-How do you see Ukraine a communication tool like yours after almost a year of war? How might conflict develop?
– The situation is dire. Soldiers and civilians die every day. There is currently more than three hundred days of war and unfortunately Putin has no intention of putting an end to this barbarism. He continues to believe that he can invade and control more and more territories. Even international support for Ukraine does not deter him.
It threatens the existence of the Ukrainian people and our state. Citizens show great resistance, but many find their lives destroyed by war. We face disaster every day. In the middle of winter, we spend hours without electricity, light, heat and water.
– The high price your people paid for refusing to return to Russian orbit.
-Yes. We pay the price for acting like a democratic state that appreciates its independence and does not want to be part of the Russian state. We have already seen this in the Euromaidan demonstrations and riots in 2014, in which more than a hundred people died. The war did not begin in 2022; It did so with the 2014 invasion of Crimea and Donbas. Failure to respond to these actions led to this terrible war.
Is Russia losing the war?
They thought of seizing Ukraine in three days and failed. But the setback they experienced in the first two months of the war did not deter Russia from its plan to invade and destroy Ukraine. Our country is fighting with the international community to stop the war, but Putin’s army continues to advance, intensifying the offensive, bombing critical infrastructure, launching more missiles and killing civilians. In many cities and towns occupied by Russian soldiers, in many cities and towns where citizens have told us about the atrocities, we have witnessed brutal war crimes with complete impunity.
When asked how long the war could last, I always try to explain that many Ukrainians still live under the yoke of occupation. And if the war stopped tomorrow, they would continue to live under the Russian threat. We need to reclaim all these territories to protect our people and help them survive.
-Does Putin consider taking the conflict beyond the borders of Ukraine?
We didn’t stop Putin in 2014, and that’s what got us into this war. If we don’t stop Putin now in Ukraine, I’m 100% convinced that other countries like the Baltics or Poland will come after him.
-Poland? That’s NATO territory.
I think so, yes. Putin worked as a KGB agent, he is a product of the Soviet empire and he thinks he can rebuild that empire. It is what gives meaning to your life. Russian propagandists talk about occupying Berlin, bombing London, and it’s not just rhetoric. The same propagandists said earlier that Ukraine should be part of Russia and should be occupied, and that’s what happened already in 2014.
Is the West helping enough?
-We are very grateful for the help we received. Thank you for buying tanks now and maybe planes in the future. With them it will be easier to save territories and save our people. The European allies saw that the war had cost the lives of many people, and they understood that they had to help us. In three months we will see how the sent tanks strengthen the counterattack of the Ukrainian army. However, Putin will not stand idly by, he will continue to destroy. After committing war crimes in 1942 and 1943, he doesn’t want to negotiate with Hitler, and no one wants to negotiate. This is exactly the same.
Putin must be defeated as soon as possible. Our victory, which will be the victory of European democratic values, is not possible without the support of the West. This is a human rights struggle that Russia is violating in Ukraine, Belarus and its own people.
The victory of Ukraine will be the victory of European democratic values.
-You are the head of one of the most influential media organizations in Ukraine. Do you feel that your job is particularly threatening to you?
-Too much. The challenges are terrible. More than forty Ukrainian and foreign journalists have been killed since the start of the war. I too lost a good journalist friend, Brent Renaud, early in the war. He was American and went to Ukraine to shoot a documentary about refugees.
Russian forces detain, attack and kidnap journalists on the front lines or in Russia. One of our colleagues, Viktoria Roshchina, was held captive for eleven days. We applied a lot of pressure and eventually the Russian authorities released him. He continues to report from very dangerous places.
Journalism there is not only dangerous but also an adventure.
-Yes. The Russians are constantly trying to disrupt our information capacity. But since we have been at war for nine years, we are better prepared for power cuts today. Whether our information reaches more than one million people depends on the availability of five liters of fuel.
More than 40 journalists have been killed since the start of the war.”
The challenges are many. Despite donations, we lost more than 60% of our ad revenue. We don’t even know if we’ll be able to pay the payroll in the next few months. Financial support is essential for independent Ukrainian media.
-And I imagine the fight against misinformation is constant.
-Actually. One of the biggest obstacles is disinformation, which Russia uses as a war tool. Propaganda is part of their strategy. A year before the Russian invasion, the Ukrainian government banned pro-Russian television channels for the manipulation that accompanied their news. They are now banned in the rest of Europe. Propaganda sought to dehumanize the Ukrainian people and justify the war to “purify” the country. This propaganda poisoned the minds of the citizens of Russia. There is no freedom of the press. All independent media have been hit over the past two decades.