Event Coverage Highlight

by Chad Bouchard

Reporters covering the war in Ukraine cited resilience, integrity and humanity as essential qualities for journalists on the ground in conflict zones during an OPC discussion on Feb. 20.

The program, part of the OPC’s “In the Thick of It” series exploring coverage of breaking international news stories, featured Isobel Koshiw, a Ukraine-based correspondent for the Financial Times, and Julia Kochetova, a Ukrainian photojournalist based in Kyiv. Luke Harding, Senior International Correspondent for The Guardian, moderated.

“If I was not of Ukrainian origin, I would not cope with all this hell,” Kochetova said. “But I was born here. When I was covering the Revolution of Dignity in 2014, when I was a student, when Russians invaded Crimea in 2024 – the full decade [of conflict] started when I was 20. So I got used to the fact that I’m living in a hurricane, and that’s part of my world.”

Koshiw said Ukraine is on edge after Trump parroted Russian disinformation. In the two days before the panel, Trump had called Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy a “dictator,” said that his approval rating was 4 percent, and that Ukraine was to blame for Russia’s 2022 invasion – all false claims pushed by President Vladimir Putin.

“I’m definitely surprised that things have gone so bad, so quickly,” she said. “The comments yesterday were pretty shocking.”

Harding agreed, adding that Trump and Putin “seem to be echoing each other. The way to which, for whatever reason, the Trump administration is repeating Kremlin talking points is absolutely striking.”

Harding asked Koshiw how reporters covering the war are able to maintain objectivity, as they face threats and powerful disinformation campaigns echoed even by Ukraine’s allies. She said objective reporting just means searching for what’s true. “So if you’re writing a story about who started the war, well it’s pretty easy to find the answer to that question,” she said.

And while Ukraine has internal problems and corruption like many countries, “Does it deserve to be bombed every night, and to be attacked every night, and to have its citizens in the occupied territories be re-educated and put in various prisons? Do you see what I mean?” she said. “Maybe Putin perceives that he’s been slighted. But does that give him the right to do this? So I think it’s a moral compass thing more than anything.”

Kochetova added that reporters should cover big-picture developments in the war, but not lose focus on human stories.

“We have the most documented war in history, we have TickToks from the trenches and we satellite images, we have amazing maps and infographics, we have images from bombed and ruined Ukrainian cities,” she said. “But do we really have a human in all these stories? Just find a human, and get as close as possible to the human. Because I truly believe that we should stay personal in all our reporting.”

Harding, who has been covering Ukraine since a few months before the invasion, said he has been surprised by morale among Ukrainian soldiers.

“Somehow being in Ukraine is less depressing than being outside Ukraine. And strangely, paradoxically, the closer I am to the frontline, the more cheerful people seem. I know that doesn’t make any sense because there are bombs, there are drones, it’s dangerous,” he said. “They are outgunned by the Russians but they are still fighting, and my impression is that Ukrainian morale, certainly among frontline troops, is still relatively high.”

Asked how long Ukraine would be able to continue fighting without support from the U.S., Kochetova said while she and her colleagues have felt moments of despair, “I also remember when you have this meaningful feeling inside that – I know what I’m fighting for. As long as you know what you are fighting for, you never ask, ‘when is it over?’ I’m going to hold on for as long as it’s needed.”

Click the window below to watch a playlist of video clips from the program.