Reporting from the front is getting even harder
Francis Farrell reporting from an infantry position near Toretsk, Ukraine, in July 2024. (Olena Zashko / The Kyiv Independent)
Over the past few years, I’ve spent much of my time on the road — from Pokrovsk, Kupiansk, Sudzha, and the villages and fields in between — documenting what Russia’s war looks like for the people fighting it and caught in its storm.
Our trips out in front-line areas can get a bit hairy sometimes, whether it’s glide bombs hitting a few hundred meters away in Vovchansk, our driver disappearing in Selydove, or nearly falling out of a speeding pick-up truck while chased by Russian drones on our way out of Pokrovsk.
But every step of the way, I am invigorated by the understanding that I am there — witnessing this war and participating as a journalist — for a reason.
Our work is becoming harder, and more important, than ever. As the world’s attention drifts elsewhere, peace talks keep failing, and Russia shows no sign of stopping on the battlefield.
Yet fewer and fewer international outlets send reporters to the front. Many now cover this war from safe offices thousands of kilometers away. But we’re still going — despite the ever-increasing saturation of Russian drones in the sky above front-line areas and the associated risks to journalists. Because that’s where the truth of this war lives.
Our front-line reports reach millions of people each month — and we’re able to make all of this possible thanks to the 23,000 paying members who support our work. Now we have a goal: to reach 25,000 members by the end of 2025. That would give us even more stability to keep reporting from the ground, no matter how the world’s attention shifts.
Your membership funds our day-to-day work, from breaking news coverage to those long trips to the front lines. Your contribution also gives us the independence to publish exactly what we find — not what someone else wants to hear, in a time when emotion and narrative often push facts out of the way.
If you understand what’s at stake in this war and want Ukraine’s story to continue to be told — by those who are here, and who see it firsthand — you can make that happen.
Our mission is to bring the battlefield, in all its detail and complexity, to you, wherever in the world you might be. To make that possible, every small monthly contribution makes a difference, and you can make it here.
