'We try to find body armor': Ukrainian media pros on how they're helping journalists there

Before Russian bombs started falling on Ukrainian cities, Zoya Krasovska's work with the Lviv Media Forum involved offering networking opportunities for journalists.

Since the war began, the nongovernmental organization has transformed into a 24-hour-a-day relief operation, providing more than 150 journalists support for all sorts of needs, both personal and professional. That includes helping relocate many journalists and their families from parts of Ukraine under siege to Lviv on the western side, offering financial aid and shelter, and even securing body armor.

“We try to find body armor for journalists because all of (the) bulletproof vests and helmets are going to support army, and journalists, as civilians ... they don't have first-aid kits and body armor to defend themselves while they are working,” said Krasovska, 32, a media analyst.

Krasovska was among a group of Ukrainian media professionals who visited the Daily Herald newsroom in 2019 as part of an educational exchange. She and two other Ukrainian media and humanitarian professionals spoke with the Daily Herald Monday in a Zoom interview, sharing insights about the escalating conflict in their homeland and how journalists are struggling to cover it.

Krasovska said her organization has been trying to help Ukrainian media outlets relocate to safer areas as more cities come under fire from advancing Russian military forces.

In some cities, such as Mariupol in southeastern Ukraine, many local reporters have pulled out, so any information coming from the region is from official sources or the few international journalists left there who might be better equipped.

“It's (a) catastrophic situation there now. We have no connections with people in Mariupol. They have no media coverage,” Krasovska said.

Ukrainian journalists on the front lines in territories occupied by Russian forces also need help dealing with the trauma of seeing their countrymen come under attack and watching the devastation around them, she said.

“We have psychologists ... helping journalists,” Krasovska said. But psychological support is not the first need, because safety is the prime concern.

Eugene Trukhanov, 31, a freelance sports writer originally from Kyiv, was vacationing in England with his wife, Anastasia, when the war started. Now in Germany, he is trying to help fellow journalists and friends back home find resources to survive.

His parents live in Kyiv. Sounds of shooting, rockets firing and explosions can be heard in the distance, he said.

After spending one night in a shelter, Trukhanov's father decided to return home and await what's to come. His mom's staying with her sister's family in a small village between the Kyiv and Chernihiv regions, nearly 7 miles away from Russian troops, he said.

“They are all nervous,” Trukhanov said. “There's three families in one house ... nine people together.”

They made a makeshift shelter underground, stocked with warm clothes, pillows and some supplies to “save themselves” and ride out the fighting.

“A lot of journalists are with their families in different parts of the country,” said Trukhanov, adding that many have started doing volunteer jobs helping other people.

Just this week, three journalists, including a filmmaker, a producer and a Fox News video journalist, were killed covering the Russian invasion.

“It's very hard. You never know when the rocket could come and where it will (land),” Trukhanov said.

Doing their jobs is the most dangerous thing journalists could do right now, he said.

Providing aid for the growing humanitarian crisis in Ukraine, particularly involving the displacement of families and children, is of utmost concern, said Viktoria Aliyeva, 32, a former media scholar now working as a researcher for UNICEF Ukraine, the U.N. children's agency.

Aliyeva, who was part of the group that visited the Daily Herald newsroom in 2019, said she had been dealing with providing COVID-19 vaccinations and countering polio outbreaks in the region before the war broke out.

“Epidemics and war go hand-in-hand. ... We're trying to account (for) the risks of the disease spreading,” she said. “Children are the most vulnerable, obviously, in this situation. We have almost 100 (children) killed in various shellings all around Ukraine.”

Children's education also has been disrupted, first by two years of the pandemic and now by war, Aliyeva added.

More than 3 million people, including roughly 1.5 million children, have fled Ukraine since Feb. 24, according to the U.N. refugee agency.

“Children are fleeing with their mothers since Ukrainian men of age from 18 to 60 ... they're not allowed to leave because we are currently living under the martial law,” Aliyeva said.

Aliyeva said while nations and people around the world have expressed “emotional support” for and solidarity with Ukrainians, what's needed is humanitarian relief and military aid.

While Ukrainians are willing to fight, “the price that Ukraine is paying is enormous,” she added.