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

Dear Kyiv Independent community members,

Thank you for your continued support!

We'd like to give a warm welcome to our 43 new members this week. We're so glad you're with us.

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

Our reporter Asami Terajima won the 2023 George Weidenfeld Prize, which is awarded as a part of the Axel Springer Prize, for her coverage of Russia's all-out war against Ukraine. Pictured above Asami receives the George Weidenfeld Prize on May 3, 2023.

We wrote about Russia's "private" military companies that are becoming the main invasion force. Igor Kossov's piece takes a look at the "PMCs," including the well-known Wagner Group, oligarch-backed Redoubt, Gazprom's Potok, and their relationships with the Russian state.

Our most popular article was Illia Ponomarenko’s piece about the first Patriot air defense systems becoming operational in Ukraine. Patriots will be used on the battlefield for the first time in 20 years – testing its title as one of the best air defense systems.

We reported from the front lines in Kharkiv Oblast. Francis Farrell’s story follows the Kharkiv Oblast's Territorial Defense, mostly locals with no previous combat experience who signed up to defend their home at the start of Russia's full-scale invasion, but have now participated in some of the war's fiercest fighting around Bakhmut and Lyman.

We also reported from a rehabilitation center in Zaporizhzhia, including the journey of a Ukrainian defender Serhii Demko, who was injured in May, and is now learning how to walk again and to heal psychologically.

This week Belarus Weekly looks at the hospitalization of the imprisoned former presidential candidate, Viktar Babaryka, who ran against Lukashenko in 2020. Babaryka, currently serving a 14-year sentence, is the former head of Belgazprombank and a philanthropist, known for helping to finance the publication of books by Belarusian Nobel laureate Svetlana Alexievich.

We released episode 6 of "This Week in Ukraine." Host Anastasiia Lapatina sits down with reporter Alexander Query to discuss Ukrainian grain exports and the mayhem they cause in Europe, with your questions starting at 24:20.

We're still growing our team! We're happy to announce that Alexandra Keeler will be joining us full-time as manager of social strategy, Teah Pelechaty as full-time opinion editor, and Kostan Nechyporenko as a producer for the War Crimes Investigative team. See our current job opportunities here.

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