How to Responsibly Report on Russia's Invasion of Ukraine

On February 24, Russian leader Vladimir Putin ordered Russian forces to invade Ukraine, kicking off the first land war in Europe in decades and a humanitarian crisis whose impact has already reverberated around the world. Although Putin had for much of the last year massed thousands of personnel and equipment near Russia’s border with Ukraine and in Crimea, the crisis intensified in the weeks before the invasion, after the United States and its allies rejected Russia’s security demands.

Putin aims to curtail the enlargement of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), seeking to bar Ukraine from joining the alliance in a bid to assert Russia’s influence over its neighbors, aspirations that gained further prominence after Putin seized the Crimean Penninsula in 2014. Although Ukraine is not yet a member of NATO, it is partnered with the military alliance. This development angered Putin, who views Ukraine not as an independent nation but as land lost as a result of the end of the Cold War, which resulted in the Soviet Union's collapse and diminished Russia's superpower status. Putin had left world leaders guessing as to whether or not he actually wanted to proceed with an invasion though he clearly wants NATO to curb military exercises in Ukraine and in other former Soviet satellite states, demands that resulted in a diplomatic stalemate.

Naturally, it is incumbent on journalists to report on the ongoing conflict–and to do so responsibly. This week, Stella Roque, the Director of Community Engagement for the ICFJ Pamela Howard Forum on Global Crisis Reporting, spoke with Ostap Yarysh, a journalist with Voice of America’s Ukrainian Service based in Washington, D.C., and Tom Mutch, a freelance journalist on the ground in Kyiv whose work has largely focused on crime and conflict. They offered the following tips.

RECOGNIZE THE GLOBAL IMPACT OF THE INVASION

“One thing that I think has such worldwide relevance is the idea that we have this imperfect, rules-based international order,” said Mutch. “The biggest tragedy of the Ukraine crisis, along with the suffering of the Ukrainian people, could be the idea that if Russia gets away with enforcing its political and diplomatic aims by military force, this sets an example not just for this particular region but for the world.”

Yarysh echoed Mutch’s advice. “Especially when we talk about dictatorships and other authoritarian countries like China or Iran, this could set a pretext for them, that they might be unpunished for their actions as well,” he said, adding: “We see that this is not only eastern Ukraine, that there are some facilities and cities that have been shelled that are within 15 miles to Poland, which is a NATO country."

UNDERSTAND LANGUAGE AND CONTEXT

Both journalists stressed that mistranslations can muddle communication with readers and obfuscate the dynamics and stakes of the conflict. They were emphatic in stating that the war is a “war of information” just as much as it is a physical one.

“While you can make a point that Russia has legitimate security interests about NATO expansion, there is absolutely nothing that Ukraine has done to ever justify what has happened and what is going on now,” Mutch said. “It is in cases like this to show that, while you give perspective of the aggressive side — in this case Russia — you point out that they are the aggressor in this situation.”

HUMANIZE THE CONFLICT

The journalists pointed out that humanizing the conflict–dedicating as much, if not more, time to interviewing people directly affected by the conflict–can go a lot further than merely providing facts and figures.

“When others read these stories and see that the problem has a human face, it’s much easier to relate,” Yarysh said.

Yarysh and Mutch cautioned journalists against only reporting information that is sensational or violent, which runs the risk of desensitizing readers, and urged them to remember the stakes.

“The story isn’t, ‘I’m a foreign correspondent, I’m here in the middle of the action,’ even if that’s sometimes what the editors want,” Mutch said. “It’s about getting that local crucial human element, whether it’s when air raid sirens go off and people are huddling in metros [during a bombing], or people are in the bus and train stations trying to get out of Kyiv, trying to flee west, or people who we know are stuck in the cities in the east.” 

STAY SAFE

Both Yarysh and Mutch stressed that journalists should make safety their top priority. Among their recommendations:

• Know first aid, as well as vehicle and dwelling safety

• Take hostile environment training courses

• Learn about yourself and your comfort level

• Respect your capacity for processing stress and trauma

You can listen to their thoughts in the video below.