christopher atwood

A subject-ignorant grifter and material plagiarist is being caught and is attacking @KyivIndependent for pointing out he stole from them. I really hope that those who keep inviting the grifter instead of proper journalists to their TV channels will take note.

Since a few Kyiv Independent readers have asked, I’d like to explain what happened with Caolan Robertson’s video, out of respect for our supporters. Our team found that a video on Caolan’s @CaolanReports YouTube channel included a fragment of an earlier Kyiv Independent video, used without permission and without a request for permission. It wasn’t just footage. It was an animated map that takes our team a lot of work to produce. Importantly, Caolan’s video cropped out our logo from the fragment. Instead of crediting our work, it fully removed the attribution to the Kyiv Independent. That isn’t citation or fair use. Our team member did what is standard when your content is used this way on YouTube: They filed a copyright report. YouTube reviewed the case and removed the video. We follow the same process whenever our work is used without permission, regardless of who the creator is. Worth noting that a removal like this doesn’t kill the creator’s work: The video can simply be re-uploaded without the copyrighted material. So I was surprised that Caolan instead chose to publicly attack the journalists whose work he lifted, and to appeal to journalistic solidarity in a case where he didn’t demonstrate any. Our team has been reporting on the ground in Ukraine since before the full-scale invasion. We’re independent, funded mostly by our readers, and we earn every dime. We’re very proud of our work, from front-line reporting to war crimes investigations. We respect the work of other journalists and expect the same for ours. I wish Caolan all the best in telling his audience about Ukraine. If he ever wants to use our work, he’s welcome to ask, like anyone else. We are all on the same side when it comes to this: We want as many voices as possible telling the world about Ukraine. But being on the same side means respecting and crediting each other’s work. Credit matters because the reporting everyone draws on has to come from somewhere. Thank you.

On May 8, 1945, Europe declared victory in WWII. But not all of the victorious armies brought freedom or liberation. On this Victory Day, we remember not only victory. We also remember those for whom the end of World War II meant life under a different totalitarian regime.

As if any of today's left thinkers approaches the intellectual caliber of Lenin, Trotsky, Luxemburg, Gramsci, Lukacs. The crises of revolutionary and counterrevolutionary ideas are interconnected and mutually amplifying.

The strategy of "bringing the war onto Russian territory" has clearly inflicted even greater suffering, particularly on ordinary Ukrainians. The humanitarian catastrophe, which primarily affects civilians, is being masked by polished propaganda. A singer who is a friend of the president even released a song claiming that even without electricity and heat, Ukrainians still have light and warmth in their souls. I've already come across several Reels on social media with negative reactions, where Ukrainians say that without meeting basic needs—when it's freezing cold, with no way to wash, cook, or stay warm—there will be no "warmth and light" inside anyone. Today, journalists from Hromadske visited an apartment in Kyiv where the indoor temperature was -5°C/23 ∘F. That's a temperature at which a person can fall asleep and never wake up. "Since last November, the building's electrical grid has been unable to cope—residents have had to literally ration electricity by the hour. And overnight into Friday, the building also suffered a fire. Now, living there has become simply impossible. Yet some people remain, with nowhere else to go. Among them is 56-year-old Valeriy Antonovych, who gets around in a wheelchair." — that's what the journalists reported about that building. There are reportedly hundreds of such high-rises these days in Kyiv. Stories are pouring in from all sides from acquaintances, relatives, and friends. Social media is exploding with accounts of life in subzero temperatures without electricity, sometimes without heat or water. Our leadership continues to blame Putin and the West—for not providing enough missiles—and keeps confirming new and further strikes deep inside Russia, which have nowhere near the same impact as those felt in Ukraine. Of course, Russia is the aggressor, and its shelling has long amounted to crimes against humanity. But many people are asking whether this strategy of transferring the war to Russia is worth the suffering endured by the Ukrainian nation. Will we ever learn the true numbers of those who die from the cold, or will they be covered up by yet another wonderful song about joy and inner light? How many people will leave the country again now, never to return? And will you condemn them for it?

A reminder to never donate to these grifters