United States Agency for Global Media

Ukrainian Service, 2023 winner

As Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine, VOA’s Ukrainian service expanded its coverage despite having almost no additional resources. Reporters, videographers, producers, and editors doubled web and social media output, quadrupled scheduled TV programming for Ukraine, produced numerous high-impact television specials featuring simultaneous translations into Ukrainian, and offered in-studio analysis of major events in Washington DC.  

Prior to the invasion, the Service solidified the confidence of Ukrainians with its balanced coverage of the risks of the war; as the invasion unfolded, millions in Ukraine turned to VOA for live fact-based reporting. Since the invasion, VOA Ukrainian has become a critical news source for other media outlets, with its content quoted or used more than 4,100 times in a 12-month span. The service provided hundreds of live TV interactives for its affiliates, delivering unobstructed and fact-based messages to Ukrainians while Russia was spreading its propaganda about the war and the major domestic TV broadcasting in Ukraine was operating under the government-led News Marathon.  

Videos by courageous reporters on the ground showed the devastation and documented evidence of war crimes committed during the war in Ukraine. At the start of the invasion, VOA Ukrainian exclusively obtained and aired original real-time footage of the deadly Russian missile attack at the Kramatorsk civilian railway station. As Ukraine’s counteroffensive gained ground, a VOA Ukrainian stringer was among the first reporters to travel to the newly liberated Balakliya to speak with local residents. The Service’s impactful footage from Borodyanka, Bucha, and Irpin near Kyiv, documented the devastation and civilian deaths following the withdrawal of Russian troops.  

Original reports from Ukraine by VOA Ukrainian Service’s stringers attracted over 7 million video views and more than 430K interactions. VOA Ukrainian interviews included State Department Principal Deputy spokesperson Vedant Patel and Eli Rosenbaum, team leads for investigations of atrocities stemming from Russia’s invasion; top DOJ prosecutor in the special investigation Christian Levesque; and U.S. Ambassador-at-Large for Global Criminal Justice Beth Van Schaack, who compared Russia’s abuses to World War II. 

VOA Ukrainian stayed at the forefront of the rapidly developing news on the U.S. and Western support for Ukraine, breaking the White House’s confirmation that the U.S. and its allies were supplying anti-ship missiles to Ukraine. Frontline reporting included a VOA Ukrainian reporter’s exclusive self-narrated story about a Ukrainian team of anti-tankers fighting the Russian military units in the south of Ukraine. 

The Service reporters provided comprehensive and professional coverage of discussions within the U.S. legislature and interviewed dozens of U.S. lawmakers. An exclusive interview with the only Ukrainian-born U.S. House representative, Viktoria Spartz, helped to provide in-depth nuanced coverage of the discussion surrounding accountability for assistance and debunk Russian propaganda on the issue. 

From Washington to Kyiv, VOA Ukrainian landed high-level interviews, including exclusives with Defense Minister of Ukraine Oleksii Reznikov which were quoted by over 400 outlets including Politico, The Daily Beast, BBC, and top-rated news media in Ukraine; U.S. Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm discussing European energy security and risks to nuclear energy posed by Russia’s invasion; and Coordinator for Strategic Communications at the NSC John Kirby. 

The war presented unprecedented challenges to the Service’s reporting and the VOA Ukrainian team delivered, securing a historic jump in traffic. In 2022, VOA Ukrainian video content was viewed 159 million times across social media platforms, which represents a 110% increase in views.