Soldiers of Song (2024)

Director: Ryan Smith (American)
Awards: Tribeca Film Festival premiere, Warsaw International Film Festival nomination (Best Documentary Feature)

What is it about? The film follows Ukrainian musicians who transformed their art into weapons of resistance against Russian aggression.

The documentary weaves together multiple extraordinary narratives: paramedic “Ptashka” (“Bird”) singing folk songs in Azovstal’s basement to lift survivor’s spirits during the siege of Mariupol in 2022; Slava Vakarchuk of the band Okean Elzy performing atop bombed buildings to raise awareness and visiting wounded children in hospitals; Andriy Khlyvnyuk of Boombox who joined the armed forces while continuing to raise funds for his unit through concerts, balancing his dual roles as drone operator and musician.

Through the Cultural Forces initiative, the film shows how music reaches soldiers directly at the front, where performances become vital sources of motivation and spiritual strength, embodying the philosophy that “Beauty urges us to align ourselves to experience the triumph of soul over body.”

Where to watch: Apple TV, Prime Video, Google Play

Why should you watch it? This shows how culture itself becomes a battlefield. Ukrainian artists fight for the freedom to create in Ukrainian language as Russians ban it on occupied territories. Making beauty becomes an act of defiance against cultural genocide while the film asks crucial questions: “How many Ukrainian musicians has Russia killed, and how many more will it kill if not stopped?”

Quote from the song in the film:

“And here we walk in the battle of life—Solid, durable, unbreakable, like granite, For crying hasn’t given freedom to anyone yet, But whoever is a fighter, he conquers the world.” 

Faith Under Siege (2025)

Director: Yaroslav Lodygin (Ukrainian)

What is it about? The film exposes brutal persecution of Christians in Russian-occupied Ukraine, documenting bombed churches, imprisoned or killed pastors, and the abduction of over 19,000 Ukrainian children. It follows Evangelical and Protestant believers in what was once called the post-Soviet “Bible Belt” as they struggle to keep faith alive in secret.

While Russia spreads propaganda claiming Ukraine persecutes Christians by restricting Kremlin-linked Orthodox churches amid the war, the film exposes the brutal reality: it’s Russian occupation forces systematically pressuring, torturing, imprisoning, and killing Christians in occupied Ukrainian territories, especially those who refuse to collaborate with the FSB.

Where to watch: YouTube

Why should you watch it? This exposes a classic authoritarian tactic of accusing your opponent of your own sins while the international community’s attention is divided. The film calls believers to prayer, awareness, and solidarity while showing how Ukrainian Christians stand strong against religious persecution, proving that faith can survive even under the most brutal conditions and revealing the true face of Russia’s so-called “defense” of Christianity.

Porcelain War (2024)

Director: Brendan Bellomo & Slava Leontyev (Ukrainian-American)
Awards: Sundance Grand Jury Prize winner, Oscar nominated 2025 (Best documentary feature)

What is it about? Set in war-torn Kharkiv close to the Russian border, the film follows three Ukrainian artists who create delicate porcelain figurines while living through the brutal reality of Russian invasion, filled with destruction and terror.

Slava, a former Ukrainian Special Forces soldier, transforms from artist to weapons instructor, teaching civilians how to fight while continuing to craft ceramics with his wife Anya. She developed her unique style of painting on ceramic miniatures at Kharkiv School of Arts and channels her resistance through art that captures their “idyllic past, uncertain present, and hope for the future.” Meanwhile, Andrey, originally from annexed Crimea (Feodosia), serves as first-time cinematographer documenting their story while simultaneously working to get his family to safety abroad.

The film contrasts stunning Ukrainian landscapes with the wreckage caused by war missiles, showing how these artists defiantly find beauty amid destruction while some take up guns alongside their brushes.

The jury called the filmmaking “the ultimate pursuit of good” while resisting totalitarian aggression.

Where to watch: Prime Video, Takflix

Why should you watch it? This film embodies how artists put beauty back into a crumbling world, showing that while it’s easy to make people afraid, it’s hard to destroy their passion for living. It’s both an intimate love story and a powerful statement about art’s role in resistance.

No Sleep Til Kyiv (2025)

Director: Eric Liebman (American)

What is it about? The documentary follows international volunteers, including American homebuilder Peter Duke from Orlando, who leave their comfortable lives to join convoys delivering military trucks and other essential aid from Estonia to Ukrainian soldiers in Kyiv.

Working with the 69th Sniffing Brigade (NAFO), volunteers drive 30+ hours straight through Latvia, Lithuania, and Poland, sleeping through air raid sirens and witnessing Russian destruction firsthand.

Stories of ordinary Ukrainians who paused their jobs to defend their homes are woven throughout the film, alongside international volunteers who take time from their lives to assist them.

Duke draws powerful parallels between Ukraine’s fight and America’s birth in 1776, saying “All of us in Western democracies that hope for peace and security need Ukraine to succeed.”

Where to watch: Here

Why should you watch it? The film offers an American perspective on why Ukraine’s fight matters globally—if Russia succeeds, the authoritarianism will spread further, possibly affecting countries like Taiwan and South Korea.

The film also shows how ordinary citizens can get involved in fighting Russian aggression without wearing a uniform, demonstrating that remarkable acts of selflessness and purpose transcend borders and politics.

20 Days in Mariupol (2023)

Director: Mstyslav Chernov (Ukraine)
Awards: Ukraine’s first-ever Academy Award (Best Documentary 2024), BAFTA winner, Pulitzer Prize, Sundance Audience Award

What is it about? The film follows Ukrainian journalists working for Associated Press who remained the last and only international reporters in besieged Mariupol during the first weeks of Russia’s full-scale invasion in 2022.

Chernov and his team documented Russian airstrikes on a maternity hospital, mass graves, frightened people huddled in shelters, and the deaths of civilians, including a 4-year-old girl as the doctors desperately tried to save her life, while Russian officials dismissed all their footage as “fakes.”

Many conversations in the film are conducted in Russian, exposing the cynicism of Moscow’s claim to be “saving Russian speakers.” 

Chernov said he wishes he never had to make this film and would exchange all recognition for Russia never invading Ukraine.

“My brain desperately wants to forget this, but the camera won’t let it happen,” the director says in the film.

Where to watch:  Prime Video, Apple TV, Netflix, Takflix

Why should you watch it? This is raw historical documentation at its finest—no contrived drama, just authentic footage that speaks for itself. As Chernov notes, “This is painful to watch—but it must be painful to watch.” It stands as crucial evidence of Russian war crimes and the price Ukrainians pay for freedom.

Quote from the film:

“War is like an X-ray — all human insides become visible. Good people become better, bad people become worse.”

A House Made of Splinters (2022)

Director: Simon Lereng Wilmont (Danish)
Awards: Sundance Best Director Award, Oscar nominated in 2023, FIPRESCI Award

What is it about? Set in a special orphanage in Lysychansk, an eastern Ukrainian town exhausted by Russia’s war, the film follows three children temporarily separated from their parents and living in danger near the frontlines in Donetsk Oblast. 

While they wait for custody decisions from authorities and courts that will determine whether they return home or move to new families, a small group of strong-willed social workers work tirelessly to create an almost magical safe space. These selfless caregivers give moments of joy and calm to children, bringing them back to their childhood that has almost been lost amid the family drama and ongoing conflict around them.

Where to watch: Apple TV+, Amazon Prime Video, Takflix

Why should you watch it? This deeply intimate portrait shows war’s long-term impact on society’s most vulnerable members through an extraordinarily poignant lens. Danish director explores how conflict affects children, offering a profoundly moving look at resilience, hope, and the power of human compassion even in the darkest circumstances.

Us, Our Pets and the War (2024)

Director: Anton Ptushkin (Ukrainian YouTuber)

What is it about? The documentary tells stories of people and their animals when Russia’s full-scale invasion began in 2022—from cats and dogs in abandoned apartments and shelters to lions, tigers, bears, lemurs, and even Igoryok the Yemeni chameleon in zoos.

It features famous pets like Patron the dog and Shafa the cat, plus soldiers, volunteers, foreigners, and Ukrainians participating in rescue missions everywhere from bomb shelters to the front lines.

The main idea of the film comes from shelter founder Asia Serpinska: “Save animals to stay human.” 

Where to watch: Netflix

Why should you watch it? It shows how rescuing animals becomes both a way to preserve humanity amid violence and a form of mutual salvation—revealing the extraordinary close connection between people and animals that war has only strengthened. 

Quote from the film:

“When it seemed that we were saving animals, in reality, it was animals that saved us.”

During the latest prisoner swap with Russia, Ukraine brought back the last defender of Zmiinyi or Zmiinyi (Snake) Island. Vitalii Hyrenko returned home after spending more than three years in Russian captivity, the Facebook community of the Defenders of Zmiinyi Island reports. 

“The long-awaited exchange, three years and five months in captivity, for our last defender of Zmiinyi Island has taken place! Border guard of the island of Achilles, Vitalii Hyrenko, is home!!! Free, unbroken in spirit and body, Vitalii is finally back on his native soil,” the post reads.

In a February update, the community shared that Hyrenko’s small son, Dmytro, only knew his father from photos.

“When Vitalii was taken captive, his wife Aliona was seven months pregnant,” it wrote.

The Coordination Headquarters for the Treatment of Prisoners of War also confirmed that Hyrenko, a soldier of the State Border Guard Service of Ukraine, had been released from captivity.

Following negotiations in Istanbul, the ninth round of prisoner exchanges with the Russian side took place on 24 July.

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy announced that severely wounded and critically ill defenders had returned home. According to him, more than 1,000 Ukrainian soldiers have been freed from Russian captivity across all phases of this exchange.

UK intelligence has exposed how Russian GRU sabotage units have carried out a global campaign of subversion, disinformation, and covert attacks. In its 23 July defense intelligence update, the British Defense Ministry has named the Russian units and outlined their years-long operations across Europe, Africa, and Ukraine.

On 18 July, the UK sanctioned three Russian GRU units and one interference agency, along with 18 military intelligence officers, for targeting the UK, its allies, and Ukraine. 

British report reveals global GRU operations

According to the UK Defense Ministry’s Intelligence update published on 23 July 2025, Russia is “escalating its global campaign to subvert its adversaries and increase Russian influence.”

“Whilst Russian military intelligence (GRU) is at the forefront of these efforts, Russia has also turned to an increasing variety of non-state actors to conduct a full spectrum of overt to covert activities, including espionage, assassination, sabotage, and electronic, cyber and information operations,” the update reads.

The UK identified Unit 29155, also known as the 161st Specialist Training Center, as a key actor. Its cyber wing launched the WhisperGate attack—deploying destructive malware—in Ukraine in 2022. The wider unit was behind multiple sabotage and assassination operations, including the 2018 attempted murder of Yulia and Sergei Skripal in Salisbury, the 2011 ammunition warehouse bombing in Bulgaria, and a 2014 blast in Czechia.

Unit 26165, or the 85th Main Special Services Center, has run widespread espionage operations. It also provided targeting intelligence for Russian missile strikes, including the 2022 bombing of the Mariupol theater that killed hundreds of civilians, including children.

Unit 74455, part of the Main Center for Special Technologies, has carried out cyberattacks on democratic elections, national infrastructure, and financial control systems.

The fourth entity, the African Initiative, is a Kremlin-linked interference agency. UK intelligence says it conducts information operations in Africa, including the spread of conspiracy theories aimed at undermining global health efforts.

The UK hits a Russian military intelligence unit behind the destruction of the Mariupol Drama Theater with the largest-ever sanctions package in history. It is also responsible for prolonged malicious hybrid operations worldwide. 

“In 2022, Unit 26165, sanctioned today, conducted online reconnaissance to help target missile strikes against Mariupol, including the strike that destroyed the Mariupol Theatre, where hundreds of civilians, including children, were murdered,” says the UK government. 

The restrictions hit three units of Russia’s military intelligence (GRU) and its 18 officers accountable for conducting a sustained campaign of cyberattacks over many years, including attacks inside the UK. 

“The GRU routinely uses cyber and information operations to sow chaos, division and disorder in Ukraine and across the world with devastating real-world consequences,” the UK government said.

Sanctions also target GRU officers responsible for hacking a device of Yulia Skripal, a daughter of former Russian military officer Sergei Skripal, using the malicious software known as X-Agent. This happened five years prior to the failed attempt by GRU officers to assassinate them with the deadly nerve agent “Novichok” in Salisbury.

Russian operatives have also attempted to disrupt UK media outlets, telecom providers, political and democratic institutions, as well as critical energy infrastructure.

They paid the highest price for Ukraine’s freedom. British journalist Colin Freeman, in his book The Mad and the Brave, told the stories of foreign volunteers who joined Ukraine’s International Legion, writes The Telegraph.

Freeman compares the influx of volunteers who rushed to aid Ukraine in the early weeks of the all-out war to the International Brigades in the Spanish Civil War of 1936–1939 when thousands from around the world fought fascism.

He portrays a variety of individuals, from veterans of the Syrian war against ISIS to adrenaline seekers and those fleeing heartbreak.

One striking story is that of British combat medic John Harding, who joined the Azov Battalion in 2018. He disproved Russian propaganda about “national extremists” and endured the horrors of the battle for Mariupol, the siege of Azovstal, and months of torture in captivity.

Another hero is Briton Christopher Perryman, a veteran of wars in Iraq, Somalia, and Bosnia, who left behind a young son to fight the Russian aggressor.

Perryman believed he had no moral right to abandon millions of Ukrainian parents in distress, given his extensive military experience. Sadly, he was killed by artillery fire at the end of 2023.

After more than three years of war, the fates of foreign volunteers vary: some died, some cope with PTSD, and others continue fighting alongside Ukrainians.

Earlier, Euromaidan Press published a story about a former paramedic from Colombia, known as Miguel, who came to Ukraine intending to serve as a combat medic. However, due to the language barrier, he was assigned to the infantry.

Despite this, he never abandoned his mission. Every day on the front line, he saves the lives of his comrades. He is learning Ukrainian by singing Chervona Kalyna, the country’s patriotic anthem, and surviving tactics against Russian artillery. 

Moscow is turning occupied Ukrainian cities into military bases for further aggression. In Mariupol, captured in 2022, Russian forces have established two military bases at the Azovstal steel plant, according to Petro Andriushchenko, head of the Center for the Study of Occupation, UNIAN reports. 

According to Andriushchenko, one of the new bases was established in the last two months.

“This shows the level of militarization of Mariupol. Russian forces are relocating military assets mainly from Russia’s Rostov Oblast. Mariupol is no longer just a logistical crossroads. It is becoming a full-scale military logistics base,” he reveals. 

Andriushchenko says that each base at Azovstal originated from simple military checkpoints set up on the site.

He explains the location was chosen because it is hidden from outside surveillance, with no nearby residential buildings and difficult access due to fencing, making it safer for Russian troops.

“Let’s not forget that these bunkers and underground shelters once served to protect civilians and our Mariupol garrison. Now the Russians are repurposing them and succeeding in it,” Andriushchenko adds.

The Russian authorities do not care about the fate of the occupied cities or their residents. What matters to them is using these territories as staging grounds for continuing the war against Ukraine.

Nearly all Ukrainian cities under occupation are being turned into military footholds, logistical hubs, and bases for further aggression. At the same time, Russians forcibly conscript Ukrainians, often coercing them into fighting against their own country.

For example, in Crimea, people are leaving due to constant air raid sirens, explosions, and the overwhelming military presence, unable to endure the unrelenting stress and danger.

Russians in Crimea pack up as relentless sound of air alerts and sight of tanks become their new reality