The Kyiv Independent turns 5, makes 5 promises for the year ahead
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The Kyiv Independent is celebrating its fifth anniversary by launching its biggest-ever membership campaign, with a goal of welcoming 5,000 new members worldwide to strengthen its journalism and support ambitious new initiatives in 2027.
Founded on Nov. 11, 2021 by journalists dedicated to editorial independence and integrity, the Kyiv Independent began with a small team working from a shared room in a Kyiv coworking space, a single newsletter, and a mission to bring Ukraine's story to the world.
Just three months after its launch, Russia began its full-scale invasion of Ukraine. As the world turned its attention to the country, the Kyiv Independent became an essential source of independent on-the-ground reporting, helping international audiences understand the war and its consequences.
Since then, the Kyiv Independent has grown into an internationally recognized newsroom of around 100 people, including reporters, editors, investigative journalists, video creators, and other professionals. Over the past five years, the newsroom has continued reporting through Russia's attacks, blackouts, and other daily challenges of working in a country at war.
Much has changed since our founding days. But the most important things have not. We are still based in Kyiv and report from across Ukraine, bringing the truth from the ground to audiences around the world. And we still answer only to our readers — the people who make our work possible and available to everyone, without a paywall. We believe that the world should have reliable, independent reporting from Ukraine — and that everyone should be able to access it, regardless of their ability to pay.
The Kyiv Independent operates free from government influence, billionaire ownership, or political agendas. Over 70% of our revenue comes directly from our readers, through memberships and one-time donations.
Today, our community counts more than 37,000 members across over 100 countries — they make the Kyiv Independent journalism possible.
To mark its fifth anniversary, the Kyiv Independent is launching the most ambitious membership campaign yet, with a goal of welcoming 5,000 new members to help strengthen the newsroom and support its next chapter.
Milestones like this are worth celebrating, and they’re also an opportunity to look ahead. So we're here are five promises for the next year, which we'll deliver if we reach our goal of 5,000 new members:
- We will keep the Kyiv Independent free to read, with no paywall, for as long as Russia's full-scale war continues.
- We will create a permanent, regularly updated guide to trusted Ukrainian charities, so anyone who asks us how to help Ukraine gets a real answer.
- We will launch an educational series on Ukrainian history, because Ukraine is more than the war it is fighting.
- We will make our "Explaining Ukraine" series free for any newsroom in the world to republish and translate, in any language.
- We will celebrate those who stand with Ukraine by starting a Kyiv Independent award for true champions of Ukraine.
These promises reflect the Kyiv Independent's ambition to do more than report the news: to help people understand Ukraine, connect communities, and turn international solidarity into meaningful action. They are also a way of giving back to the readers who have supported the newsroom over the past five years.
As we look toward the next year, we want to grow our community and strengthen our ability to report from Ukraine. A larger membership community will help strengthen the newsroom's financial sustainability, support new journalism projects, and allow it to plan more confidently for the future — while remaining independent and accessible to readers around the world.
Five years ago, a small group of journalists set out to prove that an independent, reader-funded Ukrainian newsroom could exist. Today, with the support of tens of thousands of people worldwide, the Kyiv Independent has shown what that model can achieve. Now, we are inviting 5,000 more people to help shape what comes next.
Five years of telling Ukraine's story. The next chapter starts with you. To support the Kyiv Independent's mission and help us reach our goal, consider becoming a member today.
