THE NATIONAL UNION OF
JOURNALISTS OF UKRAINE
Journalistic multitasking. To the long list of tasks media workers have to handle, the war has added another one: being your own and your team’s security guard. You’re watching for the shot, the right words and drones.
Recently, Kharkiv journalists documented the harvest season in the Zolochiv area. It is currently a zone of intense drone activity. Roads covered by protective nets, cars moving at speed, a drone detector at hand. But filming means stopping, talking to people and working on location – all while staying as alert as possible.
Oksana Necheporenko, a correspondent for Channel 5, told the Kharkiv Journalists’ Solidarity Center of the National Union of Journalists of Ukraine (NUJU) what it is like to film fields on fire. A drone strikes a neighbouring field, and you rush to capture the flames while keeping one eye on the Chuika detector and listening for every possible buzz. Because, unfortunately, detectors cannot pick up every threat.
“It’s like being both the navigator and the driver during a race. You have to keep an eye on the situation and race against time. You need to film the material as quickly as possible, and not only because there is danger all around. Farmers react instantly. A field that was burning just a minute ago may already be ploughed over. And if you don’t make it in time, you have no footage of the fire. And then there are the large birds that can be mistaken for Molniya drones, and insects whose buzzing sounds like an FPV drone”.
Working in the fields in northern Kharkiv region – literally in the field – is dangerous. But it is the only way to show what is really happening.
The Kharkiv Journalists’ Solidarity Center team reminds media workers: we cannot be 100% safe, but we can and must take steps to protect ourselves. At our Center, you can borrow a “Chuika” drone detector, a bulletproof vest and a helmet free of charge. Get in touch.
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The Journalists’ Solidarity Centers network is an initiative of the National Union of Journalists of Ukraine, implemented in cooperation with the International Federation of Journalists and the European Federation of Journalists. Our main goal is to support media workers working in Ukraine during the war. The Centers operate in Kyiv, Kharkiv, Zaporizhzhia, Dnipro, Lviv and Ivano-Frankivsk. The project is part of UNESCO’s broader efforts to support journalists’ safety and freedom of expression in Ukraine. The Network’s activities in the summer of 2026 are supported by the Ukrainian Media Fund Nordic.
Contact the Kharkiv Journalists’ Solidarity Center: +380 93 813 75 44 (coordinator Hanna Chernenko).
Kharkiv Journalists’ Solidarity Center
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