A newspaper on Russia’s radarBefore delivering news along the shattered roads of northeastern Ukraine, Vassyl spent years reporting from Zolochiv. He wrote poetry when he was a teenager, studied literature at university in Kharkiv, and joined the local Zolochiv newspaper at age 20. At 31, he stepped away to work for the Ministry of Environmental Protection and Natural Resources, where he investigated corruption in the district. Ten years later, he returned to the weekly.“I can’t imagine doing anything other than journalism,” he says.Vassyl is proud that his newspaper was among the first to be de-nationalised in 2017. He helped draft the legislation that allowed Ukrainian local newspapers to be privatised, a step he saw as essential to reducing state pressure and safeguarding editorial independence.Throughout the war, he has continued to investigate local political corruption, though he acknowledges that much of his focus has shifted to the war.“Russia feeds on our internal divisions. Even if holding our own authorities to account remains part of the job, currently, my priority is to counter the enemy’s lies,” he says.The fight against Russian disinformation has put his life at risk more than once.On April 5, 2022, at 9:30am, two Russian shells hit the weekly’s newsroom, partially destroying the 140-year-old building that housed it …
