We had a legal training about civil rights by one of Ukraine's top media lawyers: Here's what you helped us accomplish this week (Patreon)

Dear Kyiv Independent community members,

Thank you for your continued support. We know 2025 hasn’t been off to an easy start, but we recognize your support — every pageview, every shared article, every dollar contributed makes a real, tangible difference for us. 

Today is Valentine's Day, and we want you to know that we’re thinking of the love and support we receive from you — our members — and how grateful we are that you’re with us. You've helped us accomplish a lot in the past few years: To put it in perspective, a year ago, we were averaging just under 3 million page views on our website every month. This January, we surpassed 12.5 million.

We're also preparing for whatever the future will bring. Last weekend we held a two-day strategy session with our team to plan what the long-term future of the Kyiv Independent might look like. This week, we had a legal training from one of Ukraine's top media lawyers on our civil rights when dealing with law enforcement (pictured above). We're also holding interviews with some of our community members to see how a drastic change in the course of the war might affect support for our journalism.

We plan to be around for a while, and we want to say thank you for being a part of this. We know we don’t say it enough, but we love you. ♥️

We'd also like to give a warm welcome to the 175 new members who joined this week. Welcome to our community!

Here's what you helped us accomplish at the Kyiv Independent last week:

We reported on the Trump administration's involvement in "peace talks." Oleg Sukhov's article breaks down what terms would be considered acceptable for Ukraine in a potential peace deal, while an article by Andrea Januta explains how Trump and his Defense Secretary Hegseth are damaging Ukraine in talks with Russia.

We published an editorial explaining exactly what the consequences of these concessions to Russia would mean, and calling on Europe to step up: "Nobody wants this war to end more than Ukrainians do. It’s our homes that get attacked with drones every night. It’s our friends who get killed in battle. It’s our youth that’s been stolen by this war. But we understand that any compromise with Russia won’t be the end of the war."

We reported on Russia's shadow fleet. We interviewed Elisabeth Braw, a senior fellow with the Atlantic Council's Transatlantic Security Initiative, about how Russia uses a "shadow fleet" — ships with unclear owners that are difficult to trace — to transport its oil and gas to circumvent Western sanctions and what can be done to stop it.

We explained the death toll of Russia's war in Ukraine so far. This week, on the phone call with Putin, Trump claimed that "millions" have been killed in this war. Elsa Court's article explains that despite the inaccuracies and complications around calculating death tolls, the real number of casualties is closer to 150,000.

We reported on the start of an informal election season in Ukraine. Kateryna Denisova's article looks at the key players as political activity grows inside the country — as well as the pressure from the U.S. for Kyiv to hold elections by the end of the year.

Don't miss the Valentine's Day sale on the Kyiv Independent's online store. You can get 20% off matching items from the winter collection with the code VALENTINE. This offer is available until Feb. 15 at 2 p.m. Kyiv time.

To end on a light-hearted note: There's a bet going on in the Kyiv Independent office, and we need your help so our product manager Masha can win. Masha bet that by the end of February, we could get 3,000 members to place their pin on our community map, a feature we added a few months ago to the Kyiv Independent website. Our COO Zakhar thought that it wouldn't be possible. As of now, we have 1,835 pins — and 15 days left. (The loser has to wear this T-shirt from our online store for a week. Spare Masha of this fate, prove Zakhar wrong, and add your pin here: There's a special form for Patreon members.)

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