Help us purchase the Kyiv Independent’s first-ever vehicle — your support will help us continue our front-line reporting (Patreon)

Dear Kyiv Independent community members,

This is Lisha Shmidt, the donations manager at the Kyiv Independent. Usually, you do not receive letters from me, as I work behind the scenes. I focus on funding specific, additional projects for the Kyiv Independent, like the team’s mental health retreat this summer. 

Today is different, I am reaching out to all of you directly because we are in need of your support for our vehicle fundraiser. We are currently raising $20,000 to buy an SUV for the Kyiv Independent’s front-line reporters. The sum would cover both the purchase of the vehicle and the maintenance. 

The safety situation in front-line areas is continuing to deteriorate, and it’s getting more difficult to rent a vehicle, according to our reporter Francis Farrell, who routinely travels to the front. (Pictured above is Francis during a reporting trip in mid-2024, taken by our videographer Olena Zashko, who also travels regularly to the front line.) 

I talked to Francis, who explained exactly why owning our own vehicle is increasingly critical for our reporting at the Kyiv Independent — it not only would ensure we have transportation and can continue to report from the front lines, it’s also a safer option than renting a car. 

“Currently, driving anywhere within 15 to 20 kilometers of the zero line tends to be the area where a vehicle is at risk of being hit by a Russian FPV (first-person view) drone,” said Francis. 

“It’s been well documented across the front line that these drones very often do not discriminate and hit civilian targets — whether they are residents, humanitarian aid volunteers, or journalists — as easily as they would hit a military vehicle.

“If a drone is detected in the area or seen targeting your vehicle — the most important thing to do is to drive quickly into nearby cover, usually bushes, and exit the vehicle immediately.

“The drone threat adds an extra factor which makes using a rental vehicle for front-line trips far from ideal: the risk of even minor shrapnel damage or bumps and scratches from having to leave the road quickly. 

“In the future, we might also consider fitting our vehicle with a jamming device or other anti-drone measure, which, of course, is not an option on a rental.” 

Our front-line reporters are planning their next field trip in November. As reporting from the front becomes more dangerous each day, it is crucial for the Kyiv Independent to secure its own vehicle by then and provide our journalists with better equipment while they work in tough conditions to keep the world informed about Russia’s war. 

We have so far raised just over $5,300 out of the $20,000 goal — and we are now asking for your help to get us one step closer. We’re hoping to close our fundraiser by the end of October, so that we can have a vehicle purchased by the time our team needs it in November. 

If you want to help fund the purchase of the Kyiv Independent’s vehicle, you can make a donation via the Kyiv Independent’s website here, and add a note that it’s for the vehicle fundraiser with the new “Add comment” feature. 

U.S.-based members can also make a tax-deductible donation via our partners at Myriad USA.  

I’d also love to hear from you. Please feel free to contact me directly if you have any questions or if you’d like to be acknowledged as a donor. You can reach me at l.shmidt@kyivindependent.com.

I know we can achieve this together. With your support, our reporters will have a vehicle, critical for their ability to continue reporting from the ground and showing the world the truth about Russia’s full-scale invasion. 

Thank you again for your support. 

With gratitude,Lisha ShmidtDonations ManagerThe Kyiv Independent