About me

 

I’m inspired by places, which must be why I love travelling so much. And I love listening to people’s stories, trying to understand what they dream about, what makes them tick; wondering what our lives would be like if I’d been born in their place and they'd been born in mine.

 Lily Hyde is a British writer, journalist and editor specialising in Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union. In
addition to writing fiction, she covers Ukraine affairs for international media including The Guardian,The Times, Foreign Policy, Politico, Roads&Kingdoms, Slate, IRINnews, .Coda, New Eastern Europe. She has written extensively on Crimea and the war in east Ukraine, focusing on indigenous peoples, humanitarian issues, displacement and human rights abuses. Lily also works as a consultant in public health (in particular HIV/AIDS and TB) and human rights. 

An author profile here. See my blog for what I'm working on and thinking about right now.

 

Some longform journalism: 

COVID-19 turns the clock back on the war in Ukraine

Disinformation and vaccine hesitancy grips Ukraine
Infectious diseases like measles are making a global comeback. Hardest hit is Ukraine, which has seen the fastest recent rise in measles in the world
 

How Ukraine is grappling with a rapid uptick in measles

Measles resurgence haunts Ukraine campaign

The infectious disease is unbalancing the government’s Western-backed reform strategy and its US-born health minister

Crimea’s native tongues
Russian-annexed Crimea has three official state languages. In practice, languages other than Russian are being squeezed out through a policy of persuasion, coercion and repression
 

Polluted by a War of Words

When a Crimean town was engulfed by toxic gas, public safety concerns were lost in a cloud of disinformation

Now Healthcare Is a Weapon in Ukraine’s War
Russian-backed separatists are using medical treatment to try to win support for their cause
 

All wild on Ukraine’s eastern front
For the country’s once beleaguered wildlife, the war has been a godsend

How both sides in Ukraine’s war are losing the HIV battle
Displacement, aid delivery issues, and different strategies are all feeding a raging epidemic

A Bakery in a War Zone
For the people of war-torn Mariinka, bread is a reminder of better days

Ukraine’s TB problem is ticking time bomb for Europe
Controlling the airborne disease takes on additional urgency this year as the country seeks to integrate into EU with a new visa-free regime

The Annexation of Crimea Isn’t Going as Planned
The show trial of Akhtem Chiygoz was supposed to be a quick and easy way to discourage dissent. That was before it went off the rails

Annexation Symptoms
Russian rule has cut Crimea’s drug addicts off from the treatments they depend on, with sometimes deadly results

The Disappeared

Untangling two tales of enforced disappearance in Russian-annexed Crimea

Prisoners of semantics
In a violent conflict neither will call a ‘war,’ Ukrainian and Russian prisoners languish in legal limbo

A day in the life of Nariman Dzhelyal
Crimea’s Tatars live a precarious existence under Russian rule
 

The missing: what have they done with our sons?
To lose a child in war is a nightmare. But when your quest to find them is met with lies, it’s a nightmare that never ends. Lily Hyde travels with the Ukrainian mothers seeking their sons

Ukraine to rewrite Soviet history with controversial 'decommunisation' laws
President set to sign measures that ban Communist symbols and offer public recognition and payouts for fighters in militias implicated in atrocities