Here's what you helped us achieve in the last week

Dear Kyiv Independent community members,

We hope your weeks have all been going well! Here is some good news for your Friday: 

Pictured above is a mother cat (left) and three of her four kittens, that were recently rescued from Bakhmut. A friend of our reporter Francis Farrell in Ukraine's 93rd brigade saved the mother cat and the kittens from where they were born, under his bed in Bakhmut about a month ago. The cats have now all been adopted – one by Francis himself. 

We'd like to give a warm welcome to our 27 new members this week. Thank you for standing with us – your contributions make our work possible.

Here are some highlights from the Kyiv Independent over the last week:

• We launched our project: Ukraine's True History! The first installment of this series debunks 10 popular misconceptions about Ukrainian history. Subscribe to the Ukraine's True History weekly newsletter here.

• Our most popular story last week was about Ukrainian infantry north of Bakhmut on the zero line. Francis Farrell's piece, reported from just a few hundred meters away from Russian positions, follows Ukraine’s 10th Mountain Assault Brigade and the situation on the front line in Donetsk Oblast. 

• We reported on Russia's new guided bombs. Illia Ponomarenko's story looks at how cheap modifications can essentially turn a simple bomb into a guided missile and the effects on the frontline, as Ukraine is currently unable to counter them. 

• We also wrote about the viral videos showing the pattern of Russian atrocities throughout the war, the most recent of which shows the brutal decapitation of a Ukrainian soldier. Alexander Khrebet's story describes how Russian troops routinely commit extrajudicial executions of both POWs and civilians.

• This week Belarus Weekly includes Belarusian dictator Lukashenko's calls for Russia to defend Belarus "like its own territory" in the event of an attack, as well as the Belarusian Foreign Minister's visit to his counterpart in Hungary. 

• We reported on the U.S. intelligence leak, which contains hundreds of classified documents. The leak, which some writers have called the leak of the decade, is suspected to have been done by a now-arrested 21-year-old Air National Guardsman. Igor Kossov's article explains everything we've learned from the Pentagon leak and why it matters.

• The third episode of "This Week in Ukraine" was released. This week host Anastasiia Lapatina and reporter Igor Kossov discuss what the U.S. intelligence leak reveals about the war in Ukraine, with your questions answered starting at 18:40. Thank you to those who sent something in! 

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