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

Dear Kyiv Independent community members,

Thank you for your continued support. Pictured above is our reporter Asami Terajima on a field trip in Donetsk Oblast in late May. Your support helps us keep our reporters on the front lines.

We'd also like to welcome our 81 new members this week. We're glad you're with us!

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

We wrote about the first week of Ukraine's counteroffensive. Francis Farrell's story explains the gains that Ukraine has made so far, although the decisive battles have yet to begin.

Episode 12 of our podcast "This Week in Ukraine" also focuses on the start of Ukraine's counteroffensive. Host Anastasiia Lapatina sits down with reporter Francis Farrell to discuss the early results of the counteroffensive and what's to come, with your questions starting at 29:30.

Next week, military analyst Michael Kofman will join the Kyiv Independent for a panel discussion about what to expect next in the war. Join us online for "What's next in the war: Beyond the counteroffensive" on June 22. Register for the event and submit your questions here.

We reported on the Ukrainian children abducted and deported to Russia. Daria Shulzhenko's article follows how one mother managed to rescue her 17-year-old son. With the help of a volunteer organization, Tetiana Bodak traveled through Russia to the occupied part of Kherson Oblast – a trip that took over two weeks – in order to get her son released.

We published the next installment in our series "Ukraine's True History." Oleg Sukhov's piece looks at how Russia steals and rewrites Ukrainian history to justify its claims in Ukraine, for instance, how it portrays its relationship to the name Kyivan Rus and some Ukrainian cultural figures.

We wrote an explainer on the Holodomor, the Soviet Union's man-made famine in Ukraine. Alexandra Keeler's article explains how the agricultural collectivization policies and actions of the Soviet authorities, under the command of Stalin, killed millions of Ukrainians between 1932-1933.

This week Belarus Weekly takes a look at reports that Russian tactical nuclear weapons will arrive in Belarus within "days," although Belarus does not have access to the launch codes, and Lukashenko would have to coordinate with Putin before using the weapons.

Finally, we'd like to welcome two new members to the team! Please welcome Iryna Mushak, who will be joining us as our office manager, and Matthew Harrison, who will be joining us as an advisor for membership and donations.

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