray zone' outside Kherson, Ukraine's soldiers pay a terrible price

7:01am August 06, 2022

by Brian Mann

Ukrainian officials have vowed to retake the strategic city of Kherson. But the battlefield "gray zone," spanning more than 100 miles, is confusing — and danger can come in many forms.

Queue Listen Now