When President Donald Trump announced that he would be meeting Russian leader Vladimir Putin in Alaska, AP already had a team near the front lines in Ukraine, reporting on the latest developments on the eastern front where the fighting never stops.
As attention turned to Alaska, where Trump said the summit would be held, the team focused on reporting that shed light on the realities on the ground as the war stretches on. Day after day, they delivered strong, well-timed reporting in text, video and photos that ran parallel to the day’s diplomacy and were greatly appreciated by customers looking to supplement their coverage with images from Ukraine.
In one story, the team delivered an account of daily life for soldiers fighting Russian advances as well as glide bombs and nonstop artillery shells in the Donetsk region, with nothing to suggest the fighting could end soon. In another story, they reported on the medics struggling to save soldiers dying in increasing numbers because of high-tech drones that are making evacuations increasingly difficult.
The judges were impressed by the continuous efforts of our team to cover the war in their own country, some of them displaced from their homes and living under the strain of constant air raids and drone attacks. They managed to get to the front lines and gain access to troops and commanders, gain their confidence and get firsthand reactions to diplomatic efforts to end Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
For top-tier teamwork crucial in putting a human face on the war, contributing to AP’s mission to provide objective, accurate and balanced reporting across all formats — particularly during a pivotal week when all eyes were on the Russia-Ukraine war — Hanna Arhirova, Evgeniy Maloletka, Vasilisa Stepanenko, Dmytro Zhyhinas and Volodymyr Yurchuk win this week’s second citation for Best of the Week.
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