We reported on Russia's intentional missile strike on Ukraine's largest children's hospital this Monday: Here's what you helped us do this week (Patreon)

Dear Kyiv Independent community members,

In Kyiv, this week did not start on a good note. On Monday morning, Russia launched a mass missile attack on Kyiv – as well as other cities in Ukraine – hitting the largest children's hospital in the country, killing 33 people in the capital only.

Pictured above is the aftermath of the Russian attack that hit the Okhmatdyt children's hospital, from a video shared by our reporter Chris York.

We'd like to give a warm welcome to our 113 new members this week. Thank you for standing with us – it's thanks to members like you our journalism has a stable source of funding.

Here are some highlights from the Kyiv Independent this week:

We covered the missiles attacks in Kyiv Monday morning, capturing the shock and fury after Russia deliberately hit Ukraine's largest children's medical center, with one doctor from the cardiology center saying "I don't understand how people can be such animals. Even animals don't do such things."

We wrote an explainer on how Russia broke through Ukraine’s air defense to strike the Okhmatdyt children's hospital. Martin Fornusek breaks down how Russia has made its missiles harder to shoot down, having the projectiles travel at extremely low altitudes and upgrading them with heat traps and radars.

We interviewed those who were at Okhmatdyt – at ground zero of Monday's attack – including the mother of a 4-year-old Ukrainian boy battling cancer who survived the strike. This story is by our reporter Natalia Yermak – Monday was her first day at the Kyiv Independent. She arrived at the office in the morning, then immediately left to report on the attack. We're glad she's part of our team, even though she had a bit of a baptism by fire.

One of our most popular stories last week was our explainer about the capabilities of the Bohdana howitzer. Chris York and Martin Fornusek explain what it means for Ukraine, now that 18 of these self-propelled artillery units are on their way to the battlefield.

We wrote about Georgia and Kyrgyzstan's foreign agent laws adopted this year. These laws, another tool of cracking down on dissent, are directly inspired by Russia's draconian "foreign agent" law, passed in 2012.

This week Belarus Weekly looks at the joint military drills between the Chinese and Belarusian militaries near the border with both Ukraine and Poland, with the announcement coming days after Belarus joined the Shanghai Cooperation Organization on July 4.

Finally, we hosted a Q&A with our editor-in-chief Olga Rudenko on Discord. You can read the questions from our members, the answers from Olga – and join our community Discord server here. If you're interested in more events like this, please let us know!

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