bluesky_Kyiv Independent

⚡️Ukraine strikes drone port at occupied Donetsk Airport. Ukrainian forces struck a Russian drone port at the occupied Donetsk airport, the 412th Brigade of the Unmanned Systems Forces said on Nov. 10.

Novaya Gazeta, once one of Russia's most influential independent newspapers, shut down on Monday, bringing an end to an institution that had survived years of Kremlin pressure but had been steadily stripped of its staff, reach and ability to publish.

"In the months ahead, Ukrainian diplomats and advocates in Washington will have to address several challenges: reaching out to progressives, strengthening support among Republicans, and working with President Trump," writes Ostap Yarysh, a Ukrainian journalist based in Washington, D.C, in his op-ed.

For five days, from Oct. 27 to Nov. 1, the ceasefire in Kherson Oblast, intended to evacuate civilians from the Russian-occupied town of Oleshky, gave Kherson residents a short reprieve from constant Russian strikes.

⚡️️ Update: Denmark to donate over 600 million euros to Ukraine, Zelensky says. Denmark is set to provide Ukraine with a new defense package worth 645 million euros ($719 million), and 20 million euros ($22.3 billion) of energy support, President Volodymyr Zelensky announced on Nov. 10.

U.S. President Donald Trump's former Chief of Staff Susie Wiles had a "troubling" back-channel with Andriy Yermak, the controversial former head of the President's Office Head, the Kyiv Independent can exclusively reveal.

⚡️️ Russian companies seek foreign data center capacity after Ukrainian strikes. Ukraine's strikes added pressure to an already strained domestic data center market, where available cloud resources are nearly 90% occupied, according to Russian state-controlled media Kommersant.

⚡️️ Update: 'Humanitarian, de-escalation steps' discussed during trilateral peace talks in Abu Dhabi, Zelensky says. President Volodymyr Zelensky described the first day of talks between Ukraine, Russia, and the U.S. as "constructive and quite substantive."

⚡️️ Update: Ukraine, Russia, US conclude 1st day of trilateral peace talks in Abu Dhabi.

⚡️️ 'I think he's an idiot' — Australian man who joined Russian army missing, feared dead in Ukraine. Daryl Fladung, a 38-year-old security guard from Queensland, traveled to Moscow in April despite having no previous military experience or known family ties to Eastern Europe.

A law passed in May 2024 allowed prisoners to seek conditional release in exchange for military service. By the beginning of 2026, more than 12,000 prisoners had joined Ukraine's Armed Forces under the program, according to Ukraine's Justice Ministry.

"Swedish strategy directly links Ukraine's ability to resist Russia with Sweden's own safety," writes Yelyzaveta Nechyporuk, a social media manager at the Kyiv Independent, in her op-ed.

For years, the Samarsky family lived in the embattled, occupied Oleshky alongside neighbors no one wished to have — Russian soldiers.

"Every day, shells are flying. But we don't stop. We just keep doing the work," says 70-year-old Volodymyr Starychenko, a dairy farmer from Sumy Oblast.

⚡️️ Update: Italy to join Abu Dhabi negotiations, talks with Europeans to be separate from trilateral format, Ukraine's negotiator says.

⚡️Ukrainian forces reportedly strike Russia's second-largest oil refinery in overnight drone attack. The attack caused large explosions at the Kirishi Petroleum Organic Synthesis plant, also known as the Kinef plant, around 800 kilometers (roughly 500 miles) north of Ukraine.

⚡️Power to Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant cut, restored, IAEA says. The plant lost connection to its sole 330-kilovolt external power line, forcing it to rely on emergency diesel generators for cooling and safety functions, the IAEA announced around noon local time.

⚡️'Accomplices in Russian war crimes' — Kyiv calls for boycott, defunding of world hockey org after Russia allowed in championship. "Bureaucrats who make decisions about the return of Russians to international competitions are staining themselves with blood," Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha said.

South African tech entrepreneur and filmmaker Ronnie Apteker has spent 19 years living in Ukraine and documenting its people, culture, and evolving identity. Through his documentary series "Kyiv of Mine," he wants to show a country that exists far beyond the headlines of Russia's war.

These are the indicative estimates of Russia's combat losses as of Nov. 8, according to the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

⚡️Senator Blumenthal to introduce legislation supporting Ukraine, calls for new US negotiators, Starlink controls.

⚡️Update: Russian ballistic missiles slam Ukraine's capital as Kyiv's Northern Bridge damaged, 5 people injured, including child, after Zelensky's warning. Among the five injured in the city is a 14-year-old girl, and another two people have been hospitalized, Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said.

⚡️️ Update: Top Zelensky ally denies corruption allegations after court orders probe. "I've never been involved (in the alleged vote-buying), and I believe no such thing happened," David Arakhamia told reporters at a meeting in Washington on Nov. 6, which the Kyiv Independent attended.

As the possibility of Russian athletes' return looms over the ice hockey community, Ukraine and leading hockey nations refuse to welcome Russia back into international sports.

What really happened during the clash at a National Guard facility near Kyiv, and how did it become a major disinformation story?

Turkey plans to wind down its reliance on Russian gas, but for cost reasons rather than geopolitical concerns, the country's Energy Minister Alparslan Bayraktar said on Nov. 5, according to media reports.

"The obstacles to using immobilized Russian assets to meet Ukraine's financial needs are presented as mainly technical. The real stumbling blocks are political," writes Thomas Venon, Executive Director of the Center for Development Finance Studies, in this op-ed.

A clash outside a National Guard building on Kyiv's outskirts on Nov. 2 fueled a widespread anti-Ukrainian disinformation campaign, as users online read false claims of "Azov torture chambers" and the beating of minors.

⚡️️ Ukraine to resume medical air evacuation flights by year-end, PM says. The government has approved regulations governing the flights, which will be used to transport patients, medical personnel, donor organs, and equipment between hospitals, as well as to take patients abroad for treatment.

⚡️️ Ukraine returns 13 children from Russian occupation, NGO says.