We're reporting on the Alaska summit, as it happens: Here's what you helped us achieve this week (Patreon)

Dear Kyiv Independent community members,

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

We're starting this weekly community letter with some words from our editor-in-chief Olga Rudenko, who sums up both the chaos of working in a newsroom this week and how we're approaching coverage of the Trump-Putin meeting today. You can find all the coverage as it happens with live updates on the Kyiv Independent website.

"On a week like this, a newsroom is both the best and the worst place to be in. On the one hand, you’re in the midst of it, learning the news first, discussing inside tips and guessing how to interpret them.

On the other hand, you are really in the midst of it, with no option to tune out and breathe, or ignore the news altogether, if only for a day. It’s been one of those suffocating weeks — a kind of news suffocation. 

Here’s a conundrum: How does a handful of journalists in Kyiv cover the meeting of American and Russian presidents in Alaska? (4,000 miles away, I looked it up.) That’s the question we asked ourselves this Monday morning, when we gathered around a desk in the office for our daily news meeting.

The answer was found fast: By adding the Ukrainian voices to the story."

Most of the stories featured in this week's community letter are about the Alaska summit, what we know, what it means — and, importantly, what Ukrainians think. We want you to know that it's thanks to your support that we can continue reporting from the ground in Ukraine, making sure that Ukrainian voices aren't completely sidelined, even as Russia and the U.S. meet to discuss "peace" without Ukraine. This is what your contributions fund.

Thank you for sticking with us as we navigate the frenzy and try to stay sane — together.

Your attention and support for independent journalism from Ukraine makes a real, tangible difference. We'd also like to give a warm welcome to the 134 new members who joined this week. We wouldn't be here without people like you.

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

First, one of our most popular stories this week was about the upcoming Alaska summit. It's predicted that Putin will demand Ukraine cede new territory in the "Alaska peace plan," gaining control of all of Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts, while withdrawing from Sumy and Kharkiv oblasts in the north. Read the exclusive here. You can also read the analysis by Oleg Sukhov and Asami Terajima about what Putin, Trump, and Ukraine want and how the three parties differ on key issues.

We reported from Kramatorsk, asking Donetsk Oblast residents what they would accept to end the war. Asami Terajima spoke to people in Kramatorsk, the largest Ukrainian-held city in Donetsk Oblast, as Trump has begun to actively push Ukraine to lose land — and people — to Russia. One woman interviewed said "Kramatorsk is Ukraine, it was and it will be, ceding territory is dishonorable."

We interviewed Ukrainian soldiers on the upcoming Alaska summit, with one soldier saying that "it seems that Trump does not have enough leverage to stop Russia." We also spoke to Ukrainians on the streets of Kyiv about Trump’s plan to negotiate a peace agreement with Putin without Ukraine’s involvement. Pictured above is a still frame from the street interviews in Kyiv.

We reported on the mounting fears in Ukraine ahead of the Putin-Trump summit. Kateryna Denisova and Oleksiy Sorokin's article takes a look at Ukraine's political aims for the Alaska meeting. One source in the President's Office told the Kyiv Independent that "It's not entirely clear what happens next. But it's clear that we're about to be a little bit sold out."

This week also saw a rapid advance by Russia forces in Donetsk Oblast after piercing the front lines. We reported on Russia's 10-kilometer advance toward the Dobropillia-Kramatorsk highway, a move that could allow Russia to cut remaining supply routes and compromise the defense of the region — an area already between two major embattled cities Pokrovsk and Kostiantynivka.

We wrote about the Ukrainian soldiers who were born and raised on the lands now occupied by Russia. Yuliia Taradiuk spoke with soldiers about the deeply personal fight to reclaim their homes, including one father and daughter from Luhansk Oblast, who have both now served in the military. Ksenia, 24, said "My motivation is simple: My country needs to mobilize its citizens, and I am a citizen."

We published an explainer about why Russia is so obsessed with Alaska. Oleg Sukhov breaks down what Alaska means to Russia, the role it plays in Russian propaganda, and the history of the imperialist narrative.

We interviewed Michael McFaul, the former U.S. ambassador to Russia, about the Alaska summit. Kollen Post sits down with Michael McFaul to discuss the high-level talks between Trump and Putin and each side's strategy for the meeting.

We answered your questions about the war, from what it would take for Ukraine to push Russia out of its territory to Ukraine's new interceptor drones — and even how to respond to Russian propaganda that Ukraine persecutes Russian-speaking populations in eastern Ukraine. Thank you to everyone who took the time to send in their questions — we really appreciate it, and we hope that this helps answer your questions.

Finally, to end on a positive note, thanks to our community, another vehicle was donated to the Ukrainian military! One of our members, John, donated a Yamaha motorcycle to the National Guard in Kharkiv, with the help of another community member Bill and his colleague Vika. It's genuinely amazing to see our community work directly with one another to supply vehicles for the Ukrainian military, and we want to say thank you for everything that you've accomplished together. We're lucky to be backed by supporters like you! Pictured below is Vika, Bill, three members of the Ukrainian military, and John (left to right), with the motorcycle in the center.

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