The News And Times

  Putin, Pushkin and the decline of the Russian empire posted at 23:07:37 UTC   via   ft.com Receive free Life & Arts updates We’ll send you a  myFT Daily Digest  email rounding up the latest Life & Arts news every morning. A statue of Russian poet Alexander Pushkin being dismantled in the Ukrainian city of Dnipro in December 2022 © Mykola Myakshykov / UkrInform / Avalon Last month, I stood at the corner of what used to be Pushkin Street in Kyiv. Following Vladimir Putin’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, it has been renamed Yevhen Chykalenko Street, after a major figure of the early 20th-century Ukrainian independence movement. To lovers of literature and opera, cancelling Alexander Pushkin, poet and author of  Eugene Onegin,  might seem a bit over the top. Putin, yes, but why Pushkin? For Ukrainians, however, engaged in an existential struggle for their independence against Russia’s war of recolonisation, Pushkin is a symbol of the Rus...

Post Link SBU chief reveals details of two operations to blow up Crimea Bridge posted at 19:48:04 UTC   via   ukrinform.net That’s according to the SBU chief, Vasyl Maliuk, who spoke in an interview with NV magazine, the SBU told Ukrinform. "It was an indescribable feeling. When the explosion happened, we screamed so loudly as the tension inside was huge," said Maliuk, who personally planned and supervised the special operation. According to the head of the security agency, in order to inconspicuously transport 21 tons of hexane to the bridge, the SBU operatives wrapped the explosives with packaging film, which the shipping papers said the truck was officially transporting.  Read also:  Maliuk: Drones that damaged Crimean Bridge in July are SBU’s invention The Security Service released unique photos showing the preparations for the operation. In addition, according to Maliuk, the SBU managed to bypass special jammers on the Crimea Bridge that alter GPS coor...