What It’s Like to be a Journalist on the Frontlines in Ukraine

For those who have decided to leave their homes, Scootercaster says she’s heard that refugees have been able to go to churches or government shelters and even some civilian’s own homes.

“I’ve also heard from people in Ternopil that you can just as easily knock on people’s doors and ask for help and from what I’m told, they’re very open, kind and willing to help those who are stuck here,” she told us.

However, in the chaos, not everyone has been able to find places to go, a fact Scootercaster understands intimately: “When I first got to Ternopil, it was extremely cold and there was absolutely no place to stay. I slept in my car, which had to be turned off because of gas shortages. In the car next to me, there were also families with kids sleeping, which shows that everyone is struggling with finding a place to stay or just doesn’t know where they can go. In the lobby of a local supermarket, I saw a lot of people with their luggage just sitting there.”

After spending time in Donbas early on, Scootercaster says that even surrounding cities are slowly starting to implement the same security checkpoints and that she’s seen an “increased level of paranoia about the Russian army or somebody who is trying to cause trouble in the city.”

In some cities, as soon as she pulls out her camera, Scootercaster said she must go through extensive questioning to verify she has official accreditation. Despite this, she presses on, in part to combat the rampant conspiracy theories being disseminated about her home country.

“There is an increase in conspiracy theorists that call the war in Ukraine a distraction for their causes and assert there is no war happening — that the people you see on the news are crisis actors,” she says. “My call to those people would be to leave their hometown and try to see the world. I think it’s very easy to get wrapped up in your head and assume that the rest of the world is just like your home if you’re seeing the same thing everyday. Europe isn’t America. Ukraine isn’t America. There are different countries with different traditions, histories, and upbringings. Something that might mean one thing to you, could be something totally different here.”

There’s also, of course, Russian president Vladimir Putin’s special brand of misinformation, which has been proliferated on social media and, disturbingly, been accepted by many in the U.S. or elsewhere.

“Not everything is a conspiracy theory, and not everyone is out to trick them. It’s healthy to doubt things. It’s healthy to fact-check — and we should fact-check everything. What’s unhealthy is using false sources like a photoshopped article that’s clearly not real, and spreading rumors that something is fake — that we, here in Ukraine, are fake. It’s really upsetting to see and it makes me lose hope in humanity — and intelligence,” she says.

Scootercaster stresses that she will continue to cover the destruction being done to her home, but it’s not without distress.

“Because I’m from here, it’s hard to see people’s lives thrown upside down and the places that I grew up in possibly be destroyed — or already destroyed,” she says. “It’s also difficult to think about how these families are going to recover and how people will be able to stay alive.”

She went on to say that seeing protests across the globe, even in Russia, and people offering help, have been needful reminders: “I think in a situation like this, it’s not just physical help that’s needed. Many have said they felt alone because the invasion began, nobody physically came to help. There were sanctions, but they don’t see the result of those. Some tell me they just want to feel like the world cares.”