For Olena Mosendz, volunteering is inseparably connected to her personal story. She was born in the Kherson region, and on February 24, 2022, her hometown of Nova Kakhovka was occupied. Her mother, grandmother, brother and his family, and childhood friends remained there. Olena herself was in Lviv at the time, looking for a way to be useful and help those who had been left in the occupied territory. Together with a friend, she began delivering medicines to civilians in the Kherson region. When the routes for delivering aid were blocked, Olena shifted her focus to supporting military medics — something she continues to do today.
In the second part of our interview, Nadiia talks about friendship, the stereotypes and social isolation that people with disabilities still face, and the importance of treating everyone as an equal. She recalls meeting a 10-year-old girl from Donbas in Lviv, speaks openly about exhaustion and the moments when she feels she has little strength left, and shares what helps her keep going. Finally, she reflects on what lies at the heart of Ukraine’s enduring volunteer movement.
In the first part of our interview, Nadiia reflects on her life before the full-scale invasion, her struggle with persistent pain, and how she first became involved in volunteering. We talk about the people she has met over the years and the experiences that have changed her understanding of what it means to help. Nadiia also shares a simple but important truth: sometimes, the most important thing we can do for another person is simply be there for them.
This project dedicated to the stories of people who, following Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, took on the responsibility of helping others and became an integral part of Ukraine’s volunteer movement.
From the very first days of the full-scale invasion, Yuliia Kachaniuk became part of Ukraine’s volunteer movement. She organized fundraising campaigns, delivered vital supplies to Ukrainian defenders on the front lines, and was joined in this mission by her young son, Makar. Reciting poems written by his mother, he helped raise funds to support Ukraine’s military. We spoke with Yuliia about how her journey as a volunteer began, the turning point that changed her life, the personal sacrifices she has made in her determination to help others, what gives her the strength to keep going even after the most difficult trials, and how Ukraine’s volunteer movement has evolved over more than four years of full-scale war.
Telling the stories of Ukrainians who were victims of Russian aggression, honouring the civilians and military who gave their lives for our freedom — all this is of great value today, when Ukraine has been defending its independence from the Russian army for more than 10 years. These are people with their own history, with different dreams and goals, and we need to know about them. That is why it is so important that the project that preserves the memory of our heroes and tells their stories, the Memorial Platform:Victims of Russia, was recognised as the best social project of 2024 in the annual award organised by the Ukrayinska Pravda media outlet. We were delighted to have the opportunity to speak with Yulia Lozynska, the editor-in-chief of the platform.
In today’s fast-moving world, publications that specialise in identifying and debunking fake news play a particularly important role. Their work helps ordinary citizens to better navigate the information overload that now surrounds us, and to avoid the spread of various kinds of manipulation and lies. We decided to look at the methods and tools used by fact-checking platforms StopFake, Behind the News and Washington Post Fact Checker to debunk fakes and provide their audiences with only true information.
In the modern world, information wars have become an integral part of conflicts between states. Ukraine, which has been suffering from Russian aggression for more than 10 years, is also fighting on the information front to spread only true information about what is happening on its territory. At the same time, Russian and pro-Russian propaganda media, telegram sources and YouTube channels are actively and daily spreading fakes aimed at manipulating public opinion, sowing discord within Ukrainian society and undermining trust in Ukrainian institutions.
The war in Ukraine. The biggest armed conflict the world has seen since the Second World War. The most devastating invasion in the heart of Europe since the days of the Nazis and Hitler, one that has created millions of refugees, destroyed homes and raised the threat of all-out nuclear war to unimaginable levels. I think it has never been greater, especially since the end of the Cold War between the Soviet Union and the United States.
As a society, we often look at various countries we admire and strive to achieve the same level of development. And this is justified. In my opinion, in order to develop and become better, we need to have great examples to look up to (especially when it comes to countries that started with almost nothing but managed to create a cool and successful nation of happy people in a relatively short period of time).
Austin Malloy joined Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty as multimedia editor in June 2022. Previously, he was the head of multimedia at The Kyiv Post in Ukraine. For Truthful Reporting, Austin Malloy shares his insights, advice and years of experience.
I had a very cool opportunity to speak via Zoom with a leading biologist and science popularizer, Sean Carroll. Sean B. Carroll is an American evolutionary biologist, author, educator and executive producer. Carroll was an executive producer on The Furthest, a film about the Voyager program that won the 2018 Emmy Award for Outstanding Documentary Feature on Science and Technology. He was also executive producer of All That Breathes, an Oscar-nominated documentary that won the Best Documentary Award at the Cannes Film Festival.
We are always very happy to communicate with talented and ambitious Ukrainian youth who, despite all the difficulties and challenges of today, continue to create, do cool things, work on various projects, establish their own NGOs, student publications and report on the lives and experiences of Ukrainians during full-scale war. I had the opportunity to talk to Oleksandra Gotsuliak. Oleksandra is an activist and a member of the language NGO RVN (Making You Nervous), which works to de-Russify Odesa. She works as a scriptwriter in the video team, where she is involved in creating materials that help rethink the linguistic and cultural environment of the city. She is also editor-in-chief of the student publication DeFacto.
Today I had the opportunity to talk to one of Ukraine’s young ambitious people, Sofiia Yevchenko. Despite her young age, she has already completed internships in various institutions and organisations, is actively involved in the development of the European Youth Ambassadors (YEAs) initiative in Ukraine, is a member of the Academy of Youth Diplomacy “United Youth”, the Women’s League and the Coordination Platform of Ukrainians Abroad, and has completed internships at the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine and the Ministry of Youth and Sports of Ukraine. Sofiia is currently interning at the IFES Ukraine office.
Hello everyone. My name is Ivan, and I am the co-founder of the NGO Student Journalism Platform and the editor of the online publication Truthful Reporting. I would like to inform readers that in the coming weeks I will be launching my podcast, where I will cover a wide range of topics, from scientific discoveries to global issues such as climate change, from the war in Ukraine to the future of democracy. So it should be interesting and enriching, so I invite you to support this project by listening to the upcoming episodes.
Hello, my name is Ivan, I am a co-founder of the NGO Student Journalism Platform and I have been working as the editor-in-chief of the Truthful Reporting website for over 3 years. Today I would like to tell you a little bit about our activities, recall our best projects, reflect on what we have already achieved and outline our goals for the future.
Playwright, screenwriter, journalist and war correspondent Oksana Grytsenko is sharing her years of professional experience, advice and valuable insights from working in the media with our students. Oksana has long worked in English language journalism, travelling to and reporting from war zones. In recent years, she has been writing plays, which have been performed in various cities in Ukraine and abroad. And her play Don Juan of Zhashkiv became the basis for the script of a feature film of the same name, to be produced by Kristi Films in 2021.
You have probably all heard of Stephen Hawking. He’s certainly a world-famous name, an eminent physicist and cosmologist whose discoveries have radically changed our understanding of things like the nature of black holes and the origin of the universe, and even more impressively, he has spent most of his career doing this amazing research while confined to a wheelchair. Today, I’d love to share an incredible biography about him that I’ve recently become obsessed with.
The NGO “Student Journalism Platform” invites active, creative and caring young people to join the work of our online publication Truthful Reporting.
Dear readers, we have got some really great news today: the Norwegian foundation Fritt Ord has given a positive response to a grant application from our NGO. We applied with a project called “War Diary: Stories of Ukrainian Resistance”.
Today we got to talk with Oleksandra Panyak, Head of Media Relations at Truman, who has been working in media relations for 10 years. Last year, she and her team placed hundreds of articles in the media, including The Guardian, The Wall Street Journal, The Times, etc. Their high-profile investigations into international business in Russia have attracted worldwide publicity and millions of views.
We continue our interview with Anna. Today we will learn more about her participation in various scholarship programmes and her interactions with European politicians. Finally, she will tell us what Ukraine’s victory in this war means to her and how she interprets this concept.
Today we talk with Anna Husenytsia. She is currently developing her own project to support young leaders in Ukraine, working in the field of youth diplomacy and has already had the opportunity to visit the European Parliament and talk to European leaders. Read more in our interview below.
We are delighted that Sofia Meleshko, a volunteer and journalist, has answered the call to tell her story. Sofia currently works as a volunteer and military interpreter for the NGO “Sabre”, which provides training and advice to the Ukrainian Armed Forces, the National Guard and the TR (Territorial defense forces).
We are pleased to announce that Truthful Reporting, a media outlet of the NGO “Student Journalism Platform”, will receive a new grant to continue one of our projects. We’ve been happy to receive a positive answer to our grant application.
We have good news for you: recently the founders of our NGO, the Student Journalism Platform, prepared the final report on the completion of the grant project “Ukrainian youth is changing the world”. We attached the document and sent it through a special portal of our donor Fritt Ord, created for those who received a grant and have to report at the end. A few days ago we received a positive response from the Norwegian foundation, saying that the report had been approved and that everything had been done according to the rules and regulations for grant projects..
On October 5, 2023, Amund Myklebust, a Norwegian journalist and entrepreneur who has been helping Ukraine with various projects for many years, visited Volodymyr Dahl East Ukrainian National University. This country has already become like his second home, since he has been coming here for the past 20 years and connecting with many Ukrainian partners.
On 23rd September 2023, NGO “Student Journalism Platform” held a meeting with its members on the Zoom online platform. The participants discussed several important topics about the organization’s recent work and future plans. The meeting covered ultimately two issues: accepting new members and planning for the future.
Dear readers, we are pleased to inform you that our online publication Truthful Reporting has been included in the list of recommended media in Ukraine. The map was prepared by the NGOs “Institute of Mass Information” and “Detector Media”, supported by the international organisation Internews. This achievement means a lot to us and would not have been possible without your support, participation and help. We are talking about both our team and you, the readers, who share our materials and give us likes). Ukrainian and international organisations interested in our work and supporting us in any way have also contributed greatly to our development.
Within the framework of the project “Ukrainian youth is changing the world” we are telling stories about the achievements and proactive actions of young Ukrainians from different walks of life, with different levels of education, different beliefs and different ways of life. Through their activities, they are making a positive change in the world and improving it in some way. We are very pleased that Yaroslava Nikitiuk has responded to this call to share her story. She is a Ukrainian journalist who currently works for the investigative media “Forth Estate” and has experience of volunteering for Ukrainer (one of most popular publications that shares stories of Ukrainians with the entire world).
