The news out of Slavyansk
For the past two years since the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic, the Times Union has been checking in every few months with the staff of Maye Sense, which runs 6262.com.ua, an online news site serving the people of Slavyansk in the Donetsk region of eastern Ukraine. This alliance is part of a larger effort to nurture international sharing of media best practices, especially in areas where digitalfirst outlets are still in the initial stages of development.
I’ll admit to initial trepidation that these sessions were going to be a time suck — in my defense, I had just taken over as editor and was grappling with the entire newsroom working remotely as COVID -19 swept in. But it turned out to be a good thing indeed: If you’re an upstate journalist juggling with these and other challenges, there’s nothing like a lively morning conversation with people who are dealing with those same things ... while also contending with a Russian-sponsored civil conflict a few dozen kilometers to the east. It tends to put things in perspective.
These virtual and expertly translated exchanges have touched on investigative work; how to develop an audience for a podcast in a market that hasn’t yet developed a large appetite for them; data visualization and more. For almost a year, our Ukrainian colleagues have been trying to organize a visit to Albany, but the pandemic keeps rearing its ugly head in new ways.
And now this.
On Tuesday, I spoke under very different circumstances with Valerii Garmash, Maye Sense’s editor. He looked somewhat rumpled, but that was not unusual. Russian forces were still east of Slavyansk, and his reporters were doing their best to keep readers apprised of the functioning of local services: transportation options for those pondering or actively planning a westward evacuation, hospital capacity, gas availability and more. He estimated the city was still a few days from facing potential food shortages.
“So far, it remains quiet,” he said, while noting that “quiet” is a relative term when you live in a city that’s been on the edge of a constantly shifting conflict zone since the summer of 2014, when Ukrainian forces retook control of Slavyansk (pop. 140,000) from Russian-backed separatists.
As so many of his readers rush to evacuate or batten down for whatever happens next, how was Garmash keeping the business afloat — making payroll, covering the cost of equipment and simply maintaining a digital presence?
“It’s a very complicated situation,” he said. “As you know, our financial model depends on advertising and working with
business. And now all of the parties in this equation have the same common goal: to fight the enemy that came to our land and is killing our people — to fight Russia. But in terms of financial stability, right now our reporters are fighting for an idea; we’re not thinking about money. But of course in the days and weeks to come, that will become a problem. To be honest, we don’t have money to pay them now.”
It’s been said that truth is the first casualty in wartime, whether due to dueling propaganda or simple chaos. Last week in this space I wrote about a fast-breaking episode in which a member of a remote garrison of Ukrainian forces told a Russian warship, which was demanding the garrison’s surrender, to perform an anatomical impossibility on itself. Initial reports from reputable outlets, citing Ukraine’s military and civil leadership, held that more than a dozen members of the garrison had been wiped out. But updates from earlier this week suggest the defenders might have survived and been captured by the Russians.
This type of thing was not new for Garmash. “We have eight years experience, so we know how to distinguish between true information from fake or misinformation,” he said. “... We don’t post anything unless it’s fully verified.”
I asked what he wanted my readers to know. He didn’t have to think about his answer very long.
“Russia is evil,” he said evenly. “Russia came to Ukraine to kill our people. Russia is a killer. And if we don’t unite globally to stop this aggression, Russia will go further.”
I thanked him for taking the time to talk at what for him was the end of a long day. Our translator burst into tears.
You can listen to our conversation in a special episode of our podcast “The Eagle,” which also includes an interview with columnist Paul Grondahl, who last weekend interviewed a woman hunkered down in the basement of a hotel in the capital city of Kyiv.
As I write this Friday morning, Slavyansk remains under Ukranian control even as Russian forces bombard Kharkiv to the northwest and close in on Mariupol to its south.
I prefer to think of myself as being moderately thick-skinned as I take heat on behalf of the Times Union for our stories from offended elected officials, disappointed advocates and readers incensed by everything from a typo to the fact that our syndicated celebrity birthdays feature has ditched the use of “actress” (actors are “actors” regardless of gender).
We all like to think we’d be brave enough to call out the hostile army that might be rolling through our city in a matter of days. It’s worth pondering what that might cost, and whether we’d be willing to pay it.