Covering Ukraine’s First War with World News — From Eurovision Song ontest in Kyiv to COVID-19 in Ukraine: From FIFA Champions League Final to Flower Sales in Ukraine
I have never dreamed of covering a war. And I never could imagine that the first war I would cover would be in my own country. And this war has now become not only my job but also my life.
I’ve been a journalist in Ukranian for eight years. Until 2022, I covered a wide range of topics — everything from the 2017 Eurovision Song Сontest in Kyiv to corruption scandals among Ukraine’s top officials. I met soccer fans from all over the world coming to the UEFA Champions League final in 2018, when Ukraine for the first time hosted it. I checked whether businesses complied with quarantine restrictions during the COVID-19 pandemic and I exposed stores that illegally sold alcohol to minors.
My last story was about the flower business. I worked on a piece about the tricks that flower sellers use before the holidays to increase sales. I was glad that I found an exclusive store where Volodymyr Zelenskyy used to order flowers. We planned to run this story on the eve of March 8, International Women’s Day, when many Ukrainian men present women with flowers. I gave it to my editor on the evening of Feb. 23. Russia began an invasion the next day. This story never came out.
As before this war, I still travel a lot all over Ukraine. I had a feeling that I was leaving my home in Kyiv, but now that I have arrived in Ukraine, I feel like I’m at home. Ukrainians realize they are in a single boat, and will only be able to survive the war if they team up.
There is a cozy neighborhood in the city center of Kyiv, where I live. The area has always been busy. But a few weeks before Feb. 24, 2022, it was empty. I could see the pity in their eyes as foreigners left. It felt like they were saying goodbye forever.
The Kremlin boasted that its “special military operation” would be quick. But Ukrainians resisted, and in mid-March 2022, Russian troops failed to capture the capital and much of the rest of the country.
The entire country is a target of Russian attacks. When Russia took over parts of Eastern Europe back in the summer of 2014, there was a small form of violence.
Problems at home were an issue in wartime. For years all people knew about Ukraine was that it was a corrupt post-Soviet country with a developing democracy. Ukraine has serious corruption problems, but now Ukrainians want more transparency. They’re tolerant of any type of grafts.
For example, under public pressure, the president and parliament restored open access to a register in which it is possible to see how much officials earned in the past year and compare their monetary savings and property holdings with their official salaries. This register was closed when the full-scale invasion began. Now Ukrainians can even check the president.
Even during martial law, which can lead to war and which restricts civil rights, we have become the strictest watchdogs of our own democracy. It was recently discovered that the special service in Ukranian illegally wiretapped and monitored journalists investigating corruption. Society blamed authorities for putting pressure on the freedom of the press. Hundreds of demonstrators took to the streets to protest the firing of the commander-in-chief of the armed forces.
Even though martial law doesn’t allow rallies, relatives of Ukrainian military service members regularly stage pickets, demanding that the authorities define clear terms of service for soldiers who were conscripted or report on progress of negotiations regarding the return to Ukraine of fighters who are in Russian captivity.
Ukrainians do this even though war has changed our perception of time. I feel like my life was cut short on the day before Russia’s invasion.
I plan ahead only a few weeks at a time. I don’t know what will happen to me, or where I will be next year, or even next month. That is why my partner and I do not have children. The fact that we cannot guarantee them a safe childhood together with mom and dad has postponed having a family until after victory.
Source: I’m a Ukrainian journalist. I never expected to be a war reporter in my own country
The Crimes of Crime and Crime: How a Hero Hero’s Life Gets You While Living in a Sustained Emergency Room — A Report by the Ukrainian President
However, even living in constant danger, people get used to it. They don’t think all the time that something bad might happen. I remember how fragile human life is. Sometimes, when I’m reporting, I look at contacts and realize I can’t contact them because they have died on the front line, or in a missile attack. I can’t bear to go through my contact list and count how many people will never pick up the phone again.
My cozy neighborhood has changed as well. A luxury apartment complex was built less than a mile from my residential building a few years ago. There is a grocery store, a coffee shop, a parking lot and lots of other things that you need for a good life. I always dreamed of living there. But I could not afford to buy an apartment there.
The complex was hit by a missile twice. It was damaged by debris twice. Several residents were killed and wounded in these attacks. Now, when I pass this building every day on my way to work, I think about the fact that my dream of living there has never come true, and maybe it saved my life.
I can’t believe that some of the usual things won’t be the same. My boyfriend works for one of the Ukrainian TV channels. Before the full-scale invasion, we often met at various news events covering them. The site of a rocket attack that killed 23 people was where we met last year. When NPR’s reporting team got there, my boyfriend and his crew were already filming. Trying to help me, he told me where the rescuers put the bodies of the dead and where they were continuing their search, hoping to find survivors. It was so normal to meet him at work. And it was so NOT normal to witness great grief, death and tears with him.
I was born after 1991, when the Soviet Union fell apart and Ukraine became independent. That’s why independence seemed to me something that you get ultimately just because you were born in a sovereign country. We had to learn that freedom is not a gift. And its price is the highest and the most painful.
The Ukrainian president said at the forum on Sunday that there have been over 30,000 deaths of Ukrainian troops since the beginning of the Russia invasion two years ago.
It’s the first time Ukraine has publicly given a figure for military casualties, though Zelenskyy declined to say how many soldiers are wounded or missing, saying the information would help Russia.
Zelenskyy also suggested that the Kremlin got a hold of Ukraine’s counteroffensive plans last summer and that this year, “several plans will be prepared because of information leaks.”
Zelenskyy thinks that if Russia continues with its war against Ukraine, it could be decisive in twenty four years. Ensuring that Ukraine has enough weapons, particularly long-range missiles, to defend themselves from Russian forces is a top priority.
The 49-year-old soldier, who was on a short break from the frontline, said that he wouldn’t win with bravery. I know a lot of great soldiers. But if we don’t have ammunition, we can’t fight back, we can’t save lives. Just give us the tools. We will do the rest.
The town of Avdiivka in the east, which was bombarded by the Russians many times, had to be evacuated recently due to the low amount of equipment the Ukrainian troops had.
Russian forces are moving on several points on the eastern front line, and Ukraine waits for a $60 billion aid package from Congress.
Zelenskyy, the Defense Minister of Ukraine, and the Secretary General of the Strategic Industries, tells NPR that Ukraine has the know-how to make its weapons
“They agree that we need their support within a month,” Zelenskyy said. “I am sure there will be a positive decision. Otherwise, I will be left wondering what kind of world we live in.”
The Defense Minister said that 50 percent of military aid to Ukraine has not arrived on time and can be deadly in a conflict. He stated that Russia has spent $150 billion on attacking Ukraine, 15% of its GDP.
Ukraine has been rapidly developing its weapons industry in the past year. In an interview with NPR, Oleksandr Kamyshin, the country’s minister of strategic industries, said that Ukraine had the know-how to produce at least a basic range of weapons.
Earlier this month, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg promised that NATO members would provide a million drones to Ukraine this year. Kamyshin is asking those countries to instead buy the drones from Ukrainian manufacturers to help finance the sector.
He said that at this point they can make many more drones than they have money for. “We know the drones work on the front line. We are price competitive.
Source: 31,000 Ukrainian troops have been killed so far in the war, Zelenskyy says
Interactions between Mirage fighter jets and the U.S. military in the coming era of a Russian-Bulgaria war
European Union leaders have promised to speed up arms supplies. The European leaders are meeting with the French President to discuss military and diplomatic support for Ukraine. Zelenskyy said he asked for Mirage fighter jets and is expected to attend via video link.