Summer came to Kherson, with thick morning mists and frog concerts at night. Sweet cherries, juicy apples, and all of the many things that the soil generously provides began to appear. And with them came blackouts and mobile phone disconnection.

Time passed. The occupation continued. As spring came, the situation in the city hardened. The Russians began to behave more brazenly and defiantly, and gradually life turned into a chronicle of violence and crime. 

Drugreporter recorded six side events, organised by NGOs at the 66th UN Commission on Narcotic Drugs, between 13-17 March, 2023. The issues addressed are implementing a human rights approach in drug policy, the nordic drug policy reform, Ukraine’s harm reduction measures during Russian invasion, environmental impacts of the war on drugs and more.

Imagine for a moment that you have been deprived of the ability to do the usual routine things; to leave the house whenever you like, to walk wherever you like, to go to the cinema, museums, or the theatre, to drink coffee with friends at the corner café, to buy something at the shop, to go to a neighbouring town or to another country. When – in one moment – you find yourself under occupation, you lose everything that your life consisted of.

We found out about the war on the morning of 24 February. All the news channels were screaming about it. We were literally crushed by the news: missile attacks on Kiev, Odessa, Dnipro, Lviv, Ivano-Frankivsk… At the same time gigantic military columns were heading towards Kiev, Kharkiv, Kherson, Mykolaiv, Odessa…

Igor Kuzmenko, a filmmaker and founder of the Drug Users News (DUNews) video blog, needs your help! Please make a donation today to support his work to produce a series of documentaries about the community of people who use drugs in Ukraine during the war. Movies about the people, organizations, and networks that save thousands of Ukrainians from death and give hope every day.

An interview with Anton Basenko, chair of the Ukrainian Network of People Who Use Drugs

Pregnancy and the birth of a child is a bright, big, and important event. It’s about the laws of the universe and love. But, in the opinion of many medical professionals, women living with drug addiction in Ukraine have no right to it. If you choose to inject, you deserve to die.

The film ‘Targets’ is a story about the women in Ukraine who are branded as “drug addicts” and who are being destroyed by the state today. These women are targets, and a real war is being waged against them. The film is an attempt to understand why this is happening and what needs to be done to stop these deaths.

An update about how access to harm reduction programs changed in European cities after the lockdown measures were lifted between the first and second waves of the COVID-19 epidemic.