To help Ukraine requires more than weapons to defend itself. It needs support for journalists to enable them to do their jobs.

That’s the conclusion of Grzegorz (“Greg”) Piechota, a former Polish journalist who now leads INMA’s Readers First Initiative as its Oxford, UK-based researcher-in-residence.

Piechota began his media career in 1996 as a reporter at one of Gazeta Wyborcza’s smallest local offices, and rose to news editor and vice-president of its social benefit-orienated Agora Foundation.

Piechota’s contacts in the region have been updating him on the situation, chairman of the Association of Independent Regional Publishers of Ukraine – which represents 20 publishers and 100 news brands – Oleksandr Chovhan (below) telling him, “We are fighting.”

Having met more than a decade ago during his Gazeta Wyborcza days, Piechota had been back to speak at conferences in Kyiv, to train journalists in Lviv, Kharkiv and Odessa, and as a friendship developed, to holiday together.

“Our families spent one vacation together in the Crimea peninsula on the Black Sea, now occupied by Russia,” he says.

“We ate Tatar plov from one bowl.”

When they met again last week, it was via a video call with Oleg Horobets, chief executive of RIA Media in Vinnytsia in central Ukraine, publisher of four local newspapers under the ‘20 Khvilin’ (24 Minutes) banner.

Both were in Vinnytsia, although Chovhan had sent his family abroad, where they are now in a refugee camp. “Never in my life I thought my family would be war refugees, but it is what is,” he said.

Horobets (pictured with a special print edition of 20 Khvilin headlined, ‘To the victory’), was also in the city, 250 km southwest of Kyiv. “The city is calm now, we are all working remotely from our homes,” he said.

All of the AIRPU 100 mastheads are active, but most newspapers have stopped printing, with no newsprint supply and no distribution.

“People are very passionate, but the problem is they won’t work long fed only by passion,” said Chovhan. “The revenues from advertising and copy sales went down to zero overnight.

Horobets – whose company has a print site in Vinnytsia – said they printed just one title in the first week of the invasion, instead of the usual 100.

“Even if you’d like to buy a newspaper, it’s impossible,” he said. “Newsstands are closed, debit cards are not working all the time. Anyway, people are afraid of shelling and go out as little as possible.”

With no printed press, Ukrainians have turned to websites and social networks, which are “working fine”.

Chovhan says the best news coverage right now is on social network Telegram, and on television. Major TV companies have united and broadcast a single newscast across all channels.

“Journalists from different channels stopped competing and are working on this one news product,” he says. “The quality is very high, and everybody watches it.

While Horobets says Telegram is another source of “the best coverage”, Chovhan points to the many channels available, from the media, the government, and by individual journalists.

“It’s partly professional and partly user-generated content. In our city, even the emergency sirens were replaced by Telegram notifications.”

Calling it ‘the people’s home page’, Horobets says 20 Khvilin’s Telegram channel has grown from 1000 followers to 10,000 followers, and their website doubled its daily page views to 100,000.

One poignant image of the commitment of journalists in Ukraine, is this picture (top) of Iryna Shevchuk, a reporter with Kazatin.com, working in a bomb shelter with her five-year-old daughter Veronika, close to where military stock was hit by rockets on February 24-25.

Horobets says community announcements are now the most-read content. “People in Vinnytsia formed dozens of volunteering groups, which collect the goods and provide services for the city’s self-defence, the wounded, and refugees – bulletproof vests, boots, food, medicines, rides from one place to another.

“People announce what they have or can do, and others announce what they are looking for. They match up online.

“Secondly, people seek verified news about the war’s development in their city, their region, and the country.

“And thirdly, people are looking for updates about any changes to everyday life. Public transport schedules changed completely. Drinking water is delivered only at certain times. Shops open just for a few hours, and many goods are missing. There are problems with card payments. Fuel and medicines are running out.”

Chovhan says many people are now following president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, whose media team is broadcasting daily news shows on Telegram.

“It’s not propaganda,” he says. “It’s fact-based coverage, honest and straightforward, but also humorous. For example, the government ordered the removal of road signs and landmarks to help disorientate Russian troops, and now many direct them to ‘go f*** themselves’.

“During World War II, the war chronicles were dead serious and solemn, and now they are entertaining while informative. The war is a show – horrific but also in some odd ways, funny. Humour helps to release the tension of the nation, and Zelenskyy is making people fear less.”

Piechota says two wars are unfolding in Ukraine – the military invasion, and the information war, and asks about the role of independent news outlets.

Horobets says verification of information is the “single most important job” for journalists, who are flooded with fake news.

And “making sense” of the news – summaries and analysis – is the second most important. “News coverage on Telegram and news sites is very fragmented.

The news media – both Ukrainian and foreign media – need to filter and provide a bigger picture to audiences.”

And he says the “third job” of journalists is to keep people away from despair. “We need to show them not only all the bad news but keep balance and show that the country still works, authorities work, soldiers fight. There are heroes, and there are successes.”

That media outlets still send messages is also important. “When people get an alert from Ukrainska Pravda – major national outlet Ukrainian Truth – or their local newspaper, they know the country and the city still holds. ‘Ukraine has not perished yet’.”

But he says even if Vinnytsia falls and Ukraine falls, “we will continue publishing.

“We’ll go underground, or we will publish online from abroad. We will publish forever.”

How can Western publishers help? Horobets’ immediate concerns have been with electricity blackouts, and back-up generators that “can keep the servers up for two days and that’s it”.

A quick response from Western tech companies has seen websites moved to the cloud. “Thanks to our media colleagues from all over the world we got connected with Amazon, Google and Microsoft,” he says. “All of them responded quickly and offered help, and this problem is now being resolved.

A problem, Chovhan says, has been Russian intimidation of Western tech companies to make them block Ukrainian websites. One AIRPU member, Odesskaya Zhyzn (Odessa Life) in Odessa, had received a warning from a German hosting provider to stop spreading “false messages” or face a take-down. The Germans were understood to be acting on a complaint filed by the Russian prosecutor general.

“It’s outrageous,” he says. “Basically, Russians are trying to censor the coverage in Ukraine using the Western hands!

“Access to safe data servers in the West is critical for the survival of the free press in Ukraine. Tech companies cannot assist Russians in terrorising Ukrainian publishers.”

Otherwise, the best way western media could help Ukrainian media would be to help them pay journalists’ salaries. “An average monthly salary of a local journalist in Ukraine is just 400 Euros (A$600), but as publishers have no revenue, they won’t be able to keep the staff.

“We are not oligarchs. We don’t have dollars stashed in the basement,” he says.

“We don’t need more training, we know how to do journalism and how to stay safe. The country needs weapons to defend itself, and the media need to be able to feed journalists so they can continue reporting.”

• Gazeta Wyborcza Foundation board president Joanna Krawczyk reported on Monday (March 14) that US$294,797 (A$408,088) had been collected in the first ten days of the campaign, with more promised.

Via INMA’s Paula Felps, she said some of the cash was used to cover salaries for media companies in some of the hardest-hit areas, while also providing journalists with safety and communication gear.

The foundation has already transferred US$23,936 to AIRPU intended for salaries.

“We want to make sure local media outlets in Ukraine, especially in war zones, have operational budgets for doing their work – and also to make sure they can organise relocation of themselves and their families, if necessary,” she said.

Other priorities are equipping journalists with protective and communication gear, securing relocation in other European countries if needed, and finally, looking at the long-term rebuilding process.

“In total, 34 journalists from eight media companies will be funded for two months,” Krawczyk said. “Transfers to other Ukrainian media and journalistic organisations are waiting to be made.”

Some of the funds will be spent on equipment, including tactical medical kits, power banks, satellite phones, laptops, and flak jackets.

To help Ukrainian media, Piechota offers these contacts:

-donations to the Association of Independent Regional Publishers of Ukraine via Patreon, or connect directly with association chief executive Oksana Brovko at brovko.oksana@gmail.com

- to team up with western publishers that organise institutional and individual support for Ukrainian media, contact Joanna Krawczyk of the Gazeta Wyborcza Foundation in Poland at joanna.krawczyk@agora.pl “They coordinate with publishers, journalism associations and foundations across Europe,” he says.

-contact Piechota at grzegorz.piechota@inma.org

-with thanks to INMA and Greg Piechota