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"They Didn’t Understand Anything, but Just Spoiled People’s Lives"

By

Anne Applebaum and Nataliya Gumenyuk

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How Russian invaders unleashed violence on small-town residents.

"They Didn’t Understand Anything, but Just Spoiled People’s Lives"

Viktor Marunyak, the mayor of Stara Zburjivka, woke up on the night of February 24, 2022, to the sounds of rockets and realized that his village was under Russian occupation. The Russian invaders unleashed violence and torture on the small-town residents.


This media project was created for The Atlantic. A later version in Ukrainian was published on Ukrainska Pravda.


Nataliya Gumenyuk is a founding member, editor, and lead journalist of TRP.

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