Sarcasm isn't a typical approach to diplomacy, but it is one that Russia often takes. While it may seem humorous in the moment, the larger strategy affects how people view the conflict in Ukraine.

For a new long-player of an album, Dragon New Warm Mountain I Believe in You, the four members of Big Thief decided to let the spaces they were recording in help shape the record's creative direction.

NPR's Ari Shapiro talks with Fiona Hill, former intelligence officer on Russia and Eurasian affairs and former National Security Council member, on the tensions between Russia, the U.S. and Ukraine.

NPR's Adrian Florido talks with Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman on the tense standoff between Russia and the U.S. and its allies over the Russian military buildup on the border with Ukraine.

NPR's Adrian Florido talks with Mercedes Carnethon, vice chair of the Department of Preventive Medicine at Northwestern University, on whether local governments lifting mask mandates is science-based.

NPR travelled towards the "temporarily occupied territories" on the Ukraine-Russia border, where the people who live there are in limbo – cut off from both Ukraine and Russia, cut off from the world.

The standoff between Ukraine and Russia is about global security and an attempt to "rewrite rules on which the world is based," says Ukraine's foreign minister.

Russia is threatening to invade Ukraine. But in the eastern region of Donbas, war has been underway since Russia-backed separatists moved in and declared breakaway republics in 2014.

NPR's Mary Louise Kelly reports from Donbas region of Ukraine as its residents live under the threat of a Russian incursion and cope with eight years of tensions and fighting along the border.

It Russia takes the path of aggression, it will face "extremely severe consequences immediately," says the U.S. charge d'affaires Kristina Kvien.

NPR's Mary Louise Kelly talks with Congressmen Gregory Meeks, D-N.Y., and Congressman Mark Green, R-Tenn., about their trip to Ukraine as the country faces the threat of a Russian invasion.

NPR's Mary Louise Kelly talks with Hanna Hopko, an original leader of Ukraine's EuroMaidan protests in 2014 about whether Ukrainians can stand up to the threat of Russian aggression.

NPR's Mary Louise Kelly talks with Kristina Kvien who, as the Charge d'Affaires at the U.S. Embassy in Ukraine, is the top American official on the ground in Kyiv.

NPR's Mary Louise Kelly talks with Ukrainian politician Ivanna Klympush-Tsintsadze about Ukraine's relationship with the world, which she and many others are counting on as Russia threatens to invade.

Amid the crisis with Russia, some Ukrainians say their president has come up short. Others, like some of the ones skating in front of the office of the president, say they still support him.

Ukraine's former prime minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk says the military is stronger than it was the last time Russia invaded in 2014. But he still thinks the U.S. should help should Russia make advances.

NPR's Mary Louise Kelly talks with former Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk about the threat of a Russian invasion.

NPR's Mary Louise Kelly talks with people in Kyiv about the possibility of a Russian invasion into Ukraine.

NPR's Ailsa Chang talks with Santa Monica City Councilmember Kristin McCowan on the impact the city's "Right to Return" program could have on families displaced for development decades ago.

NPR's Ailsa Chang talks with ex football player and sexual assault survivor Jon Vaughn about the University of Michigan's settlement over allegations of abuse by a former sports doctor.