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Asami Terajima

Reporter

Asami Terajima is a reporter at the Kyiv Independent covering Ukrainian military affairs and front-line developments. She is the co-author of the weekly War Notes newsletter. She previously worked as a business reporter for the Kyiv Post, focusing on international trade, infrastructure, investment, and energy. Originally from Japan, Terajima moved to Ukraine during childhood and completed her bachelor's degree in Business Administration in the U.S. She is the winner of the Thomson Reuters Foundation's Kurt Schork Award in International Journalism 2023 (Local Reporter category) and the George Weidenfeld Prize, awarded as part of Germany's Axel Springer Prize 2023. She was also featured on the Media Development Foundation's 2023 "25 under 25: Young and Bold" list of emerging media makers in Ukraine. She is among the finalists for the U.K.'s One World Media Award 2026 in the Print category and the French Bayeux Calvados-Normandy award 2025 for war correspondents in the Young Reporter category.

a.terajima@kyivindependent.com
For media & speaking inquiries:
press@kyivindependent.com

Articles

A Ukrainian serviceman of the Khartiia Brigade at a command post near Kupiansk, Kharkiv Oblast, Ukraine, on April 1, 2026.
War

How Ukraine defends Kupiansk from Russian troops crawling through pipes

by Asami Terajima
KHARKIV OBLAST — The longest a Russian soldier can hope to survive for after emerging from the underground pipeline is, according to those hunting them, one single hour. "But it's usually 10 minutes, and that's it," "Tovsty," chief sergeant of a company in Ukraine's Khartiia Brigade, says at a command post in northeastern Kharkiv Oblast. Tovsty is watching live drone footage showing a scene which has been repeating itself over and over again for months now — Russian soldiers emerging from disu
War

Inside a Ukrainian mission to liberate territory from Russian occupation

by Asami Terajima
Secrecy was paramount. Not even some of the high-ranking commanders who would be taking part knew of Ukraine's upcoming counterattack in southeastern Ukraine. "Everything here was done secretly, so very few people knew about it," Vadym, a battalion commander with the 110th Mechanized Brigade who goes by his callsign "Lighthouse," said at a command post in Zaporizhzhia Oblast. Vadym had heard rumors about the operation, but only believed "something was brewing" after seeing an increase in the
Black Tulip volunteers work to identify the remains of Russian soldiers in Donetsk Oblast, Ukraine, on June 29, 2024.
War

A grim record? Why more Russians are reportedly dying in Ukraine than ever before

by Polina Moroziuk, Kollen Post, Asami Terajima
Russian soldiers are now dying at an exceptionally high rate in Ukraine, according to Ukrainian officials, in what could mark one of the deadliest killed-to-wounded ratios seen in modern warfare. President Volodymyr Zelensky said on March 10 that "out of 100 percent of losses, 62 percent are killed and 38 percent wounded" among Russian forces, citing intelligence assessments reviewed by Ukraine — a ratio of nearly 2:1. A source in the President's Office familiar with the data told the Kyiv Ind

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