Ukraine Invasion Features

Since the outset of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February, Russia has sought to stamp out independent reporting on the war, prompting journalists to flee and newsrooms to shut down or to self-censor under threat of criminal prosecution.   Remarkably, one local outlet has continued to produce robust reporting despite the repressive environment. SOTA, which counts a staff of 40 journalists and support workers,…

A guide for journalists and newsrooms prepared by TrustLaw and the Committee to Protect Journalists Since the outset of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, CPJ Emergencies has been responding to the needs of journalists in Russia as they sought to navigate—or in some cases escape—an increasingly hostile environment.  For journalists and media outlets operating in…

For journalists on the ground, mines and unexploded ordnance (UXO) pose a deadly threat, especially when they don’t know what to look for. Given an increased concern about the widespread use of these weapons in Ukraine, CPJ Emergencies has created this video and safety note to explain how to work safely in an environment where…

For journalists operating in hostile environments, having the correct safety equipment such as helmets and flak jackets can be the difference between life and death. Nowhere has this been clearer than in Ukraine, where personal protective equipment (PPE) is in short supply, and where journalists have been gravely – and even fatally – injured throughout…

Ruslan Smieshchuk, a reporter for privately owned Ukrainian TV channel Inter, had long dreamed of being a war correspondent when he covered his first conflict, the 2008 Russia-Georgia war, for local Odessa TV channel ATV. Now he hopes that the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war will be his last battlefield assignment. “War is a lot of pain and grief,” he told CPJ.   The 38-year-old…

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine presents a danger not only for reporters operating in the war zone. The campaign could also pose a broader threat to press freedoms and other civil liberties if it brings the Kremlin closer to its dream of creating a domestically controlled internet. Russia’s internet regulator, Rozkomnadzor, has long been able to…

On a recent April morning in Warsaw, Joanna Krawczyk was sitting inside a café in the city center, her phone pinging nonstop. The head of Wyborcza Foundation, a Polish media support initiative, Krawczyk was fielding messages from colleagues coordinating the passage of a truckload of reporting equipment from Poland to Ukraine.  “It’s like a rotating menu…

Russia’s war in Ukraine, now in its third month, has already claimed an alarming number of journalists’ lives: at least seven killed in crossfire while reporting and at least six more who died in circumstances that CPJ continues to investigate.  There are at least 10 more names that do not appear on CPJ’s list of journalists killed…

As Russia wages an information war alongside its physical war in Ukraine, tech companies have responded with measures small and large, from reducing the visibility of propagandistic social media posts to blocking Russian state-affiliated media, to going beyond international sanctions by pulling out of the country altogether. Meanwhile, Ukrainian journalists, citizens, and officials have used…

As journalists flee Russia fearing prosecution for their coverage of the invasion of Ukraine or their affiliation with outlets deemed “foreign agents,” the country’s Journalists’ and Media Workers’ Union (JMWU) is trying to help them. A non-governmental trade union with some 600 active members, the group defends labor rights, provides assistance to journalists, and stands…