New Ukraine Shelf is out! Yuliya Musakovska and Maria Tumarkin joined us in front of a live audience in Lviv to discuss writing war and trauma, and the conversation was superb, don’t miss it! Find on youtube etc here: www.ucl.ac.uk/european-ins...

Last week @okhromeychuk.bsky.social & I recorded our first Ukraine Shelf episode in Ukraine! Julia Musakovska & Maria Tumarkin joined us in Lviv to discuss war poetry, silence, the meaning of place, survival & more. Soon on youtube, soundcloud etc! Thanks @dovzhyk.bsky.social for the invitation!

We've had more than 500 listens of our first Ukraine Shelf podcast! Check out episode one, on Crimea, and watch out for more episodes coming soon! (Now also on spotify.) @okhromeychuk.bsky.social @uclssees.bsky.social @uclei.bsky.social @ukrinstitute.bsky.social
ucl.ac.uk/european-ins...

Did you know that after russia illegally annexed Crimea in 2014, Crimean Tatars began to play Ukrainian music at their weddings as a sign of resistance? Hear more on The Ukraine Shelf podcast!
@uclssees.bsky.social @uclei.bsky.social @ukrinstitute.bsky.social
www.ucl.ac.uk/european-ins...

The west’s biggest mistake was treating Ukraine as part of Russia in the 1990s instead of accepting it as part of the west and Europe like other countries in the region. There would be no war now if it had accepted Ukraine - Dmytro Kuleba at @ukrinstitute.bsky.social tonight.

Trump seems determined to barter away other people's homes, whether in Ukraine or Gaza. It reminded me of my research into memory and displacement after World War II, so I wrote this essay, with a little help from Ukrainian, Polish & Palestinian poetry. open.substack.com/pub/uilleamb...

It was an honour to host @efinkel.bsky.social at @uclssees.bsky.social last night in partnership with @ukrinstitute.bsky.social to hear how Russian myths about identity & history have morphed into brutal acts of violence against Ukraine.Thanks @okhromeychuk.bsky.social for moderating. Read his book!

Here's my short text honouring the brilliant Vasyl Mysyk and his translations of Robert Burns, only just a little bit late for Burns Night. If you like it, please subscribe for future posts! substack.com/home/post/p-...

Happy Burns night! One of my favourite poetry translations ever is Vasyl Mysyk's rendering of the first line of Burns's To a Mouse (Wee sleekit, cowrin, tim'rous beastie) in one word: звірятко (diminutive of звір, beast). I wrote a substack on Mysyk. Subscribe to read! substack.com/@uilleamblac...

This from an open letter from Ukrainian public figures outlining Russia’s true war aims. Now think: what would Putin most like the US to do in order to make his aims achievable? Maybe start threatening to commit its own land grabs and violations of international law?
eutoday.net/do-not-appea...

Kyiv coughed asthmatically.
Through the metro’s drafts
the electric trains fearfully rattled,
as a dozen layers of ground,
white from human bones,
horses’ skulls,
and grey ash of funeral pyres,
rippled like the skin
on an angry bull’s neck.

Vasyl Stus, born OTD 1938. Transl. by B. Tokarskyi and me.

For sale in Mayfair: original 1947 Ukrainian translation of Animal Farm, made by Ihor Ševčenko for Ukrainian refugees in Germany fleeing soviet repression. Ironically, c. half the copies were destroyed by the Americans, who thought it was Soviet propaganda! Learn languages, westerner! 1/3

When in Przemyśl you really

It was a pleasure to speak to Anastasiia Marushevska at @ukrainer.bsky.social about Ukrainian literature and the legacy of empire. Listen here: open.spotify.com/episode/2UaU...

Tbilisi 2019, protests after a Russian MP was allowed to speak from the speaker’s chair in the Georgian parliament during an assembly of Orthodox churches. A Georgian colleague from the conference I was at went missing for several days, having been beaten and arrested for protesting.