Editor's Note: People interviewed for this story are not identified by their full names to protect their identities since they or their relatives still remain in Russian-occupied towns in Zaporizhzhia Oblast. The native city of released prisoner Bohdan, which is still under Russian occupation, is also not mentioned to protect
Kindergarten teacher Olena Naumova was struggling to breathe as she sat in the back seat of a car driving through the streets of her hometown of Kherson on the morning of Aug. 23. There was a tight plastic bag over her head and three Russian soldiers surrounded her. Naumova knew
The good-humored Ukrainian fighter pilot Danylo Murashko was in low spirits on Jan. 27. He hadn’t gone out on a sortie in several days, which always put him in a bad mood. Noticing Murashko’s state of mind, his commander, lieutenant colonel Rostyslav Lazarenko, decided to allow 24-year-old Murashko
BROVARY, Kyiv Oblast – That early morning on Jan. 18, Iryna Laptinova, a kindergarten teacher in the city of Brovary was getting ready for yet another joyful day of working with children. As usual, she came to work early to prepare the classroom and greet her little students. Many of them
A Russian missile killed 46 people after smashing straight into an apartment building in the city of Dnipro on Jan. 14. It was one of the deadliest single Russian attacks on Ukraine and the deadliest one for Dnipro, a central Ukrainian city with a pre-war population of nearly 1 million.
On Dec. 18, Kyiv resident Tetiana Venhlinska was without power at home for 10 hours straight. The blackout was imposed following another large-scale missile strike in a series of Russian attacks on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure. For most Kyiv residents, the long power outage was likely a mere annoying inconvenience.
Russia unleashed its 10th mass missile strike targeting Ukraine's critical infrastructure in the afternoon of Jan. 14. The nationwide attack damaged critical infrastructure in several oblasts, according to Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal. The hits caused emergency blackouts in multiple regions. The strike also hit a nine-story apartment building in Dnipro
When Russian forces opened fire on the peaceful village of Oskil, Kharkiv Oblast, on March 27, Svitlana Voshchana realized her friend’s home was under attack. When the attack stopped, she rushed to their home, hoping the family had managed to hide. Stepping into their yard, she saw the house
When Ukrainian soldiers were entering the village of Yampil in Donetsk Oblast after five months of Russian occupation, they discovered an abandoned zoo on the outskirts. Dozens of animal corpses, either killed by Russian troops or dead of starvation, were lying throughout the zoo’s territory. But in one locked
Russian missiles were shot down in Kyiv, Odesa, Lviv, Mykolaiv, and Sumy oblasts on the morning of Dec. 29, according to local authorities.
The lives of millions of Ukrainians turned upside down in 2022, as Russia waged a brutal all-out war against their home. This year, we interviewed frontline soldiers, released prisoners of war, families of those killed by this war, survivors of Russian occupation and torture, volunteers, and officials. All of them
On a warm day in early September, Anastasiia Kolchyna took her nine-year-old sons, twin brothers Ruslan and Denys, for a walk. They went to a small park in their native Zelenodolsk, a town in Dnipropetrovsk Oblast, where many locals would gather on the weekends. The family was enjoying the outdoors
Days before giving birth to her first child, Ukrainian military medic Mariana Mamonova was made to board a plane in the Russian city of Taganrog. She was blindfolded, and her hands were bound with rope. “Do you know where they’re taking us?” she heard a man sitting next to
On the evening of Feb. 24, Nataliia Sivak received a terrifying message from her younger brother, Ukrainian soldier Yakiv Nehrii. "Tell everyone I love them very much," the message read. "We are under heavy attack." It was the last time she heard from him. When Russia launched its full-scale war
When Russia's drone strike hit a residential building in central Kyiv on the morning of Oct. 17, emergency workers turned up at the scene within minutes. As rescuers worked to put out the fire and clear out the rubble of the severely damaged high-rise apartment complex, medics provided first aid
Anastasiia Buhera, a university student from Izium, hid inside her sofa when she heard the Russian soldiers approaching. She held her breath and froze in fear. On that day in May, ten Russian soldiers searched every room in Buhera and her parents’ home in then-occupied Izium, Kharkiv Oblast. As the
Ukrainian media reported that a fire broke out at the Crimean Bridge — the strategic bridge that connects Russia with the occupied Crimea peninsula — at around 7 a.m. on Oct. 8. The fire has already been eliminated, the Russian state news agency TASS reported. TASS said that the traffic on
Volodymyr Obodzinskyi was at work when a sudden call from his neighbor in Zhytomyr Oblast shook him to his core. "There were loud explosions somewhere around your house just now," the neighbor told him. At the time, Obodzinskyi worked in Kyiv, about 100 kilometers away from his home, the village
Anastasiia Shestopal was escaping Russia’s war when she arrived at the train station in Kramatorsk early in the morning of April 8. The 19-year-old had come from her native city of Druzhkivka in Donetsk Oblast, which at that time was just about 50 kilometers away from the front line.
Ukraine’s Armed Forces have launched an offensive “in many directions in the south of Ukraine,” Natalia Humeniuk, a spokesperson for Ukraine's Operational Command South, said on Aug. 29. Humeniuk said that the situation in the southern direction remains “quite tense, but controlled by Ukrainian forces,” adding that after some
The Kyiv Independent is paying tribute to the Ukrainian soldiers who have been killed defending their country in the six months since the start of Russia's all-out invasion on Feb. 24.
Editor’s Note: The Kyiv Independent is paying tribute to the Ukrainian soldiers who have been killed defending their country in the six months since the start of Russia's all-out invasion on Feb. 24. We don’t know how many have been killed, since the government doesn’t disclose the
In early April, an unremarkable civilian car drove slowly toward a Russian checkpoint in the occupied town of Vasylivka, Zaporizhzhia Oblast. It had passed dozens of checkpoints on its way from the occupied city of Melitopol to the Ukrainian-controlled regional capital Zaporizhzhia. None of its passengers expected what was about
Editor's Note: The Kyiv Independent spoke with the children interviewed for this story with the permission of their parents. Ten-year-old Kyiv resident Valeriia Yezhova never imagined that one day she would meet renowned Ukrainian comedian, politician and volunteer Serhiy Prytula, let alone make him cry. Tears ran down Prytula's eyes
The plane was reportedly carrying weapons. Here's what we know so far.
On a warm day in mid-May, Ukrainian Tetiana Lastovych, 29, was getting ready to be discharged from the maternity hospital in the city of Zaporizhzhia after giving birth to her third child, a baby boy Illia. As she approached the glass doors to the hospital, Lastovych froze in shock: There
One cold day in late March, a Russian shell hit a small barn behind an unremarkable two-story house in then Russian-occupied Bucha in Kyiv Oblast. The powerful blast partially destroyed the barn, broke the house's windows, and cracked the entrance door, letting out a small black dog. It rushed down
Three Russian missiles hit a residential building and two resorts in Serhiivka village, Odesa Oblast, on the night of July 1, local authorities reported citing the Ukrainian military. At least 19 people were killed as of 12 p.m. on July 1. The attack on the nine-story residential building killed
A crowd of dozens gathered near the highway in Kyiv’s historic Protasiv Yar neighborhood on June 16. Many of them knew each other well, united by past rallies against illegal construction in the area. But they were sadly quiet that day, hugging one another occasionally, and wiping off their
Anatoliy Vasylenko had the rare talent of being able to transform Ukrainian politics, with its endless supply of corrupt officials and controversial events, into a laughing matter. He spent most of his life with a brush in hand, drawing cartoons and illustrations for Ukrainian newspapers and books. For his achievements,
On March 23, Kyiv resident Olena Sukhenko got the most terrifying phone call of her life. “Russians came to our house,” her younger brother told her. “They took our mother. Our father went with her.” She felt the ground slipping out from beneath her feet. Olena asked her brother to
Early in the morning on March 9, Rostyslav Kotenko dialed the number of his father, Ukraine’s Armed Forces Colonel Serhii Kotenko. The two hadn't spoken since Kotenko’s father left to fight Russian forces in the war's hot spots, near Kherson and Zaporizhzhia. The long-awaited but brief conversation ended
