DOHA – The terrorist attack on the Crocus City Hall concert venue in a Moscow suburb was no bolt from the blue. The Kremlin dismissed U.S. intelligence warnings of an imminent attack by “extremists,” possibly to shift the blame to a convenient scapegoat when the attack came. The murder of
Whoever doubts that Europe is in danger of an ominous divergence on Russia and Ukraine should take a look at the forced smiles of the “triple handshake” between German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, French President Emmanuel Macron, and Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk when they met in Berlin last Friday, ostensibly
In the spring of 2022, right after Russia’s atrocities in Bucha were exposed, several Western leaders uttered the term “genocide.” U.S. President Joe Biden, former U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson, former Colombian President Ivan Duque, and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau did so in short succession, albeit
Editor’s Note: This article was published by the blog “The Counteroffensive with Tim Mak” on March 22, 2024, and has been re-published by the Kyiv Independent with permission. To subscribe to "The Counteroffensive," click here. Aahed Bakkora will never forget the night that birds began falling out of the
The media has been filled with coverage of the Russian presidential election that took place this weekend. Incumbent Russian President Vladimir Putin boasted 87% of the vote – a number that hardly came as a surprise amid widespread criticism that the election was neither free nor fair. Even before the election
Editor's Note: The Kyiv Independent is not disclosing the full names of soldiers due to security concerns amid the ongoing war in Ukraine. DONETSK OBLAST – Watching my friend Vitalii prepare grilled pork skewers during my latest trip to Donetsk Oblast in February, we were thinking about one thing: the summer
Editor’s Note: This article was published by the blog “The Counteroffensive with Tim Mak” on March 17, 2024, and has been re-published by the Kyiv Independent with permission. To subscribe to "The Counteroffensive," click here. There’s a low rumbling that never quite stops below Kharkiv’s iconic Independence
The Ukrainian military shot down five Russian military aircraft in the span of three days in early March, begging the question: How many planes does Russia have? This is a complex question, but I'll let you in on a little secret: The numbers listed in international indexes are often quite
Editor’s Note: This article was published by the blog “The Counteroffensive with Tim Mak” on March 14, 2024, and has been re-published by the Kyiv Independent with permission. To subscribe to "The Counteroffensive," click here. Dilaver Saidakhmetov's grandfather wasn’t a practicing Muslim, but that didn’t stop him
Ukrposhta, Ukraine’s state-owned postal service, was the first to resume operations in the country’s recently liberated cities and villages, delivering packages and much-needed pensions to the most vulnerable. The company is continuing to grow, expand, and digitize its services. Ukraine’s state-owned railway company Ukrzaliznytsia transported 25 million
Over two years into Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, and Europe is still addicted to Russian fossil fuels. In spite of 13 sanctions packages against Russia and endless words of solidarity for Ukraine, recent data has revealed that many European Union countries continue to import massive amounts of liquified
Ukraine has about a month before it runs out of artillery shells, and the U.S. Congress cannot agree to ship more. Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny is dead. The slaughter in Gaza continues with no end in sight. The Yemeni Houthis are attacking ships in the Red Sea. The
Nineteen-thirty-eight is an apposite metaphor for 2024, of a world poised on the brink of a devastating war. The pieces are all there: Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, tensions across the Taiwan Strait, the U.S. increasingly divided and isolated, the Middle East divided along sectarian and tribal lines, a
I started the "Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III" video game campaign on the evening of Nov. 10, 2023, in my apartment in Kyiv with the aim of finishing it in a single night. I was two hours in when Star Wars star Mark Hamill’s familiar voice let out
WASHINGTON, D.C. – For about 1,500 years, high-value goods were moved from China (and perhaps other parts of Asia) to Europe and the Middle East via the Silk Road. The precise route varied over time, but it always ran through and involved local traders in parts of what we
There is consensus among observers of Russia’s war against Ukraine that it should end as soon as possible. Most Ukrainians couldn’t agree more. Today, one suspects, many Russians would also not mind ceasing the carnage. Why, then, is there still not – and likely will not be any time
Two years of brutal, full-scale invasion by Russia has inflicted severe environmental damage on Ukraine, impacting the country's rich biodiversity, contaminating land and water resources, and posing a direct threat to public health and safety. Addressing these challenges is crucial for the environment, but also for the long-term peace, stability,
U.K. Foreign Secretary David Cameron recently declared, "Ukraine’s security is our security.” As the front line between Russia and Ukraine becomes ever more static, Russia will continue to seek out ways to disrupt Ukraine’s flow of military aid and harm its partners. As one of the leading
Editor’s Note: This article was published by the blog “The Counteroffensive with Tim Mak” on Feb. 22, 2024, and has been re-published by the Kyiv Independent with permission. To subscribe to "The Counteroffensive," click here. In the first hours of his full-scale invasion, Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered his
Two years ago today, our website’s homepage blasted, in all caps, “PUTIN DECLARES WAR ON UKRAINE.” We all have come a long way since that morning of Feb. 24, 2022. From the initial shock of waking up to the sound of air strikes on our cities, through the sense
Working alongside investigators and prosecutors on sexual and gender-based crimes is a horrific experience. It involves listening to, reading, and hearing accounts of unimaginable suffering in sickening detail. To support the work of Ukraine’s Prosecutor General’s Office, Mobile Justice Teams (MJTs) comprised of Ukrainian and international experts were
Where were you that morning when the great war began? Here's my story: The war spoke to me with the distant rumble of explosions outside the window, but I didn't believe it, thinking I was living a dream. Then, on the second floor of my friends' house near Kyiv, the
KYIV – Feb. 24, 2022, when Russia marched hundreds of thousands of troops into Ukraine, marked the beginning of a major geopolitical earthquake. For two years, Europe has been living with the grim reality of the continent’s largest war of aggression since World War II, and with widespread, horrifying atrocities.
MUNICH – “Words, words, just words,” sighed one VIP attendee at the Munich Security Conference as representatives of three European Union member states discussed security cooperation. “China will get the message: ‘No need to worry about us here,’” said another about the signals being sent from Bavaria. A lugubrious mood hung
I am an American military veteran, callsign "Jackie," and I am writing from Donbas in Ukraine. I am originally from Orange County, California. I served in the U.S. military for eight years, stationed in Colorado, South Korea, Iraq, Afghanistan, and Kuwait. I also worked as a contractor at the
Editor’s note: The following piece is a personal account of the Munich Security Conference from a Kyiv Independent reporter but does not purport to reflect the views of the publication. MUNICH – For three days every year, the space in front of the Bayerischer Hof Hotel in central Munich turns
LONDON – Donald Trump’s potential return to the White House in 2025 poses a grave threat to Europe’s security. With war in Ukraine still raging, European countries must shore up their defenses against Russian President Vladimir Putin’s revanchist aggressions before it is too late. The prospect of an
Editor’s note: This is issue 42 of Ukrainian lawmaker Yaroslav Zhelezniak’s weekly “Ukrainian Economy in Brief” newsletter, covering events from Feb. 5-11, 2024. The digest highlights steps taken in the Ukrainian parliament related to business, economics, and international financial programs. This is the first time it is appearing
The following is a speech by National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) Governor Andriy Pyshnyy at the conference “Central Bank Independence in a Changing World.” The conference was organized for the governors of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) constituency by the National Bank of Belgium (NBB) in Brussels, Belgium, on Feb.
In the wake of land reform and the relentless challenges posed by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Ukraine's agricultural sector faces a pivotal moment. Small farmers, the backbone of this vital industry, grapple with the dual challenges of securing financing and overcoming the aftermath of destruction and economic upheaval. The
Russia’s war against Ukraine and the political turmoil that has since enveloped Europe indicate a need for more than a cosmetic change to improving the European Union’s relations with its non-EU neighbors. Brussels’ earlier approaches have proven insufficient to lessen the tensions in Eastern Europe that led to
BERLIN – Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24, 2022, changed everything for Ukraine, for Europe, and for global politics. The world entered a new era of great-power rivalry in which war could no longer be excluded. Apart from the immediate victims, Russia’s aggression most concerned Europe. A
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