For children around the world, the winter holidays are about gifts and a joyful time with their families. But for some Ukrainian children, the season is bittersweet, as it highlights the absence of one or both parents killed by Russia’s full-scale invasion. Nearly 1,800 Ukrainian children have become
In Alexander Lukashenko's Belarus, helping to defend Ukraine against Russia gets you labeled as a terrorist. Vasil Verameichyk, a Belarusian who enlisted in Ukraine's Armed Forces just four days after Russia launched its all-out war, was detained on Nov. 13 in Vietnam in a suspected covert operation by Belarusian secret
WARNING: This article contains descriptions of graphic scenes. Anna Kotova was chatting with her sister on a video call, admiring her image on the screen. It was her 19th birthday, and for the first time in a while, she was feeling good about how she looked. “I used to dye
On Nov. 11, 2021, a group of young journalists in Ukraine fired for defending their editorial independence decided to launch a new publication that would stand by those principles. This new publication, without a name at its start, would later become known as the Kyiv Independent. Three years in, the
Ukrainian journalist Viktoriia Roshchyna, 27, was about to be released from Russian captivity and returned home, when the news of her death broke out on Oct. 10, shocking Ukraine and the world. Roshchyna disappeared in August 2023 while reporting in Russian-occupied territory. More than half a year later, Russia's Defense
Editor’s Note: The following article is the latest in a series of reports by the Kyiv Independent about the memorialization of Ukraine’s fallen soldiers. Ukrainians gathered at war memorials around the country on Oct. 1, the country’s National Defenders Day, to honor the soldiers killed defending their
Two hundred and twenty people remain hospitalized following the Russian attack on Poltava on Sept. 3, with some in critical condition, President Volodymyr Zelensky said in his evening address.
Russian forces launched a multiple-launch rocket system (MLRS) attack on a residential area in the town of Derhachi in Kharkiv Oblast on the evening of Sept. 8, Governor Oleh Syniehubov reported.
On the morning of their first day of school, the sons of Anna Sushko, 6 and 7 years old, were at a bomb shelter in Kyiv, hiding from Russia’s missile attack. In the early morning of Sept. 2, when Ukrainian children and college students start their school year, Russia
Editor’s Note: The following is the first in a series of reports by the Kyiv Independent about the memorialization of Ukraine’s fallen soldiers. “I'm up for cremation,” Kostiantyn “Kostia” Yuzviuk wrote in a list of funeral requests in his newly created Telegram channel for friends in November 2022
DONETSK OBLAST – Along a bumpy highway that used to link the cities of Pokrovsk and now occupied Donetsk, used to lie quiet and picturesque towns and villages whose names only locals would know. Yet – Novohrodivka, Selydove, Petrivka – are now well-known in Ukraine, stuck between the advancing Russian troops and their
Editor's Note: Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said on July 9 that nine people were killed in the building in the Syrets neighborhood following a Russian missile strike a day prior. On a Monday morning, Nataliia Fedorenko and her mother felt lucky to survive their daily routine: walking their dog in
Editor's note: Some of the following images are graphic in nature and might be disturbing. For Kyiv residents, Monday morning started with loud explosions throughout the city. Russia launched a large-scale missile attack targeting the capital as well as cities in Dnipropetrovsk and Donetsk oblasts on the morning of July
Russian troops shelled a residential area in Kherson’s Korabelnyi district on July 7, Kherson Oblast Military Administration reported.
Sasha Maslov is a Ukrainian-American photographer who divides his time between Kyiv and New York. At the start of the full-scale invasion, he returned to Kyiv to document the war. His work, which has been showcased in galleries and art spaces across Europe and the United States, includes regular contributions
Key developments on May 25-26: * Russia strikes hypermarket in Kharkiv, killing 16, including a child * Russia launches another attack on Kharkiv, hours after deadly hypermarket strike, injuring 25 * Zelensky, Kuleba, other officials call for more air defense after Kharkiv strike * Zelensky: Russia forming another grouping of forces near Ukraine's northern
Russian attacks across the settlements in Donetsk Oblast killed three people and injured two on May 26, the Donetsk Oblast Prosecutor’s Office reported.
Editor’s note: This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity. While hiding from almost non-stop Russian bombardment in the dark and cold bunkers of the Azovstal steel plant in Mariupol, Dmytro Kozatskyi took his most famous and arguably most valuable photographs. He showed the world what it was
KHARKIV – In the face of relentless Russian attacks, prolonged blackouts, and a looming threat of a new major offensive, against all odds, life in Kharkiv continues to endure. Located just 30 kilometers from the Russian border, Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city, has been under some of the heaviest and most
When Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine, attacking the country from multiple fronts and the sky, Ukrainian actress Ivanna Sakhno was thousands of kilometers away. She has been living in the U.S. for nearly 10 years at that point, ever since deciding to pursue her dream of acting
Russian forces attacked the southern city of Mykolaiv twice with missiles earlier in the day.
Five Ukrainian children were sleeping peacefully in their beds on March 2 when Russia launched the overnight drone attack against their hometown of Odesa that took their lives. Some came from different families but lived in the same apartment building in the southern Ukrainian port city. Instead of waking up
Key developments on March 2-3: * Russian drone attack on Odesa kills 12, including 5 children * Air Force: Ukraine downs another Russian Su-34 jet * Russian air activity over Ukraine reduced after recent significant aircraft losses, Air Force says * UK Defense Ministry: Average number of daily Russian losses reaches new high in
The EuroMaidan Revolution united millions of Ukrainians in protest against a corrupt, authoritarian, pro-Russian regime. Few could have guessed that this was just the beginning of Ukraine’s decade of struggle against mounting Russian subjugation attempts. This Revolution of Dignity began after then-President Viktor Yanukovych abruptly refused to sign the
ORLIVSHCHYNA, Dnipropetrovsk Oblast – It doesn’t look like a typical camp for internally displaced persons. Once a place to unwind and enjoy nature, the Lisovyi resort located on the Samara River near Dnipro, a large city in south-central Ukraine, was turned into a shelter when Russia launched a full-scale invasion
Editor’s note: Editorials are articles that present the opinion of the editorial team of the Kyiv Independent. In its brutal war of conquest against Ukraine, Russia has been blatantly and systematically targeting civilians and civilian infrastructure anywhere its missiles, artillery, and guns can reach. Shocking scenes of a destroyed
A crowd of dozens gathered near the highway in Kyiv’s historic Protasiv Yar neighborhood on June 16. Many of them knew each other well, united by past rallies against illegal construction in the area. But they were sadly quiet that day, hugging one another occasionally, and wiping off their
On March 23, Kyiv resident Olena Sukhenko got the most terrifying phone call of her life. “Russians came to our house,” her younger brother told her. “They took our mother. Our father went with her.” She felt the ground slipping out from beneath her feet. Olena asked her brother to
ODESA – Anti-tank hedgehogs, military patrols and an extended curfew aren’t what one expects to see in Ukraine’s main sea resort. In May, Odesa, a Ukrainian port city on the Black Sea, usually rolls into the tourist season, which generates a substantial part of the city’s earnings. Now
Early in the morning on March 9, Rostyslav Kotenko dialed the number of his father, Ukraine’s Armed Forces Colonel Serhii Kotenko. The two hadn't spoken since Kotenko’s father left to fight Russian forces in the war's hot spots, near Kherson and Zaporizhzhia. The long-awaited but brief conversation ended
BUCHA, Kyiv Oblast – When Russian forces turned an ordinary residential road in Bucha into a battlefield, wheelchair-bound Liudmyla Usenka, 69, was alone at home in the darkness. With a look of horror on her face, Usenka told the Kyiv Independent about the never-ending sounds of shelling and heavy street fighting
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