THE NATIONAL UNION OF
JOURNALISTS OF UKRAINE
Today, Visti, published in Novovorontsovka, is one of few newspapers in the Kherson Region it was possible to restore and the only former district publication. The newspaper is published for its readers again thanks to the financial assistance of the National Union of Journalists of Ukraine (NUJU) and its foreign partners.
“The fact that the newspaper is published is a mere miracle. Due to constant shelling, our village and the surrounding villages have almost died out,” the editor-in-chief, Iryna Kosharska, said in a comment for the NUJU.
The latest pre-war issue of Visti was published on February 24, 2022. Therefore, the workers left for safer regions of Ukraine. Iryna Kosharska also left – to live with her parents in the village of Mykhailivka. It would seem that only a few tens of kilometers, but… Novovorontsovka remained free, and Mykhailivka fell under occupation.
The Internet remained in the village for a while, and Iryna watched the news. I discovered what was being done in other occupied settlements with fellow journalists, which added to the fear… Ultimately, Iryna rolled all her journalistic documents into the bank and buried them in her parents’ garden. She dug it up when the village was already liberated.
The villagers had nothing for two months – no flour, salt, or sugar. They were surviving thanks to the stocks. Therefore, they began to restore Soviet-times mills and bakeries. Flour, yeast, and salt were quietly transferred from the free territory. Thus, it was possible to provide bread to five villages.
Battles in the Kherson Region were fought mainly along the main roads. Instead, Mykhailivka is located far from the roads. So, the occupiers rested in the village between battles. Suddenly, shots were heard, and it became obvious that the front was approaching Mykhailivka. People, having packed emergency suitcases, hid in basements to wait for the front to pass through the village. They also feared that the occupiers would start expelling people further into the occupied territory. But the liberation happened almost imperceptibly: only the following day did the residents of Mykhailivka realize that the front was already on the other side of the village.
The trials did not end with the liberation of the right-bank villages of the Kherson Region: systematic shelling of many settlements began. In the village of Osokorivka, for example, almost nothing is left. Other settlements were more fortunate. But the danger remains, and people are in no hurry to return home. So the readership is recovering slowly.
Fortunately, the office of the Visti newsroom was preserved, except that the glass in the windows flew away. The workers took the equipment and documents home.
Visti has been published since 1935, survived the Second World War. That’s why newspapermen really didn’t want to lose their publication.
“When, on March 29, 2023, thanks to NUJU, the newspaper’s first issue after a one-year break was published, it was immediately sold out, and part of the circulation was distributed by volunteers together with humanitarian aid,” recalls Iryna Kosharska. “People’s reaction was amazing. At least a piece of the pre-war past, a piece of peaceful life returned to them. Now that many villages in the liberated part of the Kherson Region still do not have electricity so the newspaper remains, in fact, the only source of information for people. We are working and hope to inform our readers about the Victory!
NUJU Information Service
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