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Opinion

How Ukrainian Newsrooms Keep Serving Their Communities Under the Russian Occupation

How Ukrainian Newsrooms Keep Serving Their Communities Under the Russian Occupation

When a city falls under Russian control,  independent Ukrainian media are shut down, and journalists face detention or persecution. Residents lose access to trusted local reporting. Journalists who relocated are continuing their work from outside the occupied areas.

5 min read
Authors
Photo of Liubov Rakovytsia
Liubov Rakovytsia
Head of DII-Ukraine

In the fourth year of the full-scale invasion, the Kremlin’s battle for influence over the minds of both Russians and Ukrainians is growing increasingly fierce. Recently, Russia’s State Duma announced it is considering restricting access to all Google services—a move that would affect both Russia and the temporarily occupied Ukrainian territories. The window to the free world is narrowing, and using tools such as VPNs is becoming ever more dangerous.

Against this backdrop of darkness, DII-Ukraine is working to develop a cluster of relocated media outlets. These are newsrooms that once operated in territories now under occupation but have resumed their work from new locations without severing ties to their home regions.

During the Soviet era, Radio Liberty and Deutsche Welle were listened to in secret, through signal jamming. For millions of people, they were unique sources of alternative information. Naturally, we want “free voices” to be heard in the occupied territories as well. We also want those “free voices” to ensure that other countries can learn firsthand the truth about what is happening there.

This is important now—and it will be critically important after Ukraine’s territories are liberated. After the liberation of Kherson and parts of the Kharkiv region, it became clear that at the moment of liberation, an enormous information vacuum emerged. Russian media outlets disappear instantly, and Ukrainian ones are gone. People do not understand what is happening, who to trust, or how to move forward. In such circumstances, the role of media outlets that have relocated to the liberated territories becomes crucial.

That is the view from within. From the outside—from within government-controlled Ukraine—the picture looks different: people who remain under Russian occupation have largely fallen out of focus. They are “not timely,” “not relevant.” They do not influence the political cycle. Even parts of society are indifferent to them—believing that “they already voted for Putin.” Yet not everyone who is forced to remain under occupation supports the “new authorities” or is willing to live there indefinitely.

It is therefore essential that media outlets continue speaking to these people. This internal contradiction gave rise to the idea of the cluster: to unite relocated newsrooms that broadcast information for and about the occupied territories. We currently have 15 such outlets, from Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia, and Kherson regions. Among them are Novyny Donbasu, 0629.com.ua (Mariupol), Tribun (Luhansk region), RIA-Pivden, Free Radio, and others.

They produce analysis and investigative reporting on the temporarily occupied territories, monitor social media, and publish reports on developments there. Journalists within the cluster have reported on sites where Ukrainian civilians and prisoners of war are being held in occupation; the state of healthcare in the temporarily occupied territories; Russia’s displacement of local populations; and the incomes and expenses of people living under occupation.

One of the most powerful cases involves the newsroom Bakhmut.in.ua. While searching for contacts for a story about leaving occupied territory, journalists learned about Viacheslav, who had left Donetsk. Based on his experience, they published an article that was later read by a young man who had been afraid to leave. He contacted Viacheslav, who helped him organize his departure. The two are now friends.

The newsroom 0629.com.ua, relocated from Mariupol, recorded a rise in reach and the emergence of a new audience from the Luhansk region. Through the outlet’s chatbot, people in the temporarily occupied territories began seeking help, and other media organizations within the cluster joined in to provide consultations.

All of these newsrooms maintain sources within the occupied territories. However, since the start of the full-scale invasion, protecting those sources has become increasingly difficult. Maintaining contact—or finding new sources—is extraordinarily challenging, particularly amid the blocking of messaging apps and social media platforms. Journalists within our network have been taken prisoner by Russian forces, sentenced, and subjected to persecution. Censorship in the Russian-occupied territories is tightening, and the ability to verify information is severely constrained.

It is difficult—nearly impossible, given limited funding and physical access—to compete for attention with Russian media outlets. Securing financing for newsrooms and projects is also a persistent challenge.

Yet the demand for truth—for an accurate picture of reality—never fully disappears, no matter how much it is suppressed. That demand exists in occupied territories as well, and we continue to respond to it. We understand that informing people in territories not under Ukrainian control is a long-term endeavor. Its progress is invisible, and its outcome impossible to predict. In essence, we are doing good and “casting it upon the waters.” One day, those ripples of goodwill spread outward.

If even one person, after reading our reporting, decides not to fight against Ukraine but instead to leave, if even one person uses our advice to save themselves, that is already a victory.

The matter of the Russian-occupied territories of Ukraine will not disappear simply by closing our eyes. If we fail to maintain these connections now, the cost of silence will be far greater in the long run.

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