“We were the only international journalists who hadn’t left Mariupol. For more than two weeks we were documenting its siege by Russian forces. We were making the report from the hospital when armed people appeared in the corridors. Surgeons gave us white coats to disguise. Suddenly at dawn a dozen of soldiers broke into the hospital: “Where are the journalists, goddamn...

I grew up in Kharkov - a Ukrainian city 30 km from the Russian border – and learnt how to use the weapon at school lessons. It made no sense to me. Ukraine was surrounded by friends, I thought. Since that time, I have been making reports on wars in Iraq, Afghanistan and in Nagorno-Karabakh. But when this winter Americans and then Europeans evacuated their embassies from Kiev and while...

People started dying very fast. On 27 February we saw how the doctor was trying to rescue a little girl who was hit with shrapnel. She died. Then another child died. Then the third one. Ambulances stopped taking wounded people because there was no network connection and medical staff couldn’t be called as well as ambulances couldn’t get through bombed streets. Doctors begged us to...

Till this time, I had seen many deaths in the hospital, corpses on the streets, dozens of bodies thrown to the mass grave. I saw so many deaths that I was filming them not taking too close to my heart. Two airstrikes targeted plastic that was used as a protection for our van. I had noticed a fire ball just before the pain struck my inner ear, my skin and my face.We saw smoke rising above the...

If we hadn’t left this morning, we wouldn’t exist anymore. At least me, for sure. There were less and less people in our cellar hiding. They were leaving. Rumors had it that many of them managed to get out of this hell. But it was only rumors. Nobody could believe that. Our neighbors were disappearing one by one. As soon as somebody could find any fuel or friends driving a car....

I have a friend who is in the navy. He is fighting and trying to survive somewhere in Mariupol. I ask non-existing God to help him somehow. I always pray for him and his health. Why do I say “non-existing God”? Because his family is waiting for him at home, a small son expects him to come every day…and suddenly my friend finds some mobile network connection. To catch it, he...

“I can leave my house to go outside during some breaks between bombing. My dog needs to be taken for a walk. It is always whining, shivering and tries to hide behind my legs.I want to sleep all the time. My yard, surrounded by multi storey houses, is silent and dead. I am not afraid to look around anymore.I see the entrance of house number 105 being burnt. The flame has destroyed five...

#OlenaPshenychna (с) Every time you talk about the “great Russian ballet”, I will tell you the story of a young teacher from Brovary who was repeatedly raped in front of her parents and then kidnapped by Russian villains. About dozens, maybe hundreds of raped Ukrainian women. Often in the eyes of their children. About 15-16-year-old girls from Borodyanka who suffered terrible...

Today I would like to begin to introduce you to my friends from Mariupol, those to whom Russia is constantly throwing bombs and starving to death shooting the Red Cross mission. I'll start with my friend Boris Борис Довганюк from whom I learned many subtleties of watercolor technique. If the paper is too white - it is treated with acids and over time the pigments will break down. Before you...