This week, we wrote about love, and loss, in the times of war: Here's what your contributions helped us do (Patreon)

Dear Kyiv Independent community members,

We hope everyone has been doing well, despite some of the disheartening news this week from the situation in Avdiivka to aid money for Ukraine once again predicted to be held up in U.S. Congress. If you have any questions about what US elections this year will mean for Ukraine, you can join our Q&A with deputy chief editor Oleksiy Sorokin and news editor Nate Ostiller next week. 

We'd like to give a warm welcome to the 80 new members this week. It's thanks to our community of nearly 11,000 that we have a stable source of funding! This is the power of collective action – your contribution does make a difference. Thank you for your support.

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

We wrote about a photo project "Alone," which shows how the wives of fallen soldiers cope with the loss of their loved ones. Ukrainian photographer Katya Moskalyuk traveled to both large cities and remote mountain villages to document the shared sorrows of many Ukrainian families, now missing husbands and fathers. Pictured above one of the women featured in the project, Kseniia from Kharkiv, visits her husband Mykhailo's grave. 

We wrote about another couple separated as a result of the war. Olha Kurtmallaieva is waiting for her husband to be returned from Russian captivity, though she fears she may not be there to meet him, as she battles late-stage cancer. Read the story by Daria Shulzhenko here.

One of our most popular stories was about the struggle of Ukrainian troops to defend Avdiivka. Asami Terajima, reporting from Donetsk Oblast, explains the difficulties soldiers face in holding the city: high-intensity Russian attacks and insufficient defensive fortifications – reminiscent of the Battle of Bakhmut – as well as a personnel shortage.

We reported on the initiative for Ukrainian citizens to produce home-made drones. The People’s FPV is an educational program aimed to teach civilians with no engineering experience to put together kamikaze drones at home: It's up to the individual to buy all the parts, build the drone, then send it in for testing, where it can then be sent to the front line.

We also wrote about how the Belarusian opposition has been working to create an "alternative" passport that safeguards exiles. Since September 2023, Lukashenko's regime has banned the renewal of Belarusian passports in embassies abroad, meaning that those with expiring passports might be forced to return to home – not a safe option for Belarusians in exile.

Episode 6 Season 2 of our podcast, "This Week in Ukraine," is about the reshuffle of Ukraine's top military command. Host Masha Lavrova and reporter Francis Farrell discuss who is leading Ukraine's military now, after President Volodymyr Zelensky replaced his commander-in-chief Valerii Zaluzhnyi with General Oleksandr Syrskyi.

The Kyiv Independent is coming to the U.S. –join us for screenings of our investigative documentary "Uprooted." We've announced two new dates: Austin, Texas on Feb. 19 and Phoenix, Arizona on Feb. 23. The screenings will be followed by a panel discussion – we hope to see some of you there! 

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