Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Monday thanked the team behind the Oscar-winning film “20 Days in Mariupol,” which tells the horror story of the early stages of Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine.
Zelensky posted on X, formerly known as Twitter, that the coveted best documentary award was important to “our entire country.”
“The horrors of Mariupol must never be forgotten. The whole world must see and remember what Russia’s inhumane invasion has done to our people,” he wrote.
“Cities and villages were destroyed, houses burned, and entire families were killed by Russian shells and buried in their backyards. We still don’t fully know how many people died in Mariupol. However, satellite images show thousands of people around the city Tens of thousands of graves,” Zelensky added.
The documentary, directed by Ukrainian filmmaker Mstyslav Chernov, chronicles the brutal and ruthless Russian attack on the southern port city of Mariupol in the first days of Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine bombing.
Zelensky said the film “portrays the truth about terrorism in Russia.”
After nearly a decade covering international conflicts for The Associated Press, including the wars in Russia and Ukraine, Chernov’s first feature is a harrowing first-person account. The film, co-produced by The Associated Press and PBS’s “Frontline,” follows Chernov, photographer Yevgeny Maloletka and producer Vasilisa Stepanenko as they navigate the besieged city Recorded story.
The team arrived there an hour before the Russian bombing began. Two weeks later, they were the last journalists working for the international media, delivering critical dispatches to the outside world, reporting on civilian casualties of all ages, the digging of mass graves, the bombing of a maternity hospital and the devastation caused.
“We were reporting inside the hospital when the gunman started stalking the hallways. The surgeon gave us white surgical gowns as camouflage,” Chernoff said.
Chernov, who was born in Ukraine, narrates the documentary. He and his team won the 2023 Pulitzer Prize for Public Service.
When accepting the Oscar, Chernov said excitedly: “This is the first Oscar in the history of Ukraine, and I feel honored.” He continued, “Maybe I will be the first to say this on this stage I wish I had never made this film as a director, I wish I could have traded this film to Russia and not attacked Ukraine.”
He called on Russia to stop its aggression against Ukraine. “I want them to release all the hostages, all the soldiers defending their land and all the civilians in prisons,” he said.
The city of Mariupol on the Sea of Azov was almost completely destroyed by a Russian attack that Kiev said killed tens of thousands of civilians.
The award comes as Ukrainian troops fight off Russian forces on the front lines and as a $60 billion U.S. aid package is stalled by political wrangling in Congress.
“This documentary reminds us why uninterrupted or uninterrupted international aid is so important for Ukraine,” Zelensky said on the Inflicting the same fate on every city they could reach, as they did to Mariupol, Butca and other of our cities that suffered under Russian occupation. Together we must prevent Russia from destroying lives. ”
Zelensky thanked everyone who told the truth about Russia’s war crimes.
The Kremlin declined to comment when asked about the film’s success. Russia denies targeting Ukrainian civilians.
Some information comes from The Associated Press, AFP and Reuters.
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