Team

Kollen Post
Defense Industry ReporterKollen Post is the defense industry reporter at the Kyiv Independent. Based in Kyiv, he covers weapons production and defense tech. Originally from western Michigan, he speaks Russian and Ukrainian. His work has appeared in Radio Free Europe, Fortune, Breaking Defense, the Cipher Brief, the Foreign Policy Research Institute, FT’s Sifted, and Science Magazine. He holds a BA from Vanderbilt University.
Articles

With Trump-Zelensky ‘mega-deal,’ Ukraine’s drone makers hope to flood the US
by Kollen Post
In an interview yesterday with the New York Post, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky floated a new pending “mega-deal” with U.S. President Donald Trump to sell Ukrainian drones to the American military.
"The people of America need this technology, and you need to have it in your arsenal," Zelensky reportedly said.
The deal has not actually been completed, and it’s unknown whether a formal text of it actually exists. Indeed, Zelensky’s advertising of this deal in a publication that is known

Ukrainian startup says its drones could work on their own by year’s end, thanks to AI
by Kollen Post
Armed with a fresh round of investment from the West, Ukrainian drone autonomy startup the Fourth Law is showcasing new footage as it aims to become the first to reach the latest holy grail of drone warfare: full autonomy.

Analysis: Ahead of Trump's 'major' Russia announcement, what will happen next to Ukraine?
by Francis Farrell, Chris York, Kateryna Denisova, Kollen Post, Alisa Yurchenko, Alex Cadier, Yuliia Taradiuk, Asami Terajima, Daria Shulzhenko
Amid ever-escalating aerial assaults, accelerating Russian advances in the east, and the weariness that comes with nearly 3.5 years of war, all eyes in Ukraine are once again focused upon one man — U.S. President Donald Trump.
"I think I'll have a major statement to make on Russia on Monday," Trump said in an interview with NBC News on July 10, the latest development in a tortuously long and so far wholly ineffective U.S.-led peace process.
Short of a massive injection of military aid, or crus

'We need to learn how to live without America' — Ukraine’s survival amid faltering US aid
by Kollen Post
Ukrainians breathed a sigh of relief of sorts this week after it was confirmed that U.S. President Donald Trump had ordered the continuation of shipments of critical military aid after a brief pause.
The days-long hiccup alarmed a Ukraine beset with ever-escalating Russian air strikes and a dwindling supply of the means to stop them, and is just the latest instalment of a saga riven with uncertainty over Washington's willingness to give Ukraine what it needs to defend itself against Russia.
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'Major casualties among civilians' — US freeze on air defense missiles is terrible news for Ukraine
by Kollen Post
The halting of deliveries of air defense missiles from the U.S. will lead to“major casualties among civilians,” a deputy commander in Ukraine’s air defense told the Kyiv Independent.
Politico reported on July 1 that the U.S. Defense Department (DOD) had halted shipments of some weapons previously promised to Kyiv out of concerns over the size of U.S. stockpiles, citing sources familiar with the matter.
The aid in question included several pieces of U.S. weaponry that have been critical to Ukra

Ukraine’s new interceptor UAVs are starting to knock Russia’s long-range Shahed drones out of the sky
by Kollen Post
Russia’s Shahed drone swarms are pummeling Ukraine on a nightly basis, inflicting ever more death and destruction in cities that had managed to carve out some sense of normalcy amid wartime.
Civilian alarm has grown. With traditional air defense stockpiles running low, the government is banking on newly created “interceptor-drones” to restore a baseline of public safety.
“Ukraine is already using interceptors to shoot down Shaheds and is expanding their production,” President Volodymyr Zelensk

‘It’s a race’ — UK’s largest ammo maker rebooting chemistry to break NATO’s dependence on explosive imports
by Kollen Post
Russia’s war in Ukraine has drained Western ammunition stocks. Despite years of claimed weapons ramp-ups, NATO’s arms manufacturing is still not refilling those stocks apace, let alone making it to Ukraine in needed mass.
The West has come to recognize that these shortages are due to the offshoring of explosives production. But a flurry of new investment incentive schemes from NATO members into defense industries is not yielding results that compare with Russia’s alarming success at arming itse

Russia pulls its scientists out of Iranian nuclear plant, as Israeli strikes threaten decades of collaboration
by Kollen Post
Israel’s strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities have alarmed none more than Russia, the country that first brought nuclear power to Iran in defiance of Western objections.
We’re “millimeters from catastrophe,” said Kremlin spokeswoman Maria Zakharova on June 18 in response to a bombing campaign that Israel launched against Iran on June 13.
Decades of conflict with the West have united Iran and Russia, despite a cultural gulf between the two nations that dwarfs the Caspian Sea that physically di

5 Ukrainians dead in Israel after Iranian missile strike
by Kollen Post
Ukraine's Foreign Ministry told the Kyiv Independent that the five Ukrainian citizens, including three children, came under fire in an attack on a residential building in Bat Yam, south of Tel Aviv.

Trump says he's 'open to' Putin mediating between Israel, Iran
by Kollen Post
"Yeah, I would be open to it," U.S. President Donald Trump said. "He is ready. He called me about it. We had a long talk about it. We talked about this more than his situation. This is something I believe is going to get resolved."

Why can't the West match Russia's ammunition production?
by Kollen Post
Editor's Note: This article has been updated to reflect new details of BAE Systems' new chemical process that the company confirmed to the Kyiv Independent after initial publication.
The West is failing to catch up to Russia's production of the most basic unit of war for the past half-millennium — gunpowder.
The modern propellants and explosives that power war have largely been offshored. While Western manufacturers are churning out shell casings, they are short on the materials to fill them w

Exclusive: Ukraine could face 500+ Russian drones a night as Kremlin builds new launch sites
by Kollen Post
Russia will soon be able to deploy more than 500 long-range drones a night to attack Ukraine as it ramps up production and builds new launch sites for them, a source in Ukraine's military intelligence (HUR) has told the Kyiv Independent.
According to the source, Russia's production rate for one type of drone — Shahed-type Gerans — is up to 70 units per day, from a reported 21 a day last year, and Moscow will soon have 12-15 new launch sites in operation.
Three of these were identified by Ukrai

Exclusive: Russia’s ballistic missile production up at least 66% over past year, according to Ukrainian intel figures
by Kollen Post
Russia's production of ballistic missiles has increased by at least 66% over the past year, according to data from Ukraine's military intelligence (HUR) shared with the Kyiv Independent.
According to data obtained by HUR, Moscow is now producing 60 to 70 Iskander-M — the ballistic version of the missile — and 10 to 15 hypersonic Kinzhals per month.
This compares to a reported 40 Iskander-Ms in May 2024, and a reported 4–5 Kinzhals in April 2024.
At the lower range, this is an increase in prod

As 50,000 Russian troops amass, Ukraine's Sumy Oblast braces for potential large-scale offensive
Reports of an imminent Russian summer offensive and troop build ups on Ukraine's border are raising alarms in Sumy Oblast and fears that a large-scale assault could be on the horizon.
Russian President Vladimir Putin on May 22 said he had ordered his military to create a "security buffer zone" along the border, and President Volodymyr Zelensky later claimed 50,000 of Moscow's troops were amassed "in the direction of Sumy."
"These are trained combat units — airborne troops, marines, those that

Infighting around EU rearmament undermines grand ambitions for European defense
by Kollen Post
Despite grand plans, the European Union’s hoped-for rearmament remains fully dependent on member nations stepping up their own defenses.
In March, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen announced an 800-million-euro "Rearm Europe" plan to build out a defense architecture that has depended on the U.S. since the Cold War.
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and U.S. President Donald Trump’s subsequent threats to NATO’s security guarantees have alarmed the EU into at least the appearance of