Letter from our editor-in-chief: We’re doing something really bold (Patreon)

Dear Kyiv Independent community members,

This is Olga Rudenko, editor-in-chief of the Kyiv Independent. I’m here, writing to you, because we are doing something really bold, and I think you will like it. 

Today, we launched our biggest and most important campaign yet. We are looking for 4,000 new members who will join our community  of members and support our journalism. And we want to take this opportunity to thank you for being our member and to share why your support is so critical to the Kyiv Independent.

Why are we launching the campaign now? 

Frankly, we don’t like where things are heading lately, globally — and we think we all can be doing more to fix it.

You may have noticed that the international media’s coverage of Ukraine has gone down. Partly that’s because the attention switched to the Middle East, much to Russia’s pleasure. And partly that’s because the front line in Ukraine became more dangerous to report from as Russia’s drone technology gets more deadly. 

Meanwhile, peace negotiations have stalled (and Donald Trump has not ranted about Volodymyr Zelensky in a while).

Despair is building up in the air everywhere. The news is getting exhausting to follow. At the same time, disinformation is thriving. 

Here in Ukraine, we feel it, too: the exhaustion and the emotional detachment that have built up from four years of all-out war. The combination of living through a war that has no end in sight, and hearing Russia threaten to nuke your city about once a month — that is a lot to carry. 

My point is, whether you’re watching the horrors or living through them, they weigh you down. That built-up exhaustion just makes you want to get out: to look away, to shut down, to crawl into a shell — essentially, to quit. After all, you personally can’t do anything about any of it. Right?

And… this is how you know the bad guys are winning.

For this is exactly what they want us to think: that we can’t do anything.  

For evil to prevail, it doesn’t need to overpower the good people — it needs to persuade them they are powerless.

This is where we refuse to cooperate — and we hope you will too.

For over four years, we at the Kyiv Independent have been doing our part in not letting the injustice and horrors win. 

Our part is spreading the truth — bringing independent local reporting from Ukraine to the world. We’re still here, in the fifth year of Russia’s full-scale invasion, to tell the stories of the people living through it. 

We do it without fear or compromise, in the face of disinformation campaigns, threats to our physical safety, and wartime censorship — because we believe that Ukraine’s young democracy needs independent journalism. 

Our journalists continue to go to the front line despite immense risks, because we believe that you need us to be your eyes on the battlefield. As international news outlets scale back front-line coverage, this reporting becomes more crucial to truly understand the reality on the ground. 

And, we continue investigating Russia and its crimes, showing the truth of what happens to Ukrainians when Russia occupies our land. We are now working on three documentary films about Russian war crimes and the international influence networks that support it.

I want to be very honest: all of it is getting harder to do. This newsroom is tired. Getting the truth about Russia’s war against Ukraine out there is a grinding fight. There is no shortage of people who would be relieved if we stopped. 

But we are not planning to make them happy.

Today, I’m asking you to stand with us. 

The majority of our funding comes from our members, people like you, who back our work and make sure it stays free for everyone to read. Thanks to you we can keep doing our work and stay independent.

Today, we are looking for 4,000 new members to join us — 4,000 people like you who stand for the truth. 

Getting there will give us more resources for our journalism, which means more stories reaching more people, and a stronger newsroom in the face of uncertainty.

We invite you to track our campaign: We have a counter on the website — so you can see how many people are left to our goal of 4,000 new members. 

If you want to help us reach the goal, you can share our campaign with your friends and community. Even just sharing our articles and posts helps — you’re making sure more people see us.

If you feel like doing more, you can gift our membership, if there’s anyone you’d like to become a member.

Let me take a moment to personally thank everyone who has already become a member and chosen to stand with us. Your support means more than you know, and we are deeply grateful for it. 

Best regards from Kyiv,

Olga Rudenko