When Russia launched its full-scale invasion, Alina Holovko, a resident of Dnipro, spent her days organizing volunteers to assemble Molotov cocktails as Russian forces threatened to reach the city. She and other volunteers founded Dobra Sprava, a humanitarian organization that evacuates civilians from frontline communities.
In the early months of the war, those evacuation drivers were overwhelmingly men, making repeated trips into cities such as Lysychansk, Rubizhne, Siversk and later Bakhmut. But as the war dragged on and Ukraine’s military demanded more manpower, many of those volunteers were mobilized into the armed forces.
More than four years of war have steadily reduced the pool of experienced civilian volunteers. A July 2026 CSIS analysis estimated R
ussia had suffered roughly 1.4 million battlefield casualties and Ukraine between 525,000 and 625,000 since the full-scale invasion.
An April 2026 Human Rights First report found that the trend extends beyond Dobra Sprava, documenting that volunteer groups across eastern Ukraine are turning to women to conduct evacuations as experienced male volunteers are mobilized or lost to Russian attacks.
International Glance
Sam Neill, a smoothly elegant and versatile actor whose career moved from art film to blockbuster as he dodged velociraptors in "Jurassic Park" to playing Holly Hunter's husband in "The Piano," has died. He was 78.
Two people were killed and several others injured after at least two shooters exchanged gunfire amid crowds of roughly 13,000 people at Canada’s biggest Latin street festival in Toronto on Saturday, police said.
The move to ban NHS staff from displaying political symbols in the workplace and wearing medical scrubs in protests has been widely condemned by politicians and healthcare workers, who say it is using fears of antisemitism to crack down on expressions of solidarity with Palestine.
As part of his visit to Ukraine, US Senator Lindsey Graham visited one of the production locations of the Ukrainian technology-defense company SkyFall.
The UK’s charity regulator has issued an official warning to a British charity which raises funds to support Israeli soldiers over a "distressing" video posted on its website.





























