Ukraine

Ukraine didn't qualify for this year’s World Cup, and Russia was banned from the games. But soccer goes on in both countries, amid a war that could decide the future of the sport in Crimea and eastern Ukraine.

Russian hackers have been trying to break into Naftogaz systems for years, so when Mandiant offered to deploy hunt teams for free to see if anything was lurking in their networks, the company executives couldn’t believe their luck.

When Kherson was liberated from Russian occupation earlier this month, the song “Oi u luzi chervona kalyna,” or “Oh, the Red Viburnum in the Meadow,” could be heard throughout the Ukrainian city as a song of resistance.

A forest in the city of Izium in northeast Ukraine is home to one of the largest mass graves discovered since the Russian invasion.

Russia’s relationship with North Korea goes back decades. Now, there are reports that Russia is getting military assistance from North Korea amid the war in Ukraine. Yet, both governments deny it. 

It’s been two months since Ukrainian forces took back this city, but life is far from back to normal. The World visited Izium earlier this month and saw firsthand Russia’s trail of devastation, mines and one of the biggest mass graves discovered since the war began.

Victoria Obidina was among a group of women who were taken as prisoners by the Russian military from the besieged Azovstal steel plant in Mariupol in May. Obidina was held captive for six months before being released last month as part of a prisoner exchange between Russia and Ukraine.

Journalist Mikhail Fishman, an anchor at the independent Russian news outlet TV Rain, joined The World's host Marco Werman to talk about how the Russian government is placing "a big bet" on US midterm elections outcomes that will favor Russian President Vladimir Putin's war in Ukraine.

On Oct. 10, Russia carried out a series of attacks on the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv. One of the rockets landed on a children’s playground at the popular Shevchenko Park. No one was killed at the park but the attack shocked parents and caregivers.

Just 10 days before the war began last February, Ukrainian officials launched a nationwide vaccination campaign to stop a rare polio outbreak in the country. But the war has made controlling the outbreak nearly impossible.