"Challenging but honest." Ukrainska Pravda celebrates its 25th anniversary with some very special guests
"It all started with a dream. A one-bedroom apartment that became an editorial office. Five people with no money and no guarantees, in a country entangled in a multi-vector foreign policy and rapidly sliding into autocracy. Those five people believed that truth is more important than comfort." With these words, editor-in-chief Sevgil Musaieva welcomes guests to Ukrainska Pravda’s 25th anniversary celebration.
The celebrations had begun even before her speech, with plenty of warm hugs being shared. The guests gather in the main hall of the National Museum of the History of Ukraine in the Second World War. Most of them have featured in Ukrainska Pravda news reports: politicians, sportspeople, activists, and people who are genuine heroes for the whole of Ukraine. Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko, Parliament Speaker Ruslan Stefanchuk, paramedic Yuliia Paievska, poet and singer Serhii Zhadan, celebrity chef Yevhen Klopotenko, political activist and fundraiser Serhii Prytula – they’re all here to share in this special day.
And the occasion is graced by Dmytro Riasnyi and Dmytro Dienkov, who left Ukrainska Pravda to volunteer and serve in the Armed Forces, and many others from the extensive UP family.
The guests need no reminding of the history of Ukrainska Pravda – most of them lived those moments together with the editorial staff, which has grown from five people to a team of 180. I'm one of the few people here who are younger than the media outlet itself, so for me, the story of Ukrainska Pravda is really history. Being with these people is a unique opportunity to explore it more deeply.
The dreams that have shaped our reality are shared by other guests too. Metropolitan Epiphanius I, Primate of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine, recalls his first interview for Ukrainska Pravda in 2019, when he told Roman Romaniuk that he could only dream of serving at the Kyiv Pechersk Lavra (the Monastery of the Caves in Kyiv, then under the jurisdiction of the Moscow-linked Ukrainian Orthodox Church). But then, Epiphanius says from the stage, that dream came true.
"Thank you to all of you, our dear journalists, dear editorial staff of Ukrainska Pravda. Many of your fellow journalists are here. I said I wouldn’t call you the best so that others wouldn’t be offended, but you are really the best," Epiphanius joked as he concluded his speech.
Among the guests are editors and journalists from various media outlets, some tapping away at their laptops as they finish up their latest reports.
Meanwhile, celebrity chef Yevhen Klopotenko has taken to the stage and is serving up some banter.
Yevhen starts off ironically: "Someone else did the cooking tonight!" He jokes that he and Sevgil are the same age in terms of their Ukrainska Pravda experience – he started reading it in 2014, and Sevgil started working there at the same time. But by the end of his speech, his irony has become fused with emotion.
"For me, Ukrainska Pravda is an island of stability and solidity. On 19 February 2014, everything in my life changed. And I realised that I would change this country as much as I could, the way that I could. If I сooked food, I would change food.
It was really hard to figure out what was true and what wasn’t. It took me a long time to find a safe place where I could be guided, one that I could trust, where I would read the truth. Ukrainian Pravda has become that guide for me. It's the media outlet that really helped me become who I am and do what I do now. Thank you so much for that."
The official part of the evening over, people start hugging each other again. "Hello everyone!" says paramedic Yuliia "Taira" Paievska. "The prince [Prince Harry] says hello, by the way. So I'm passing that on to you all!"
Yuliia first appeared in Ukrainska Pravda about seven years ago. She’s been a reader for a long time, but she declines to say how long in case she gets it wrong. I asked her to describe Ukrainska Pravda in a few words.
"It preserves dignity above all else," she answers.
Journalists from other publications also reminisce about times when they have joined in Ukrainska Pravda’s work. Nataliia Lihachova, editor-in-chief of Detektor Media, smiles as she thinks back to her first piece, published under the pseudonym "Nataliia Lapina".
"Ukrainska Pravda is bold, not afraid to shock, and sometimes overconfident, but at the same time very responsible," says editor Sevgil Musaieva. "If it were a person, it would be someone who’s always thinking about whether they are doing the right thing.
I’m really impressed by this, because there are a lot of people who, once they’ve achieved success, act like they’ve lost touch with reality. They won’t accept criticism and never stop to think whether they’re truly doing the right thing. But at Ukrainska Pravda, I always see a willingness to engage in self-reflection and dialogue.
UP is constantly engaged in dialogue: with our readership, with the authorities, with this country – and most importantly, with itself. Our journalists also reflect on their work, on society, and on what Ukraine is now."
In the crowd, I catch sight of Ruslan Stefanchuk, Speaker of the Verkhovna Rada (the Ukrainian Parliament). He says he can't remember when he started reading UP. But he does remember that he began writing opinion pieces here before he became a politician. I found this article from 2015, which was signed in a very "non-political" way: Professor, corresponding member of the National Academy of Legal Sciences.
"That really was a long time ago. What’s unique about Ukrainska Pravda is that 25 years is a whole generation. And now a generation has grown up that has never lived without Ukrainska Pravda. I sincerely want there to be many such generations."
I finally manage to push my way through the crowd of people trying to take selfies with Serhii Prytula. The TV personality and volunteer immediately shows me his phone, where he has saved Ukrainska Pravda in his browser bookmarks. He jokes that among the hundreds of thousands of articles he has read on the website, he sometimes reads his own interviews with Roman Kravets to remember "what he said".
"If UP were a person, it would be someone who has evolved, who has different stages: sometimes like Johnny Depp, sometimes like George Clooney. But it definitely has charm," Serhii adds.
The Ukrainian singer, writer and poet Serhii Zhadan, who judging by the length of the selfie queue is another of the guests' favourites, tells me right at the start of our conversation that he has been reading UP for 25 years. He reads everything, especially the Istorychna Pravda (Historical Truth) section by his fellow Khartiia Brigade member Vakhtang Kipiani.
"Ukrainska Pravda is sometimes challenging, but honest. I remember well how it all began. I remember the story of Gia [the murder of Georgiy Gongadze – ed.], and on stage today, I was recalling the protests that started it all. We took an active part in them – we’d travel to Kyiv, and we organised our own ‘Ukraine without Kuchma’ protest in Kharkiv as well. [Leonid Kuchma served as Ukraine’s second president from 1994 to 2005 – ed.]
At one point it really was pretty much the only source that provided any political information. And then lots of things appeared on UP: international politics, culture. I read the sports section."
Some of the guests were unable to attend in person. General Valerii Zaluzhnyi, former Ukrainian commander-in-chief, BoomBox frontman Andrii Khlyvniuk, who served in the Armed Forces of Ukraine, and Sviatoslav Vakarchuk, politician and lead singer of Okean Elzy, appear on the big screen in the light of a projector.
When comedian Vasyl Baidak appears on stage in a traditional auctioneer’s outfit, it’s to instant laughter from the audience. They finish his lines in a chorus, just like at a rock concert.
"I say: Ihor, and you say: Yeah!"
"Ihor!"
"Yeah!" echoes around the hall.
One of the lots is an illustration by the artist Serhii Maidukov for a forthcoming book about Ukrainska Pravda, which is due to be published this year. The illustration sells for UAH 1.5 million (US$36,000), with all the money going to the investigative journalism department run by Mykhailo Tkach.
Then all the noise in the hall dies down as the band Odyn v Kanoe (Alone in a Canoe) take to the stage. I notice Sevgil sitting next to the singer Jamala in the front row with her arms around her. Together, they quietly sing along to the song, which that evening was dedicated to Ukrainska Pravda.
"I am a lone warrior in the field
And when there are two of us
I will give you a sign."
The event was supported by Biosphere Corporation, Kyivstar, L'Oréal Ukraine, monobank | Universal Bank, Mercedes-Benz Ukraine, Terwin, Ukreximbank, Ukrainian Aviation and Space Technologies, Nepoborna vodka and Sir Edmond gin.
Support Ukrainska Pravda on Patreon!