We published a photo story showing the intimate scenes of life during war: Here's what you helped us achieve this week
Dear Kyiv Independent community members,
Thank you for your continued support.
We first want to take a second to say thank you to everyone who filled out our community satisfaction survey. We closed the form on Monday with 1,065 total responses — about 6% of our community! Last time we ran our survey in October, we had 555 responses, which was about 4.5% of our community at the time.
We're so grateful for the amount of participation — and it's important to us that your voices are heard. We hope to share with you some insights from the survey in the coming weeks and some decisions that you've had impact on.
We'd also like to give a warm welcome to the 247 new members who joined this week. It's thanks to you we don't have to rely on a paywall, advertisers, or a wealthy owner to fund our work. Thank you for supporting independent journalism.
Here's what you helped us accomplish at the Kyiv Independent this week:
We published a photo story showing the intimate scenes of life during war. Ukrainian documentary photographer Elena Kalinichenko's photo story is “about constant anxiety, panic attacks, and loneliness,” and the new meaning they've taken on amid war. Pictured above is one of the photos from Elena's series.
We reported on the recent drone strikes on Kyiv, as Russia's attack continue with no ceasefire in sight. We reported on the destruction in residential areas from the May 4 attack, with one woman whose apartment building was hit with a drone said "How do I feel now? I just hate the Russians. That's it." We also reported on the aftermath of the May 7 attack, which killed a 64-year-old animal rescue volunteer, her son, and nine of the cats that lived with them.
We also reported on Ukraine's air defenses struggling amid missile shortages. Asami Terajima's story takes a close look at new aerial threats, even to cities like Kyiv, as Russia increases it ballistic attacks and improves its missiles — and as U.S.-supplied air defense munitions run out.
We reported from Kharkiv Oblast, showing how military medics at a stabilization point deal with drone warfare. Francis Farrell's article shows how drone warfare in Ukraine is expanding at a dizzying pace, making every inch of the battlefield even deadlier and evacuation wait times longer, and how Ukraine's military medics have been forced to adapt.
One widely read story was Ukraine's uptick in drone strikes on Moscow, leading up to the Kremlin's "Victory Day" parade. Karol Luczka's story analyzes the questions that arose after Zelensky claimed Ukraine was "not responsible" for the security of Moscow's cherished military spectacle. We also looked at five things that Putin conveniently left out of his "Victory Day" speech which he gave today in Moscow.
We explained the role of WWII in Russian propaganda. We interviewed historian Andrej Lushnycky about Putin's version of Nazi Germany's defeat by the Soviets, as well as associate professor Jonathan Brunstedt on how Putin weaponized "Victory Day."
We wrote about the Ukrainian children abducted by Russia — and Ukraine's uphill battle to bring them home. Daria Shulzhenko's story explains how Russia attempts to erase their Ukrainian identity of these children, as they are placed in Russian families or camps, often undergoing military training, and subjected to intense propaganda.
Finally, it is no surprise that Russia's "Victory Day" ceasefire was a sham. We reported on the noisy front line, interviewing Ukrainian soldiers, who reported that "There is no truce. There is shelling, artillery, drone and FPV bomb drops."
Thank you for standing by our side as we bring independent, locally sourced news about Ukraine to the world.