The Pulitzer prize-winning journalist at the heart of the Oscar-tipped documentary describes the weeks he and his team spent in the besieged city – and why they were willing to take the risk
Men in uniform are milling around outside a cafe in Sloviansk. Military trucks trundle past every few seconds. The town, in the Donetsk region, is the rear echelon of the Ukrainian counter-offensive. A black armoured car pulls up, and out of it slips journalist and film-maker Mstyslav Chernov. With his black T-shirt and trousers, black sunglasses, and black med-kit strapped to his thigh, he looks every inch the conflict reporter. He is 38. When he finally takes off his sunglasses, the intense gaze of his pouchy, tired-looking eyes makes him seem older.
That is hardly surprising. The war visited on Ukraine by its eastern neighbour since 2014 has destroyed many existences and transformed countless others. One of its consequences has been the creation of a generation of young conflict reporters. “In a country at war, if you’re a good documentary photographer, or at least trying to be good” – as he was before the Russian-backed takeovers in the Donbas and of Crimea – “you automatically become a war photographer.” One of the Kharkiv-born journalist’s earliest jobs was filming the carnage of the Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 crash site in 2014. Later, he worked in Syria, Karabakh, Iraq and Kurdistan.
