THE NATIONAL UNION OF
JOURNALISTS OF UKRAINE
Serhii Bilyi is a professional soldier. After graduating from university, he worked as an officer, in particular, as a head of different press groups. Later, the circumstances made him voluntarily resign from the service. He fully devoted himself to his beloved journalism: he worked in various online publications, wrote materials for the Ekspres newspaper, and headed the department of the press service of a regional state administration.
In March 2014, Serhii Bilyi was drafted into the ranks of the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU) and served in the regional military commissariat. Among other things, he dealt with the issue of public relations. Subsequently, he directly participated in combat operations as part of the anti-terrorist operation and the operation of the joint forces in the Donetsk and Luhansk Regions.
After the end of the contract, he returned to journalistic activities in the online publications BRIZ and Typovyi Frankivsk as the editor-in-chief of the news agency Firtka. He now heads the primary organization of the National Union of Journalists of Ukraine (NUJU) there.
“Journalism has become an interesting and important profession for me. The most important thing is that it is a profession that shows the result. More than once, after my publications, the government and other officials tried to change the situation, fill in the gaps, correct the shortcomings,” says Serhii.
Our colleague also writes poems. Individual poetic works were included in the collection “Colors of Love”…
With the beginning of a full-scale invasion, Serhii Bilyi once again had to change journalism to his military profession. The military unit where he is serving today defended Chasiv Yar on the Bakhmut Axis until recently and now defends the Kharkiv Region. Our colleague had the opportunity to see and feel all the “romantic” moments of the war: injuries, loss of comrades, missile and shell hits…
The arrivals did not escape the soldier’s family in Ivano-Frankivsk either – in the early morning of June 22 this year, as a result of a russian missile attack, the apartment in which the family of journalists Serhii Bilyi and Viktoriya Bila lives with their two children was damaged.
“It’s been a month and a half, and I still can’t recover from what happened,” recalls Viktoriya. “It was very scary, because I am at home alone with the children, because my husband is at the front. Then, in the middle of the night, I was woken up by a yellow-hot light. At the same time, a mad roar was heard, and then a loud explosion. The blast wave was so strong that I was thrown up on the bed. At first, I didn’t know what kind of light it was. When the explosion happened, I burst into another room to quickly get the children, who were shaking with fear, into a safe corridor. Then, I was also convinced of journalistic solidarity – early in the morning, they called from the Journalists’ Solidarity Center. Later, at his request, our family received financial support from the National Union of Journalists of Ukraine because many windows and frames were damaged as a result of the explosion.”
Of course, Serhii Bilyi, like any soldier, wants to go home and see his relatives – wife and children, parents. He also wants to return to his favorite journalism. But there are no rotations in the AFU. Therefore, the return of the father, husband, and son home is possible only when the enemy in our territory is destroyed. For now, we have to make do with video calls home and short 10-day vacations in Ivano-Frankivsk once every six months.
However, Serhii has no doubt that going to war is the right choice. “I am an officer. I studied for it,” notes the soldier and a Union member. “I have to be here and protect our land. Who else, if not me?”
Call the Ivano-Frankivsk JSC at 066 677 0726 (Viktoriya Plakhta, the Ivano-Frankivsk JSC coordinator). The Center’s address is 25 Sichovykh Striltsiv Street.
ABOUT JSC
The Journalists’ Solidarity Centers is an initiative of the NUJU implemented with the support of the International and European Federations of Journalists and UNESCO. The initiative is designated to help media representatives working in Ukraine during the war. The Centers operate in Kyiv, Lviv, Ivano-Frankivsk, Chernivtsi, Zaporizhzhia, and Dnipro and provide journalists with organizational, technical, legal, psychological, and other types of assistance.
ABOUT UNESCO
UNESCO is the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization. It contributes to peace and security by promoting international cooperation in education, sciences, culture, communication, and information. UNESCO promotes knowledge sharing and the free flow of ideas to accelerate mutual understanding. It is the coordinator of the UN Action Plan on the Safety of Journalists and the Issue of Impunity, which aims to create a free and safe environment for journalists and media workers, thus strengthening peace, democracy, and sustainable development worldwide. UNESCO is working closely with its partner organizations in Ukraine to provide support to journalists on the ground.
The designations employed and the presentation of material throughout this digest do not imply the expression of any opinion whatsoever on the part of UNESCO concerning the legal status of any country, territory, city, or area or its authorities or concerning the delimitation of its frontiers or boundaries.
The authors are responsible for the choice and the presentation of the facts contained in this digest and for the opinions expressed therein, which are not necessarily those of UNESCO and do not commit to the organization.
Viktoriya Strilchuk
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