Our War Crimes Investigations Unit's next documentary will investigate Russia's religious repression in occupied territories: Here's what you helped us achieve this week (Patreon)

Dear Kyiv Independent community members,

Thank you for your continued support.

Today, our team went off to cover the largest-ever prisoner swap between Ukraine and Russia. It saw 390 Ukrainians liberated.

This is the first part of the "1,000 for 1,000" exchange agreed by Ukraine and Russia during the talks in Istanbul last week.

We dispatched a crew of Daria Shulzhenko (journalist), Olena Zashko (videographer) and Jason Blevins (director) to the site of the exchange in northern Ukraine. Here's a quick field report that we ran today. A video report is coming up on our YouTube channel tomorrow.

We'd also like to give a warm welcome to the 649 new members who joined this week! Last Thursday, we launched an effort to reach 20,000 community members, and we've made incredible progress already. We have just over 1,000 members left until we reach our goal.

Thank you to everyone who has helped spread the word and thank you for already being a part of our community. It's thanks to you we're able to accomplish everything we've been able to, including growing our team, expanding our coverage, reaching new audiences — and keeping Ukraine in the headlines when it matters the most.

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

Our War Crimes Investigations Unit announced the release of their next documentary "No God But Theirs." The film reveals how Russia targets Ukrainian Christian churches in occupied territories — and debunks Kremlin propaganda that casts Russian President Vladimir Putin as a defender of Christianity. Next week, we'll have an exclusive premiere of "No God But Theirs" for our community, followed by a Q&A with Danylo Mokryk of the War Crimes Investigations Unit. Register and submit your questions here.

One widely read story was about Ukraine's new drone strategy — crippling Moscow airports. Tim Zadorozhnyy's article takes a look at the hundreds of kamikaze drones that have been flying to Moscow over the past weeks and how Ukraine has already forced over 200 temporary airport closures in Russia since the start of the year.

We also reported on Russia's innovations in drone warfare. Francis Farrell's article explains fiber optic drones and how Russia is using the new technology to gain territory, as Ukraine struggles to keep up. Meanwhile, Kollen Post's article explains how Russia has made their Shahed drones more deadly, outfitting them with jet engines, which allows them to fly higher and faster, and carry larger explosive payloads.

We interviewed one of the Mariupol defenders on the historic fight for the Azovstal steel plant and the brutality of Russian captivity afterwards. Azov Brigade member Artem Dubyna said that "no one saw surrender as an option. Everyone was prepared for the last battle," and that some soldiers even asked their comrades to kill them if they were severely wounded, to avoid capture. The troops were eventually ordered to surrender, three years ago. Many still remain in captivity, three years later, while others were freed through POW exchanges.

We also interviewed historian Timothy Ash about the threats to Europe, now that U.S. global leadership is fading. Ash said that Europe, facing its deepest crisis since 1945, will either need to step up or fade into irrelevance — and that "the U.S. will never again be what it was."

We published an explainer obituary on the controversial Ukrainian ex-official who was shot dead in Spain earlier this week. Andriy Portnov was the architect of Ukraine's judiciary system— corrupt and unreformed — and had also filed a lawsuit against our editor-in-chief over an article in which he was referenced as being "pro-Russian." Oleg Sukhov's article takes a look at Portnov's career and how he acted in Russia's interest, hampering Ukraine's judiciary system.

We wrote about how Ukraine’s mental health workers tackle war trauma in front-line areas. Andrea Januta's story explains how child psychologists are working in Savyntsi, a village in Kharkiv Oblast that survived heavy shelling and six months of Russian occupation, to support the children there and overcome stigmas against mental health from the Soviet era.

Are you a member from Finland? Our editorial team is working on a story about how Finland is preparing for a potential Russia invasion, and we'd like to hear from you. We're looking for 2-3 Finnish members who would be willing to be interviewed for this article that will appear on the Kyiv Independent website. If you're interested or if you have any questions, please email senior community manager Brooke at brooke@kyivindependent.com.

Finally, we've started a new experiment on Discord: voting on story ideas from our editorial team. We have a lot of story ideas, both from our staff and our community, that don't make it to an article — there's simply too much news and too many good ideas for our small newsroom to cover. So, we'd like your help with selecting which stories should be tackled first. We opened our first poll on Monday, and the winning story that will be given editorial priority is about Ukraine's first military recruitment campaign that specifically targets women. Join our Discord to participate in the next vote!

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