War diary

The project aims to collect and publish (in Ukrainian and English) the life stories of young Ukrainians during the wartime. These are people from different walks of life, with different education, profession, different beliefs and ways of living. We collect and tell stories of our people’s resistance to the information war and the armed aggression that Russia has been waging against Ukraine since 2014.

The main objectives of the project:

• To tell the world about young Ukrainians, the ideas, aspirations, and feelings that unite them, their everyday life, hope and struggle for their country. It aims to answer questions such as how our young people see the meaning of their life today, how they see their future and what they think about global issues;
• To help young Ukrainians realize their identity as citizens of a free nation. We want to help them find their place in the world community, and we aim to promote participation of Ukrainians in solving current global problems;
• We are also interested in the process of forming the national identity of Ukrainian youth (in the conditions of liberal media legislation in Ukraine until February 24th, 2022). We show great interest in one of the most pressing media issues today, which is the prevalence of pro-Russian propaganda on leading Ukrainian TV channels. In Ukraine, we currently have wide access to platforms with Russian content on the Internet and social networks (which allows for spreading of fake news and propaganda).
  

Justification of the project

As the experience of refugees from Russian military aggression since February 2022 has shown, Europe knows very little about Ukraine, and Europeans perceive Ukrainians as rural, uneducated people, far from modern culture and civilization. Meanwhile, Ukraine today is at the forefront of the struggle for the very values on which modern Western civilization is based and for which Ukrainians are paying with their own lives. So, obviously, Europeans will be interested to know how young people in Ukraine are doing now, how they live, what they feel and what they dream of. This will contribute to better mutual understanding, to intensification of cultural contacts between Ukraine and European countries. It allows sharing the unique Ukrainian experience of consolidation during the wartime in defense of democracy.

Target audience

The project is designed for a wide target audience. At the same time, our priority is the channels of access to young people aged 15 to 35, those who will determine the future of Europe and the world for the next 20 years.

Who implements the project

The project is implemented by the NGO “Student Journalism”. The founders of this organization are students and teachers of Vernadsky University, that has a big 100-year history. As a result of the Russian occupation in 2014, the university moved to Kyiv, and now it has more than 2000 students. Many students and teachers of the university have the status of temporarily displaced persons, that is, they came from the occupied territories – the Autonomous Republic of Crimea, Donetsk, and Luhansk regions. They have  had their own experience of the war since 2014, they know what war is, and can share their own stories of independence, freedom, and resistance to the invaders.

In 2021, the NGO Student Journalism Platform launched the #TruthfulReporting website. There one could find various articles in Ukrainian and English by the students of TNU and other Ukrainian universities. These materials touch on journalistic ethics, human rights, international relations, youth policy, student life, history, and culture.

Following the large-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, “Student Journalism Platform” called on students from all over Ukraine to join the War Diary project to record the events, actions, and feelings of Ukrainian people during the war. Students of the National University of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy, Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv, National University of Ostroh Academy and Lviv Polytechnic National University responded to this call. In total, a team of about 40 participants – future journalists, editors, translators – gathered.From July to December 2022, the project was implemented with the financial support of The Fritt Ord Foundation. It is a Norwegian private non-profit organization that seeks to promote freedom of expression, public debate, art, and culture. Currently, the implementation of the project continues on a volunteer basis.