“From day one, we’ve traveled across the region, streamed, reported, and showed the world what was happening around Kherson,” says Serhiy Nikitenko, “There was no panic, and it gave us energy and confidence that we’re doing everything right.”
Serhiy is the editor-in-chief of MOST, the most important independent media in Kherson in southern Ukraine.
In 2022, when Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Kherson became the only major city to be occupied. The newsroom of MOST had to flee and report from exile.
When Ukraine liberated Kherson in November 2022, the team gradually returned, and is now able to report on the ground. MOST was among the first media to break the news on the explosion on Kakhovka dam. Its journalists are reporting on the human and environmental tragedy as well as Russia’s role in blowing up the dam.
“We became a reference media for international newsrooms reporting on the dam’s explosion,” Serhiy says. “The whole world used us as a news source.”
The team of MOST risked their lives reporting on the dam’s explosion as Russian soldiers opened fire on Kherson. “Our newsroom decided that we’re going to keep reporting regardless, so we remain on location,” he says.
Experiencing the explosion
Kakhovka dam is a huge water reservoir some 80 kilometres from Kherson and has been under Russian control for more than a year. Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky had warned that the Russians planned to blow it up. The explosion took place on 6 June 2023.
“By six in the morning, we knew what happened,” Serhiy says. “My colleagues immediately started contacting local authorities and communities.”
The dam’s explosion meant that all its water went to nearby areas in the region of Kherson. Dnipro, Ukraine’s biggest river, divides the area into the right and left banks. The right one – which includes the city of Kherson – is under Ukraine’s control, and it is also higher. The left bank, still occupied by Russia, is lower, so many of the localities there went completely under water.
“We don’t yet know what is happening on the left bank, so we need to wait for official information,” Serhiy says. “Journalists cannot travel freely there, so in our reporting, we focus mostly on the right bank.”
Working in Ukraine-controlled areas is hard too due to attacks on civilian evacuations.
“There was an artillery fire on the evacuation spot where one colleague was reporting. Luckily, she managed to flee to safety. Many journalists are under threat, and there is no security from the incoming fires on evacuation points,” he says.
Despite all the dangers, Kherson remains calm and organised. Some districts were not affected and they became safe spaces for those whose houses went underwater.
“The bigger part of the city continues living its life. However, some areas are only accessible by boat, and our journalists have reported on rescue operations, as well as on people who refused to leave,” he says.
Now, as the water level is slowly receding, the region faces many challenges: restoring what has been damaged by the floods and the bigger impact of this humanitarian and environmental catastrophe. Ukrainians are still waiting to know more about the impact on the Russia-occupied left bank.
“There is a huge stream of volunteers and aid coming to Kherson,” Serhiy says, “The roads are full of cars delivering aid. I reported from an affected village in the area, and I saw that people sent their homemade food to help locals. Seeing that gave me comfort.”
“Locals feel the support from the rest of Ukraine,” he continues, “I talked to one guy who was evacuated, and he said: “We see solidarity of the entire country, and it is the most important thing.”
Staying relevant
MOST’s readership has been on the rise since Russia launched its full-scale war against Ukraine, with a six-fold increase in the audience numbers over the past year. It now has around 300,000 monthly readers and it reaches nearly three million people through social media. Following the dam’s explosion, audiences across the world wanted Kherson updates.
“We planned to be the main local media, but now, we’ve become international,” Serhiy says. “I see our work as a contribution to our country as we’re explaining to the world what’s happening here.”
“It was thanks to the EED that we were able to keep working during the first months of the full-scale invasion. Before the big war, we were mostly a commercial media. EED helped us in our most difficult period,” he says.
The newsroom managed to continue with its reporting on Kherson from outside the region, with one journalist reporting from inside the city during the whole period of occupation.
“Locals helped us a lot too – they sent a lot of information and verified news for us. That showed how our audiences trusted us. Now, we’ve returned to our usual work, and we report on issues beyond the war, such as public procurement, investigating officials and political journalism,” he says.
“We used to be Kherson’s main political media, and now, we’re Kherson’s main media in everything. This makes our work easier: as the most popular local media, nobody dares to threaten us or prevent us from doing investigations,” he says.
The challenge, however, is finding more journalists who share MOST’s values and can do quality local reporting.
“We constantly need more professionals,” Serhiy says, “During the war, our newsroom increased, and we want more people, but it takes a lot of resources. There are many topics that we cannot cover simply because we lack the people power for that.”
The team hopes to expand in the future and to engage more with its audience.
“Our readers are eager to support us and we’re thinking of models to make this a reality,” he says. “When the Kakhovka dam exploded, we got lots of messages from our audience asking if we needed any help. Many sent us donations which allowed us travel and report more across the region.”
This article reflects the views of the grantee featured and does not necessarily represent the official opinion of the European Endowment for Democracy, the European Commission or any other European State or other contributors to EED.
