Ukrainian journalist Mstyslav Chernov documented the horrific impact on civilians when Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. He was trapped behind enemy lines – his documentary recounts that experience, Mariupol 20 days, has now won the 2024 Academy Award for Best Documentary.talking I In this interview, originally published in January 2023, he reflected on what he saw:
He’s trapped in a hospital while Russian troops hunt him outside, Mstislav Chernov Busy being disguised as a doctor. How could a man escape the siege of Mariupol alive when he had been shot dead by a sniper while trying to leave the building?
It was March 2022, and the Ukrainian journalist had been reporting in the city with two colleagues for three weeks.Him and the photographer Yevgeny Maloletka Pregnant women were photographed emerging from a maternity ward that had been destroyed in a missile attack – footage and images that shocked the world even in the midst of one of the cruelest wars.
Vladimir Putin’s troops want to silence the last international journalists left in the rubble before they can share more evidence of alleged war crimes.
“The hospital was surrounded by Russians,” recalled Chernoff, a filmmaker, photographer and writer for the Associated Press. “We couldn’t leave and we knew it was only a matter of time before they came into hospital, so the doctors gave us scrubs and hid us.
“There was a Red Cross radio station and a police radio station there, so we called for help. The next day, a group of Ukrainian special forces entered the hospital and rescued us. They took us across the battlefield.”
They were escorted through streets, where apartment buildings were blown to pieces by tanks and missiles left deep craters, to armored vehicles and quickly driven away from immediate danger by soldiers.
“But once they’ve done their job, they leave us,” Chernoff said. They are still trapped in the city.
“We don’t have a car and we don’t have batteries so we can’t send any photos or footage, we can’t function properly – it’s very important to send what we shoot.”
They owe their survival entirely to Ukrainian civilians. “This was the first day of organizing a ‘green corridor’ for people to leave, so we were able to join a family as they drove us out of these chaotic Russian checkpoints. There were so many of them that they traveled across 100 kilometers of occupied territory. “
As 30,000 people fled in a single day, Russian soldiers didn’t check the vehicles too closely. “We were very lucky.” Their live producer Vasilisa Stepanenko was elsewhere in the city at the time, but luckily also escaped.
Now, 10 months later, Chernov is preparing for the premiere of his new documentary Mariupol 20 days exist sundance film festival This month in Utah.
“I’m really excited that people are going to see the full story,” Chernoff said I. “I was finally able to post more than 40 minutes of video sent from Mariupol. I brought 30 hours back from the city.”
In the United States, it will air as part of the PBS documentary series “Frontline.” He hopes the film will be available to UK audiences in the coming months, and his account deserves renewed attention as the abuses in Mariupol continue.
The siege ended on Friday, May 20, with Russia declaring full control of the once city of 430,000 people and its Azovstar steel plant, where defending troops had been sheltering.According to reports, the occupiers demolished part of the theater up to 600 people Possibly killed while being bombed by Russian air force; an aide to the city’s mayor claimed it may have been an attempt to cover up alleged war crimes.
About 100,000 civilians Unable to escape or choose not to escape.one I An investigation last year found that some siege survivors were taken to refugee camps in Russia, where some were asked to sign documents saying Ukrainian forces shelled their own cities. While some have been allowed to return home, many are believed to remain captives with Russian help.
Russia recently built a new army compound Located in Mariupol, its port is apparently being turned into a military base Help Putin’s troops resupply by sea.
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