Ukrainian journalists on working during wartime
Journalists in Ukraine are risking their lives to report the war with Russia. We are helping support media in the country, and you can too, by visiting https://fundrazr. com/cmg-campaign site.
In this exclusive article Ukrainian journalist Viktoria Pushkina tells of her escape from Kharkiv, one of the areas worst hit by Russia’s invasion. Here is here story: I am 24, a journalist at Highload, today part of the Creators Media Group in Ukraine. I was born, raised, lived and worked in Kharkiv. Now I am writing this text in the Czech Republic.
To stay or leave ... this is the choice every Ukrainian faces? There is no right answer.
But everyone who decided to leave has a story about the turning point.
For me such a moment came on the ninth day of the war.
My boyfriend and I left our rented apartment in Kharkiv on the first day of the war.
We lived five kilometers from the city limits and woke up to the explosions. The first hours passed in slow motion.
We were packing but as if not for real. And without understanding why.
First we drove to my sister and her boyfriend in another district of Kharkiv, closer to the centre, where it was still quiet.
Then we all went together to my sister’s boyfriend’s relatives.
There, in a new building with an underground parking lot, it seemed like it would be safe.
Until a shell flew over the park right next to the house! Until a woman in a nearby street had her legs blown off!
Everyone had a turning point. Mine was when I refused to leave the vestibule - presumably the safest place in case of a rocket hit - even for a few minutes to go into the kitchen to get tea.
But I didn’t admit it until the owner of the flat where we were staying said “we’re leaving the city”. And then, a week later, my boyfriend said to me “go abroad with them”.
I’m in the Czech Republic because that’s the way things turned out. The same could be said about each Ukrainian.
The enemy takes away our possibilities of making choices and plans. Of living. We are tired as heck of it!
Watch a video interview with Viktoria and colleagues Slava Kutovyi and Alina Meleshyna at https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x89xagx site.
And read her full story and all Ukraine coverage at https:// www.nationalworld.com/