We celebrated our third birthday! Here's what you helped us accomplish in the last week

Dear Kyiv Independent community members,

On Monday, we celebrated the third birthday of the Kyiv Independent! Thank you for your continued support — we quite literally wouldn't be here without readers like you, and we're proud to be able to call you our community members. It's thanks to our community of 12,000 that we don't have to rely on a paywall to keep our reporting funded — meaning that our journalism is free and accessible to millions of readers.

We launched a goal to find 1,000 new members in November to keep the Kyiv Independent funded and to prepare us for whatever 2025 might bring. We'd like to give a warm welcome to the 397 new members who joined our community this week. Thank you for choosing to stand with us and for bringing us one big step closer to our goal.

We also recently added a feature for gifting membership. If you know someone who might appreciate our reporting or community benefits, you can make a contribution in their name here.

Pictured above COO Zakhar Protsiuk holds the Kyiv Independent's birthday cake as the candles are being lit on Monday, Nov. 11.

Here are some highlights from the Kyiv Independent this week:

• We reported on Russia's nightly drone attacks on Ukraine. Dinara Khalilova's article explains how in the past months Russia's tactics have changed to launching barrages of drones every night in attacks that last for hours — and how Kyiv residents deal with the new strategy.

• Our most popular story this week was about Russia's Su-57 fighter jet and its performance at the 2024 Airshow China. We interviewed five experts to help explain what made Russia's most modern fighter jet the subject of global ridicule and embarrassment.

• We wrote about what Trump's picks for his administration mean for Ukraine — with both positive and negative implications so far.

• We reported on Russia's plans for a 50,000-person offensive to push Ukrainian troops out of Russia’s Kursk Oblast. Kateryna Hodunova's article takes a look at the gathering forces, including 10,000 North Korean soldiers, and the preparations for the offensive, which may not stop at the border.

• We reported on Viktor Orban's weakening grip on Hungary, as the unlikely challenger — a previously unknown former government loyalist — Peter Magyar and the Tisza opposition party now leads in polls, but without an outright majority.

• We also wrote about the Kremlin's new strategy of targeting child-free Russians. This week, the Russian State Duma voted to outlaw the support and promotion of "childfree propaganda," effectively imposing fines on those who publicly express these views.

• We launched a new feature for members: our digital community map. We wanted a way to showcase our global network of supporters and say thank you for making it all possible. You can add your own pin to the map here, either with your first name or anonymously.

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