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Olga Rudenko photo

Olga Rudenko

Editor-in-Chief

Olga Rudenko is the chief editor of the Kyiv Independent, an award-winning media start-up launched in November 2021 by the former editorial team of the Kyiv Post. Olga is the former deputy chief editor of the Kyiv Post. She has written for global publications, and was a fellow at the Chicago Booth School of Business in 2021. She was featured on the cover of Time magazine in May 2022 as one of the publication’s Next Generation Leaders, and won the Women of Europe award in the “Woman in Action” category in December 2022. Olga Rudenko is the author of the Ukraine Weekly newsletter, which focuses on key events that have shaped the week.

[email protected]

Articles

press freedom

If authoritarians are scared of journalists, we must be doing something right

by Olga Rudenko
“How do we continue convincing our few remaining allies that journalists’ work is important?” Last month, I was sitting on stage at the International Journalism Festival in Perugia, Europe’s biggest journalism conference, when I heard this question from an audience member. The answer came to me fast. “Point at who is killing journalists,” I suggested. I then reminded the room about the case of Viktoriia Roshchyna, a Ukrainian journalist killed in Russian captivity. She took a huge risk to go

Trump’s foreign aid freeze stranded independent media in Ukraine. Here's how you can help

by Olga Rudenko
Editor's Note: After this op-ed was published, the Kyiv Independent launched a fundraiser to save three Ukrainian newsrooms that suffered from the aid freeze. It probably made sense on paper. In his first week in office, U.S. President Donald Trump ordered a 90–day freeze on U.S. foreign aid to review whether the distribution aligned with his foreign policy. I can see how Trump supporters and his team might have considered it a reasonable move: A new president takes office with policies obviou

Olga Rudenko: Trump won’t be my president, but he may decide my future

by Olga Rudenko
You probably already know that Russia’s war against Ukraine should have stopped this week. That is, if we were to take seriously the self-imposed deadline U.S. President-elect Donald Trump advertised during the campaign. He said that the war can and should be “stopped” or “settled” within 24 hours, sometimes even implying that it would happen right after he’s elected, before he assumes office. Of course, we know that it was nothing but a flashy campaign promise (and that Trump only assumes off
Volodymyr Zelensky

Are Zelensky and his top general really in discord?

by Alexander Khrebet, Olga Rudenko
Editor's Note: This story initially mistakenly said that President Volodymyr Zelensky and Commander-in-Chief Valerii Zaluzhnyi haven't been seen together in public in two months. It was corrected since the two were seen together in public more recently. After successfully taking Ukraine through the initial stages of the all-out war, President Volodymyr Zelensky and Commander-in-Chief Valerii Zaluzhnyi found themselves the country’s two most popular – and arguably, most important – people. And
Interview

French ambassador: ‘Now is not the time for negotiation, now is the time for war’

by Olga Rudenko
Gael Veyssiere (Gaël Veyssière) started his work as French ambassador to Ukraine in August 2023, having previously served as the ambassador to Croatia. He succeeded Etienne de Poncins, who was moved to a posting in Poland after serving as the ambassador in Ukraine for four years. Veyssiere arrived in Ukraine at a difficult moment in the war. Soon after he started his tenure – which will likely last from two to four years – it started to become clear that the country’s summer counteroffensive ag
Interview

EU ambassador to Ukraine: ‘Even Putin can’t stop Ukraine’s accession’

by Olga Rudenko
Ukraine is now one step closer to its strategic goal of becoming a member of the European Union. On Nov. 8, the European Commission published its annual enlargement report. In it, the commission confirmed that Ukraine had completed enough of the steps laid out in seven recommendations it received from the EU last year. The commission also recommended that membership talks with Ukraine formally begin – pending several remaining legislative changes that Ukraine still needs to implement. Nowhere
Interview

Retired US General Petraeus: ‘Now it's inevitable – we should give the ATACMS’

by Olga Rudenko
The Kyiv Independent interviewed retired U.S. General David Petraeus on the sidelines of a security conference held by the Cipher Brief in Kyiv on May 31. Petraeus is a four-star U.S. general who has commanded two wars. He has headed multinational forces in Iraq and Afghanistan, and has served as director of the CIA in 2011-2012. Petraeus, who has been to Ukraine many times even before the start of Russia's full-scale invasion in 2022, has shared his views on the current state of the war, incl
Ukraine

Michael Kofman: 'After Kherson, gains for Ukraine may come at slower pace'

by Olga Rudenko
Editor’s note: The Kyiv Independent asked Michael Kofman, military analyst and Research Program Director in the Russia Studies Program at CNA, to comment on what retaking Kherson means for the future of the war. Watch Michael Kofman speak at the panel discussion that took place in Kyiv on Oct. 25: "War and Storytelling in Ukraine." Michael Kofman The Kyiv Independent: Now that the Ukrainian forces have retaken Kherson, what prospects does it open for the counteroffensive? How can Ukraine use t
Ukraine

Retired US General Ben Hodges: ‘We’ve reached irreversible momentum for Ukraine’

by Olga Rudenko
Ukraine’s successful counteroffensive in Kharkiv Oblast has changed how the world thinks about the war, according to U.S. Lieutenant General (Ret.) Ben Hodges. Hodges, who served as commander of U.S. Army Europe from 2014-2017 and has helped train Ukrainian soldiers, said the operation ended “the mythology of Russia’s inevitable victory.” “Now people around the world, in Europe and U.S., start thinking — wow, Ukraine can win,” he told the Kyiv Independent. To achieve that victory, however, Uk
Hot topic

Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya: ‘Toughest sanctions for Russia will be free, democratic Belarus’

by Olga Rudenko
At the toughest moment in the history of relations between Ukraine and Belarus, the Kyiv Independent sat down to speak with Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, the leader of the Belarus opposition in exile. Back in 2020, Tsikhanouskaya contested Belarusian dictator Alexander Lukashenko in the presidential election. There is evidence that the election was rigged on a massive scale. Lukashenko pronounced himself the winner, and violently oppressed the mass protests that followed. Tsikhanouskaya had to fl

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