Story by Ben Crosbie
It didn’t take long for the Ukrainian media to understand that in war, one of the most important battles is the battle of information.
When Russia launched its war on Ukraine in February 2022, the invasion dealt a severe blow to the functional capability and stability of local newsrooms, inflicting damage from which many are still struggling to recover.
Svitlana Zholobaylo, director of the Ukraine Media Partnership Program at the International Research & Exchanges Board, said that her job has significantly changed since the war started. According to her, some of the biggest challenges that Ukrainian newsrooms have faced during this war have been direct hits to their offices, staff members having to evacuate to safer areas (often leaving the country altogether), and even some cases in which Russians have printed propaganda through abandoned local newsrooms in areas they occupy.
Her program is mostly about building long-term partnerships between Ukrainian and American media outlets, though since the war began, the UMPP has focused on supporting the relocation and sustainability of affected newsrooms. She visited the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill last month to speak to students.
“Independent media is very important for democracy, as we know,” she said while speaking on campus. “In wartime especially, because they provide critical information.”
Another major challenge she described was the sudden need for all kinds of reporters to immediately become war correspondents. She commended their adaptability, determination, and willingness to plunge themselves into the unfamiliar intensity of war.
“Overnight, just the regular reporters became war reporters. So they go to hotspots and they lose their lives, but they still do their job, and they go there because they know it’s important for their community and for their readers to know what is happening there,” she said. “They are doing a great job, and I’m just amazed how they do it.”
Ukrainian perspective on Russian media and people
Zholobaylo described the Russian propaganda machine as a formidable foe in the battle for information, saying they’ve built a powerful system of indoctrination dating back to the Soviet era. This has made it difficult for Ukrainian media to regain the minds of local people in areas where the Russians have controlled information, especially in places without internet connection.
“In some parts of Ukraine, especially the occupied parts, print paper was the only source of information. So if you don’t have any other sources, you will rely on what you are said by Russian media or Russian troops, whoever is in the city at that time,” she said. “So that’s why supporting independent media in Ukraine is very important.”
Zholobaylo also discussed what she perceives as the total control the Russian government has over its people’s hearts and minds within Russia.
“People are so brainwashed by the Russian TV and Russian propaganda,” she said. “They should do more to stop the war, but they just listen to their government and they believe everything in what is said in Russian TV.”
This has led her and most Ukrainians to largely distrust the Russian civilian population as well, though she did acknowledge the likelihood that fear of repercussions, rather than actual approval, could be a major reason for the lack of domestic opposition to President Vladimir Putin’s government.
“That’s a very sensitive topic for Ukrainians, because we think that Russian citizens could do more to stop this war and prevent their government from doing such things that they were doing,” she said. “Russian people were not saying, ‘Oh, let’s not do that.’ They were just watching and saying, ‘Yes, probably that’s the right thing to do.’”
Ukrainian anger and distrust toward the Russians is a significant reason why she and most of her compatriots generally prioritize retaliation for Russia’s aggression over trying to build a lasting peace.
“The Ukrainian perspective is about punching back,” she said. “The terms that the Russian president wants to end the war are not acceptable for the Ukrainian side, and either they find this compromise or we’ll continue our fight until we win.”
Volda Zadorozhna, a 43-year-old Durham resident who sells the works of Ukrainian artists to fundraise for her country’s troops, shared a similar sentiment while discussing the Ukrainian invasion of the Russian oblast (administrative division) of Kursk, which started Aug. 6.
“Our soldiers are doing incredible things,” she said. “Sorry to say it, but they put the war on their territory, and it’s logical because not only Ukrainian people should suffer, Russians should. They should feel what feel Ukrainian people now. I guess it would be fair.”
Zholobaylo said that Ukrainians generally see victory as a return to the 1991 borders, when Ukraine first became independent following the collapse of the Soviet Union. This would mean regaining the eastern parts of the country that Russia has seized. That territory includes Crimea, a peninsula that Russia annexed in 2014.
On the invasion of Kursk, she said it sent an important message about Ukraine’s fierce tenacity and defiance.
“We all know that Russia started this war, and we want to protect our territory,” she said. “But we want to show that we can go farther if they don’t stop their attacks and torturing people and killing people in Ukraine.”
Continued resilience and pride of Ukrainian community
Zholobaylo acknowledged that a degree of exhaustion has set in among the Ukrainian populace as the war continues to drag on after two and a half years. Many Ukrainians also feel that, while international media has generally been sympathetic to their cause, Ukraine has been pushed to the back burner of the world’s attention.
“I think it’s mostly positive coverage, but people forget fast,” said Maryna Kapustina, president of the Ukrainian Association of North Carolina. “It’s media, whatever is spicy they would immediately jump in. Right or wrong, they don’t much care.”
But, speaking at a Ukrainian Independence Day festival, Kapustina also commented optimistically on how the war has rallied the local Ukrainian community in North Carolina.
“Before, we weren’t so big,” she said. “People became proud that they’re Ukrainian. They might have lived here 15 years or 20 years and never thought about it, but now everybody is trying to build, everybody has some relatives in Ukraine they want to help. And this event is really helping us to stick together, to learn something.”
