Editor's note: This story was originally published in The Kyiv Independent's first-ever print edition, titled "The Power Within," in July 2025. You can order a copy in our e-store. Billions of flowers grow every year in Ukraine, but it only takes one to tell the story of its people in wartime. As a single rose grows and is nurtured, blossoms, and then is cut to be transported and sold in any one of Ukraine’s numerous flower shops, it encounters many lives and surroundings as it makes its journ

In the fourth year of Russia’s full-scale war, parts of Ukraine are still facing devastating firsts. On Oct. 22, tragedy struck the village of Pohreby in Kyiv Oblast — a Russian drone hit a house where 38-year-old Antonina Zaichenko, her six-month-old daughter Adelina, and her 12-year-old niece, Nastya Nehoda, were sleeping. All three were killed. "Nothing like this has ever happened here. We all know one another. It’s a tragedy for the whole community," Vitalii Krupenko, the village head, to

Editor’s note: This story contains graphic images. War leaves behind more than ruins and destroyed cities — it carves an invisible mark in the form of the missing and the dead. One of the most painful and challenging aspects of war is the fate of fallen soldiers, whose bodies remain on the battlefield, in trenches, on minefields, or in occupied territories. According to Ukrainian officials, at least 55,000 people were considered missing as a result of the Russian-Ukrainian war as of September

The year 2024 was brutal for Ukraine. Last winter saw the fall of Avdiivka when, after several months of brutal fighting, the Russian army captured the city leveled to the ground. Ukraine struggled to hold the front line with limited resources as political infighting in the U.S. Congress had delayed the passing of a crucial aid bill for months. In spring, Russia renewed intense attacks against Ukraine's energy infrastructure, damaging or destroying at least half of the country's energy capaci