“He told me to give him [oral sex]. The whole time he held the gun near my temple or put it into my face. Twice he shot at the ceiling and said it was to give me more ‘motivation’,” a female victim, raped by a Russian soldier, told
@HRW
.
About 100 years ago my great-grandma Anna wore an identical vyshyvanka. She lived in Zakarpattia, western Ukraine. She and her husband stood against the soviet regime and hence were deprived of proper jobs and starved.
The soldier raped her repeatedly and cut her skin and hair with the knife. He hit her on the face with a book and slapped her.
This is not Putin. These are Russian soldiers raping Ukrainian women.
Russian rocket killed her.
Kateryna Hula went to the private clinic in Vinnytsia in the morning not knowing that the Russians would pick it as their target.
She was just 24. A sister of my my colleague, a TV journalist Yura Hula.
It’s personal. It features Russian soldiers coming to my mom’s apartment uninvited, occupying her town, and killing her neighbors. She escaped in one piece but she will never forget what Russia put her through. I shared this with
@PostOpinions
to document Russia’s war crimes.
Russia has been oppressing Ukraine for centuries which says a lot about them as a nation. What's more important is who we are. And, from what I can tell, we are beautiful in our devotion to Ukraine. Grateful to our army for defending us. Happy Independence Day! 💙💛
On Nov. 11,
@KyivIndependent
celebrated its 1 year.
We had little time but achieved a lot. All thanks to the restless work of this team.
It’s been a tough year indeed both personally and professionally. Yet we carry on.
1/9 🧵on
@KyivIndependent
’s latest investigation about the International Legion.
We revealed endemic commanders’ misconduct in the unit’s intelligence-run wing. One of the people in question is allegedly a gangster from Poland.
Vika was 6-month pregnant.
She, her unborn child, her husband Bohdan and their cat were all killed in this morning’s Russian attack on Kyiv.
They hit Ukraine’s capital with dozens of Iranian drones this Monday. For the sake of pursuing their imperial goals.
Photo: Goodwine
I was born in Donetsk, eastern Ukraine, where my grandma was brought from Zakarpattia to work in a bid to rebuild the Donbas after WW2. She first worked at a concrete factory, then at a shoe production.
⚡️Zelensky: “Launching a rocket at the central square of Kharkiv is outright, undisguised terror. After that, Russia is a terrorist state.”
“No one will forgive. No one will forget.”
Sharing this again.
I, a native of
#Donetsk
, lost my home to Putin in 2014. He separated my family, ruined lives of millions.
If he moves to take away my home
#Kyiv
now, I am going to fight.
You should, too. Ukraine will never be enough for Putin.
My acquaintance in
#Donetsk
say the militants have been firing at Ukrainian army from early morning. They are afraid that Russian proxies will stage an attack on civilians to put blame on Ukraine. They did not «evacuate» as they suspect they could be a target for such an attack
It was hard to write.
It is difficult to process.
Russian soldiers tortured and allegedly raped 22 y.o. Karina in Bucha. They then shot her in the head.
There are plenty stories like this in Kyiv Oblast. Lawyers believe Russian troops use rape as a weapon of war in Ukraine.
Svitlana, a mother of two, was driving her family to safety when a Russian sniper short her dead.
That wasn’t it. The Russians shot Svitlana’s husband Andriy and their youngest son, Myroslav. Both are heavily injured but alive.
Andriy told his story to me and
@KyivIndependent
“It was a horror for the kids. The bullet hit the windshield and their mother who was there just a moment ago is gone,” Andriy Vilson said, as he recounted his family's escape from war-torn Kyiv Oblast.
6/9 Telling the truth is patriotic. Abusing power in the army is not. Especially amid war. We told this story to help soldiers bring change to the Legion so they can serve Ukraine effectively. I can see why they call for reform. Hope for the official’s reaction asap
1/5 Amid attempts of the Russian army to hold a fake referendum in occupied Kherson and launch a so-called People’s Republic there — the exact thing Russia did to Crimea, Donetsk & Luhansk in 2014 to “justify” its invasion — I want to tell you a story.
5/5 He cut me off saying “it’s polemic” and moved on. As Russia intensifies its attempts to bite parts of my country and forge "referendums" to justify it, I can’t help but think of Wilson's words. I want western journalists do their research better and watch what they say.
1/11 🧵on
@KyivIndependent
's second investigation into the International Legion, which — I hate to say it — reveals alleged misappropriation of weapons, including Westend-donated. Soldiers say their commanders are to blame.
Yesterday Russian rocket killed a 3-month-old baby girl in Odesa.
Today Russian shells killed 5 and 14-year-old girls in Donbas.
No day without a war crime, right, Russia?
8/9 This story is the first one for the newly created investigative desk of the Kyiv Independent. We are hiring. If you are keen to join our team, send an email to: a.myroniuk
@kyivindependent
.com
3/9 In Poland, Kapuscinski is wanted for fraud. In Ukraine, a person looking exactly like him manages logistics & planning in Legion’s unit of up to 500-people. That’s despite foreigners being banned from holding leadership posts in 🇺🇦 army and ongoing criminal probes into him.
2/9 Face recognition tools show that Piotr Kapuscinski, a former member of largest mafia gang in Poland, is almost certainly the commander legionnaires accuse of abuse, theft of ammo, orders to loot and go on “suicide missions” with no info on friendly and enemy positions.
4/5 He said, it’s the decision of Crimea we must respect. Two students raised their hands. I, a Ukrainian, & Tata, a Georgian. We both said that he was dead wrong. I added that any “vote” held by the occupying force on the seized territory is illegitimate, NOT free or democratic.
"It felt like déjà vu. I would ask my mother to leave Donetsk, and she would refuse. She wanted to stay at home. Now I asked her to leave Bucha, but she wouldn’t do it. She didn’t want to be displaced for a second time."
Told my mom's story to
@nytimes
.
5/9 Kuchynsky faces whole range of accusations. His order to loot a shopping mall in the frontline city of Lysychiansk was the last straw for many, soldiers say. Some quit immediately. Others complained to Zelensky’s Office. It didn’t help so they turned to journalists
4/9 It looks like joining army helped Kapuscinski put justice on hold. Ukraine’s court suspended the case against him and paid back his bail until he’s serving, a norm that applies to Ukrainians, not foreigners - what an interesting court decision.
5/9 In the Legion, he is known as Sasha Kuchynsky, a colonel, who, soldiers say, is “best buds” with Ukraine’s intelligence officers running this Legion’s unit. Soldiers accuse these commanders in question of sending them on reckless missions with no info, connection and backup
8/9 On Thursday Aug. 25, we are holding a community event, a talk delving into how we broke this story. It’s for our patrons. If you want us to take you behind the scenes of our reporting, please support us:
When I applied for the award, a couple of months ago, there was no full-scale Russia’s war against Ukraine.
Now it feels so weird to realize that I used to write about something else. In this case, about tobacco smuggling.
Anyway, thank you a lot,
@EuroPressPrize
!
⚡️ We are pleased to announce that our Anna Myroniuk, the head of investigations at the Kyiv Independent, has made the short list for the European Press Prize 2022 in the Investigative Reporting category.
Go Anna!
@AnnaMyroniuk
I feel sick trying to process it.
Russians massively killed civilian Ukrainians in seized towns.
My mother spent two weeks under Russian occupation in Bucha. Russians came to her flat to «inspect».
I am thankful she is alive but 300 of her neighbors are in mass grave. Horror.
2/5 It is about western journalists and their patronizing behavior as if they know better what *really* happens in Ukraine. A few years ago I was at a lecture on journalism ethics at City, UoL. The guest lecturer, then-Sky News anchor and reporter Andrew Wilson, was speaking.
3/5 “You must be impartial in your reporting,” Wilson said. And I agree. But then he said something that made me tremble. Talking about standards, balance, and unbiasedness when reporting on conflicts, he said: “In Crimea people voted to be with Russia. That’s their choice.”
You know what’s the worst? Trying to calm down your mother who asks, crying: will he invade?
It throws you back to the exact same conversation you had with her in 2014 during the events that forced her to leave
#Donetsk
for
#Kyiv
. She lost *everything* she had.
She’s terrified
We worked together with Yevhenii a couple of years ago at the same TV channel in Kyiv.
He was a cameraman, I was a reporter. We worked as a team at times.
He was a very kind person and a decent professional.
Yevhenii, you are missed.
The first person I know died in this war. My former colleague, TV cameraman Yevhenii Sakun, was killed yesterday as a result of Russian missile strike on Kyiv's Babyn Yar, along with 4 other people. It was a pleasure working with him. I'm devastated by this news. Eternal memory
What's wrong with you,
#Hungary
?
Why? Why are you sabotaging us all the time?
You blocked NATO decisions on
#Ukraine
in the past, now you are blocking the transfer of arms to Ukraine through your territory.
Your "don't want to get involved" is silent support of violence.
10/11 Truth must be told even when uncomfortable. Yes, the timing is right. Now's when you reform the Legion so it can effectively accomplish its tasks, not after the war. Our journalism is in the best interest of brave soldiers who came to defend us, & in the interest of Ukraine
1/8 I’m leaving the Kyiv Independent.
The Kyiv Independent was never a job for me. Since we launched the publication in December 2021, I have invested my whole self in this project. I was the Kyiv Independent, and the Kyiv Independent was me - it has been so until now.
I am loving this news!
The Insider: Switzerland breaks neutral status to sanction Russia over Ukraine invasion
The measures match those of the EU: target various Russian companies and individuals, freeze the personal assets of Putin, Mishustin, and Lavrov.
So, now we are allowing
#Putin
’s army to shell at a nuclear plant. What a disgrace. What’s next, world?
You are not at the cinema chewing popcorn. You gotta do something. It’s your planet, too.
Heard of
#Chernobyl
?
So proud of our colleague
@ak2ki_
who put aside journalism to defend Ukraine from Russian invaders.
Seeing him safe and sound in Kyiv after he had returned from the war hotspot was the best thing that has happened in a while.
Shoutout to my
@KyivIndependent
family, who’ve supported me through this war. They’ve achieved so much with selfless day-to-day coverage, and I’m lucky to have been part of the team from the beginning. Finally got a chance to meet in Kyiv, but there’ll be many more happy returns.
11/11 This story is the second one for the newly created investigative desk of the
@KyivIndependent
.
We are hiring. If you want to join our team, send an email to: a.myroniuk
@kyivindependent
.com
Also, consider supporting us on Patreon, please:
1/4 While Russia is marking the end of the year by launching its deadly missiles at Kyiv killing and injuring civilians, I am thinking of how it all started. For me personally, Russia’s war began almost 9 years ago.
Did he really refer to the Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia Oblasts as liberated from neo-nazi?
If by «liberation» Putin means genocidal mass murder of Ukrainians, then yes, pretty much.
Crazy little maniac.
“Normally you have 30 passengers in the carriage, but now you have 200,” a train attendant, who spent a month in a carriage taking passengers from war hotspots to safety, told me.
“I think it is morally wrong to leave people behind.”
Natalya Babicheva, 48, was among the brave train attendants evacuating people.
The train she worked on was on its way to pick up children from the Donbas when it came under fire.
Shrapnel hit Babicheva’s neck. She died of blood loss in the hands of her husband, a co-worker.
Heroes wear different uniforms.
At times it’s not khaki, but orange and blue.
“If not us, then who?” Kyiv utility services’ workers told me.
As Russian bombs and rockets hit Kyiv’s residential buildings, they clear the streets of the damage, debris and garbage left behind.
⚡️As Russian bombs and rockets hit Kyiv’s residential buildings, the city’s utility services’ workers drudge overtime to clear the streets of the damage, debris and garbage left behind.
“If not us, then who?” they told the Kyiv Independent.
Kharkiv local media outlet
@GwaraMedia
managed to get into the liberated village of Grakove some 60 km to the east from Kharkiv. Citing the residents of the village the media reported that Russian soldiers used to kill the locals in Grakove while it was under occupation.
#Grakove
village is very damaged and still needs demining. Before the war, 500-800 people lived there, now there are dozens.
Locals say at least 10 civilians were killed/wounded by Russian soldiers. It's scary to imagine what's next in the following villages.
@Prokopchek
5/11 One such leader is Piotr Kapuscinski, an ex-member of the polish mafia wanted at home.
Our August story found him serving in the Legion. Polish prosecutors came to us for help and said Kapuscinski "was convicted but did not serve his sentence due to fleeing to Ukraine."
Set down with
@MelSimmonsFCDO
to discuss the UK's military aid for Ukraine, sanctions against Russia, and threats Russia poses before the UK itself. Touched upon personal things, too, like leading the Embassy during the war and having loved ones far away. Soon at
@KyivIndependent
Oh, really?
I am lying on a floor in a shelter right now while my army is protecting Kyiv from Russian occupants. Sounds violent on our side?
Ukrainians are on their land. It’s Russians who came to kill us,
@PatreonSupport
. Do I even have to explain?
1/2 We understand people's desire to support humanitarian activities in
#Ukraine
. Patreon does not allow funds raised on the platform to be used to support violence or purchasing of military equipment.
2/11 Over 200k of you read our first investigation into the Legion leadership's misdeeds. You sent us dozens of emails asking about the story's developments and the fate of the commanders in question.
We've spent three months digging up the answers. Here they are ➡️
Ukrainian railway workers are among the lesser-known heroes of this war.
They have been risking their lives to take people out of war hotspots, and bring humanitarian aid in.
⚡️Scholz promises more weapons for Ukraine.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said Berlin intends to expand its military aid to Ukraine and supply additional weapons.
4/11 The soldiers' allegations to the leadership involve light weapons, including Western-provided arms, misappropriation, physical threats, and harassment. Those who stood against it say that the commanders proclaimed them either spies or deserters and immediately expelled them.
This must stop, world. We have been living in hell for 19 days already. Russians must be forced to go home.
Sanction Putin and his friends. More of them. Arrest their luxurious mansions and superyachts. Make them pay!
⚡️Putin's spokesman Dmitry Peskov: Russia may seize large Ukrainian cities.
As of March 14, Russian troops have seized only one Ukrainian regional capital – Kherson – but they are also trying to enter Kyiv, Chernihiv, Sumy, Kharkiv, Mykolaiv and Mariupol.
8/11 In August, Ukraine's State Security Service started an investigation into arms allegedly going missing under Kapuscinski, according to our sources in the agency. Military prosecutors opened a probe into it too. Military Intelligence also started an internal investigation.
#Russia
blows up rail lines in
#Irpin
. Evacuation of women and children is made impossible. It is now clear that strategic objects of
#Russia
army are in fact civilians
9/11 Separately, soldiers accuse certain Ukrainian commanders of the army wing of the Legion of theft of U.S.-provided rifles, anti-tank weapons, and ammo, as well as of physical threats and bullying. The army press service refused to comment on soldiers' allegations.
7/11 In the army, Kapuscinski allegedly stole light weapons and small arms from the Legion's armory rooms, took away weapons from soldiers as well as the equipment they bought or received from volunteers, ordered them to loot, harassed them (sexually, too) & pointed guns at them
3/11 We discovered that the problems are grander than we reported before and involve both of the Legion's wings, the one overseen by the army and the one led by the military intelligence.
Our first investigation focused on the intelligence-run part only
6/11 First, Kapuscinski escaped from Polish justice. Then, from Ukrainian justice, too. Joining our army helped him put his trial for illegal arms possession on hold. Ukraine's court suspended the case until he was serving (weird, as this norm is for Ukrainians, not foreigners)
You,
#NATO
, don’t want to close the damn sky. You are afraid of the war with Russia.
Instead of showing
#Putin
your power you demonstrate fear.
He knows it, thus thinks he’ll get away with it.
The West’s impotence allows Russia’s army kill Ukrainians for their pleasure.
Was honored to speak about
@KyivIndependent
’s efforts to covering Russia’s war against Ukraine before such an impressive crowd of journalists. Thank you for having me, Data-SKUP!
photo: jonkeegan
1/10 Yesterday I,
@AlexKhrebet
and
@KyivIndependent
received the
#AllForJan
Award 2023, named after an outstanding Slovak investigative reporter Jan Kuciak assassinated in 2018 for exposing Slovak officials’ connections to the mafia.
A Ukrainian hero, colonel Valeriy Druz, was killed in battle near Luhansk on March 12.
Yesterday I talked to his friends at his farewell.
Soldiers called him a “father” who had always taken good care of them.
He saved many lives, they told me, but lost his own to Russia.
⚡️About a hundred people gathered in a city memorial park to say their last goodbyes to an outstanding combat commander, colonel Valeriy Gudz, who had been killed in a battle near Russian-occupied Luhansk on March 12.
Misha, the dog is an internally displaced pet.
First, he had to flee Luhansk Oblast, now Odesa.
Russia’s war is haunting him and his human forcing them to run away from shelling again and again.
Mir is the hotel where we, journalists, stayed when we came to Luhansk Oblast to cover the war in 2014.
It was a safe place: far enough from then-frontline, but close enough to reach our soldiers’ trenches every day.
Now the Russians try to steal our Mir (translates as Peace)
⚡️Official: Russian sabotage group broke into Mir hotel in Sievierodonetsk.
Ukrainian troops have been trying to kick the Russians out of the hotel, Oleksandr Stryuk, the head of the Sievierodonetsk military administration, said.
They were my age. They just wanted to be useful, to help the vulnerable.
They had delivered food to stray animals and were killed immediately after at the doorstep of parental home.
Their bodies are still in the basement as they cannot be buried due to the constant shelling.
You know what’s also the worst?
Talking to your father who staid in
#Donetsk
and wonder whether he would be conscripted to go and fight against Ukraine, your and his country, for
#Putin
and his point men.
You know what’s the worst? Trying to calm down your mother who asks, crying: will he invade?
It throws you back to the exact same conversation you had with her in 2014 during the events that forced her to leave
#Donetsk
for
#Kyiv
. She lost *everything* she had.
She’s terrified
Don’t be stubborn,
@_HadleyGamble
, give Putin your leg. Just wait a bit & he will return to get your arm.
Don’t push us to give our land to Russia, because that’s how you encourage genocide of Ukrainians. Heard of Bucha massacre? Heard of Izolyatsia prison in Donetsk? Google
“Thank you” for the sleepless night, Russians 💥
I am writing this one down under your country’s name in my notebook of fury. Beware.
(posted from a basement somewhere in the eastish part of Ukraine)
1/7 Many Ukraine-NATO-related disappointing things have been aired lately, but there’s one thing that upsets me the most.
NATO expects quick and successful counteroffensives and links military aid to this: The better Ukraine’s army performs, the more advanced weapons receives.
Russia keeps sporadically shelling Kharkiv to spread fear among local residence following Ukraine’s armed forces’ successful counter offensive in the area.
⚡️One person died, two injured as Russia shells Kharkiv.
One Russian shell landed in an administrative building killing a 43-year-old security guard.
Other shells hit three residential houses injuring a 81-year-old woman and a 38-year-old man.
Video: The Kyiv Independent
Hundreds of civilians are still buried under the rubble in Borodyanka, a town in Kyiv Oblast. They are believed to be dead.
In early March, Russians dropped bombs on the city, destroying around 10 apartment buildings.
Our report from Borodyanka:
Artem Dymyd, 27. Killed by Russians near Donetsk this morning.
He was in Plast, 🇺🇦 scout organization. Hundred years ago Plast members also defended Ukraine with arms
The ancestry of Artem fought for Ukraine at battlefields and in politics
These families cannot be exterminated
4/4 We at the
@KyivIndependent
challenged ourselves to highlight the story of the year. Let it be this one exposing Russia’s war crimes in the early days of the full-scale invasion.
“Half of her nails were torn off,” a stepfather of 22 y.o. Karina who was killed by the Russians in Bucha told me.
He says Karina was tortured and likely raped:
“There were cuts and lacerations, there was also a piece of flesh torn off from her ribs.”
The next time you have a temptation to take Russia’s word on anything, think of Ukrainian POWs in Olenivka.
What happened there is a horror and yet another proof that we must never trust Russia and its security guarantees.