Ian Brodie writes: As many of us are doing I am following the war in Ukraine as closely as I can from a great distance. Given its huge importance I am interested by the news itself, but also in the ways in which it’s being reported. Many western media outfits are doing a great job. I am particularly impressed by the work of the New York Times, which has reporters in many corners of the country and very impressive photographic coverage.

So it was a very pleasant surprise when NEWS.MC was contacted by the Editor of babel.ua, an online news service in Kyiv similar in one important way to our own publication here in Monaco. Like us, babel.ua is a digital-only medium.

However, the similarity stops there. The journalists at babel.ua are intrinsically involved in the fight for the future of their country in the face of an invasion by Russia.

I encourage readers to take a look at the responses of three journalists at www.babel.ua/en to a range of questions we put to them. Their testaments are very informative and also very poignant:

Deputy Chief Editor Serhii Pyvovarov

Deputy Chief Editor Serhii Pyvovarov is 37 and has been working as a journalist since 2014. He has worked for babel.ua since its launch in September 2018..

Where are you from in Ukraine?

I am from Luhansk. In 2014, due to the Russian aggression, I had to leave my hometown. That is how I found myself in Kyiv. My relatives stayed in the occupied territory. I haven’t seen them in person since then, only via video calls. They cannot leave because of their health condition, and I cannot come back while the occupiers are in Luhansk.
 
What is your typical day like?

Typical day? First, I wake up, realize that I am alive, which already isn’t bad. After that, it all depends on specific plans for the near future and on the current situation at the frontline, the situation with the Russian shelling, and so on. Now, the farthest I plan is for the next day. There is no reason to plan, because every minute anything can happen. 
 
Do you need to travel?

As for me, now is not the best time to travel. I cannot go abroad now, and there are basically no safe places in Ukraine. And even if I could go abroad, I’m not sure I could relax, rest, turn off the phone and not follow the events in Ukraine.
 
How are you treated/regarded by your fellow-countrymen/women?

I will have a simple answer. We, Ukrainians, like all people, can argue and even quarrel among ourselves. However, in a face of an existential  threat that is Russia for us right now, we forget about our grievances and unite like, most probably, no one else in the world now.
 
What are the most difficult parts of doing your job?

The most difficult must be to maintain mental stability. Because one thing is to write about the war that is going on in some place. And a completely different thing – when the war is in your country, when you see all these atrocities done by Russians, when people you know are dying, and when you yourself are not sure whether you will wake up tomorrow.
 
How does your job differ from before the war?

I want to emphasise that the war started not in 2022 but in 2014. So, it’s not the first year that we work in a state of war. Now the workload has increased many times, as well as the stream of information that needs to be monitored, checked, and clarified.
 
Why do you work as a journalist?

Every one of us, Ukrainians, has our own front, even several ones. The one of mine is information front and I can be most useful here, especially now. 
 
Do you think you can make a difference?

Not only can ― I do make a difference. Besides my main job, I, like many of us, volunteer. And all the help, even a small one, is a victory already.
 
How do you see the war ending?

Of course, I believe in victory, I believe that we can liberate all our territories and kick the occupiers out of our land. Russia won’t stop on its own. The more concessions are made to Russia, the more it will want to take away in this case.
 
How can other journalists in other places help you?

By telling the truth about Ukraine. Don’t be afraid to call spade a spade: war is war, not “a conflict”; aggressors and criminals are aggressors and criminals, not “the other party”. Tell your colleagues and readers about Babel. We work for Western audiences as well. Moreover, we are an independent media and we will not mind the support. We will be grateful for any donations.

Maria Zhartovska, Political journalist babel.ua


Maria Zhartovska is almost 32 years old and has been coverig politics for almost 12 years. She has been with babel.ua Since the launch of the Babel website in September 2018
 
Where are you from in Ukraine?
 
Originally – from Zaporizhzhia (this is the south of Ukraine), but I have been living in Kyiv for 12 years.
 
What is your typical day like?
 
Since the day of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine – with a lot of work. Of course, we continue to do everything that we did before – we conduct interviews, write texts, give interviews to Western media. If I could describe my typical day in one word, it would be “routine”.
 
Do you need to travel?
 
Since the beginning of the war, I have been to Poland once, to Warsaw for work. Now it is difficult to travel outside Ukraine, because the planes do not fly, and the journey by bus from Kyiv took about 15 hours. In addition, in Poland, I felt sad when I saw Ukrainian women with children. It’s a different experience when we lived in Kyiv with air raids and missile strikes and a completely different feeling when you see women with children who were forced to leave their homes. I have also been to Kharkiv, which was also badly damaged by Russian missile attacks. As for other travels, tourism, I don’t think about it right now.
 
How are you treated/regarded by your fellow-countrymen/women?
 
They treat me well. Because in Ukraine there is now an unprecedented rise in patriotism and unity. Of course, many people find it difficult, emotionally difficult, but we are finding the strength not to give up.
 
What are the most difficult parts of doing your job?
 
As of now – to deal with emotions. Because Ukrainian journalists cannot be above the events, we are part of these events, part of the context. It is very difficult to remain neutral when your country is at war. It is very difficult to stay productive when there is a lot of bad and sad news. When the fates of your friends and people you know are broken, many were forced to leave, including my relatives from Zaporizhzhia and my old grandmother, who did not want to leave at all. All this is difficult to bear. It was very difficult for me when we saw the first photos from Kyiv oblast – from Bucha, Irpin, Borodianka. It was only a few tens of kilometres from Kyiv, I could not believe that people are capable of this. I couldn’t work for a few days, I was so shocked. It is difficult when I find out about the injuries of my friends, about the death of my colleagues from other media who were at the frontline.
 
How does your job differ from before the war?
 
There is more work. We are also trying to develop new formats – podcasts, which are not so common on the Ukrainian media market, we also launched several YouTube projects, that is, I try video and audio formats, before that I only wrote texts about politics.
 
Why do you work as a journalist?
 
When I was 16 years old, I decided that I would be a journalist in the future. I watched political talk shows, I have always been interested in politics. Last year, I burned out and left the profession for a while, but eventually returned. I think that journalism is a way to live life in an interesting way, I also really love people, and this is an opportunity to meet interesting people and do interviews with them.
 
Do you think you can make a difference?
 
We can help make a difference.
 
How do you see the war ending?
 
A victory for Ukraine, because we simply have no other option. But when – no one will tell you about it, it all depends on many factors – our efforts, the support of allies, the supply of weapons, the sanctions policy against Russia, and finally our common belief in victory.
 
How can other journalists in other places help you?
 
Well, you are interviewing me, where I talk about Ukraine. It’s a lot already.

Anton Semyzhenko

Anton Semyzhenko, Head of the English version of Babel.ua is 35 years and will be 36 in 2,5 months, He has been a journalist for 17 years ― since 2005 and has been at babel.ua since March 2021.
 
Where are you from in Ukraine?
 
Originally I’m from Southern Ukraine ― born in Zaporizhzhia, went to kindergarden in Crimea, finished school in Kherson. Used to live in Vinnytsya Oblast near Moldovan border and in Lviv. But for the most of my life I’ve been living and working in Kyiv ― since 2003, with several pauses not longer than a year.
 
What is your typical day like?
 
As an editor of Babel’s English version I work in front of the screen most of the time. I don’t make any field reporting now: translating and adapting articles written by others leaves no time for this. But making our content available for the world feels more important. Evenings are more intense, so in the morning I have a couple of free hours. At 11 am I start working and usually it lasts until 1 am. During this time I adapt articles issued by our Ukrainian team, promote them in social networks, coordinate our translators, apply for grants, communicate with foreign journalists, make a review of foreign media for Babel’s daily publication. My colleagues from the Ukrainian edition are active, so it’s an endless stream of work.
 
Do you need to travel?
 
No, I don’t. I would like to report from different places in Ukraine, but now that I’m an editor, though, my workplace doesn’t depend on my physical location, so I’ve spent first half of spring in a village in Western Ukraine. As a male of conscription age, I cannot leave Ukraine now. I won’t want to do it, though.
 
How are you treated/regarded by your fellow-countrymen/women?
 
We are all in one boat, and as the full-scale war started, it all felt way stronger. When you enter, for example, Kyiv metro, you feel yourself like in an anthill: everyone follows the news, everyone is harmed by the war in some way and is connected to the resistance, to the work on victory. So we move in one direction not only literally, but figuratively as well. dentists, entrepreneurs, hairdressers, marketologists. This solidarity is felt everywhere, and towards journalists as well. People understand that the more we tell the world about the atrocities of the war, the more chances will be to end it. They know that timely verified information is often lifesaving ― and it’s journalists who often provide it or create platforms for this information. The horrors of the war need to be documented, and it’s also journalists’ task and society understands this. So I would say that now people need us and help us more than ever before. And not just civilians – military as well.

Also those who were traumatised by the war often need to tell their story. They often have no access to psychotherapy, and journalist is the one who listens to them and helps in this way. This is also important and valued.
 
What are the most difficult parts of doing your job?

 
It’s very draining physically and psychologically, so it’s challenging to keep yourself being effective. It was different in first two months when what we felt was only new levels of shock ― and we were energised by this, wanting to do as much as possible. Now, as it turned out to be a long story, keep the energy levels high became harder. But we are doing our best. Also it’s safety ― often the most important stories now are the ones you can make in dangerous places.
 
How does your job differ from before the war?
 
I used to be a reporter before the war ― now I’m an editor of an English section which appeared after the start of the full-scale Russian invasion. So it’s changed a lot. Sometimes I’m sad that I don’t report first-hand on all what Ukraine is going through now. But after all I understand that it’s not about personal wishes now, but about effectiveness. And in current situation I’m more effective on this position.
 
Why do you work as a journalist?
 
This used to be a way to learn more about the world, about my country. Here at Babel I was lucky to pick up the topics I was personally interested in. Also I was interested in developing different media projects, and now my activities refer to it.
 
Do you think you can make a difference?
 
I do, journalists in Ukraine really make a difference, and it’s very visible. Before the large-scale war they also did, though sometimes it was a rather slow burn. Now it became way more dynamic ― and this will continue as there is a trove of work for the journalists for many years ahead.  
 
How do you see the war ending?
 
So many different scenarios may be here, so I’d better just say that democracy must ― and definitely will ― win over authoritarianism. By democracy I mean not only Ukraine, but all modern Western world. By authoritarianism ― not only Russia.
 
How can other journalists in other places help you?
 
I could write “don’t let people forget about this war”, but probably my colleagues have already written that. I would just add that it’s important to tackle stereotypes and explain the context more. That Ukraine is very far from being a Nazi state, Russia is much closer to it. That there’s no major right-wing activity in Ukraine. That people here perceive national flags not as postulating superiority over something, but as defending the right to be yourself. Ukraine is not a “brother nation” with Russia ― this is a narrative that Kremlin tries to push.

Ukraine is a former Russian colony, and Moscow doesn’t know how to live without it. Many facts about Ukraine has to be treated with this understanding of post-colonialism in mind. Otherwise it’s easy to become a victim of propaganda.

Russian invasion is treated by some of the opinion leaders like something we all need to get used to. But in fact it’s like COVID-19, and of Delta or some even more aggressive variant. You can’t just get used to it because it eventually will kill you. You can’t give it some territories, because it won’t stop there. You just eliminate it, push it our of your habitat. This is what Ukraine tries to do, and on this way it needs your understanding and help.

MAIN PHOTO: Babel’s journalists in conference at the Pink Freud in Kyiv

HOW TO HELP: https://www.patreon.com/babel_ua paypal@babel.ua

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