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As you know, a full-scale war has been going on in Ukraine for a year - on February 24, 2022, Russian troops massively attacked my country from the North, East and South, their missiles flew all over Ukraine, reaching its western borders. For a year now, Ukrainians have been defending their country, defending the freedom of their nation, the principles of the entire democratic world, for which it is obvious that invading the territory of another state is a crime. For Russia, this is not the case, at first, they declared that they were liberating Ukraine from Nazism, then they started saying that Ukraine lives too well, now they believe that Ukraine should be completely destroyed so that it never exists again.
WHAT IS WAR?
For sure you’ve heard these statements and for sure you’ve seen footage of war but living in it is a life trial. I would like to suggest to everyone, at least for a few minutes, to imagine that this applies to your nation and your country. It’s better to never feel that way, I wish you never to feel that way, but just imagine. I had no idea what it was until 2014, when the Russians invaded the territory of Ukraine for the first time, captured part of Donbas and annexed Crimea. We have been living with this for 9 years now, but I want to say that these previous eight years, until February 24, last year, I thought I knew what the horror of war was but I only thought I knew. I thought I understood, because a lot of people from Crimea and Donbas came to Kyiv, they were forced to come because they would be arrested and tortured at home just for being Ukrainians - Ukrainians in their own country - and because they don't want to accept Russia’s rules, which came to Ukrainian land to destroy everything Ukrainian. So I saw how people were building a new life for themselves in Kyiv after being forced to leave their homes and I saw videos from occupied territory in all those big cities that were captured by Russia in 2014 and where I was before 2014. So I thought I know what war is. But a year ago, I felt and understood that I did not know anything about the war. When you are forced to drive with your wife and children from your house, which may be destroyed, but that is not the worst, it is worse when you can just be shot in the car, and even worse if you are dragged out of the car and killed in front of the children. It is difficult to talk about it. But this is what happened and is happening when a Russian soldier comes to your country.
For 8 years, we defended our land on the demarcation line with the invaders, adhered to peace agreements, believed and hoped that we would be able to take our land back, relying on democratic principles. But, unfortunately, the sanctions against Russia were not tough enough - After eight years, the Russians thought that they could make another powerful leap and take over the whole country, conquer Kyiv and take Ukraine under complete control.
They failed to do this primarily due to the fact that the Ukrainians understood the motives of the Russians in the previous 8 years, managed to unite - hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians went to the front, hundreds of thousands became volunteers, and this is how we withstood the waves of attack. Our President Volodymyr Zelenskyy appealed to democratic countries for support and help - we received it, we completely liberated the territory to the North of Kyiv, liberated Kharkiv Oblast, liberated Kherson, liberated many territories, but the enemy has not agreed to withdraw from our land, he continues to kill Ukrainians - military on the frontlines, civilians by bombing in the cities of Ukraine, he sacrifices hundreds of thousands of his soldiers, not counting them, the main thing is to achieve his plan - to take Ukraine under control. Therefore, we must continue to protect our country and we do it every day. And almost every day our men and women die on the frontlines, 3-5 times a day we hear the air raid alert throughout the whole Ukraine calling us to go down to the bomb shelters. When Russia carries out missile attacks or artillery shelling of cities, civilians very often die.
WHY DO THEY DO IT?
The question is, why do they do it? The answer to this brutality is simple and obvious - for genocide, for establishing one’s tyranny. Absolutely meaningless in the understanding of a democratic person. That is why world leaders recognize that this war is a war of democracy against tyranny.
At the command of a dictator who rules one country and decides to conquer the largest neighbouring country in Europe in order to dominate the rest of Europe and strengthen its importance in geopolitics. However, Russia cut itself off from the rest of the world in this way and still does not understand why this happened, continuing to throw millions of its soldiers to die without counting them, killing hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians for purposes that common sense cannot accept.
For a year now I have felt this horror of war. Although I am still in a better position - than the soldiers who are under fire in the trenches, than the residents of Dnipro, Kherson, Zaporizhzhia, where the enemy destroys a whole block of a multi-story building from the bottom floor to the top. But I have already felt a lot myself - how the house shakes, when a bomb hits a house in the neighbouring block, when I saw a sinkhole - an empty place in a residential building, when I saw a burnt-out sports palace, where basketball was once played, when I came to Buch? and saw - sorry, this is for understanding - parts of the human body on the street, when I saw the exhumation of bodies from the mass grave of people near the Cathedral in Bucha - I think you have heard or seen this footage, but when you see it - it is completely different. This is what changes your perception of life.
HOW TO GET USED TO IT?
When my colleagues from all over the world ask me “How are you doing?” I say “We are fighting, we are used to living in the realities of war, we know that we must be strong”. But frankly, I don't know how to get used to it. How do you get used to the alarm at night, when you know that your 10-year-old child is sleeping in the next room, there is information in the news that 50 drones are flying or that a Kinzhal-type ballistic missile-carrying fighter has risen in Belarus, which cannot intercept Ukrainian air defense? How to get used to it? Day after day you wake up and think about how you would like only one thing - for the war to stop. However, the war can end only in one case – when Ukraine wins this war – yes, until we expel the Russians from our territory completely. Only then can we say that the war is over. This is what Ukrainians believe. Because stopping it simply for the sake of peace is not enough. Not enough, because we know - and the whole world knows what the Russians are doing to the Ukrainians in the occupied territories. So that there is no ambiguity, I will say - they torture and kill us. If you haven't seen the previous week's horrifying video of the Russian military shooting an unarmed Ukrainian captive for saying “Glory to Ukraine!” - maybe it's good that you don’t see it, it's just beyond the limit of horror, but it's evidence of what the Russians are doing in Ukraine.
UKRAINIAN JOURNALISTS DURING THE WAR
This story from firsthand. In order for you to understand how Ukrainians feel every day. Civilian Ukrainians. Journalists from frontline cities will tell you stories that will be much more shocking. And this is actually how sports journalists live in Ukraine. As, maybe, many of you know, Vlad Dunayenko, a graduate of the AIPS Young Reporters programme, went to the frontline as a volunteer from the first days. I personally know five more colleagues, sports journalists, who also went to the frontline as volunteers. Dozens of our members became volunteers, mainly helping people from the most affected regions - with food, medicine, clothes, basic necessities. A member of the Ukrainian national sports press association Mykola Vasylkov organised a humanitarian point that provides assistance to displaced people who came to Kyiv from occupied cities - in addition to medical assistance, food, clothing, they also provide legal assistance. I want to tell you that from the first days, we all changed our usual work because the usual work is gone, it has disappeared. For sports journalism - absolutely. Because of that, if we talk about journalism, many of my colleagues started working for news resources. Sports sites on the front pages wrote about the events of the war, and at the same time about international sports events, because there were no Ukrainian ones at that time.
Unfortunately, during the war in Ukraine, almost 15 journalists, not only sports journalists, have died during the year. One of the most high-profile cases is the murder of photographer Maksym Levin - it was at the beginning of the war. The results of the Reporters Without Borders investigation have now appeared, which shows that Russian soldiers took off Maksym's helmet and bulletproof vest which was written “Press” and shot him. Mykyta Chernyak, a sports journalist from Kherson, was tortured by the Russian military, he miraculously survived and told his story.
HOW SPORTS IS RECOVERING IN UKRAINE
In other words, there was practically no sports journalism in Ukraine for the first month of the war. Since April, Ukrainian sports information outlets began to appear - our athletes who went abroad (some managed to get out of the occupation, such as track and field athlete Andriy Protsenko, who stayed in the occupation near Kherson for 40 days) began to participate in international competitions. By the way Andriy won two bronze medals last year - at the outdoor World and European Championships in high jump.
Two weeks ago he won silver at the Indoor European Championships last weekend here in Istanbul. And another Ukrainian - Kateryna Tabashnyk (also in high jump) won European bronze for the first time in her career, dedicating it to her mother, who died last August in Kharkiv after a Russian rocket hit their house.
At the end of the summer, internal competitions began to resume - football was the first to do it (in August) then basketball (in September) and other sports, and other competitions are already being held. Where possible, of course.
Because since the beginning of the war, due to the military aggression of the Russian federation, 343 sports facilities worth about 250 million US dollars were damaged, of which:
- 95 objects were completely or partially destroyed;
- 248 objects have substantial or partial damage.
These are the official figures of the Ministry of Sports of Ukraine.
Last year, football matches took place in three cities - Kyiv, Lviv and Uzhhorod. Subsequently, it was decided that matches could take place if permission was given by the military administration of the respective region. Such permission must be obtained for each matchday, however, if the military situation on the day of the match escalates, such permission may be cancelled and the game postponed. In August-September, eight league football competitions resumed in Ukraine, including adult men's and women's, youth, children's and amateur competitions.
As spectators are now allowed to visit theatres and cinemas, it is expected that spectators will be allowed to return to the stands on football - for this the club must guarantee that they will evacuate spectators from the stands to shelter within 10 minutes in the event of an air alarm. So, there may be a partial return of spectators to the stands - not full stadiums. This has not happened yet, but such a request from the clubs is expected.
Thus, Ukrainian sport, with international and state support, is being restored, as it is a very important factor for Ukraine’s information front in the world.
SPORTS JOURNALISTS IN UKRAINE NEEDS SUPPORT
At the same time, if we are talking about journalism and sports journalism in Ukraine itself, there is no economic or financial support. None. In fact, that is why the main purpose of my appeal to you, colleagues, after telling you about the situation in which Ukraine and Ukrainian sports are currently living, is to ask you for help and support for Ukrainian sports journalism, which can now rely only on its own strength. And these forces, unfortunately, are very few, if we talk about the professional principles of the work of journalists, I mean salary.
Yes, spectators, NOCs and sports federations need professional journalistic coverage of events, they count on it and will be surprised if journalists stop doing their job. And journalists carry it out if they have the opportunity - if they don't have a family and only need to feed themselves. Or another option - if there are any other means of livelihood besides journalism. But very often this is self-sacrifice – do it for your trade, do it for what you have been doing professionally all your conscious life. Thus, we at the Executive Committee of the Association of Sports Journalists of Ukraine discussed the ways that, in our opinion, could help Ukrainian journalism and we ask you, our European colleagues, to consider these options, discuss them, and perhaps offer your options for help.
I will name several options for assistance and cooperation that we consider effective.
PROPOSITION 1 – ORDER ARTICLES FROM UKRAINIAN JOURNALISTS
We believe that it would help if more foreign media were more open to cooperation with Ukrainian ones, ordering Ukrainian journalists to write articles for their editorials. These can be articles about Ukrainian sports in wartime realities, how athletes left the occupation, trained under bombing, and also about world sports. If your editorial accepts analytical articles about certain sports based on what you see online. It would also be cool if European editorials could send Ukrainian journalists to events - it is possible to get permission to temporarily leave Ukraine for up to a month, if the journalist is invited to a specific event by the editorial office and if he guarantees his return.
You've heard the numbers of destruction of sportive facilities, there are also stories about dead athletes whose lives were cut short by war - was that person a civilian or a military person? You can order these stories too, and sports journalists will write them. The honorarium for this journalistic work will be a good help, especially if the European media orders materials on a regular basis. As I already said, an interesting moment may happen now - the return of the spectators to the stands - how will it happen, what the risks are - I think that the first-hand report will be interesting.
PROPOSITION 2 – CLOSE COOPERATION BETWEEN EDITORIALS
It would also be of great help to establish cooperation between editorials in Ukraine and Europe, distributing each other's articles in their countries. There are many articles about international sports that may be of interest to viewers in Europe. I agree with you that each country is focused on its sport, on its athletes. Yes, let's look for other interesting topics and options for cooperation - we really need it and we ask you to give us a helping hand.
A few more facts about Ukrainian media. Just last week, the newspaper "Vbolivalynyk" (“Fan” in English) which was published for 20 years announced that it would stop publishing due to the fact that its minimal editorial team of men was mobilized for military service. The situation with printed media in Ukraine is catastrophic. In the nine years since the invasion of Russia (spring of 2014), almost all leading sports publications have closed down - the most influential newspaper "Komanda" (“Team” in English) 6 years ago, "Sport-express in Ukraine" 4 years ago, practically all regional newspapers ceased to exist - there is one sports newspaper left in Lviv, only one magazine "Olympic Arena" remains un Ukraine - the reasons are purely economic. Since the beginning of the Russian invasion, the economy has suffered constant heavy blows, and sports media are almost the first to fall: sponsors reduce their budgets, editors drastically reduce the staff of authors, and salaries drop catastrophically. These are all interconnected things.
PROPOSITION 3 – FINANCIAL HELP
Of course, purely financial assistance was also very appropriate - if you can suggest or help to make contact with the relevant foundations that could transfer funds to the Ukrainian national association - we would greatly appreciate it. During the war, I appealed to AIPS President Gianni Merlo for financial assistance to our colleague, whose house in Irpin near Kyiv was hit by a Russian tank and completely destroyed his apartment. AIPS transferred what funds it could transfer, and I transferred this money to our colleague to carry out the repairs. He built new exterior walls in the apartment, installed windows, and is now trying to restore the interior walls.
Of course, in times of war, this targeted help is very important. You feel yourself how prices are rising in Europe, believe me, we feel it even more sharply. Ukraine has been showing its determination to join the European Union for decades, and it is only because of the war that it cannot do so yet. However, we are sure that we have been in the European family for a long time and we will make it official as soon as possible. But the fact is that Ukrainian sports journalism cannot currently rely on the financial support that exists in the EU, so we ask you to find an opportunity to help us.
PROPOSITION 4 – EDUCATION FOR MEDIA STUDENTS
For greater European integration of Ukrainian youth - future journalists, especially from the regions, an important aspect is a cooperation with students and young people of European schools of journalism and journalism faculties of various educational institutions within the framework of Erasmus + projects. These can be training, summer schools, or a series of webinars on current topics for young people. For example, the female face of sports journalism, female leadership, high-quality professional journalism or blogging, compliance with ethical norms and morals in covering sensitive topics, etc. Ukrainian Sports Press Association is ready to participate in the writing of relevant applications. We have cooperation agreements with five leading higher educational institutions of Ukraine that train journalists, led by Kyiv National University. We propose the creation of a youth wing in AIPS Europe, which would help bring together young people under 26 on a single platform, such as Discord, to communicate and exchange ideas.
LAST BUT NOT LEAST – THE OLYMPICS
We are sports journalists and sports is defining for all of us. We cover it, we live it, we cheer for it. You all know that the IOC has started talking about the possible admission of Russian and Belarusian athletes to international competitions. The IOC put forward two arguments - a violation of human rights due to the non-admission of athletes based on their nationality and a violation of the principles of the Olympic Charter. In response to this, the president of Ukraine, the president of the NOC of Ukraine and the minister of sports appeal that Russia is not even interested in the rights of the people it destroys - this number is hard to imagine, but it is true - we are talking about hundreds of thousands of people. There can be no room in peaceful competitions for representatives of countries that commit aggression against others, killing children, women, men, dropping rockets on peaceful houses, destroying a hundred people with one shot. You know that Ukraine has announced a possible boycott if Russian and Belarusian athletes are admitted to the Olympics. This is an extreme measure, we hope that the IOC will not dare to take this measure. As you may know, Ukraine was supported in this matter by Poland, the Baltic states, our sports minister declared the support of virtually all European countries. Therefore, as a member of the Executive Committee of AIPS Europe, based on the decision of the Executive Committee of the Ukrainian Sports Press Association I call to you my friends and colleagues from all over the world to support the joint efforts of world democracy and accept the appeal on behalf of the European sports media of AIPS Europe to prevent representatives of countries that conduct armed aggression from international competitions.
Russia uses sports as an element of propaganda - propaganda that blackens the brains of an entire nation, which, as a result, believes in false ideals - believes that one can achieve success and prosperity by destroying other nations. Let me remind you that Ukraine is far from the first country that Russia attacked, cutting off part of the territory that for many years remained in chaos, cut off from countries and not recognized by the world community. This is Georgia and its occupied lands Abkhazia and South Ossetia, this is Moldova and occupied Transnistria. The presence of Russian athletes at the Olympics – is a violation of the Olympic Charter, because wars used to stop during the Olympic Games, and Russia, even today, not only does not stop the war, but uses Olympic ideals in its propaganda.
In conclusion, I want to thank the whole world for the support you have provided to Ukraine since the first days of the war, understanding the difficult situation we found ourselves in after being attacked by a heavily armed and inhumane enemy.
Together with the help of all of you, Ukraine continues to defend its Independence, its Freedom and the principles of democracy. We will win for sure, because good always wins!
AIPS MEDIA: Oleksandr Glyvynskyy, AIPS Europe EC Member, president of Ukrainian Sports Press Association 
