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Francis Farrell

Senior Reporter

Francis Farrell is a senior reporter at the Kyiv Independent. He is the co-author of War Notes, the Kyiv Independent's weekly newsletter about the war. For the second year in a row, the Kyiv Independent received a grant from the Charles Douglas-Home Memorial Trust to support his front-line reporting for the year 2025-2026. Francis won the Prix Bayeux Calvados-Normandy for war correspondents in the young reporter category in 2023, and was nominated for the European Press Prize in 2024. Francis speaks Ukrainian and Hungarian and is an alumnus of Leiden University in The Hague and University College London. He has previously worked as a managing editor at the online media project Lossi 36, as a freelance journalist and documentary photographer, and at the OSCE and Council of Europe field missions in Albania and Ukraine.

f.farrell@kyivindependent.com
For media & speaking inquiries:
press@kyivindependent.com

Articles

Mykhailo Drapatyi at a desk pictured in January 2025
War

Ukraine has a new commander-in-chief — Who is Mykhailo Drapatyi?

by Asami Terajima, Jimmy Rushton, Francis Farrell
Latest: Zelensky dismisses Commander-in-Chief Syrskyi amid widespread protests. Thousands of protesters gathered nightly in central Kyiv in recent days, many of them calling out the name of one of Ukraine's most respected generals: "Drapatyi!" The mass protest in the capital, which began on July 15 after President Volodymyr Zelensky ousted Ukraine's popular, reform-minded Defense Minister Mykhailo Fedorov, had turned into a call to replace Oleksandr Syrskyi, the commander-in-chief. As details
War

Analysis: Why many Ukrainians feel Commander-in-Chief Syrskyi must go

by Francis Farrell
"Fedorov = more Russian deaths, Syrskyi = more Ukrainian deaths." This slogan, neatly written on cardboard, was one of thousands held aloft in Kyiv and across Ukraine as outrage over the country's wartime leadership boils over. Much of Ukrainian society, soldiers and civilians alike, is up in arms over President Volodymyr Zelensky's decision to dismiss popular and innovative Defense Minister Mykhailo Fedorov. Zelensky's primary motivation for the decision was debated, with theories including
War

Ukraine’s most effective defense minister? What Fedorov got right, and what his dismissal risks reversing

by Asami Terajima, Kateryna Hodunova, Jimmy Rushton, Polina Moroziuk, Francis Farrell
Among those gathered in Kyiv on July 16 to protest the dismissal of Defense Minister Mykhailo Fedorov were members of Ukraine's military voicing fears that the controversial decision could seriously hinder the country's war effort. "People who are actually trying to bring our victory closer keep getting removed or replaced," Serhii, a 43-year-old veteran protesting alongside active-duty soldiers, told the Kyiv Independent. President Volodymyr Zelensky's decision a day earlier to dismiss Fedoro
War

Analysis: Russia breaks into Kostiantynivka, opening battle for Donbas fortress belt

by Francis Farrell
Amid a wave of positive headlines about Russian refineries in flames and logistics crippled, the battle for the legendary "fortress belt" of Ukraine's Donbas region has begun in earnest, with Russian forces breaking into the city of Kostiantynivka in Donetsk Oblast and steadily overrunning the urban area. As the summer campaign opens up, Russian forces are bucking the trend of offensive stagnation across the rest of the front line and making real headway into the heart of Ukrainian-controlled D

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