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Thursday, January 1, 2026
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Francis Farrell photo

Francis Farrell

Reporter

Francis Farrell is a 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

Articles

Video

Between life and death under Russian drones in Kherson

by Olena Zashko, Francis Farrell
Liberated in 2022, Kherson is still under daily attack from Russian forces across the Dnipro River. The Kyiv Independent’s Francis Farrell and Olena Zashko report from a city living under anti-drone nets and constant surveillance, showing how everyday life, from hospitals and schools to aid deliveries and cultural events, continues under threat, and why residents refuse to leave.
War

Ukraine war latest: Ukrainian forces say they counterattacked near Lyman — and wiped out a Russian regiment

by Francis Farrell, Jared Goyette
This is Jared Goyette, blogging from Kyiv on the 1,392nd day of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Our top stories so far today: * SBU says drones hit Russian equipment worth hundreds of millions at Belbek airfield in occupied Crimea * Zelensky arrives in Brussels to attend crucial EU summit, while a Ukrainian delegation prepares to make another visit to the U.S. * Germany backs Ukraine with $1.4 billion in defense agreements Latest from the War Desk: Russian drone hits civilian c
War

As Russia takes Pokrovsk, sister city Myrnohrad stares down encirclement

by Francis Farrell
Ukraine's great fortress city of Pokrovsk has officially fallen — as far as Moscow is concerned. More than five weeks after Russian troops first started to swarm into the southern outskirts of the Donetsk Oblast city, Pokrovsk has been decisively overrun, although Kyiv still claims a presence inside the urban area. Though nearing its close, the final act of the Battle of Pokrovsk has come gradually, as Ukrainian forces are squeezed out of the city center by Russian infantry on the ground and d
War

Where is Ukraine’s front line? The answer is getting harder, and more political

by Francis Farrell
In the tumultuous history of modern warfare, the information struggle has often been fought with the same fury as the kinetic. Amid all the attempts to portray success instead of failure, to exude control when there is chaos, there is one hard truth that is difficult to hide from for long: the movement of the front line. What was — for the entire history of conflict until the last decade — once concealed by the fog of war and hostage to the information politics of the belligerents, is now read
Opinion

Reporting from the front is getting even harder

by Francis Farrell
Over the past few years, I’ve spent much of my time on the road — from Pokrovsk, Kupiansk, Sudzha, and the villages and fields in between — documenting what Russia’s war looks like for the people fighting it and caught in its storm. Our trips out in front-line areas can get a bit hairy sometimes, whether it’s glide bombs hitting a few hundred meters away in Vovchansk, our driver disappearing in Selydove, or nearly falling out of a speeding pick-up truck while chased by Russian drones on our way

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