Ukrainian journalist Olga Chaiko has been following Russia’s illegal military aggression against Ukraine since day one. Four years on, she shares with us the realities of her journalistic work in Ukraine.

What does your everyday life in Kyiv look like in the fourth year of the war? What has changed the most in your journalistic work?

Life in Kyiv is now an everyday quest to figure out what will disappear next: heating or cold water. We have electricity for some two to seven hours per day, mainly at night. For most people, this is the time to cook, do laundry, wash their hair, turn on heaters and charge their devices. Hot water and heating are absent in around 1000 homes in Kyiv after a series of Russian bombings that sought to destroy Ukraine’s energy system.

This is why most of the articles we write these days are about the consequences of these attacks – the victims, survival strategies, cities’ emergency plans and so on.

As a channel still participating in the United News marathon, we cover news from all regions of Ukraine, including the frontline, and gather donations for the army. Many of my colleagues and friends have joined the Armed Forces of Ukraine, so we help them as well. We cooperate closely, as many of them now serve as press officers within brigades, helping ensure openness in the army.

How do you imagine Ukraine’s near future, given that the war has been going on for four years and still shows no sign of ending?

This question is the hardest one. I think the only way to survive is to shut down your imagination and continue the struggle, even though the possible scenarios are not optimistic, starting with the risk of a frozen conflict that would merely delay the next stage of the war.  We are likely in the middle of the fight against an insane maniac and a country with undying imperial ambitions.

Olga Chaiko is Ukrainian journalist on the ‘Fakty’ news programme at ICTV (International Commercial Television), a Ukrainian private television channel launched in 1992. ICTV is one of the television channels participating in the United News marathon, a 24/7 joint national news broadcast launched in February 2022 to provide continuous wartime news coverage following Russia’s full-scale invasion.

You can read Olga Chaiko’s previous article for EESC Info from July 2022 here.