As Ukrainian fighter jets and helicopters flew overhead, journalists from the Kyiv Post and scores of other news outlets arrived at the airport after hearing rumors of a standoff between rebels and government troops at the airport. Either because of naiveté or misplaced courage, many of these journalists stayed at the front lines, and even embedded themselves with separatist battalions as the situation spiraled out of control. By some miracle, no journalists were injured or killed.
This is no longer a political conflict punctuated by moments of violence. This is war.
With the Russian-backed Vostok Battalion ostensibly seizing power from amateur separatists on May 29, the situation in eastern Ukraine can be expected to escalate. As these soldiers are not from eastern Ukraine and therefore do not represent the people who live here, they cannot be expected to come to the negotiating table on behalf of eastern Ukrainians; a political resolution to the conflict seems less and less likely.
If Ukraine wants to reclaim control of Donetsk and Luhansk, its military will have to do so by means of extreme force. The gory scenes from the Donetsk airport may soon be commonplace. Journalists should be reminded that they are not combatants, and stand to gain little from standing on the front lines.
When we write about this war, we must remember our mission: to report and investigate tirelessly in pursuit of the truth, not to post the most up-to-the-minute scoop on twitter. No scoop is worth dying for.
Kyiv Post staff writer Isaac Webb can be reached at [email protected] on Twitter at @IsaacDWebb. Kyiv Post staff writer Oksana Grytsenko contributed to reporting.
Editor’s Note: This article has been produced with support from www.mymedia.org.ua, funded by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Denmark and implemented by a joint venture between NIRAS and BBC Media Action. The content is independent of these organizations and is solely the responsibility of the Kyiv Post
