Media Center Ukraine Producer Department

Liudmyla Lysenko is a pastry chef who has lived in Bucha since 2016. She and her family were at home when russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine. After fighting began, the family evacuated to the Rivne region. But in April 2022, following the liberation of the Kyiv region from russian forces, they returned home. Lysenko recalls Bucha as devastated — without electricity, water or reliable communication.

In 2024, she decided to join Ukraine’s defense forces because she wanted to help the country. After completing training, Lysenko joined the “Bucha Witches,” a mobile air defense unit operating within the Bucha Volunteer Territorial Community Formation and tasked with intercepting enemy drones.

She now serves as commander of a mobile fire group. Although she is not an active-duty service member, after returning from combat duty she goes back to civilian life and bakes custom cakes to order.

Liudmyla Lysenko is available for interviews both online and in person in the Kyiv region by prior arrangement and coordination with the press officer.

• women
• Kyiv

If you are interested in this topic, you can obtain the subjects’ contacts from the Producer Department of Media Center Ukraine.

On April 30, 2026, the Academic Council of the National University of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy officially approved a two-year master’s program titled “Russian Studies: Challenges to International Security” — a first-of-its-kind initiative in Ukraine combining international relations, security studies and postcolonial theory.

russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine exposed a major gap: the world lacks specialists who truly understand the logic of the russian regime rather than merely observing its actions. The new Kyiv-Mohyla Academy program is designed as a comprehensive response to that challenge. It aims to train analysts capable not only of tracking the kremlin’s moves, but also understanding their internal logic, anticipating consequences and effectively countering russian influence on the international stage.

The program is offered within the field of international relations and combines two dimensions that are usually studied separately: security analysis — including the regime, military, foreign policy and international law — and critical research into how russia legitimizes aggression through culture, propaganda, colonial myths and identity manipulation.

Over the course of two years, students will acquire competencies necessary for work in think tanks, government institutions, international organizations and reputable media outlets, including:

• understanding the logic of an authoritarian regime and how russia’s power structure shapes its conduct in war;
• analyzing russian foreign policy as a strategic system with specific goals, instruments and vulnerabilities;
• deconstructing imperial narratives and mechanisms of “soft power”;
• applying postcolonial analysis to russia and understanding the position of peoples historically subjugated by it;
• practical OSINT skills, including the collection, verification and analysis of open-source data;
• understanding international law in the context of armed conflict and aggression.

The teaching staff includes leading international scholars specializing in russia, Ukrainian analysts and experts with practical experience in security and intelligence.

• culture

If you are interested in this topic, you can obtain the subjects’ contacts from the Producer Department of Media Center Ukraine.

A screening of the documentary “Dance With Fire” will take place at the War Museum in Kyiv on May 12.

The film tells the story of Vadym Khlupianets — a ballet performer with the Kyiv National Academic Operetta Theatre who traded the stage for the battlefield and was killed defending Ukraine’s independence.

After the start of russia’s aggression against Ukraine in 2014, Khlupianets was forced to leave his hometown of Donetsk and relocate to the Zhytomyr region. A graduate of the Kyiv Choreographic School, he worked at the Kyiv National Academic Operetta Theatre before joining Ukraine’s defense forces following russia’s full-scale invasion.

He first served in the ranks of Ukraine’s Territorial Defense Forces before later joining the Freedom Legion of the National Guard of Ukraine. Vadym Khlupianets was killed at the age of 26 on Nov. 15, 2022, during battles near Bakhmut in the Donetsk region.

The event will also feature a meeting with the film’s creators, including Memorial Platform co-founder Haiane Avakian and the film’s director, Diana Zhvinklis.

Journalists are required to obtain accreditation.

Background: The screening is organized jointly with the Memorial Platform.

• dead
• military
• Kyiv

If you are interested in this topic, you can obtain the subjects’ contacts from the Producer Department of Media Center Ukraine.