Join 10,000+ Kyiv Independent members today Support our reporting
Skip to content

News Feed

Wednesday, March 29
Subscribe to Ukraine Daily
Top News
in Your Mailbox
10:13 PM
France recognizes Holodomor as genocide against Ukrainians. President Volodymyr Zelensky thanked France on March 28 for recognizing the Holodomor as a genocide against the Ukrainian people. One hundred and sixty-eight deputies of the National Assembly, the lower house of the French parliament, voted in favor of the resolution. Two voted against it.
7:18 PM
Russia launches missiles at Kharkiv Oblast, injuring 1. Russian forces launched two S-300 missiles at the city of Bohodukhiv in Kharkiv Oblast on March 28, the Prosecutor General's Office wrote. As a result of the attack, a 73-year-old man was injured and is currently being treated in the hospital for a concussion.
1:05 PM
Military: Russia's activity in Ukraine's south declines. Russia's combat activity in Ukraine's south has decreased as its troops have lost many warehouses and can't arrange resupply of weapons and ammunition, Ukraine's Southern Command spokesperson Natalia Humeniuk said on national television on March 28.

watch us on facebook

Edit post

Editorial: One year of the Kyiv Independent

by The Kyiv Independent November 11, 2022 4:15 PM 3 min read
The Kyiv Independent's new logo.

Exactly one year ago, on Nov. 11, 2021, we decided to create the Kyiv Independent.

“We” were a group of some 30 journalists fired from the Kyiv Post, then Ukraine’s main English-language newspaper. The owner fired the whole newsroom for defending its editorial independence and remaining stubbornly critical of people in power – for what is also known as being good journalists.

It was an unusual start, to say the least.

That day one year ago, we weren’t the Kyiv Independent yet. The name would come days, if not weeks later, after a comically painful selection process. We went through some 200 choices. “The Kyiv Independent” won, but barely. In hindsight, it was the only right option. These past eight months have given the name special meaning.

Things moved quickly. Days after the announcement, we partnered up with Jnomics, a media consultancy that took care of the business side of operations. One week after being fired, our first newsletter came out. Days later, our first podcast. Soon, our new website went live. The year of 2022 started, and we were ready to conquer the world.

And then, Russia invaded Ukraine.

When the full-scale war started, we were a newborn, three-month-old media outlet. We weren’t ready for it, but on Feb. 24 we all woke up as war reporters.

We had to report on the war while going through all the struggles of it together with the rest of Ukraine. We learned to live with air raid alerts and work from bomb shelters. Reporting on the destruction of our hometowns and bombardments of cities where our families live has been heartbreaking. What has helped us through it is a great sense of purpose, our mission: We are here to keep the world informed about Ukraine, and to do it with a local perspective.

This whole year, we have been giving this job everything we have. And the world took notice.

Our audience has grown more than we could have hoped for. The number of our monthly supporters reached 8,000 people and we are hoping to hit 10,000 by the end of the year. (Here’s how to help us). Our Twitter account has 2.2 million followers. We have been blessed with the opportunity to bring a local dimension to international reporting about Ukraine – to really make Ukrainians heard.

We also became a story ourselves. Media around the world has run stories about our team of brave young journalists reporting on a war in their country.

It all came to be because one year ago, we made the difficult but right decision. Instead of making peace with a rich publisher whom we didn’t trust, we decided to start from nothing and build our own media outlet – where there would be no place for compromises about our principles, no sacrifices of editorial independence.

The lesson from this year has been this: Hard choices pay off. Doing the right thing pays off.

There is much more humbling proof than that of our story – the story of Ukraine. Our first year as a media outlet became the same year our country had to fight for its survival. Ukrainians chose to fight the overwhelmingly stronger invader in a bid to stay free – and are now winning, at a great cost.

One year ago, some told us that we were naive and child-like to start off like we did, with no money or rich backers. When one Ukrainian oligarch offered to fund the whole project, some encouraged us to take the offer. We refused.

Instead, we chose to believe in our readers. We chose to believe that we will be able to win their trust and support – including financially, to make us sustainable. One year later, the largest part of our funding comes from our readers.

It is because of you, the person reading this, that we can keep doing our job of bringing stories from Ukraine to the world – and being the voice of Ukraine at a time when it’s most needed.

Thank you for being with us this year. We work for you, and always will.

Here’s how to support the Kyiv Independent: Help us get to the goal of 10,000 patrons by the end of 2022.

We serve no one but our common values
“We truly need popular support, especially during wartime. Being not dependent on a single money bag telling journalists what to do has always been quite a task in Ukraine. In wartime, that’s even more important.”
Illia Ponomarenko, defense reporter
visa masterCard paypal

Editors' Picks

Support us
X

ENTER YOUR EMAIL TO SUBSCRIBE

Please, enter correct email address

Subscribe

* indicates required
* indicates required

Subscribe

* indicates required
* indicates required