THE NATIONAL UNION OF
JOURNALISTS OF UKRAINE
“We are waiting for liberation! We are sure that the residents of Svatove are tired of living under occupation, listening to Russian lies, and would be happy to read our newspaper, which they knew and loved,” says the founder of Svativski Vidomosti, Andrii Kriukov, who begins telling the story about the newspaper he created and nurtured. He hopes to revive the newspaper after the liberation of his hometown.
“The newspaper has been published since 2005. This is one of the first private publications in the Luhansk Region, the first in the Svatove District,” says Andrii Kriukov. “Before that, my newspaper colleagues and I worked in municipal media. But on the waves of the Orange Revolution, freedom of speech that suddenly appeared in Ukraine, they decided to open their own publication.”
It was difficult to work independently: the newspaper was always in opposition to local authorities. Andrii believes that this is how every journalist should work. The publication survived more than 30 trials: it was sued by every single local official, including the police chief.
“We wrote about what hurt people, regardless of how it could end for us,” the journalist recalls. “We were at the epicenter of the most resonant events in our district and the entire Luhansk Region. We defended a pro-Ukrainian position, which, given the specifics of our region, was very relevant and became especially relevant after 2014. We were never associated with any [political] party, did not represent anyone’s interests, and had no financial obligations to anyone. Having established ourselves as an independent publication, we have always remained that way, guarding the reputation like nothing else.”
According to Andrii Kriukov, it was interesting to work – independent journalism provided an opportunity to conduct important investigations and expose corruption schemes of local authorities and local “oligarchs,” farmers…
“All this remained in the binders of our newspaper,” Andrii says sadly.
In 2006, the newsroom organized a public rally: a hunger strike against the increase in heating tariffs. At that time, this action caused an all-Ukrainian response. “The day before, the journalists of Svativski Vidomosti turned to their fellow journalists with a request to provide informational support for their indefinite hunger strike action under the slogan It Is Better To Die Of Hunger Than To Pay For The Cold,” the UNIAN news agency wrote at the time. “The 71-year-old resident of the city, Liudmyla Svylohuzova, has already joined the participants in the rally.”
“Journalists from many all-Ukrainian TV channels came to us. In the end, we got the townspeople to get free loans for the installation of autonomous heating, and in this way, in a few months, the issue of city heating was solved in Svatove,” says Andrii Kriukov.
Svativski Vidomosti has always remained a traditional paper publication. The newspaper had a website for some time, but when it became clear that it was ‘ousting’ readers from the paper edition, the website was shut down.
“We lived only at the expense of a paper newspaper, and I am convinced that an independent publication should finance itself by producing products that it can sell to the consumer,” says Andrii. “On the other hand, paid services were not developed on the Internet, and it was unprofitable to maintain the site.”
The newspaper started with a circulation of several hundred copies, so in the best times, the circulation increased to 5,000 copies, which was a record in the Svatove District. They were distributed both via subscription and retail. From the fall of 2005 to February 24, 2023, the newsroom did not miss a single issue: all issues arrived straight to the readers.
“It was not easy. After all, even before the war, our newsroom experienced two great tragedies. The three of us worked in the newspaper… But, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, two of my colleagues, Olena Rahra, who worked as an editor, and Leonid Falko, died. I stayed alone and published newspapers alone for almost a year.”
In February 2022, Andrii Kriukov was in Irpin, Kyiv Region… and never returned to Svatove.
“We immediately stopped publishing the newspaper because the post office stopped working, and even our last issue did not reach the readers,” recalls the newspaper’s founder. “At the beginning of March, our district was occupied….”
Andrii Kriukov is convinced that Svatove will be released and the newspaper will return to its readers.
“Of course, it is difficult to predict what will happen in Svatove after de-occupation. Despite our independent status, I think we will have to cooperate with the local authorities because the whole meaning of today’s life is to rely on mutual support. The first issue should be free. Information must be delivered to the war-torn villages; one cannot do without a newspaper. It is hell now in the villages near Svatove; the front line lies through. Today, these villages almost do not exist. Many people left. Therefore, it is impossible to plan work at the moment,” says Andrii Kriukov. “But Balakliya, where the printing house we were printed, is fortunately freed. Our paper remained there. Printers offer their services… That is, everything is there to restore work!”
This story about the media was created by the NUJU as part of the Increasing Ukrainian Media Sustainability project financed by Swiss Solidarity and implemented with the support of the Swiss non-profit organization Fondation Hirondelle and the IRMI. Fondation Hirondelle and the IRMI are implementing a project of institutional support for editorial offices of Ukrainian media in the east, north, and south of our country, with an emphasis on the local press. They have also launched a 10-month assistance program for 18 media.
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