Here's what you helped us achieve in the last week (Patreon)

Dear Kyiv Independent community members,

Thank you to everyone who sent in photos of themselves with their Kyiv Independent merch (and their pets)! It's been great to see the faces of our community members. Pictured above are our members, Norma and Mr. Burton McFeeley (a rescue).  

We'd also like to give a warm welcome to our 60 new members this week. Recurring contributions are our main source of revenue, and we're grateful for the amount of support we've received. Your contributions keep us going!

Here are some highlights from the Kyiv Independent over the last week:

We reported on the Ukrainian intelligence claim that Russia will mobilize up to 500,000 troops for a renewed offensive. The new offensive is predicted to be in the Donbas region, or possibly Zaporizhzhia Oblast, in spring and summer.

Our most popular story last week was Francis Farrell's "One night in Bakhmut: Civilians wait for the end as Russia draws closer," which recounts part of Francis's January trip to Bakhmut, a city in eastern Donetsk Oblast and the center of the war's heaviest fighting. Join us today at 9 p.m. Kyiv time (2 p.m. EST) for a Q&A with Francis about civilian life in Bakhmut. 

We interviewed OleksiyDanilov, the secretary of the National Security and Defense Council, a body which makes key decisions during martial law. Danilov said "Ukraine’s national interest is Russia’s disintegration." 

We published an editorial about how the reluctance to arm Ukraine leads to an escalation in the war. The main reason the West refuses to supply Ukraine with requested weapons is for "fear of retaliation from Russia," though it's this appeasement strategy that emboldens Putin.

This week, in Ep. 11 of our podcast Power Lines, co-hosts Nastya Lapatina and Jakub Parusinski discuss rebuilding Ukraine, from the ground up. They talk with two economists: Slovakia's former minister of finance Ivan Mikloš and advisor to the Zelensky administration Tymofiy Mylovanov about how to rebuild Ukraine's destroyed cities after Russia's war.

In the past two months, we've raised around $16,500 for Hospitallers, a volunteer paramedic organization, through the sales of our joint merch collection with Saint Javelin. The collection is still available, and our members are eligible for a 10% discount with the code KYIVINDEPT_10%SLAVAUA at checkout.

We answered your questions about the war. Last week we asked for you for any questions you might have about the war, and here are over twenty, answered by our editorial team. We want to continue this format – please let us know your thoughts – is this Q&A something you would like to continue? 

Finally, please welcome a new member to our team, Kate Tsurkan, who will be joining us as a news editor!

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