In recognition of the recent one-year anniversary of the tragic Russian Invasion of Ukraine on February 24th, we wanted to share with our entire audience a very special bonus episode that was previously only available to our Patreon supporters. Last year we recorded this episode with Ukrainian journalist Olga Yurkova, who we spoke with from Ukraine while the initial brutal assaults were still being felt across the now war-torn country. In this episode, Rachel also shared a few of her own reflections as someone who has a family history in Ukraine.
We hope this episode will give you the opportunity to reflect on both the devastating outcomes that can result from indoctrination, propaganda, and groupthink on such a mass level, as well as the courageous resilience of the human spirit and the awe-inspiring bravery of survivorship of those still resisting tyrannical systems of control.
Olga Yurkova is a Ukrainian journalist and co-founder of StopFake.org, an independent Ukrainian organization that trains an international cohort of fact-checkers in an effort to curb propaganda and misinformation in the media. She spoke with us last July about her work fighting Russian propaganda campaigns in Ukraine with her projects Forbidden Facts and StopFake.org. Since then Vladimir Putin's violent invasion has ravaged the Ukrainian landscape displacing millions of people and causing thousands of civilian casualties in just a few months' time. Since internet connectivity is often unstable and services such as Zoom and Skype are currently inaccessible in Ukraine, we were only able to connect with Olga via cell phone. We are so grateful for her strength and insistence on continuing to inform people in real time of Russia's dangerous disinformation campaign even in the grips of wartime chaos. Olga spoke with us two weeks ago from the relative safety of central Ukraine.
Watch Olga's Ted Talk here:
www.ted.com/speakers/olga_yurkova
Listen to our previous episode from July 2021 with Olga here:
https://soundcloud.com/indoctrinationshow/weapons-of-information-wolga-yurkova
You can support Olga's work fighting Russian disinformation at StopFake here:
www.stopfake.org/en/donate-en/
Olga suggests donating to these organizations that directly support Ukrainian people on the ground:
Voices of Children is a charity that focuses on helping children recover from the psychological trauma of war:
voices.org.ua/en/
Come Back Alive is one of the most accountable and trustworthy charities working for the military in Ukraine since 2014. The charity has been providing the military with auxiliary equipment, specialized software, drones, personal body protection, training, and other supplies:
savelife.in.ua/en/donate/
Hospitallers is a volunteer paramedic organization, that helps the wounded on the battlefield, evacuates the wounded to the hospitals, helps in the rehabilitation process, and transfers the deceased to the burial site in Ukraine. Their current focus is on supplying medicines that are in shortage:
www.edvantis.com/blog/how-to-help-ukraine/
The Kyiv Independent, a Ukraine-based English-language newspaper:
www.gofundme.com/f/kyivindependent-launch
HelpUkraine.center is a volunteer hub for humanitarian and medical aid for Ukraine. It accepts medical supplies, food, and hygiene products for babies and moms. It also accepts donations for purchasing medications and other necessary humanitarian products in Europe:
helpukraine.center/#donate.
Sergiy Prytula’s foundations. Sergiy Prytula is a Ukrainian TV presenter and public figure. Since the beginning of the Russian-Ukrainian war in 2014, he has been volunteering to provide military aid to Ukrainian Armed Forces and humanitarian and financial assistance to children with cancer:
prytulafoundation.org/en
You can gain access to all of our bonus episodes by becoming a supporter at:
https://www.patreon.com/indoctrination
