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Outlet profile

Kyiv Post

Ukrainian pro-Western

Owned byRuslan Kivan, through Businessgroup LLC (part of the KADORR Group, a Ukrainian construction and agriculture conglomerate), after inheriting the outlet from his father Adnan Kivan, who died in October 2024
FundingPrimarily advertising and events revenue; editorial projects have also received grants from organizations including the National Endowment for Democracy, NATO, the Danish government, and Reporters Without Borders
On the administrationbroadly critical

Background

Kyiv Post was founded on October 18, 1995, by American entrepreneur Jed Sunden in Kyiv with roughly $8,000 in startup capital and a staff of seven. It grew into Ukraine's leading English-language outlet, covering politics, business, and culture, and moved online in 1997. Sunden sold the paper to British-Pakistani businessman Mohammad Zahoor in July 2009. In March 2018, Syrian-born Ukrainian businessman Adnan Kivan, founder of the KADORR Group, acquired the paper for more than $3.5 million, pledging editorial independence. In November 2021, Kivan abruptly shut the paper and fired its entire staff of roughly 50 journalists; the staff alleged the closure was retaliation for their resistance to owner pressure on editorial content, while Kivan cited persistent financial losses. Press freedom organizations including RSF condemned the move. Kivan relaunched the paper in December 2021 under new management with an explicit shift toward more investment-friendly and positive coverage of Ukraine, a departure from its prior reputation for hard-edged investigative journalism. A Ukrainian-language version launched in June 2022, during the full-scale Russian invasion. Adnan Kivan died in October 2024 and his son Ruslan Kivan assumed the publisher role. Since the 2022 invasion, the outlet has covered the war extensively and maintained a strongly pro-Ukraine, pro-Western posture, while critically scrutinizing Trump administration policies it views as harmful to Ukrainian interests.

Sources

  1. Kyiv Post - Wikipedia
  2. About Us | Kyiv Post
  3. Adnan Kivan, owner of Kyiv Post, dies at 61 - Kyiv Independent
  4. Ruslan Kivan to Continue Adnan Kivan's Legacy as Publisher of Kyiv Post
  5. Kyiv Post shuts down; staff says this is the owner's act of vengeance - Euromaidan Press
  6. Ukraine's Kyiv Post shut down by owner for relaunch, team calls it act of vengeance - The Fix
  7. Owner who fired all journalists should sell Kyiv Post, RSF says
  8. Trump Lies About Ukraine Fact-Checked by Kyiv Post
  9. Trump and His White House Tried to Throw Ukraine Under the Bus in 2025, But Europe Stepped Up
  10. Kyiv Post's unlikely success - Columbia Journalism Review

Profile compiled 2026-07-07; refreshed when ownership, funding, or the administration changes.

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