Do Ukrainians have fun during wartime? And other stories you helped us report on this week.

Dear Kyiv Independent community members,

We hope your Friday is going as peacefully as it is for reporter Daria Shulzhenko's dog Mia, who is featured in the photo above with Dominic Culverwell, our business reporter. 

We'd also like to welcome the 74 new members this week. Thank you for your support of independent journalism in Ukraine. We wouldn't be here without you.

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

• We wrote about the most important Russian ships destroyed by Ukraine in the Black Sea since February 2022. Around 20% of Russia’s Black Sea fleet has been destroyed as of December 2023, according to Ukrainian estimates, with major implications for Russia’s ability to blockade trade and carry out attacks.

• One of our most popular stories last weekwasour report on the reshaping of Ukraine’s economic map as companies relocate to western regions. Dominic Culverwell spoke to displaced businesses that had moved away from the front line with help from the Ukrainian government’s enterprise relocation program.

• Another popular story was an in-depth look at the Russian regions named by President Volodymyr Zelensky as “historically inhabited by Ukrainians” in a presidential decree on Jan. 22. Kate Tsurkan explained the history of these regions and what the decree means in practice.

• We also reported on how Ukrainians feel about having fun during wartime. With the war entering its third year, Ukrainians across the country are trying to find their own war-life balance, whether in Kharkiv in the east or Chernivtsi in the west.

• We wrote about the growing significance of the German far-right party Alternative for Germany (AfD) and what this means for Ukraine – a story idea that had been suggested by our community.

• The latest episode of our podcast "This Week in Ukraine" covers the risk of escalation between Russia and NATO, and whether Europe is ready for a potential Russian attack. For the first time, host Masha Lavrova is joined by someone outside of the Kyiv Independent, namely Marcel Plichta, a security expert who is a fellow at the Center for Global Law and Governance at the University of St. Andrews and a former intelligence analyst at the U.S. Department of Defense.

• The latest issue of Belarus Weekly looks at further integration between Russia and Belarus, after Russian dictator Vladimir Putin claimed that the two countries have created “conditions for a unified monetary policy.”

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