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Oleksiy Sorokin

Deputy Chief Editor

Oleksiy Sorokin is the co-founder and deputy chief editor at the Kyiv Independent. He is tasked with building the organization and leading the hiring, editing, and newsletter workstreams. Oleksiy is the author of the "WTF is wrong with Russia?" newsletter, sent out every Thursday. For his work, Oleksiy was included in the 2022 Forbes 30 Under 30 list. Oleksiy holds a BA from the University of Toronto.

Articles

‘Opinion is shifting towards this idea,’ says Polish FM Sikorski on NATO closing the sky over western Ukraine

by Oleksiy Sorokin
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

The elephant in the room — Russia won’t agree to Ukraine security guarantees, Europe can't enforce them

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,

Exclusive: Zelensky-Putin meeting 'impossible' unless Trump ups pressure on Russia, Ukraine says

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

Ukraine’s anti-corruption chief on how his agency became a target — and what’s next

by Oleksiy Sorokin
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
President Volodymyr Zelensky in Rome, Italy, on July 10, 2025.

‘About to be sold out’ — Fears mount in Ukraine ahead of Trump-Putin meeting

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

Exclusive: Putin to demand Ukraine cede new territory in 'Alaska peace plan' — US likely to agree, Kyiv to reject

by Oleksiy Sorokin
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
President Volodymyr Zelensky during a press conference in Kyiv, Ukraine, on Nov. 21, 2023.

Ukraine’s EU accession at risk ahead of critical anti-corruption vote

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
President Volodymyr Zelensky walks past the European Union flag in Vilnius, Lithuania, on July 12, 2023.

Zelensky dismantles Ukraine's anti-corruption infrastructure, brings law enforcement agencies under his thumb

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