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Daria Shulzhenko photo

Daria Shulzhenko

Reporter

Daria Shulzhenko is a reporter at the Kyiv Independent. She has been a lifestyle reporter at the Kyiv Post until November 2021. She graduated from Kyiv International University with a bachelor’s in linguistics, specializing in translation from English and German languages. She has previously worked as a freelance writer and researcher.

Articles

Analysis: Ahead of Trump's 'major' Russia announcement, what will happen next to Ukraine?

Amid ever-escalating aerial assaults, accelerating Russian advances in the east, and the weariness that comes with nearly 3.5 years of war, all eyes in Ukraine are once again focused upon one man — U.S. President Donald Trump. "I think I'll have a major statement to make on Russia on Monday," Trump said in an interview with NBC News on July 10, the latest development in a tortuously long and so far wholly ineffective U.S.-led peace process. Short of a massive injection of military aid, or crus

'You think the end has come' — as Russian attacks on Ukraine escalate, Kyiv grapples with terrifying new normal

In the early hours of July 10, many Kyiv residents were jolted awake by the thundering sound of ballistic missiles shaking their buildings. Others were already lying awake in beds, bathtubs, and underground shelters across the city, as residents endure a new normal of intensified Russian strikes on the capital. "You lie down, look into the abyss of night, and hear the loudest attack," Hryhorii Matsebok, a 47-year-old artist, told the Kyiv Independent. "And you think the end has already come."
 Explosives Service of Ukraine carry out demining works in Kharkiv Oblast, Ukraine, on Oct. 24, 2023.

'Ukraine is biggest landmine challenge since World War II,' says head of world’s largest demining organization

by Daria Shulzhenko
Russia's full-scale invasion may have turned Ukraine into the world's largest minefield. As of March 2025, Ukraine’s mine-affected land spans an estimated 139,000 square kilometers — or 23% of its territory — covering more ground than all of Greece and posing an immense threat to civilian life and recovery efforts. Clearing landmines and unexploded ordnance is essential to preventing civilian casualties and enabling the safe use of land and infrastructure, fostering the country's recovery and

Operation Spiderweb and Russia’s record drone assault – Ukraine in photos, June 2025

For Ukraine, June began with a celebration — not the one the whole country longs for, victory over Moscow — but a celebration of one of the most stunning drone attacks on Russia, known as Operation Spiderweb. On June 1, Ukrainian drones targeted four Russian air bases – two of them thousands of miles inside the country – hitting the heavy bombers stationed there. According to estimates from Ukraine’s Security Service (SBU), the drone strike disabled 34% of Russia’s cruise missile bombers, causi
Ukrainian POWs leave a bus in the Chernihiv Oblast after a prisoner exchange on May 23, 2025

Explained: How Ukraine negotiates prisoner of war swaps with Russia

by Daria Shulzhenko
Even after Ukraine cut diplomatic ties with Russia in 2022, prisoner exchanges have continued as one of the few remaining channels of communication between the two countries. Negotiated behind closed doors and carried out irregularly, POW swaps — and the decisions surrounding them — have long been shrouded in secrecy. Controversies have repeatedly erupted in Ukraine over whether Kyiv is doing enough to bring back its people and which POWs it prioritizes. Since the start of the full-scale invas
The words "Glory to Russia" branded onto the wounded Ukrainian POW by a russian doctor during an operation.

‘Beyond cynical’ – Russian doctor carved ‘Glory to Russia’ scar on POW during operation, Ukraine says

by Daria Shulzhenko
After more than three years of Russia’s full-scale invasion, each new revelation of cruel treatment of Ukrainians in Russian captivity hardly surprises anyone. But when a photo recently emerged online, showing a “Glory to Russia” scar on the body of a Ukrainian prisoner of war (POW), it sent shockwaves across the world. The words, written in Russian, were branded into the right side of the body alongside the letter "Z," a symbol of the full-scale invasion that many Ukrainians and critics of th