Poland

Critical State, a foreign policy newsletter by Inkstick Media, takes a deep dive this week into the power and politics of collective memory when it comes to partitions. "If states told ghost stories, they would tell them of past partitions," Kelsey D. Atherton writes.

As Russian dissidents flee to Poland, this moment has created an unexpected opportunity for historians in both countries to work together to uncover the more disturbing aspects of their shared history.

Recent Russian attacks have damaged power grids and water systems in the capital, Kyiv, but families are returning home, and crews of electrical maintenance workers are being charged with bringing power back to the city.

The Polish government has steadily been demolishing dozens of Soviet-era monuments ever since the Russian invasion of Ukraine. But many Polish citizens believe preserving their country's complicated history is important.

Poland has taken in nearly 1.5 million Ukrainians since the war began. Local mayors say they’re now running out of money to support refugees. And the vast network of volunteers that turned up in the early months of the invasion say that they’re running out of energy, too.

Poland was quick to cut back on Russian energy imports. The government has signed contracts with Norway and the US to help make up for those cuts. But the energy crunch is really hitting Poland hard. Prices have shot up by as much as 700% since the start of Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

The town Przemyśl which lies on Poland's border with Ukraine, has seen a revolving door of migrants fleeing the war in Ukraine, and then returning home. At the train station in Przemyśl, many Ukrainians are facing difficult decisions about returning home amid a brutal war.

The Polish government says it is establishing a national medical database, following a directive from the EU Commission, promising to ensure the protection of people's privacy. But in a country with a near-total abortion ban, rights activists are not so convinced.

The Ukrainian Ministry of Defense granted special permission for the male musicians to leave the country, calculating that the world will be more motivated to protect Ukraine if it sees its culture as something precious and worth saving.

In recent weeks, some Ukrainians in Warsaw have opened their own schools to let displaced children finish the school year in their own language and according to their own education system.