As U.S. President Donald Trump dreams of receiving the 2025 Nobel Peace Prize, his track record as a peacemaker in the world's largest ongoing war remains questionable. Despite high-profile meetings and Trump's flamboyant rhetoric, progress in peace talks between Russia and Ukraine has been scarce. Trump has been increasingly frustrated with Russia's refusal to stop the war, and his rhetoric has shifted in Ukraine's favor after being kind to Russian President Vladimir Putin for months. In an

"Such reports, as well as a number of clearly illegal actions against NABU employees that have already taken place, are nothing other than a continuation of pressure on anti-corruption agencies," Oleksandr Klymenko told the Kyiv Independent.

Three and a half years into its all-out war against Ukraine, the Kremlin is waging a parallel battle at home — this time against internet freedom. The Russian authorities are tightening their digital grip and rolling out sweeping new measures to keep people online in check. Russian authorities' efforts to block calls via the Telegram and WhatsApp messengers have been going hand in hand with the creation of a Kremlin-controlled "national messenger" called Max, intended to replace foreign equiva

Ukraine's Security Service (SBU) and the country's top anti-corruption agency are entangled in an escalating confrontation involving raids and arrests. The conflict is seen as part of a broader struggle between the President's Office and the National Anti-Corruption Bureau (NABU), which says the authorities are trying to eliminate its independence. The SBU, which is seen as loyal to the President's Office, has arrested NABU employees, accusing them of having ties to Russia, and portrayed the c

The supervisory board of Ukraine’s state-owned energy grid operator Ukrenergo has fired the company's CEO, Vitaly Zaichenko, and three members of the management board. Zaichenko confirmed his dismissal in a comment for the Kyiv Independent on Sept. 26. The firing comes amid a conflict between the government and Ukrenergo's supervisory board, including its foreign members. Zaichenko is seen as close to the government, which has put him at odds with some board members, according to the Kyiv Inde

U.S. President Donald Trump's statements and public posts following his latest meeting with Volodymyr Zelensky have been… different. Kyiv can "fight and win all of Ukraine back in its original form," Trump wrote on Sept. 23, followed by a post by the White House with the president’s quote — “(Zelensky) a brave man, and he's putting up one hell of a fight.” Trump added that Russia is a "paper tiger" with a crumbling economy unable to win the war against Ukraine. He also said that NATO countries

As Russia is obsessed with conquering Ukraine, there is one region that is rapidly slipping out of its grip: the South Caucasus. Russia's influence in the region is decreasing, while Azerbaijan and its main ally, Turkey, are emerging as new regional leaders. "Russia's ability to be a hegemon has been weakened, and its influence continues to wane (in the region)," John DiPirro, a senior fellow at the Central Asia-Caucasus Institute, told the Kyiv Independent. "Russia has left a void that Azerba

The Aug. 30 murder of ex-Speaker and current lawmaker Andriy Parubiy was the latest in a string of killings and assassination attempts targeting Ukrainian nationalists and activists of pro-Western revolutions. While the perpetrators of the attacks have been detained, the question of who ordered the assassinations remains unsolved. Evidence has been mounting that Russia could be behind at least some of the attacks. Kremlin propaganda has consistently demonized Ukrainian nationalists and pro-Eur

The U.S. and European leaders are continuing to discuss security guarantees for Ukraine, claiming that a breakthrough has been made in peace talks. At the same time, Russia has been storming the front in Ukraine's east and bombarded Kyiv with ballistic missiles on Aug. 28, killing at least 23 people and damaging the EU delegation headquarters. Experts agree that the so-called peace talks are a farce, with no party expecting any meaningful results. The core issue appears to be that both U.S. P

As peace talks to end the war in Ukraine gather speed toward a potential trilateral meeting between the U.S., Ukraine, and Russia, the question of what kind of security guarantees Kyiv might receive continues to loom over the flurry of diplomatic meetings. After President Volodymyr Zelensky's Aug. 18 appearance at the White House, European leaders are now expected to draft a skeleton proposal for security guarantees over the next week, according to Kyiv Independent sources. The proposal will ex

When President Volodymyr Zelensky joined U.S. President Donald Trump at the White House on Aug. 18, the positive mood between the leaders stood in stark contrast to their disastrous encounter in February in the same spot. This shift alone was seen as a victory for Ukraine — offering many of its citizens and allies relief, though the meeting itself was largely inconclusive and failed to secure concrete decisions on the security guarantees and the ceasefire that Ukraine has pushed for. "I think

Russian President Vladimir Putin has laid out a number of demands that he would require to stop his country's war against Ukraine. Most of these demands are non-starters for Ukraine, analysts say. Russia has demanded a full Ukrainian withdrawal from Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts, de jure recognition of the occupied territories as Russian, a special status for the Russian-backed church and the Russian language in Ukraine, Kyiv's demilitarization, and a ban on Kyiv's NATO membership. In exchange,

Three and a half years into Russia's full-scale invasion, the Ukrainian branch of the Russian Orthodox Church is finally facing its judgment day. Under a law passed in 2024, the branch — the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate —  is supposed to either sever its ties with Russia or be banned. Neither has happened so far. Due to the invasion, the church has faced an escalating crisis due to its affiliation with Russia and some of its priests' collaboration with the Russian auth

The scene of the planned Aug. 15 meeting between U.S. President Donald Trump and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin — the U.S. state of Alaska — has played an outsized role in Russian propaganda and mythology. The choice of Alaska for the summit has re-ignited imperialist narratives, with Kremlin propagandists emphasizing again that the peninsula used to be a Russian territory. Some imperialist Russians have perceived the sale of Russian Alaska to the U.S. in 1867 as treason or a tragic mi

As U.S. President Donald Trump and his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, prepare for a bilateral meeting on Aug. 15 in Alaska, the aims of the U.S., Russia, and Ukraine appear to contradict each other. "At the end of that meeting, probably in the first two minutes, I'll know exactly whether or not a deal can be made," Trump told reporters on Aug. 11. Experts say the hastily organized summit will most likely fail to bring Trump, Putin, and President Volodymyr Zelensky to an agreement on a fu