Kharkiv's young front line reporters brave Russian onslaught to chronicle human cost of war

 KHARKIV – Journalists at the Gwara media news site in this war-torn city are chronicling the human cost of Russian war crimes while gently holding authorities accountable with their courageous reporting on the increasingly sophisticated and insidious forms of attacks launched on civilians from the front line some 19 miles away, their editor in chief says.

 “We have now regular attacks from FPV (first person vision) drones, that’s a big problem,” says Yana Sliemzina, with evident understatement. We visited the battered Gwara newsroom, the only media in Kharkiv reporting in English, and spoke to its doughty 30-year-old editor a short time before the first FPV attack on the centre of the city. One of the main aims of the news team since its foundation in 2015 and Yana became editor in chief in 2023, has been to examine critically and judiciously the measures taken to protect citizens. The word Gwara means a dialect in Ukrainian.

 “The first FPV drones used to attack Kharkiv were carried by Molniya drones and dropped off. In the winter fibre optic drones reached Kharkiv. The authorities were talking about installing anti-drone nets.”

 “They said ‘we have a plan. We won’t tell you what it is, but we have.’ “

 “Last winter they started installing the anti-drone nets on the ring roads around the city. Only 14 percent of the planned anti-drone nets have been installed by the Kharkiv city government and the regular military.”

 Asked why they haven’t installed the nets more quickly, the answer came back “we don’t have money.” While the primary responsibility for the nets lies with the military, Kharkiv’s mayor Ihor Terekhov at one point baffled citizens by saying “we don’t need nets. What we need is to stop the war.”

 According to Mr. Terekhov, around 13,000 buildings in Kharkiv have been damaged or destroyed, including approximately 10,000 residential buildings. About 160,000 people have lost their homes. “Every day there is shelling, and it is terrible,” he says. “Just staying alive is exhausting.”

 The arrival of FPV drones in Kharkiv this year has made it more hazardous for reporters to drive out on assignments to locations targetted by other ordinance. Since July the Russians have used FPVs to attack petrol stations 94 times.

 As well as being fatal for petrol pump attendants the targetting also impacts motorists.

 “When you are stuck in traffic near a gas station you are not chilled,” Yana says. While Kharkiv is not as hazardous for civilians as the beleaguered city of Kherson, where people regularly are hunted in the streets “safari style” by Russian drone operators, the number of FPV attacks is increasing. There were 18 in June and 51 attacks in June.

 “Not all of the FPV attacks are in the centre of the city,” Yana says. “But they can reach the centre. They reached one of the metro station entrances with a fibre optic drone that is undetectable by radar, it can only be spotted visually.”

 As the threat worsened Gwana asked the authorities how they were responding to meet the danger. “Where are the nets? You have had almost a year.”

 Nets were being erected on the ring road and some streets in the worst hit northern districts of the city and private owners were throwing some around petrol stations.

 “They are promising multi-layered safety corridors and mobile firing groups,” to shoot down drones, Yana continues. Soldiers from the brigade deployed in the north of the city told Gwanda more nets could have been deployed by city authorities.

 “The Russians can’t capture the city but they can try to make it uninhabitable by terrorising everyone by targeting businesses or people.” Ukrainian soldiers do what they can to defend the city, using interceptor drones to shoot down russian drones, for instance, but defenders are relatively thin on the ground reflecting the country’s general manpower shortage.

 “Maybe if there were more people in the brigades they could shoot down more. The Banderols fly so low they are often hard to detect. They fly above the 9^th floor level,” hitting many high rise buildings.

 “The last attack on the centre last month was two streets up from our office, hitting a hotel and a cultural centre. You often hear drones flying overhead.”

 Reporting on the death and destruction takes its toll on Yana’s team of reporters. “Yesterday I sent two people to cover an attack where 10 people were killed at a busy crossroads.”

 “When one of them came back it was hard for her to talk several hours. It is hard for the psyche, it takes time to process.” Even when staff at the news organisation are off duty it is not easy to escape from the war.

 “I went on vacation to Odesa two weeks ago and it was badly hit,” Yana said, “it was a mistake but at least I didn’t have to report on what was happening.” The Black Sea beaches of Odesa are the only option inside Ukraine where people can enjoy a seaside holiday though it is far from risk free.

 Nearly all Gwara journalists are in their 20s or early 30s. “A lot of people have journalism degrees. We also have learned by doing, Ukraine has some leadership programmes.”

 Gwara is funded by grants, community group membership and a small amount of advertising. “It’s very hard in Kharkiv,” to get advertising as the war has hurt local businesses so much.”

 “When an attack happens the coordinator sends the designated crisis reporter to go to the scene if possible. You have to be constantly alert for the risk of a double tap attack with Banderol missiles.”

 Crisis reporters are told to wear body armour, flak jackets and helmets, though I have seen better quality ones than the equipment in the Gwara news room.

 “All the journalists do know first aid from training courses that usually mean going to Kyiv.”

 “Nobody has been hurt from the team,” Yana says, “but people have been in danger. I myself was in danger. We did front line reporting in Donetsk oblast last spring.” 

 “Once we had to get out of the car and walk two or three hours to meet up with the army, mostly in a forest. Everyone was fine, everyone lived. But sometimes you have to run very fast to escape from FVP drones.”

 Like in all good newsrooms working stoically and bravely in war zones, mock heroics are not encouraged.

 Self censorship is another potential hazard. The military can take umbrage at scoops, for instance the publication of photos of drones.

 “I found that I sometimes think not pushing something is safer.” Military authorities ultimately could withdraw a journalist’s accreditation if disgruntled, leading to some difficult calls for editors to judge in the tense moments after a Russian attack. The professionalism of Gwara is reflected in the readership of its Ukrainian and English portals, together amounting to as many as some 200,000 hits a month.

 Against this background of difficult, hazardous working conditions the young Kharkiv journalists, in the view of this British reporter who has worked in war zones intermittently for more than 40 years, are impressively brave, dedicated and highly professional.

 Yana sums up modestly: “We try to have a very serious approach.”

  https://gwaramedia.com/en/