Ukraine


pay a rate per article which is twice or three times higher than I’ve ever been paid by a London paper for foreign copy. Where do you get your stories in Ukraine? The site of a bombing attack is an obvious one but human interest stories are everywhere. Buses, trains and stations are a great start. I approached people on the bus from Krakow to Lviv saying I was a journalist and asked people why they were travelling to a war zone.


I approached two men in their 50s, one had an Irish accent, the other Scottish. They were foreign fighters bound for the front line – and they gave me an anonymous story that I flogged to the tabloids. For the next few days, I ran around hoovering up stories. I


interviewed refugees and wrote up their horrendous tales about bodies ripped apart by bombs. For the lighter side of life, I interviewed an Irish comedian who was performing in Lviv in a tour of Ukraine titled Special Comedy Operation. After a week, I hit the road to Kyiv. On the platform in the train station, I spotted two guys carrying Press flak jackets and approached them. They were the same as me: freelancers – two English guys – hoping to have a crack at war journalism. We decided to join forces in


Kyiv where they had a fixer lined up. The driver brought us to the main horror sites outside Kyiv where the Russians had occupied Bucha, the site of mass graves, and Borodyanka, which Russian shelling has turned to rubble. I interviewed a woman whose house was now a shell of a building and volunteers involved in a clean-up in Borodyanka. I pulled together a ‘Ukraine rebuilds’ newsy feature for the Business Post with photos thanks to the snapper, Phil Wilson, I had met in the train station in Lviv (we have since teamed up on all my Business Post articles). The real test of my mettle was to get close to the military action on the front line. The nearest area of conflict to Kyiv was Kharkiv, an eight-hour train ride east towards the Russian border. The Ukrainian forces were making headway in pushing back Moscow’s army, reclaiming towns. It was a great ‘Ukraine victory’ story I knew I could easily sell. I headed off with Phil on a 6.45am train one morning from


Kyiv and got to Kharkiv at about midday. Our fixer Shakhov Serhii was waiting for us. He offered to take me and Phil to a town recently liberated from the Russians. We agreed, but I remembered I had no flak jacket or helmet. “I will die,” I said, half joking. Serhii, who also had no protective gear, shook my hand. “You and me will die, but many years from now.” We later zipped off in Serhii’s bright red taxi and, an hour or


so later, we turned up in the town of Zolochiv, about 15km from the Russian border and about 10km from the front line. Artillery fire echoed in the distance. My throat felt dry. “That’s us firing at the Russians,” said Serhii, his face stiff. I didn’t feel too convinced I was safe. But I continued to walk


14 | theJournalist “


the streets, past ruins of shelled buildings, looking for someone to interview in this deserted town below a grey sky. Police pulled up, three officers piled out, boots stomping.


Where do you get your stories? The site of a bombing is an obvious one but human interest stories are everywhere


Below: Ukrainian soldier in Kharkiv


Cops are actively hunting for Russian spies, but Serhii told the officers I was a journalist and they nodded. “They said the shelling starts from 5pm and you have to get out by then,” Serhii said, interpreting. It was 3.30pm. Ninety minutes before the bombs drop. I


tracked down a man raking the earth on a farm and interviewed him about the shelling. “The life we had is over,” he shrugged. I piled back into Serhii’s taxi with Phil and Serhii raced back


west towards the city of Kharkiv. A half a kilometre or so to our left, Russian bombs hit the battlefield, clouds of smoke lingering. I asked could we stop and get a good picture. Serhii kept speeding. I shrugged and looked at the shelling, oddly feeling no fear. I am a war correspondent.


Jeff Farrell wrote this after returning home from the war. He is now back in Ukraine. His debut crime thriller novel, Bad Blood, is published in October


Locals pose for photos outside Bucha after Russians run out of town


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32