Kollen Post is the defense industry reporter at the Kyiv Independent. Based in Kyiv, he covers weapons production and defense tech. Originally from western Michigan, he speaks Russian and Ukrainian. His work has appeared in Radio Free Europe, Fortune, Breaking Defense, the Cipher Brief, the Foreign Policy Research Institute, FT’s Sifted, and Science Magazine. He holds a BA from Vanderbilt University.
Russia launched 139 drones overnight, Ukraine's Air Force said on the morning of May 13, most of them Shahed-type deep-strike drones and various Russian-made copies.
Although the target of the attack was not immediately clear, Volna, located just east of Crimea's Kerch Peninsula, is home to an oil terminal that has previously been the subject of Ukrainian strikes.
Ukrainian drone maker Fire Point has been described as a crucial supplier for the country's army and contributor to the country's war effort.
At the same time, the company has found itself at the center of Ukraine's largest corruption scandal — a $100 million scheme centered around the state nuclear monopoly Energoatom and defense procurement.
This has prompted calls for auditing the company's contracts and owners and nationalizing it, as well as reviewing the rules of defense procurement.
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The Kyiv Independent’s Kollen Post and Nick Allard embed with sailors of the Ukrainian Navy operating small mine-clearing vessels off the coast of Odesa. Using sea drones and sonar systems, these crews identify potential explosives and secure maritime routes — often under the threat of Russian drone and missile attacks.
Russia launched 11 Iskander ballistic missiles in the overnight attacks, as well as 164 Shaheds and Shahed-type drones in overnight attacks, Ukraine's Air Force reported.
Russian soldiers are now dying at an exceptionally high rate in Ukraine, according to Ukrainian officials, in what could mark one of the deadliest killed-to-wounded ratios seen in modern warfare.
President Volodymyr Zelensky said on March 10 that "out of 100 percent of losses, 62 percent are killed and 38 percent wounded" among Russian forces, citing intelligence assessments reviewed by Ukraine — a ratio of nearly 2:1.
A source in the President's Office familiar with the data told the Kyiv Ind
Ukraine is riding high on a series of deals that promise to intertwine its wartime defense-tech industry, now known for producing drones in high demand worldwide, with European arms makers.
“The general idea is that we as an industry have to become part of a pan-European defense industry,” Ihor Fedirko, director of the Ukrainian Council of Defense Industry, a government-aligned trade association for Ukrainian weapons makers, told the Kyiv Independent.
Fedirko, a former adviser to the now-shut