The Kyiv Independent’s Oleksiy Sorokin sits down with Andrius Kubilius, the European Commissioner for Defense Industry and Space, to discuss Europe’s readiness to confront Russia, including its ReArm program, and the future of European security.

Russia has faced little to no consequences following its brazen Sept. 10 attack on Poland, yet Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski is upbeat about NATO's response and how things have played out since. "I think Russia lost this confrontation," Sikorski told the Kyiv Independent in an interview on the sidelines of the Yalta European Strategy (YES) conference held in Kyiv on Sept 12-13. Poland downed only four out of 19 drones that entered its airspace, with one of the drones falling nearly

"A large number of Russian drones entered Polish airspace — this is an empirical fact that does not require belief," Ukrainian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Heorhii Tykhyi said.

There's a new buzzword in capitals across Europe and North America — "security guarantees" — a set of measures that are supposed to ensure that if the war in Ukraine stops, Russia won't just simply reinvade Ukraine. Presidents and prime ministers across the two continents are scrambling to come up with a plan. President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Aug. 28 that they'll be "set out on paper next week." But there are significant problems, not least that they rely on Russia agreeing to a ceasefire,

A face-to-face meeting between President Volodymyr Zelensky and Vladimir Putin won't happen unless the U.S. ups pressure on the Russian leader, a source in Ukraine's President's Office has told the Kyiv Independent. Nearly two weeks after U.S. President Donald Trump proposed the meeting as one of the next major steps in his effort to end the war in Ukraine, there has been little progress in making it a reality. Trump himself acknowledged this on Aug. 25, saying Putin didn't want to meet with Z

Semen Kryvonos, head of the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU), is stuck between a rock and a hard place. On one side, there's mounting pressure on the bureau to deliver results, especially in exposing high-level corruption — including in the secretive and ever-expanding defense sector. On the other hand, Kryvonos must constantly defend his agency from attacks — including from other law enforcement agencies, whose loyalties lie with the president's office. Among them, the all-po

"For example, yesterday's figures, which are roughly average: Russian losses per day are about 1,000 – 500 killed and 500 wounded," President Volodymyr Zelensky said at a meeting with journalists attended by the Kyiv Independent.

As U.S. President Donald Trump and his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, prepare to meet face-to-face in Alaska on Aug. 15, Ukraine is left to watch the talks that could shape its future. "It's not entirely clear what happens next," a source in the President's Office told the Kyiv Independent. "But it's clear that we're about to be a little bit sold out." Earlier in the day, in a closed-door meeting with journalists, attended by the Kyiv Independent, President Volodymyr Zelensky seemed caut

At their meeting next week, U.S. President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin will discuss a peace plan that would see Ukraine surrendering new territories to Russia. Putin passed the plan to special envoy Steve Witkoff during their meeting in Moscow earlier this week. The plan would see Kyiv withdraw its troops from two of the partly occupied Ukrainian regions — Donetsk and Luhansk, according to a source in Ukraine's President's Office, who was part of the team briefed on the d

As Trump’s deadline for additional sanctions on Russia looms, Robert Person, a professor of international relations specializing in Russian and post-Soviet politics, discusses why Russian President Vladimir Putin is unlikely to end the war against Ukraine in response to the threat — and what might actually motivate him to stop the aggression.

President Volodymyr Zelensky's sudden move to strip the country's anti-corruption infrastructure of its independence stunned the European Union. Even as the Ukrainian authorities now attempt to reverse the controversial move that faced a harsh backlash from the EU and the wider public, the damage to Kyiv's potential accession to the union has already been done, experts say. Two days after hastily signing a controversial bill that subordinates the National Anti-Corruption Bureau (NABU) and the

Member of Zelensky’s Servant of the People faction, Anastasia Radina, discusses signing of controversial bill impacting Ukraine's anti-corruption institutions.

Ukraine faced a watershed moment on July 22 as parliament passed, and the president signed, a bill that effectively eliminates the independence of the country's anti-corruption institutions. The bill will subordinate the National Anti-Corruption Bureau (NABU) and the Special Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office (SAPO) to the prosecutor general. Activists and opposition lawmakers say that this will make it impossible for the anti-corruption agencies to investigate top incumbent officials without

The Kyiv Independent's Deputy Chief Editor Oleksiy Sorokin spoke with Latvian Prime Minister Evika Siliņa during her visit to Kyiv on July 15, following U.S. President Donald Trump's announcement of his deal with NATO to arm Ukraine and his threat to impose severe sanctions on Russia if it doesn't reach a peace deal with Ukraine within the next 50 days.

Oksana Markarova has held the post since April 2021, and played a central role in coordinating U.S. military and financial support during the early phases of Russia's full-scale invasion.