Our War Crimes Investigations Unit won an international media award: Here's what you helped us achieve last week (Patreon)

Dear Kyiv Independent community members,

Thank you for your continued support!

This week, we'd like to give a warm welcome to the 80 new members. Recurring contributions make up the backbone of our funding – thank you for standing with us.

Here are some highlights from the Kyiv Independent this week:

Our War Crimes Investigations Unit won first prize at the Global Media Awards. On Thursday, the unit won first prize in the “Best New Video Product or Feature" category. You can find their investigative documentaries here. Pictured above is the award at the ceremony on April 25.

One popular story last week was about Ukraine's new Bohdana howitzer. Chris York's article explains what the Bohdana – essentially an artillery gun on a truck chassis with a 42-kilometer range – can do, and why it's an important weapon for Ukraine amid growing uncertainty from weapon suppliers abroad.

We reported from Sumy Oblast on its preparations in the face of a looming Russian offensive. Alexander Khrebet's story looks at the fortifications being put in place around the Myropillia community, an area surrounded by the Russian border on three sides, subjected to daily shelling, and what a Russian attack on Sumy Oblast might look like.

We wrote explainers on the recent U.S. legislation aimed to help Ukraine. Martin Fornusek's article breaks down when and how the recently approved aid package – which contains $61 billion for Ukraine, mostly in military assistance – will arrive, while Dominic Culverwell's explains how the REPO Act would confiscate and repurpose frozen Russian assets for Ukraine's war effort.

Former Kyiv Independent defense reporter Illia Ponomarenko wrote an op-ed about the story of wartime Kyiv, arguing that even though the war currently looks bleak, experts also predicted Kyiv would fall in only three days at the beginning of the full-scale invasion. You can pre-order his book "I Will Show You How It Was: The Story of Wartime Kyiv" here. Our members are eligible for a 15% discount before May 6 with the code KYIV15.

We also explained nuclear power in Ukraine, 38 years after the Chornobyl nuclear catastrophe. Andrea Januta's article looks at how Ukraine still produces over half of its energy from nuclear – the third highest share in the world, after France and Slovakia – despite crises at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant related to Russia's occupation and the legacy of Chornobyl.

This week Belarus Weekly includes the decision of the country's Culture Ministry to classify depictions of "non-traditional relationships," i.e. LGBTQ+ relationships, as "pornography" – a move mirroring Russia's policy.

Do you have any unanswered questions about the war? This week we announced our next written Q&A about the war – members can send their questions to community manager Brooke (brooke@kyivindependent.com) or to the community inbox (community@kyivindependent.com) for a chance to be answered by our reporters and editors. You can read our last edition of the Q&A here. Your name won't be mentioned when the answers are published.

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