We contributed to an investigation into an Italian steel company with Russian ties: Here's what you helped us achieve this week

Dear Kyiv Independent community members,

We'd like to say a special thank you to our member Ben Chartrand for sending us a photo of his first sunflower that bloomed. Ben started planting sunflowers in honor of Ukraine in 2022. Pictured above is the first sunflower that bloomed this year and the year previous, courtesy of Ben.

We also have a favor to ask you – we shared these sunflowers on our social media, and our social media team is interested in more content from our members, so we can highlight our community. If you have something similar you'd be interested in sharing, you can email community manager Brooke at brooke@kyivindependent.com.

We'd like to welcome the 74 new members this week. Thank you for your continued support!

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

• We reported on Ukraine's move to fortify the front line. Francis Farrell's story take a look at the current situation, with Russian forces taking the initiative on a wide stretch of the eastern front line, and Ukraine's delayed decision to fortify the entire line of contact, following the summer counteroffensive's strategic failure. Our next community event will be a Q&A with Francis about the war on Jan. 11: Register and submit your questions here.

• Our most popular story last week was Asami Terajima's article from Kherson Oblast about soldiers whose mission it is to cross the Dnipro, which some call a "suicidal" task, as it's difficult to cross the river with no cover and to fortify positions on swampy ground.

• We reported on the potential discord between Zelensky and his top general Zaluzhnyi. Alexander Khrebet and Olga Rudenko's article explains why it appears Ukraine's president and his commander-in-chief aren't getting along and what it means for the war, though tensions between the two have been easing recently.

• Following this, we published an editorial explaining why we choose not to avoid "unpleasant" stories like the conflict between Zelensky and Zaluzhnyi, or the stories of hardships on the front line. 

• We wrote about three unarmed teenagers who were killed by Russian forces in the first month of the full-scale invasion. Twins Yevhen and Bohdan Samodii, both 17, and their friend Valentyn Yakymchuk, 18, were shot by the Russian military as they were on the way to deliver oil to their neighbor as a thank you.

• We contributed to an investigation by Dutch outlet Follow the Money, which reveals how the Italian Danieli Group grew to become a major player in the Russian steel technology industry – the engine of Russia's military-industrial complex – after Russia's 2014 occupation of Crimea and has supplied equipment to at least one Russian steel plant since the all-out war started.

• We interviewed Nova Poshta, Ukraine’s largest parcel delivery service, which has opened branches in 11 European countries since the start of Russia's full-scale invasion – the company saw a responsibility to connect Ukrainians abroad with their homeland, but also an opportunity to expand to new markets.

• We also interviewed Dutch Trade Minister Geoffrey van Leeuwen, who recently visited Kyiv with the goal of reassuring Ukrainian officials that Dutch support is here to stay, despite the Netherlands' recent election results. The minister said "If you don't stop Russia now, they'll go further. It's not just Ukraine."

• This week Belarus Weekly includes Germany's historic agreement to permanently deploy 4,800 German troops in Lithuania, near its eastern border with Russia and Belarus, the first German military base abroad since the end of WWII.

• Episode 39 of "This Week in Ukraine" is about Ukraine’s biggest events of 2023. Reporter Francis Farrell and deputy chief editor Oleksiy Sorokin join host Anastasiia Lapatina to discuss the past year and what to expect in 2024, with the podcast returning in January.

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