On Sept. 3, Ukraine’s defence minister, Oleksii Reznikov, who has stood at the helm of the country’s protracted war with Russia since Day 1, announced his resignation. If you missed the news, you wouldn’t be alone; with the war heading into its third year in a few months, global attention has drifted away. Clear media narratives and easily digestible stories have fallen wayside since the conflict began in February 2022.

A new book aims to recall some of the humanity that’s been lost in this inhumane struggle. Ukrainian Portraits, by Canadian writer, journalist and professor Marina Sonkina, focuses on human-scale stories she gathered at a refugee centre on the Polish border, which was set up by the Joint Distribution Committee, one of the world’s largest and oldest Jewish humanitarian organizations. Sonkina joins The CJN Daily to relay these stories that so easily get lost in the fog of war.

Credits

The CJN Daily is written and hosted by Ellin Bessner (@ebessner on Twitter). Zachary Kauffman is the producer. Michael Fraiman is the executive producer. Our theme music by Dov Beck-Levine. Our title sponsor is Metropia. We’re a member of The CJN Podcast Network. To subscribe to this podcast, please watch this video. Donate to The CJN and receive a charitable tax receipt by clicking here.