The Czech ammunition initiative secured financing for half a million shells for Ukraine and can gather more if it finds additional donors or finances, Czech Foreign Minister Jan Lipavsky said in an interview with the Kyiv Independent on July 23. Czechia unveiled the international initiative earlier this year amid Ukraine's
Ukraine was “a blind spot” for Germans up until Moscow’s full-scale invasion, Franziska Davies, a historian of Eastern and Eastern Central Europe, told the Kyiv Independent in an interview. “And if there is a blind spot, propaganda narratives can easily fill it with falsehoods,” Davies said, explaining why Russia-planted
The recent career of the outgoing Dutch Ambassador, Jennes de Mol, has been a good reflection of his country's relations with Ukraine. A career diplomat, De Mol was the Dutch Consul General in Saint Petersburg in 2014, when he came to Kyiv to assist the Dutch embassy in the aftermath
After a long journey fraught with a global pandemic and all-out invasion, Canada and Ukraine successfully revamped a free trade agreement that comes into play on July 1, expanding the relationship between Canadian and Ukrainian businesses. The Canada Ukraine Free Trade Agreement (CUFTA) was initially introduced in August 2017, abolishing
The Kyiv Independent has obtained footage of Ukrainian authorities questioning a Nepali prisoner of war captured when he was fighting for Russia in Ukraine. The footage was obtained from intelligence sources. The Kyiv Independent edited it for brevity.
Editor’s note: This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity. When Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, neighboring Slovakia, with its own experience of decades of Russian occupation in the 20th century, became one of the staunchest supporters of Ukraine. Under the guidance of then-Defense Minister Jaroslav
Australian Minister Bill Shorten, head of his country’s delegation at the peace summit in Switzerland, says he was surprised by the event. Shorten has been in politics for eight years and was a trade union representative for 15 years before that. He's now the country's National Disability and Insurance
Ukrainians could face up to 20 hours of blackouts a day under a “worst-case” scenario if the country cannot repair and properly defend its energy infrastructure from Russian attacks, Executive Director of Ukraine’s largest privately-owned energy company DTEK Dmytro Sakharuk told the Kyiv Independent in an interview on June
Ukraine’s recovery and reconstruction are impossible to separate from the country’s EU integration and accession aspirations. If the country wants to enter the EU, it will have to get its rules and regulations in line with the bloc, across every field. Many of these reforms will involve sectors
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
Laurent Dupuch has weathered not one but two storms over the past few years as CEO and country manager of one of Ukraine’s largest banks Ukrsibbank. He arrived in Ukraine after almost seven years as CEO of the bank’s Morocco operations at the beginning of March 2020, right
Ukrainian author Volodymyr Rafeyenko never thought he would write a novel in Ukrainian. He was a native of Donetsk, an eastern Ukrainian city where he grew up speaking Russian and completed a degree in Russian philology. Early on in his career, he was the winner of some of Russia’s
TAIPEI – The start of Russia’s full-scale war against Ukraine was a wake-up call for Taiwan, with the island nation believed to be the next conflict zone in case of Kyiv’s defeat. Two years in, Taiwanese Foreign Minister Joseph Wu still believes that the island’s future is dependent
Dmytro Kozatskyi, call sign "Orest," is a Ukrainian soldier who formerly headed the press service of the Azov regiment. In this video, Kozatskyi breaks down his famous photographs and shares his memories about the Russian siege of Mariupol.
Editor's Note: The Kyiv Independent is exclusively re-publishing an interview with Ihor Poshyvailo prepared by the Forum for Ukrainian Studies, a research publication for experts, practitioners, and academics to discuss, explore, reflect upon, develop, and transform international understanding of contemporary affairs in Ukraine. This platform is run by the Canadian
Russia’s full-scale war on Ukraine has dealt a devastating blow to the country’s economy. While the country has begun to bounce back from an initial 29% drop in GDP, it’s estimated that at today’s level of growth, the country’s GDP won’t return to pre-war
Local authorities in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk Oblast have stopped assessing the damage of Russia’s war. Daily barrages of attacks make doing so both futile and extremely dangerous. Russian forces launch up to 2,500 attacks daily at the embattled region’s towns and villages located along 165 miles
Radosław Sikorski, Poland's foreign minister, wants to make it clear he stands for Ukraine's place in the European Union. "It was during the Polish presidency of the EU – with these hands, I pushed and succeeded in closing the text of Ukraine's Association Agreement with the European Union," he emphasized during
To see some of the horrors Russia’s war has brought to Ukraine, one just has to click on the #RussiaIsATerroristState hashtag on social media. Given the scale of Russia’s ongoing attacks, which have left entire cities blacked out and destroyed, and thousands of people killed, the hashtag is
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
The Kyiv Independent's Masha Lavrova sat down with Ukrainian Hollywood actress Ivanna Sakhno to discuss her experience of watching the war unfold in Ukraine from the U.S., and her advocacy mission to keep bringing the world's attention to Ukraine.
In March 2024, Sweden became NATO’s 32nd member state after a lengthy application process triggered by Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Joining the alliance comes at arguably the most turbulent time in European security since the end of the Cold War, with Russia scaling up its military industrial
Despite Russia’s incessant attacks on Ukraine’s energy system throughout its now more than two-year-old invasion, the country’s oil and gas giant Naftogaz just celebrated its first heating system without any gas imports. It is the “greatest moment in Ukraine’s energy history,” Naftogaz CEO Oleksiy Chernyshov told
Editor's Note: The Kyiv Independent is exclusively re-publishing an interview with Dmytro Vovk prepared by Forum for Ukrainian Studies, a research publication for experts, practitioners, and academics to discuss, explore, reflect upon, develop, and transform international understanding of contemporary affairs in Ukraine. This platform is run by the Canadian Institute
Europe needs to make great strides in increasing the capacity of its defense industry, and can only do this by working together within the EU and with Ukraine, Dutch Defense Minister Kajsa Ollongren told the Kyiv Independent on March 20. The ammunition initiative, launched by Czechia in February amid increasingly
Editor’s Note: This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity. Russian President Vladimir Putin has consistently weaponized and distorted history throughout his time in power since 2000. In a recent interview with U.S. far-right commentator Tucker Carlson, Putin went back more than 1,000 years to justify
The start of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine was an unlikely place for investment. Russian attacks all over the country were destroying critical infrastructure, factories, and homes. The economy took a major hit, with GDP falling 29% that year. The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, which has been
Deputy Defense Minister Dmytro Klimenkov has been given one of the most sensitive jobs of his incoming team: reforming and managing Ukraine’s troubled military procurements. His overloaded daily schedule barely hints at the scope of the issue. Former Defense Minister Oleksiy Reznikov and his entire team were fired after
The West doesn’t spend enough time analyzing its miscalculations in the Russia-Ukraine war, Kurt Volker, a former U.S. special representative for Ukraine negotiations, said in an interview with the Kyiv Independent. “We have made many mistakes, from just before Russia's invasion and throughout. The biggest mistake was holding
Editor's Note: The Kyiv Independent is exclusively re-publishing an interview with Rajan Menon prepared by Forum for Ukrainian Studies, a research publication for experts, practitioners, and academics to discuss, explore, reflect upon, develop, and transform international understanding of contemporary affairs in Ukraine. This platform is run by the Canadian Institute
Josep Borrell, the European Union's top diplomat, held a two-day visit to Ukraine to meet with a variety of the country’s top officials in what has now become a regular tour of support. Visiting Ukraine for the fourth time in two years, Borrell has been sharp in urging his
Business is good for Ukrainian banks. Last year, the country’s banks brought in record profits of Hr 130 billion ($3.5 billion) with the five top state-owned banks making 61.5% of the total. One of these banks is Oschadbank, the country’s second-largest state-owned bank after PrivatBank. In
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