Daria Marchenko (born c. 1982) [1] is a Ukrainian artist who has worked with bullet shells from the war in Donbas in eastern Ukraine. In 2015, Marchenko created in her studio in Kiev a portrait called "The Face of War" of Russian President Vladimir Putin, made up with 5,000 bullet casings from the conflict. [2] The portrait was presented along with a novel with the personal stories of six people involved with the project, including Daria's own story, and of the people who helped her collect the cartridges at the front. [1] [2] [3] [4]
Marchenko has had a boyfriend who was an active member in the Euromaidan movement and helped her get the first shells for the portrait of "The Face of War". [1] [5]
Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin is a Russian politician and former intelligence officer serving as the current president of Russia. Putin has served continuously as president or prime minister since 1999: as prime minister from 1999 to 2000 and from 2008 to 2012, and as president from 2000 to 2008 and since 2012.
Viktor Volodymyrovych Medvedchuk is a former Ukrainian lawyer, business oligarch, and politician who has lived in exile in Russia since September 2022 after being handed over to Russia in a prisoner exchange. Medvedchuk is a pro-Kremlin Ukrainian politician and a personal friend of Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Vladimir Rudolfovich Solovyov is a Russian TV presenter and political commentator. He has been an anchor on the television show Evening with Vladimir Solovyov on Russia-1 since 2012.
Dmitry Sergeyevich Peskov is a Russian diplomat and the press secretary for Russian president Vladimir Putin.
The foreign policy of Vladimir Putin concerns the policies of the Russian Federation's president Vladimir Putin with respect to other nations. He has held the office of the President previously from 2000 to 2008, and reassumed power again in 2012 and has been President since.
The Russo-Ukrainian War, previously referred to as the Ukrainian crisis in its early stages, is an ongoing international conflict between Russia, alongside Russian-backed separatists, and Ukraine, which began in February 2014. Following Ukraine's Revolution of Dignity, Russia annexed Crimea from Ukraine and supported pro-Russian separatists fighting the Ukrainian military in the Donbas war. The first eight years of conflict also included naval incidents, cyberwarfare, and heightened political tensions. In February 2022, Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
Media portrayals of the Russo-Ukrainian War, including skirmishes in eastern Donbas and the 2014 Ukrainian revolution after the Euromaidan protests, the subsequent 2014 annexation of Crimea, incursions into Donbas, and the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, have differed widely between Ukrainian, Western and Russian media. Russian, Ukrainian, and Western media have all, to various degrees, been accused of propagandizing, and of waging an information war.
The propaganda of the Russian Federation promotes views, perceptions or agendas of the government. The media include state-run outlets and online technologies, and may involve using "Soviet-style 'active measures' as an element of modern Russian 'political warfare'". Notably, contemporary Russian propaganda promotes the cult of personality of Vladimir Putin and positive views of Soviet history. Russia has established a number of organizations, such as the Presidential Commission of the Russian Federation to Counter Attempts to Falsify History to the Detriment of Russia's Interests, the Russian web brigades, and others that engage in political propaganda to promote the views of the Russian government.
Zhenya Gershman is a U.S. painter and portraitist. She is known for her "dramatic monumental portraits of iconic public and private figures" and interest in art history.
The Russian information war against Ukraine was first articulated by Valery Gerasimov in 2013. He believed that Western governments were instigating color revolutions and the Arab Spring, which posed a threat to Russia. Gerasimov's definition reflected his view of Western involvement in these events, particularly the 2011–2013 Russian protests.
Vovan and Lexus are Russian comedians Vladimir Kuznetsov or Krasnov and Aleksei Stolyarov; they are noted for their prank telephone calls to prominent individuals.
"On the Historical Unity of Russians and Ukrainians" is an essay by Russian president Vladimir Putin published on 12 July 2021.
On 24 February 2022, Russia invaded Ukraine in an escalation of the Russo-Ukrainian War which began in 2014. The invasion has killed tens of thousands on both sides, with Russian troops causing mass civilian casualties and captured Ukrainian soldiers reporting frequent torture. By June 2022, about 8 million Ukrainians were internally displaced. More than 8.2 million fled the country by May 2023, Europe's largest refugee crisis since World War II. Extensive environmental damage, widely described as ecocide, contributed to the 2022 food crises.
The International Criminal Court investigation in Ukraine or the Situation in Ukraine is an ongoing investigation by the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) into "any past and present allegations of war crimes, crimes against humanity or genocide committed on any part of the territory of Ukraine by any person" during the period starting "from 21 November 2013 onwards", on an "open-ended basis", covering the Revolution of Dignity, the Russo-Ukrainian War including the 2014 annexation of Crimea by Russia, the war in Donbas and the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine. The ICC prosecutor commenced these investigations on 2 March 2022, after receiving referrals for the situation in Ukraine from 39 ICC State Parties.
Feminist Anti-War Resistance is a group of Russian feminists founded in February 2022 to protest against the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine. In its first month, FAR became "one of Russia’s fastest-growing anti-war campaigns", attracting more than 26,000 followers on Telegram.
The Anti-War Committee of Russia is an organization founded by a group of exiled Russian public figures for the purpose of opposing Vladimir Putin's regime and the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine. Through its Ark project, the committee helps coordinate resources for emigrants leaving Russia as a result of the war.
The 2022 Moscow rally, officially known in Russia as "For a world without Nazism", was a political rally and concert at Luzhniki Stadium in Moscow on 18 March 2022, which marked the eighth anniversary of the annexation of Crimea by the Russian Federation. President Vladimir Putin spoke at the event, justifying the Russian invasion of Ukraine and praising Russian troops, to a crowd of 200,000 people, per Moscow City Police. Outlets including the BBC and the Moscow Times reported that state employees were transported to the venue, and other attendees were paid or forced to attend.
Soviet imagery has been extensively used by Russian forces during the Russo-Ukrainian War, especially following the invasion of Ukraine by Russia on 24 February 2022.
Since 2014, Russia falsely accused Ukraine of genocide in the Donbas region. Russian propaganda claimed that Ukrainian authorities have undertaken measures amidst the war in Donbas that amount to genocide against Russian speakers of Ukraine. They have been cited by Russian president Vladimir Putin in support of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, a large-scale escalation of the Russo-Ukrainian War.
Darya Aleksandrovna Dugina, also known under the pen name Daria Platonova, was a Russian journalist, political scientist, and activist. She was the daughter of Aleksandr Dugin, a supporter of Vladimir Putin and a far-right political philosopher, whose support for the Russian invasion of Ukraine she shared. She was killed in August 2022 in a car bombing on the outskirts of Moscow.