Kyiv Independent

Kyiv Independent is a Ukraine-based English-language outlet founded in November 2021 by journalists who resigned from the Kyiv Post after its owner tried to curb editorial independence. It became the dominant English-language source on the war after Russia's February 2022 invasion and by 2025 reached close to 3 million monthly readers and over 27,000 paying members.

It remains a primary conduit for Ukrainian military claims reaching Western audiences, having reported the Ukrainian General Staff's estimate of 1,278,430 cumulative Russian casualties as of 14 March 2026 and a large deal under negotiation between Saudi Arabia and Ukraine for interceptor missiles, alongside a signed contract between a Saudi arms firm and Kyiv.

Unlike outlets reliant on a single proprietor, it has no single owner or external financier: in 2024 about 70% of its revenue came from reader memberships and donations, with the rest from advertising, syndication, book publishing and grant-funded projects, and journalists hold part ownership. That reader-funded model does not remove scrutiny of its battlefield claims, which originate from Ukrainian official sources and remain unverifiable by third parties, so source literacy matters when citing its figures.