Team
Francis Farrell
ReporterFrancis 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.
Articles
Battle of Pokrovsk: How Russia broke into the city and what's next
Pokrovsk, a city that held back some of Russia’s fiercest assaults for over a year, is now on the verge of falling. The Kyiv Independent’s Francis Farrell explains how the battle reached this point and what Pokrovsk’s fall could mean for the wider defense of Donetsk Oblast.
Analysis: With all eyes on Pokrovsk, Russia drives forward in Zaporizhzhia Oblast
While Ukraine, Russia, and the world have been watching the dramatic final act of the Battle of Pokrovsk unfold, Russian gains in the eastern parts of Zaporizhzhia and Dnipropetrovsk oblasts — a section of the frontline that has been dynamic but chronically overlooked — have picked up speed.
On November 11th, the same day that Russia’s wretched Mad Max–style convoy of troops was filmed entering Pokrovsk through the fog, the Ukrainian military announced its withdrawal from five villages north of
Ukraine war latest: Zelensky says situation in Pokrovsk, Zaporizhzhia Oblast 'difficult'
Hello, this is Francis Farell reporting from Kyiv on day 1,356 of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
Today's top story so far:
President Volodymyr Zelensky on Nov. 11 described the situation facing Ukrainian troops in Pokrovsk and Zaporizhzhia Oblast as "difficult."
"Most of the attention is now on the Pokrovsky direction and Zaporizhzhia region, where the Russians are increasing the number and scale of assaults," he said in a post on social media.
"The situation there is difficult, an
‘Destroying our memory’ — YouTube wipes Ukrainian channel honoring soldiers killed by Russia
The nature of the mass reports' accusations, unrelated as they are to the channel's actual content, is a clear sign of a coordinated Russian operation, according to the project's deputy editor.
Explosion in Russian Black Sea port of Tuapse amid reported sea drone attack
Later, the official Telegram channel of Krasnodar Krai confirmed the attack, claiming that four Ukrainian sea drones had been destroyed.
Ukraine’s defense of Pokrovsk on a knife-edge as high command resists calls to withdraw
Ukrainian forces continue to stubbornly defend the pocket around Pokrovsk and Myrnohrad, despite relentless Russian assaults in and around the two cities, leading to an ever-increasing threat of encirclement.
Over two weeks since Russian soldiers were filmed breaking into the urban area of the mining city in Donetsk Oblast en masse, the city has descended into a deep gray zone, in which the concept of territorial control is lost in a fog of chaotic movement.
"The situation hasn't changed that
New missile that pushed Trump to leave nuclear treaty fired by Russia at Ukraine, Reuters reports
According to the officials who spoke to Reuters, Russia attacked Ukraine with the missile 23 over August 2025 alone, as well as on several occasions in 2022.
Shooting at draft office in Poltava Oblast leaves 2 soldiers injured
Two soldiers working at a draft office in the city of Kremenchuk in Poltava Oblast have been injured, after a man shot them while being mobilized, the regional recruitment center said on Oct. 30.
What we know now about the 'encirclement' of Ukraine's Pokrovsk
Russian soldiers have advanced further into the city of Pokrovsk, threatening not only to take the city, but to complete a larger encirclement of the surrounding area, as independent analysts and commanders report a serious deterioration of the Ukrainian position in the area.
The defense of the major city in Donetsk Oblast, which has held out for over a year of heavy fighting as one of the main hotspots of the front line, looks to have begun falling apart as Russian soldiers in their hundreds h
With a web of drones and infiltrating infantry, Russian troops overrun Kupiansk
Editor’s Note: In accordance with the security protocols of the Ukrainian military, soldiers featured in this story are identified by first names and call signs only.
KHARKIV OBLAST- Dug deep within walls of black soil in the rolling hills of northeastern Ukraine, what was once the undisputed god of war can no longer afford to rise above ground for long.
With an 8-meter barrel designed by Soviet engineers for long-range and accuracy, the Ukrainian Giatsint towed howitzer is pointed to the skie
Analysis: Ukraine learns hard lessons from Russia's evolving tactics after clearing Dobropillia 'breakthrough'
After two and a half months of intense fighting, the red rabbit-ear-looking shape on the battlefield map of Donetsk Oblast is gone for good.
With the liberation of two more villages, Sukhetske and Kucheriv Yar, announced by the Ukrainian military over the weekend, the operation to clear the major Russian breach of Ukrainian lines near the city of Dobropillia is all but over.
Compared to the dramatic alarm of mid-August, when hundreds of Russian troops pierced through a porous and chaotic defen
Ukraine war latest: Russian mass attack kills civilians in Kyiv, blackouts begin as energy grid damaged
Hi, this is Francis Farrell reporting from Kyiv on day 1,337 of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
Our top story so far today:
A large-scale missile and drone attack on energy infrastructure across Ukraine killed six people and injured at least 36 overnight on Oct. 22, according to authorities.
In Kyiv, two people were killed and 21 injured, while four were killed in the Brovarsky district of Kyiv Oblast, regional authorities said. In Zaporizhzhia Oblast, at least 15 civilians were inju
Analysis: Pokrovsk on the brink as Russian troops, drones infiltrate deeper into Ukraine’s fortress city
At first, the pictures went viral for another reason.
Two Ukrainian civilians were shot dead and another injured on the roadside, the victims of another Russian war crime that was as everyday as it was horrific.
Ordinary, peaceful residents of the city of Pokrovsk — the very people Russia claims to be “liberating” in its war of destruction in the Donbas, who held on to life in their homes for a year after their city became a war zone — snuffed out in an instant.
But beyond the shock and anger
Gen. Drapatyi to head new task force amid Ukrainian command’s controversial corps shake-up
The announcement comes amid long-documented tension between Syrksyi and the 42-year-old Drapatyi, one of Ukraine's most highly-regarded generals.
Russian ‘sabotage’ unit that killed civilians in Pokrovsk later eliminated, Ukrainian military says
According to the 7th Corps of the Air Assault Forces, the Russian soldiers involved in the shooting of civilians have since been eliminated.
