A press tour of journalists from African countries to Ukraine was held as part of the Unfold Ukraine to Global South project implemented by Ukraine Crisis Media Center in cooperation and coordination with the Open Society Foundation and funded by the International Renaissance Foundation. Media workers from Kenya, Nigeria, South Africa and Gambia took part in it.
The guests started their acquaintance with Ukraine from the Lviv region. Journalists from African countries visited the Superhumans rehabilitation center in Lviv, where they saw how various departments of prosthetics and rehabilitation function and how patients undergo rehabilitation and receive psychological support.
The journalists from African countries also had a meeting with the head of the Lviv Regional Military Administration Maksym Kozytskyi and visited Mariapolis modular town for IDPs.
In the Kyiv region, the press tour participants visited Hostomel, Irpin, Bucha and Borodyanka, where they talked with local people and self-government representatives, and learned a lot about what had happened in this affected area during the Russian invasion in February-March 2022.
Meetings with government officials, parliamentarians, and high-level experts became an important part of the press tour. Valeriy Chaly, the Chairman of the UCMC board, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary, informed the journalists about the geopolitical background of the Russian-Ukrainian war, the historical context of the conflict and the challenges of peace negotiations with Russia.
The journalists also had a meeting at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine, where Maksym Subh, Ukraine’s special representative for the Middle East and Africa, answered the journalists’ questions about the current diplomatic situation between Ukraine and Mali, Ukraine’s diplomatic strategic goals in Africa, cultural exchange between Ukraine and Kenya, and diplomatic relations between Ukraine and South Africa.
The journalists discussed with parliamentarians the ways to end the war, international levers for further deterring Russia, international law and the need to rebuild its system to prevent future world conflicts. Ivanna Klympush-Tsintsadze, Chair of the Verkhovna Rada Committee on Ukraine’s Integration into the European Union, and Oleksandr Merezhko, Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada Committee on Foreign Policy and Interparliamentary Cooperation helped journalists understand these topics.
Another point of the program was a visit to the office of the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine. Oleh Sharov, director of the Directorate of Higher Education, Maryna Mruha, a government specialist, and Olena Sulyma, deputy director of the Ukrainian State Center for International Education, met with African media representatives.
In addition, the journalists had a unique opportunity to visit Okhmatdyt – the largest children’s hospital in Ukraine, which was heavily damaged as a result of the Russian missile attack on Kyiv on July 8, 2024. The journalists saw firsthand the level of destruction of the hospital, the place where the Russian missile hit and learned what happened in the first hours after the attack and how the evacuation and rescue operation was organized.
The journalists also visited the Chernihiv region. They met with Kostiantyn Mehem, First Deputy Head of the Chernihiv Region Military Administration, and Dmytro Bryzhynsky, Head of the Chernihiv City Military Administration. The journalists and the officials discussed the situation in the Chernihiv region from the beginning of the full-scale invasion until now.
In the village of Yahidne, where the Russian occupiers held all the villagers in a small school basement for a month, the journalists talked to Ivan Pulhuy, a resident of the village and a witness to the barbaric Russian occupation in March 2022. The journalists went down to the school basement in Yahidne and experienced the full scale of the horrors that the Russian army committed against the peaceful Ukrainian population.
After visiting Yahidne, the journalists went to Chernihiv, where they met with Iryna Simonova, Director of the Chernihiv Youth Center, which was bombed out by the Russians in 2022.
The eventful program of the press tour was complemented by a conversation with representatives of the Fresh Production Group film company. The guests learned about how Ukrainian film production changed after the start of the full-scale invasion and a rise of the documentary genre of cinematography.