Liz Cookman

@lizcookman.bsky.social

🖋️Correspondent: Ukraine, Turkey, Middle East 📍 Kyiv and Istanbul 🏆Best Print & Best Specialist Journalist, Freelance Journalism Awards 2024 🏆Amnesty Gaby Rado award 2023

Turkey's decades of extreme irrigation from rivers and groundwater for ag has also taken water from downstream Iraq. Now Turkey's land is barking back. Similar to subsidence (sinking ground) in California from overpumping groundwater. By @lizcookman.bsky.social www.theguardian.com/world/2026/f...

‘I live in constant fear’: surge in giant sinkholes threatens Turkey’s farmers

Falling groundwater, extreme heat and water-intensive farming are accelerating land collapse, forcing a rethink in agricultural practices

theguardian.com

It'a just over 5 years since I started freelancing & went straight to cover a 44-day war in Nagorno-Karabakh. After a ceasefire, Russian soldiers were sent in as peacekeepers(!). I wonder how many went on to die, or kill, in Ukraine. It's mind blowing how much has happened.

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10s of 1,000s of Ukrainian veterans have suffered heavy injury resulting in disability. Many are young men, who have to relearn how to live with new bodies, facing a taboo subject in a religious country - how to reclaim their sex lives. For @theobserveruk.bsky.social observer.co.uk/news/interna...

Love in a time of war: the new sex therapy for Ukraine’s ...

As thousands of young veterans return home with life-changing injuries, many are wondering if physical intimacy is something they’ll ever know again

observer.co.uk

This summer, Ukraine was hit with record nos of Russian drones - the deadliest run for civilians in over 3 years. The drones are getting faster, better, with attacks set to grow in autumn. But air defences are evolving quickly to catch up. For @observeruk.bsky.social observer.co.uk/news/interna...

As Russian drones rain down on Ukraine, this unit has one...

Citizens fall asleep every night to the constant hum of killing machines that turn buildings to dust and snuff out lives. In a sunflower field near Kyiv,...

observer.co.uk

In Kyiv, the Cabinet of Ministers building caught fire, likely after drone debris fell on it. PM Svyrydenko wrote: “For the first time, a government building — its roof and upper floors — has been damaged by an enemy attack. Firefighters are battling the blaze. Thank you for your work.”

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This summer, Ukraine was hit with record nos of Russian drones - the deadliest run for civilians in over 3 years. The drones are getting faster, better, with attacks set to grow in autumn. But air defences are evolving quickly to catch up. For @observeruk.bsky.social observer.co.uk/news/interna...

As Russian drones rain down on Ukraine, this unit has one...

Citizens fall asleep every night to the constant hum of killing machines that turn buildings to dust and snuff out lives. In a sunflower field near Kyiv,...

observer.co.uk

An interview with former Ukrainian president Poroshenko, and the view from Kyiv, amid the push for peace for @observeruk.bsky.social. “We don't need anything from Russia. Stop the war, stop the killing, stop grabbing territory, stop blackmailing us and get out.” observer.co.uk/news/interna...

We want peace – but not on Putin’s terms, Ukrainians say

Weary of Russia’s war, the citizens of Ukraine are nevertheless wary of a settlement that might give away too much or that doesn’t carry a security guara...

observer.co.uk

An interview with former Ukrainian president Poroshenko, and the view from Kyiv, amid the push for peace for @observeruk.bsky.social. “We don't need anything from Russia. Stop the war, stop the killing, stop grabbing territory, stop blackmailing us and get out.” observer.co.uk/news/interna...

We want peace – but not on Putin’s terms, Ukrainians say

Weary of Russia’s war, the citizens of Ukraine are nevertheless wary of a settlement that might give away too much or that doesn’t carry a security guara...

observer.co.uk

How Europe can hit Russia where it hurts — and why it probably won’t. The Continent is home to €260bn of frozen Kremlin assets. Ukraine wants it all seized like a sanctioned oligarch’s yacht. Me for @thetimes.com www.thetimes.com/world/russia...

How Europe can hit Russia where it hurts — and why it probably won’t

The Continent is home to €260bn of frozen Kremlin assets. Ukraine wants it all seized like a sanctioned oligarch’s yacht

thetimes.com

Russia is attempting a “digital occupation” of Ukraine using a vast network of pro-Kremlin bots that flood people’s mobile phones in the occupied east with subtle and locally-targeted disinformation. My story for @thetimes.com www.thetimes.com/world/russia...

How Russia targets Ukrainians’ hearts and minds through their phones

Pro-Kremlin fake accounts have flooded Telegram with thousands of targeted messages to create a ‘digital occupation’ and sow dissent

thetimes.com

Over 120 health facilities across Somalia are at risk due of closing due to cuts in international aid, with children paying the heaviest price. Our CEO Moazzam Malik visited Baidoa, the epicentre of the crisis, with @lizcookman.bsky.social. This is what they saw 👇

Sickness and starvation stalk Somalia’s children in the ‘City of Death’

Baidoa is the epicentre of a humanitarian crisis. Vital lifelines keeping infants alive may soon be forced to close, thanks to aid cuts

bit.ly

Thousand are on the streets in Kyiv for a second night, incl. wounded veterans, to protest Zelenskyy’s signing of a controversial bill on the independence of Ukraine’s anti-corruption institutions. Some compared him to Yanukovych, who was ousted during the Maidan Revolution.

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