Team
Asami Terajima
ReporterAsami 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.
Articles
Inside the US-Ukraine mission to reconstruct faces of wounded soldiers
The Kyiv Independent visited a Ukrainian military hospital where American and Ukrainian surgeons work together as part of the "Face-to-Face" mission to reconstruct faces damaged by explosions from strikes and landmines.
First responder killed in Russia's 'double-tap' strike on Dnipro
Anton Yarmolenko was killed after arriving at one of the attack sites in Dnipro to help the victims and sustaining fatal injuries in Russia's "treacherous follow-up strike," the State Emergency Service said.
Kyiv reels after Russia unleashes massive missile, drone attack on Ukraine, killing at least 23
Russia launched a large-scale aerial attack against Ukraine overnight on June 2, targeting Kyiv with missile and drone fire.
Russian monthly territorial gains slip into negative for first time since 2023, DeepState reports
This is despite the group's public map showing a Russian advance of 14 square kilometers (about 5.4 square miles) in May, due to the delay in publicly acknowledging advances by the Ukrainian military amid security concerns, according to DeepState.
How Ukraine defends Kupiansk from Russian troops crawling through pipes
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
Ukraine denies Russian claim that drone strike killed civilians in occupied Luhansk Oblast
The Ukrainian General Staff called the Russian claim "misleading information," stressing that it strictly adheres to the international humanitarian law and strikes military infrastructure and facilities used for military purposes.
Ukraine claims control of Stepnohirsk in Zaporizhzhia Oblast, military intelligence says
The Ukrainian advance was confirmed by footage of Ukrainian troop movements released by HUR, which shows soldiers from the "Artan" special unit of Ukrainian military intelligence engaging Russian forces in Stepnohirsk.
205 Ukrainian POWs return from Russian captivity in latest exchange
Almost all of the Ukrainian POWs who returned home had been held under Russian captivity for four years.
Inside a Ukrainian mission to liberate territory from Russian occupation
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
Moscow restricts mobile internet during Russia's Victory Day parade amid fears of Ukrainian strikes
A handful of foreign attendants of the scaled-back 2026 parade included Belarusian dictator Alexander Lukashenko.
'Victory will be ours,' Putin tells Victory Day parade without any tanks
A greatest hits compilation of Russia's most modern military hardware was shown on a video displayed on screens at the event.
Ukraine rejects Russia's 'Victory Day' truce after Moscow violates Kyiv's ceasefire
"We just don't see the point (to follow it) for the parade," a senior Ukrainian official told the Kyiv Independent.
'Putin only cares about parades' — Russia violated Kyiv-proposed May 6 ceasefire 1,820 times, Ukraine says
Moscow has also accused Kyiv of breaching its own ceasefire, with Russian Foreign Ministry's Ambassador-at-Large Rodion Miroshnik saying that Ukraine had launched attacks on Russian-occupied Crimea and Russia's Bryansk Oblast, Kremlin-controlled news agency TASS cited him as saying on May 6.
Russian attacks kill 26 civilians, injure at least 118 over past day, as Zelensky's proposed ceasefire kicks off
Russian forces attacked Ukraine with two ballistic missiles, a Kh-31 air-to-surface missile, and 108 drones of various types, including Shahed-type drones, overnight, the Air Force said on May 6.
