Our team completed another medical training: Here's what you helped us achieve in the last week

Dear Kyiv Independent community members,

This week, some of our team completed another medical training. It's important to continue to take courses like medical training or hostile environment awareness training to keep the skills refreshed. Pictured above office manager Sofa Koretska and audience development manager Elsa Court secure a casualty during medical training.

We'd like to give a warm welcome to our 83 new members this week. This is what your support helps us accomplish. Thank you for standing with us.

Here are some highlights from the Kyiv Independent this week:

• Our War Crimes Investigations Unit is preparing to release its next documentary "Shadows Across the River." Danylo Mokryk, the film’s author, investigates Russian war crimes on the east bank of the Dnipro River, which has been under occupation since 2022. We will have an exclusive screening for our community on Wednesday, Oct. 16 at 6 p.m. followed by a Q&A with our War Crimes Investigations Unit. Register and submit your questions here.

• Ukrainian journalist Viktoriia Roshchyna died in Russian captivity. Roshchyna, 27, was about to be released and returned home when the news of her death was announced earlier this week. Daria Shulzhenko's article remembers who she was and what she contributed to journalism.

• We wrote about both Ukraine's and Russia's weapons supplies. Asami Terajima's story takes a look at how Ukraine is scrambling for resources before U.S. elections, and Chris York's article explains that while the crisis in the Middle East won't affect Russia's ballistic missile supply in the short term, there might be problems in the long run.

• We also reported on Russia's rapid Toretsk offensive. Asami Terajima's article analyzes Russia's gains in Donbas and the risk of the coal mining town Toretsk falling, as Russian forces try to capture as much territory as possible before the weather changes.

• Our most popular story this week was Kateryna Hodunova's article about Ukraine's use of domestically produced weapons to target Russian ammunition depots, in an attempt to disrupt logistics.

• We also wrote about the popular Kherson bar that was forced to relocate to Kyiv due to the war. Lunca Bar moved to Kyiv in early 2023, after facing occupation, constant shelling, and flooding from Russia's destruction of the Kakhovka Dam. “I am an optimist. I believe in a better fate for our country, and I want to contribute to securing that future," the owner said.

Thank you for standing by our side as we bring independent, locally sourced news about Ukraine to the world.