Ukrainian journalists do not just report on Russia’s full-scale war -- they are also among the victims of it.
One of them was Victoria Roshchyna, a former freelancer for RFE/RL’s Ukrainian Service who died in Russian captivity. The 27-year-old’s death was confirmed in October, but her body has still not been returned to her family.
She is not alone.
Russia’s three-year all-out war has taken a huge toll on Ukrainian journalists, many of whom risk their lives to report on the truth. Among them are RFE/RL’s own reporters.
In March, journalist Vladyslav Yesypenko will mark four years behind bars in Russian-occupied Crimea, which Moscow has transformed into a military base.
Reporting on social and environmental issues for RFE/RL, Vladyslav was convicted of carrying explosives, which he denied. He told the court that he was tortured in custody.
RFE/RL journalist Dmytro Yevchyn was seriously wounded on the front line in southern Ukraine. He returned to RFE/RL’s newsroom in Kyiv after months of rehabilitation.
Yevhenia Kytaiva was reporting near the front line in eastern Ukraine in 2023 when she was caught in a Russian artillery strike. She was unharmed and scrambled to provide first aid to a wounded Ukrainian soldier.
It took Yevheniia months to recover from the ordeal. A year later, Yevhenia gave birth to a daughter. Now, she is back on the front lines and reporting on female convicts preparing to join the Ukrainian Army, which is grappling with a shortage of recruits.
Correspondent Maryan Kushnir has filmed some of the war’s most devastating battles. He does not talk about his journalistic awards. Instead, he talks about an elderly man he helped evacuate during a reporting trip. The man was the last resident of his frontline village.
There are threats even far from the front lines.
In the fall of 2024, RFE/RL’s Kyiv bureau received bomb threats, just like hundreds of Ukrainian schools, business centers, and government buildings.
The threats followed RFE/RL’s investigation into how Russian operatives recruited Ukrainian teenagers and children, some as young as 12, to sabotage their own country’s military.
Reporting on the human toll of the war is only part of our coverage. We have uncovered corruption in the Ukrainian Army, exposed officials who have purchased lavish properties abroad, and identified judges concealing their Russian citizenship.
Some of our reporting has become part of history. Ukraine’s national postal service issued a stamp commemorating the liberation of Kyiv Oblast in 2022. Two of the three images that appear on the stamp were taken by RFE/RL photographer Serhiy Nuzhnenko.
One of the images was of Bucha, the town outside Kyiv where Russian soldiers left the corpses of hundreds of civilians they killed lying in the streets. Bucha became a symbol of Russia’s atrocities in Ukraine. Despite overwhelming evidence, Moscow still claims the massacre was staged.
In Pictures: 3 Years Of War In Ukraine
One of the victims, local shopkeeper Oleksiy Pobihay, was found buried in a mass grave deep in the forest. Who killed him, and why?
RFE/RL’s OSINT reporter Dmytro Dzhulay investigated the atrocities, identifying the Russian units responsible. His findings led to Ukrainian prosecutors launching an official investigation.
Just a 15-minute car ride from Bucha lies Nemishayeve, another town that was temporarily seized by Russian forces.
In a quiet cemetery in the town, near her parents' house, rests Vira Hyrych. The RFE/RL journalist was killed in April 2022 when a Russian missile struck her Kyiv apartment.
The last story she produced was about a Holocaust survivor who lived through the siege of the southeastern city of Mariupol, which Russia occupied in 2022. RFE/RL investigated her death and confronted key figures in the Russian chain of command.
This is what happens when war comes to your home.
