We reported on the deadly ballistic missile strike on Kyiv amid "peace negotiations" — Here's what you helped us achieve last week (Patreon)

Dear Kyiv Independent community members,

Thank you for your continued support. It’s been a hell of a week.

Developments around “peace negotiations” are moving quickly — despite a mass missile strike on Kyiv Wednesday night, killing at least 12 and injuring around 90 people, as well as continued fighting on the front lines.

U.S. President Donald Trump said earlier he hopes to end the war this week or abandon the efforts entirely if no progress is made, and little points in Ukraine’s favor.

The Trump administration’s final proposal for ending Russia’s war reportedly includes recognizing Crimea as Russian territory, lifting sanctions on Russia from 2014, and preventing Ukraine from joining NATO.

And, we've covered it all — from the missile attack, to the "peace" plans, and Crimean voices reacting to the possible recognition of Russia's occupation — thanks to the support of readers like you. Your contributions make a real, tangible difference for our work, allowing us to not only keep reporting, but expand our coverage and reach more readers, too.

We'd like to give a warm welcome to the 172 new members who joined this week. We're proud to rely on our readers for support.

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

We reported on the mass missile attack on Kyiv Wednesday night. Natalia Yermak's story includes testimonies from those who survived the attack, with one woman saying "It's a nightmare, really. Our neighbor died in the building. I don't have an apartment anymore." Watch the video report from the inside of an apartment hit in the strike here. Pictured above, rescue workers at the site of a Russian missile attack in Kyiv, on Thursday, April 24, by Andrew Kravchenko for Bloomberg via Getty Images.

We also reported on the largest POW exchange between Ukraine and Russia. Just before Easter, Ukraine brought home another 277 soldiers. Francis Farrell and Olena Zashko reported on the exchange, showing one of the most joyful moments of the war, as loved ones were reunited after years in Russian captivity.

We asked Crimean Tatars what the recognition of Russia's occupation of Crimea would mean, as the U.S. reportedly considers this as a condition of a potential "peace agreement." One activist in exile said, "The world's acceptance of Russia's control over Crimea would mean accepting that the Crimean Tatars, the indigenous people of the peninsula, may cease to exist as a distinct nation." We also asked Kyiv residents what they thought — watch the video here.

We interviewed Leniie Umerova, a Crimean Tatar freed from Russian captivity. Leniie was arrested on trumped-up espionage charges in 2022 while trying to return home to visit her sick father. She recounts her experience of the ordeal and her thoughts on recognizing Russia’s control of Crimea, saying it "would be a devaluation of international law, of human rights, of the very idea of justice."

One widely read story last week was Kate Tsurkan's explainer on decolonizing Russia — what it means and why it matters. We also interviewed a Chechen political scientist about the lead-up to the Chechen wars and the consequences for Chechnya’s cultural identity; Marat Iliyasov said that "Russia’s cowardly violence in Ukraine is driven by desperation."

We reported on new threats to Chornobyl, nearly 39 years after the nuclear disaster in April 1986. Kollen Post explains how Russia's drone attack, which damaged the $2 billion sarcophagus enclosing the destroyed reactor, now poses a new danger as engineers attempt to repair the damage.

In case you ordered a copy of our print magazine, we want to give you a small update. Unfortunately, there have been slight delays in the production of "The Power Within," and we now plan to ship the magazine in early June. If you have any questions, you can reach out to our e-store store manager Sofa Koretska at support@kyivindependent.com.

Our next community Q&A will be "Is Europe ready for war?" Join deputy chief editor Oleksiy Sorokin and senior news editor Martin Fornusek on Monday, April 28 as they answer your questions about changing political alliances, what the Trump administration means for NATO, and Russia’s “ceasefire” agreements. Register and submit your questions here.

Finally, we want to hear from you: This week we launched our community survey. Your voice matters to us — we use your responses to shape our work — and it only should take about five minutes to complete the survey. We ran our last survey in October and received 555 responses (about 4.5% of our community at the time). We're hoping to hear from even more of you this time around. Your input is really important to us!

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