Russia news

Exclusive: We discovered what's going on inside Russia's shadow fleet
Russia

Exclusive: We discovered what's going on inside Russia's shadow fleet

by Tanya Kozyreva

The vessels are old, their hulls streaked with rust, and their ownership obscured behind layers of shell companies. Yet the tankers that make up Russia’s so-called shadow fleet, the armada used to move sanctioned oil across the globe, are kept running with modern Western technology including Starlink, an investigation by the Kyiv Independent can reveal. To gain an insight into how the shadow fleet operates, the Kyiv Independent spoke to two Ukrainian sailors who claim they unwittingly became p

News Feed

Ukraine's anti-corruption chief caught between pressure to halt probes and expectations to go further

Over the past year, a string of scandals has pushed Ukraine's independent anti-corruption agency into the spotlight. After surviving a government power grab in July, the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU) exposed a $100 million corruption scheme involving several ministers and a former business partner of the president. Parliament has not been spared, with around 50 lawmakers now charged or on trial in cases brought by the bureau. Four years into Russia’s full-scale war, Ukrain

NABU Director Semen Kryvonos in Kyiv, Ukraine, on March 20, 2026.

About Russia

The Kyiv Independent’s coverage of news on Russia. Spanning eleven time zones across Eastern Europe and Asia, Russia has an estimated population of 146 million people. Russia’s capital city is Moscow, which is home to almost one in 10 Russians. Russia’s official currency is the Russian Ruble.

News Feed