Letter from our editor-in-chief: Anxious times call for more action (Patreon)

Hello, dear Kyiv Independent community members, 

This is Olga Rudenko, editor-in-chief of the Kyiv Independent.

I won’t waste your time. Here’s why I’m here, in your inbox.

We are launching a bold and crucially important campaign — and we want to take this opportunity to share with you why your support is so critical for the Kyiv Independent.

Now, I take any address to our readers very seriously. I wanted to write an artful and inspiring announcement. So I rolled up my sleeves, opened my laptop and… for the first time, I didn’t know what to say.

I immediately knew why I was struggling — it’s obvious. You may know me as one of the millions of famously resilient Ukrainians. But today, I’m anxious and exhausted — both from the current developments and from the accumulated stress of the war. 

It’s not the nightly air raids that stress me out. That I can take. But watching as, after three years of fighting, my nation is being pressured into an unjust peace deal, and seeing the former “global watchdog of democracy” itching to hand a win to the aggressor who started this brutal war — that’s what’s draining on me.

And if I struggle to process the anxiety coming from it, how can I put it all in words for you?

And then I realized: I’m talking to the people who must feel exactly like I do.

Whether we are in Ukraine, the U.S., Europe, or somewhere else — we all must feel drained and anxious about the pace and direction of the changes in the world that we know. 

So instead of writing a formal announcement of our new campaign, I want to share with you why we are doing it — and how it connects with how we all feel today.

As you know, the Kyiv Independent is funded by its community — by you. Right now, we have nearly 18,000 members from around the world. Your monthly donations constitute the majority of our funding. With that, we are able to run stories, front-line reports, film videos, and investigate Russian war crimes. 

If you’re wondering why we do it this way — oh, I really like this story. 

First thing we did when we started the Kyiv Independent was turn down a few million dollars. Yes, you read that right. 

A representative of a Ukrainian oligarch heard we are launching an English-language publication and said his boss was ready to fund it. We realized that it would mean compromises on editorial independence, and didn’t take it.

I don’t know if you’ve had a chance to turn down several million dollars, but it’s a funny feeling.

We also passed on a paywall. Reserving information for only those who can pay didn’t feel like the right thing to do. 

Instead of taking the money or raising a wall, we decided to build a community. As of now, our community of thousands of people has funded us above the oligarch’s promise. We are immensely grateful for your support.

But here’s my favorite part about it all. 

In a community, nothing is one-way. As our members, you empower us, and we hope you feel empowered in exchange — because you have joined the right cause, helped us tell the truth about this war to the world.

And this brings me to today.

Together with our community, we have chosen to respond to the horror of the war and Russian aggression by action. Together, we have told thousands of stories, served as the world’s eyes on the battlefield, documented Russian atrocities, and investigated war crimes. 

Today, we want to respond to the new challenges by doing more. 

As the world is getting tired of Ukraine, we will speak about it even louder. As betrayal is in the air, we will scream about the cost of it. As Russia is seeking to get away with atrocities, we will make them difficult to forget. That’s our plan and our pledge. 

To do more, we need more — more people to stand with us.

That’s why today we launched an effort to grow our community to 20,000 members. To get there, we need to acquire over 2,000 new members. 

To me, this goal of growth connects very naturally to the anxious state we are in — it’s our response to it. In it, I see hope, strength, and defiance.

Three years ago, we decided to build a community, not a wall. Today, this choice seems more fateful than ever.

Here’s how you can track our campaign: We have a counter here — so you can see how many people are left to our goal of 20,000. 

Let me take this moment and personally thank you who have already become a member for standing with us. I hope that this message resonated with you. 

What do you think, can we do it together? I bet we can.

Ever a stubborn believer,Olga Rudenko Editor-in-Chief The Kyiv Independent