The projects were selected by a jury which consisted of three prominent journalists and media professionals:
Anastasia Rodi
Born in 1989 in Simferopol, Ukraine, Anastasia Rodi is a journalist specialising in eastern Europe. She studied Ukrainian Philology and Journalism and holds a Master's in Political Science from the Institute for Eastern European Studies, Freie Universität Berlin. Since 2013, she has worked for Die Tageszeitung (taz), with previous roles at Deutsche Welle (2015–2018) and Radio Free Europe (2018–2019). As a war reporter, she has covered Russia's war against Ukraine since the annexation of Crimea. Another focus of her work is eastern European countries, Western policies towards authoritarian regimes, and German-Ukrainian relations.
Veronika Munk
Veronika Munk is an award-winning Hungarian journalist with over 20 years of experience. She is currently part of the management at Denník N, a leading independent Slovak news outlet with Czech and Hungarian editions. She founded and was the first editor-in-chief of Telex, an independent Hungarian news daily, and was previously deputy editor-in-chief at Index. Munk and over 80 colleagues resigned from Index in 2020 due to political pressure on the publication. She holds a PhD in Media Studies and teaches journalism at ELTE University.
Monica G. Prieto
Born in Spain in 1974, Monica G. Prieto is a freelance reporter with 28 years of experience covering conflicts worldwide. She has been a correspondent in Rome, Moscow, Jerusalem, Beirut, Bangkok and Shanghai, reporting on wars in Iraq, Afghanistan, Chechnya and Ukraine. Specialising in human rights, she has documented refugee crises, ethnic cleansing and life under dictatorships, giving a voice to victims of violence. Her work also covers terrorist groups, and she has authored books on Syria, Iraq, journalism and climate change.
Read, watch and listen to the projects supported by the EUD below.
Ukraine, the expansion of the nuclear industry under Russian bombs
Italian journalist Eleonora Vio, editor Lorenzo Bagnoli and Ukrainian journalist Illia Lukashov probed the nuclear industry to figure out the current state of the Zaporizhzhia power plant in central Ukraine, which has been occupied by the Russian army since the first weeks of the full-scale invasion. The team also presented perspectives on the nuclear industry’s development in other parts of the country in times of war.
Ukraine lays its tracks to Europe
Maxim Edwards, a British editor and journalist focusing on central and eastern Europe, and Kristina Berdynskykh, an award-winning political journalist based in Kyiv, united their efforts to examine the phenomenon of the Ukrainian railway. They learned how the network managed to operate despite the challenges of war and how it will develop in the near future, with an ambition to remain the main route to transport passengers and cargo from Ukraine to western Europe and back.
A Week of peace: Ukrainian children on summer holidays
German journalist Roman Schell and Ukrainian documentary photographer Olena Hrom joined up to follow a group of Ukrainian kids from the Kharkiv region who travelled to the German city of Magdeburg for a short break from war. In Kharkiv these kids perform at the Arira dance theatre, so their trip also gave them the motivation to practice more and to perform abroad.
Green hydrogen planners defy Russian energy destruction
Ukrainian journalists Yulia Valova and Viacheslav Lininh collaborated with the deputy head of Tagesspiegel Background Energie & Klima Christian Schaudwet to cover one area of Ukraine’s policy of ‘Green Transition’ to cleaner energy – the production of the Green Hydrogen. The topic became especially relevant in the context of constant attacks by the Russian army against Ukraine’s energy system.
Silent victims of the war against Ukraine
Journalists and cinematographers Emma Straus and Sergii Mukaieliants joined their efforts to cover the story of dolphins in the Black Sea, who are suffering because of the war. According to the official data, around 2,500 dolphins were found dead between the beginning of the war in February 2022 until May the same year. Scientists estimate that at least 50,000 dolphins have died in the first year of the full-scale war.
The traumas of the Ukrainians
German freelance journalist Kristina Thomas together with Ukrainian colleagues Anastasia Obraztsova and Olena Kurenkova explored the stories of Ukrainians whose lives were deeply affected by the war, and learned how they managed to heal their psychological wounds.
Melitopol residents "taken hostage" tell of their forced Russification
French freelance journalist Clara Marchaud and her Ukrainian colleague Sofia Kochmar conducted an investigation about life in the Ukrainian city of Melitopol, which has been occupied by the Russian army since February 2022. They talked to exiled Melitopol residents who described a picture in opposition to the positive vision shown on Russian TV. They discover the dark reality of forced Russification, tortures of those who refuse to accept new rules, forced conscription to the Russian army and total control by Moscow and its proxies.
“Life goes on” in Ukraine
Journalists Dorothea Nikolova, Oleksandr Baron and Rumen Sarandev teamed up to draw a broad picture of life in Ukraine during wartime. They focus their attention on the southern part of the country and show how ways of life and the economy have changed, while the weapons the Russians have been using against Ukrainians haven’t changed for centuries. They tell the story through the lives of a few select protagonists (veterans, volunteers, private entrepreneurs, and workers of the emergency services).
Ukrainian women are increasingly forced to retrain in typically male professions
Latvian journalist Viktors Sajenko and Ukrainian journalist Dmytro Bondarenko travelled to the villages of Ukraine’s south in order to explore how women take over jobs previously undertaken mostly by men. They talked to women who, for example, have learned to drive tractors or repair cars.
A trip inside Ukraine
Journalists Juan López Córcoles and Yevheniia Sobolieva created three episodes of a podcast for the Spanish media ABC. For this project they were inspired by the colours of the Ukrainian flag and their meanings, where “blue” suggests the skies and “yellow” the grain and soil. Using this idea, they explored how the industries, connected to these elements, survive in times of war.
Russians fighting for Kyiv
For Italian newspaper Domani, journalists Vincenzo Leone and Mykhailo Shtekel picked the intriguing topic of former Russian soldiers who decided to fight against their country. To produce two pieces, they talked to the spokesperson for Ukrainian intelligence Andriy Ysov and to Vladislav Izmailov, former Russian prisoner and Wagner deserter, who has chosen to fight on the side of the Ukrainian Armed Forces.
Invictus Ukraine
Spanish photographer Susana Giron and Ukrainian journalist Viktor Kolomiets focused their attention on the lives of Ukrainian athletes in times of war. More than 400 Ukrainian sportsmen have been killed in action fighting against the Russian army, and more than 350 sport facilities in Ukraine have been ruined or damaged due to Russia’s air attacks. But in this Olympic year, many athletes searched for any opportunity to train and prepare themselves for the Paris games.
War in Ukraine: the Danube Delta, a “haven of peace” put on hold
French journalist Marine Leduc and Ukrainian journalist Anna Romandash travelled to the town of Vylkove in the Danube Delta. This area is rich in its wild flora and fauna, but also close to ports and the strategic rock in the Black Sea, Snake Island, making the zone a target for missiles and drone attacks by the Russian army. The team of journalists talked to environmentalists, who struggle to preserve the nature of the region.
Culture in times of war
Elena Gorgis, Ganna Haumer and Oksana Khmelyovska focused their attention on the people of culture and created a series of podcasts for Deutschlandfunk Kultur. One episode is dedicated to the story of the Ukrainian writer and volunteer Viktoria Amelina, who was killed during a Russian air attack on the Donetsk city of Kramatorsk. Another episode tells the story of a publisher Oleksandr Savchuk, who continued to run his business in the city of Kharkiv, despite a constant attack from Russia’s drones, missiles and bombs.
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