We investigated the Ukrainian military medical system that mistreats veterans: Here's what you helped us accomplish last week (Patreon)

Dear Kyiv Independent community members,

We had one of our members stop by the office this week – it's great that some people still make the trip to Kyiv, despite the war. Pictured above (left to right): Olena Yermakova, head of research at KI Insights; Matteo Patrone, Managing Director Eastern Europe and Caucasus, EBRD; Lili Bivings, our business editor; Jurgen Rigterink, First Vice President EBRD and – importantly – one of our community members; and Dominic Culverwell, our business reporter. 

We'd like to give a warm welcome to the 84 new members this week. Thank you for continuing to stand with us – we wouldn't be here without you.

Here are some highlights from the Kyiv Independent from this week:

We investigated the problems in the Ukrainian military medical system. Igor Kossov and Alexander Khrebet's investigation sheds light on how Ukraine's wounded soldiers have to navigate the broken military medical system, fighting for adequate treatments and combat pay.

Our most popular story last week was about the new dangers facing Krasnohorivka, as Russian troops advance in the east. Francis Farrell and Olena Zashko reported from the small city outside of occupied Donetsk, which has been on the front lines of Russia's war for 10 years now, with Russian positions just two kilometers outside the city since 2022.

We published an explainer about what we know about the number of Ukrainian casualties. Until Zelensky's recent public announcement that 31,000 Ukrainian troops have been killed so far, the number was kept a secret. Andrea Januta's explainer takes a look at how this figure might be calculated, why the number of casualties is sensitive information, and what this change in communications might mean.

We wrote about the electronic warfare arms race. Electronic warfare (EW) refers to a range of weapons that can obstruct or mislead enemy communications, such as jamming which can cause GPS-guided artillery shells to miss their targets and prevent drones from being able to fly; though Russia currently has dominance in EW, Ukraine is catching up, and the technology could shape the course of the war.

We covered the allegations about Ukraine planning to reopen its airspace. Dominic Culverwell's story breaks down how Ukraine might be able to restart commercial flights, despite still being at war, though the exact plans aren't yet public knowledge.

We covered Russians on both sides of the war: We wrote about how regular Russians who "don't do politics," whether out of indifference or fear, enable autocracy, as well as about the "Siberian Battalion"  – a new unit of Ukrainian Armed Forces, established for Russian nationals – which reportedly crossed into Russia on March 12. 

This week, Belarus Weekly looks at the revival of the governing body called the All-Belarus People’s Assembly, which in its previous form, starting in 1996, was a “conference” of Lukashenko supporters. Unsurprisingly, the Belarusian public will have no say in the candidates. 

In case you missed it, we're adding a new benefit for our community members: free Ukrainian language lessons. We will be working with a Ukrainian teacher and the first lesson is scheduled for March 19. If you're interested be sure to fill out this interest form.

Thank you for standing by our side as we bring independent, locally-sourced news about Ukraine to the world.