Hello everyone, today marks exactly one year since the official launch of Mezha.Media. I still well remember the frantic pace we had when we started developing the site and then filled it almost around the clock a few days before the official opening. How some elements on the site were changed at the last moment and features were added. How nervous I was publishing the first welcome post, because it was scary that no one would come to read it and there would not be a single comment. But we received a lot of positive feedback and huge support from the audience. Both in our best moments and in our worst.

After the start of a full-scale war, there was no understanding of whether the project could continue to exist and whether it could be useful. However, so much soul, so much strength, and hope were invested in it that we could not stop, and could not let our audience down. Therefore, we decided to continue filling the website with content, no matter what happens, and we will do it as long as we have electricity and the Internet at least sometimes. In the end, we will all have light, heat, and the Internet, but without Russians.

Today you could already read posts on the website about our statistics for the year and most popular materials. And I want to dedicate this post to saying thank you.

First, to you, our dear readers, without your attention, comments, and support, Mezha could not exist.

Second, to everyone who makes Mezha.Media a reality.

These are our editors: Serhii Svitlichnyi, Oleg Danilov, Oleg Kasich, and Igor Sushon.

News authors who are working and have worked on the site: Nadiya Ivanenko, Maksym Taran, Oleksiy Melnyk, Yuri Stanislavsky, Nadiya Zhyla.

Videographer, who has recently become the person who makes our podcasts possible to listen to: Volodymyr Dyachenko.

Our incredible translator Alona Timkova, thanks to whom the English version of the site does not lag behind the Ukrainian one.

Review authors Roman Melnychenko and Vitaly Bogdanov.

More than 30 authors of texts and blogs with whom we have been lucky to work.

Proofreaders Andrii and Liza, who help our texts get better.

The developer Yurko Chrevonyi, thanks to whom Mezha.Media exists and continues to work and develop.

The director of operations Viktor Hurzhiy, who keeps our finances and my nerves in order.

My wife, Anna Boyko, for her support and the fact that Mezha.Media is called Mezha.Media.

My friend Leonid for invaluable technical support.

I won’t say that it was a difficult year, it’s not over yet and it can only get more difficult, but I have no doubt that with such a team and such people around Mezha.Media everything will be fine.

I would like to especially thank our partners and advertisers who believed in the project from the first days and continue to support it. And also the Media Development Foundation for their expertise and support of Ukrainian journalists.

Despite the fact that we did not have time to implement many things this year, we still managed to launch the English version of the site and podcasts, and I really hope that in the future we will have more opportunities and more interesting things on Mezha.

Once again, we thank everyone who has read us in this first year and stays with us. Believe in victory, donate to the Armed Forces of Ukraine and remember that the Russians will suffer longer than we will be without electricity.