A Day in The Life Of a Newspaper Editor in Kyiv

Hi, this is Olga Rudenko, the editor-in-chief of the Kyiv Independent.  I’m here, in your email inbox, because our team thought it would be of interest to read about what a “day in the life of our chief editor” is like. Blame them for what comes next.

My typical days are far less exciting than one might imagine, most of them spent at a desk in our office in Kyiv. Air raid alerts do bring a diversion, I’ll give you that. 

Today is different, though. I’m writing this at a small cafe in the center of Riga, Latvia. I’ve just given a speech about the Kyiv Independent at a media conference here (in the photo above I'm preparing for it), and I’m back at my laptop to work — and hopefully to have something to eat. 

Across from me sits Daryna Shevchenko, our CEO and the best traveling companion one could wish for. A song by Oasis is playing. It could almost pass for a girls’ night out, if our laptops weren’t taking up most of the table. 

Daryna shows me her phone with the latest update — the death toll in the Russian missile strike on a village in eastern Ukraine today has just grown to 51 people. I check whether our news team is working on it already. They are. 

If you want to support the work of our news team, and help us cover more important updates and do it better, you can do it by becoming a member of the Kyiv Independent or donating here.

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I’m at the end of a little traveling streak that brought me to Brussels, Baveno, and now, Riga. Part of my duties as the chief editor is to speak at various events, in-person and online, to spread the word about the Kyiv Independent, search for support, and advocate for Ukraine. 

When you live in Ukraine, traveling abroad is… strange. First, there is this striking contrast between life at home and abroad. I feel it right now overhearing roaring laughter from the table next to mine. I think of how these people have the luxury of knowing that their home is safe can’t be hit by a missile, and don’t have to get home by curfew. 

I also can’t help but feel a bit of envy at how easy traveling is for everyone here. Any place in Europe is a two-hour flight away. It used to be the same for us in Ukraine. But since the beginning of the full-scale Russian invasion, there have been no flights in or out of Ukraine. We don’t know how much is left of our airports.

Any traveling we do now involves taking a few trains to get to Krakow or Warsaw — the two closest cities to fly from. I used to say that I love trains more than planes. One should be careful with what they wish for.

When Daryna and I arrived in Riga earlier this week, we shared the ride from the airport with a Finnish media manager. “How was your flight?” I asked. “Short,” he said, happily, before reciprocating, casually: “So you flew from Kyiv?” 

Daryna and I exchanged tired looks. “Yes,” I murmured in Ukrainian, so only she would get it. “Flew right in on one of those F-16s.”

As exhausting as these trips can be, we know how important they are, especially now, when war fatigue is at risk of setting in. They are also a tool to counter Russian propaganda – to be a Ukrainian voice in the room, picking apart the false narratives spread by Russia.

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If you want to support our work — including these advocacy and awareness trips — you can do it by becoming a member of the Kyiv Independent or making a one-time donation. If you have questions about how we travel in and out of Ukraine, or anything about our work in general – feel free to send them to our community manager, Brooke Manning, who will make sure we answer them for you. 

On behalf of the team, thank you for your support and for keeping your attention on Ukraine during this critical time.

Olga Rudenko