When the
Kyiv Independent began publishing on November 11, no one could have imagined that seven months later its editor, Olga Rudenko
, would be on the cover of Time.
The merit of the recognition is to be found in the coverage of the war that the young Ukrainian English-language newspaper has done and continues to do "giving the world - explains Time itself on twitter - a window on a devastating war".
The independent media is founded after Adnan Kivanun, editor of the Kyiv Post, decides to close what was the first English-language newspaper in Kiev since 1995. The reason is partly economic and partly related to internal disputes with the editorial staff.
The newspaper, after days of silence, goes back to publishing under another publisher, but in the meantime 50 journalists have been fired.
Thirty of them, however, do not give up and decide to create the Kyiv Independent: "If we cannot save the Kyiv Post brand, we can save its values", reads their website.
Since that time, the newspaper has grown to 2.1 million followers on Twitter and 45,000 on Facebook.
And on the cover of Time, which defines Olga Rudenko as follows: "she transformed the Kyiv Independent from a startup to a global source of news on the war in Ukraine".
"A few months ago, when we launched Kyiv Independent, I never could have imagined that our editor Olga Rudenko would be on the cover of Time.
Congratulations, it's absolutely amazing," wrote one of the editors, Jakub Parusinski, on Twitter.
"The new publication will serve its readers and the community, and no one else," reads the newspaper's website.
Now that community has expanded and pays tribute to their work.