Supported by

The Kyiv Independent J-School

We have completed our first educational project. Twenty-nine English-speaking journalists from all over Ukraine took part in a ten-day training course in December 2023.

Why It Matters

With Russia’s war against Ukraine creating new challenges daily and driving global attention, local journalists find themselves on the front lines, literally and metaphorically. Having experience in talking to foreign audiences and being heard, we aimed to equip more Ukrainian media professionals with the tools they need to elevate their reporting, add crucial context to major developments, and draw international attention to Ukraine's fight for independence, bringing global awareness to local and regional stories often overlooked by foreign media.

If we want our world to have any sort of decent future, we need to do all we can to ensure that there is an incoming generation of young journalists who know what this profession is about, who are ready to tell uncomfortable stories and hold those in power accountable. History has shown that it is also crucial that Ukrainian journalists know how to bring local stories to international audiences, how to speak to the world so that it listens. That’s why we launched J-School.

Olga Rudenko, Сhief Editor in the Kyiv Independent

What We Offered

Intensive International Journalism Program

10 days of practical lectures and workshops on international journalism practices in English

Expert Trainers and Renowned Guest Speakers

Top-notch trainers and guest speakers from the Kyiv Independent and other world-leading newsrooms

Comfortable Training Facilities

Safe and well-equipped training space with stable internet connection.

Flexible Participation options

Opportunity to participate both online and offline. We covered accommodation and travel expenses for those who came to Kyiv to attend the training in-person.

Paid Internship

PFive participants had a month-long paid internship in the Kyiv Independent newsroom.

Explore essential topics we covered to train the next generation of Ukrainian journalists

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Our trainers and experts

Our dedicated team, led by the Kyiv Independent's editorial experts, collaborates with experienced international reporters and editors from partner publications.

Editor-in-Chief

Olga Rudenko

Olga Rudenko, one of the Kyiv Independent’s co-founders, was featured on the cover of TIME Magazine’s May 2022 edition as one of its Next Generation Leaders. She is also a recipient of the December 2022 Women of Europe award for its “Woman in Action” category.

Deputy Chief Editor

Toma Istomina

With nearly a decade of journalism experience, Toma Istomina was a staff writer at the Kyiv Post before becoming the paper’s lifestyle and features editor. She is one of the Kyiv Independent’s co-founders.

Business Editor

Lili Bivings

Lili Bivings has worked with the Peace Corps in Ukraine, the Atlantic Council’s Eurasia Center, the Kyiv Post, and Human Rights Watch. She has a graduate degree from Columbia University.

Deputy Chief Editor

Oleksiy Sorokin

Oleksiy Sorokin, a co-founder of the Kyiv Independent, was on Forbes’ “30 Under 30" list in 2022. He was a political journalist at the Kyiv Post until 2021.

Chief Executive Officer

Daryna Shevchenko

Daryna Shevchenko has a decade of experience in media management, training, and consulting. She is also a partner at Jnomics Media consultancy.

Chief Operating Officer

Zakhar Protsiuk

Zakhar Protsiuk is a co-founder and managing editor at The Fix Media, which focuses on the European publishing sector. He is an associate partner at Jnomics Media.

Reporter

Francis Farrell

Francis Farrell is a winner of the Bayeux Calvados-Normandy Award’s “Young Reporter” category for war correspondents. He has reported from Ukraine’s front-line regions since the start of Russia’s full-scale war.

Reporter

Alexander Khrebet

Alexander Khrebet is a winner of the 2023 European Press Prize, the 2023 #AllForJan Award, and a finalist for Ukraine’s 2022 National Investigative Journalism Award. He was formerly the senior editor at ZN.UA.

Social Strategy Consultant

Alexandra Keeler

Alexandra Keeler has over a decade of social media management experience in Canada. She’s the former manager of Corus Entertainment’s lifestyle social media team.

Head of Investigations

Anna Myroniuk

Anna Myroniuk is a winner of the 2023 European Press Prize and the 2023 #AllForJan Award, as well as an honoree of the 2022 Forbes 30 Under 30 Europe Media and Marketing List.

War Crimes Unit Reporter

Danylo Mokryk

Danylo Mokryk’s investigation into the deliberate murders of Ukrainian children by Russian soldiers during Russia’s war in Ukraine was shortlisted for the Mezhyhirya Fest Investigative Journalism Award.

Reporter

Daria Shulzhenko

Daria Shulzhenko has extensive experience in culture reporting, having formerly been a lifestyle reporter at the Kyiv Post.

Reporter

Igor Kossov

Igor Kossov is a reporter at the Kyiv Independent. With 15 years of journalism experience, Igor has covered a vast array of subjects ranging from corruption in Ukraine, to covering the front line amid Russia’s war, and the Ukrainian military.

Reporter

Asami Terajima

Asami Terajima is a front-line reporter at the Kyiv Independent. She is the winner of the Thomson Reuters Foundation’s 2023 Kurt Schork Award in International Journalism (Local Reporter category) and the 2023 George Weidenfeld Prize, awarded as part of Germany’s Axel Springer Prize.

TikTok Producer

Masha Lavrova

Masha Lavrova is a TikTok producer at the Kyiv Independent. She honed her digital marketing and PR skills while working in Australia and freelancing for various global companies. Masha also studied directing and producing for film and TV.

Founder and CEO at MiMojo Co.

Mick Reed

Mick is a producer, director, and media tech entrepreneur who got his start in the New York independent film scene and has made his mark in the worlds of broadcast and global news. He is also a mobile journalism expert who founded MiMojo Co. Since 2022, he has been active in supplying and training journalists and NGOs in Ukraine.

Executive director

Alexandra Vacroux

Dr. Alexandra Vacroux is the executive director of the Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies at Harvard University. Vacroux’s scholarly work addresses Russian and Eurasian policy issues, including the war against Ukraine.

Foreign correspondent

Luke Harding

Luke Harding, a foreign correspondent with The Guardian, is an award-winning journalist and author known for his coverage of Russia under Vladimir Putin and the full-scale war against Ukraine. His latest book, “Invasion: The Inside Story of Russia’s Bloody War and Ukraine’s Fight for Survival.” was shortlisted for the 2023 Orwell Prize.

Investigative reporter

Mykhailo Tkach

Mykhailo Tkach is a Ukrainian investigative reporter, focusing mainly on uncovering government corruption and abuse of power. Since 2021, he has served as head of investigations at Ukrainska Pravda, Ukraine’s leading independent online media outlet.

Political journalist

Kristina Berdynskykh

Kristina Berdynskykh is an award-winning political journalist. Her writing has appeared across multiple publications, including Financial Times Weekend, Open Democracy, and Die Seit. Berdynskykh was included in the BBC’s list of 100 inspiring and influential women for 2022.

Editor-in-Chief

Sevgil Musayeva

Sevgil Musayeva is an award-winning Ukrainian journalist from Crimea. Since 2014, she has been the editor-in-chief of Ukrainska Pravda, Ukraine’s leading independent online media outlet. She was a 2019 Harvard University Nieman Fellow.

J-School Highlights

Participants’ opinion

Michel Bondar

It's been an amazing 10 days. I think it's one of the best educational programs that I've ever been to. I was tired but really inspired, and I've learned something that I wasn't aware of. I'm really grateful to The Kyiv Independent for such a great opportunity to develop as a professional and stay tuned.

Kateryna Hodunova

I have more or almost eight years of experience in sports journalism. And for me, it was quite a beneficial experience. I studied at University, and there were a lot of lessons, but none of them were as intensive and helpful as this J-School actually was. I hope to use all this knowledge during my future career. I think that it will help not only myself but also my state just to be loud and sound on the world wild level in worldwide news.

Denys Glushko

I really enjoyed these 10 days. I will probably use lots of what I got from this school because in my media I worked on more videos, and we also have an English edition, and we also have to take what we got here. I've already started to prepare our own presentation on how to improve our news feed, and how to improve our articles. It will change our media and the experience I got here. I've had many different classes in Ukraine for the previous few years, and this one may be the most useful in Ukraine ever. Thank you, the Kyiv Independent, for this experience.

Tania Myronyshena

The most important thing I learned is the nut graph. It's nonsense because I've never heard of it before, even though I have two years of experience in journalism and, in general, the structure of how Western media and Western journalists write long reads features. I lost this passion for the profession. And here, I understood that there are a lot of things to learn, and I still have a lot of challenges to go through. It was super inspiring, even though I'm super tired. Because it was 10 days without even one day off, I'm grateful for this opportunity.

Viktoria Yevtushenko

What I like here is that we can talk with Ukrainian journalists and professionals from abroad. They share their experience in covering not only the war in Ukraine but in other countries. That is helpful for us to understand how our war is different from others. We can come up with our own approach to covering it and explaining our war and ourselves to international audiences.

Khrystyna Semeryn

I am really grateful for a fantastic pool of speakers we had a chance to listen to, an intensive study program that, I think, covered all the main issues in Ukrainian English-language journalism, and the professional atmosphere. I am particularly thankful for all the practical tips and personal experience people shared throughout the study which I was initially looking for. It was great to learn so much new information and meet new people as well as to pay a visit to the KI office and find out how the Kyiv independent team works. You are awesome!

Five J-School participants completed a month-long internship at the Kyiv Independent and told us why it was important for them to enhance their journalism in terms of addressing international audiences.

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