THE NATIONAL UNION OF
JOURNALISTS OF UKRAINE
They work from damaged offices, deliver newspapers under drone fire, and document war crimes between airstrikes. The editors of three frontline Ukrainian newspapers – in Zolochiv, Izium (the Kharkiv region) and the Sumy region – spoke with Canadian journalist Scott Douglas Jacobsen about what it means to keep local media alive when survival itself is not guaranteed.
As part of an ongoing series of interviews with Ukrainian journalists, Canadian journalist Scott Douglas Jacobsen (founder of In-Sight Publishing, contributor to International Policy Digest, The Humanist, and other international outlets, and member of the Canadian Association of Journalists, PEN Canada, and Reporters Without Borders) spoke with three editors working on or near Ukraine’s front lines. The full texts are published in Jacobsenʼs Substack, “A Further Inquiry”.
Vasyl Myroshnyk, Zorya / Visnyk Bohodukhivshchyny – Zolochiv, Kharkiv region
Vasyl Myroshnyk is editor-in-chief of Zorya and the combined Zorya/Visnyk Bohodukhivshchyny publication in Zolochiv – a town 15 kilometres from the front line in Kharkiv region. His editorial office has been damaged since 2022. Today, he works from home.
“I live in Zolochiv. My home is 15 kilometers from the front. We are working right in the area of constant danger…And we deliver our newspaper, whether it is worth it or not. We deliver it to people. We deliver and take materials from the scene. We live where they can kill you every day…We sleep there, we live there constantly”, Myroshnyk told Jacobsen.
Despite the constant threat, he personally delivers newspapers to residents of frontline villages – sometimes, he says, it is the only connection these people have with the outside world. He no longer displays a press sign on his car, fearing it would help Russian drones identify and target him.
Myroshnyk spoke candidly about the psychological toll of proximity to death: “We walk close to death; we have, to some extent, started to get used to it – and this is very bad. We lose caution. We lose the feeling of fear. And for a person, the feeling of fear still preserves life.”
On Western media coverage, Myroshnyk was direct. He said foreign journalists too often arrive shaped by romanticised notions of a “mysterious Russian soul,” and miss what he sees as the defining truth of this war: that ordinary Ukrainian men and women are choosing to fight and hold their positions not out of ideology, but out of a will to live – and a will to win.
“I want the whole world to understand, finally, that there are unique Ukrainians, not Russians, and a unique Ukrainian soul,” he said. “As long as we are holding on today, that is already a victory.”
Oleksii Pasiuha, Vorskla – Velyka Pysarivka / Okhtyrka, Sumy region
Oleksii Pasiuha has worked in journalism for 30 years. Since 2022, his newspaper Vorskla, rooted in Velyka Pysarivka (just five kilometres from Ukraine’s border with Russia), has been operating under near-constant shelling.
In 2024, 62 guided aerial bombs fell on Velyka Pysarivka in a single day, destroying the publication’s editorial office. The team relocated 40 kilometres away to Okhtyrka. In March 2026, Pasiuha’s own home was struck and destroyed by three successive drone hits during a return visit to collect materials and publish the paper.
“There is no editorial office, there is no housing – but there are people for whom we, as before, carry the newspaper,” he said. “They read our newspaper and know that Ukraine is alive, Ukraine is winning, Ukraine is fighting.”
Pasiuha describes the newspaper as essential for older readers who will never use the internet. His team have built their own delivery system, borrowing cars from friends and working without pay to ensure each edition reaches its readers.
On what frontline journalists urgently need, Pasiuha was specific: digital training, reliable transport, and anti-drone detection devices for every journalist working within ten kilometres of the border. “It’s dangerous, but we still go. There are no cars; we borrow them from friends. There is no cost; we work for free – but the newspaper must go out into the world.”
Oleksii Pasiuha noted that some foreign journalists arrived without understanding basic geography. One team visited his region believing they were near the Kursk operation, when in fact they were in the Belgorod direction entirely. Still, he said: “The main thing for us is not to be forgotten.”
Kostiantyn Hryhorenko, Obrii Iziumshchyny – Izium, Kharkiv region
Kostiantyn Hryhorenko is editor-in-chief of Obrii Iziumshchyny in Izium and a secretary of the National Union of Journalists of Ukraine. His publication is one of the few local outlets to have resumed print operations after the Russian occupation and subsequent liberation of Izium in 2022.
Today, the newsroom publishes a print edition every Thursday and updates its website and social media daily – in a city where KABs (Russian-launched guided aerial bombs capable of gliding dozens of kilometres before impact) have again begun to fall.
“We have already discussed with a small team that, as soon as the situation worsens, we will select the necessary items: laptops, tablets, and video cameras,” Hryhorenko said. Evacuation routes and fallback locations have been pre-planned.
Among the most demanding work his team undertakes is documenting Russian war crimes through direct interviews. He recalled difficult stories his team covered with the widows of fallen soldiers, former prisoners of war, and survivors of the Izium basement massacre, in which 49 civilians died in the basement of a five-storey building during Russia’s occupation.
“This is not just journalism. This is criminal documentation,” Hryhorenko said. “To some extent, we perform the functions of law enforcement agencies, the police, and the prosecutor’s office when we conduct such interviews.”
On international coverage, Kostiantyn Hryhorenko identified a clear gap: Western media addresses weapons, aid, and policy well, but rarely reaches into the specific realities of individual Ukrainian cities and communities. He also noted with concern that journalists from African and Asian countries often rely on Russian media as primary sources, and lack accurate information about what is happening in Ukraine.
NUJU Information service
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