Safety, safety, safety

The West has accused the Russian army of a host of war

crimes. At the end of March, the United States accused Rus-

sia of “indiscriminate attacks, deliberate targeting of civi-

lians, and other atrocities.”

Facing fierce Ukrainian resistance, Russian troops deployed

towards Donbas and the south in late March and our jour-

nalists set out to work with security advisors. On April 2 in

Bucha, a town to the north-west of Kyiv, our text, photo and

video team found a road littered with the bodies of dozens

of civilians.

“We saw three of them at first, lying in the dirt like piles of

rags,” wrote Danny Kemp, one of our three reporters on the

ground that day, in an account of the gruesome discovery.

“Our driver screeched to a halt and we jumped out of the

vehicle. A long grey road on the edge of Bucha stretched out

under an equally grey Ukrainian sky. The three bodies lay

next to a stack of construction materials and wooden pal-

lets. As we approached we could see that one had his hands

tied behind his back.”

The safety of our journalists in the field is a priority. We have

hired security advisors. We now have three, whose job it is to

find the safest path to where we need to go to cover the story.

We would not have managed this without these security

advisors. They are not armed but they do know the ground

very well. They are ex-military, some of them have been in

the foreign legion.

To bolster our security even further, we opened a brand

new bureau in Kyiv in December 2022. It has its own electri-

city supply, more space, can double up as an air-raid shelter

and has satellite Internet access.

Listening

Less than a month after the invasion we started reporting

about the trauma of those who had witnessed atrocities

and the need to help them get over the terror

This was also a burning question for our own journalists

It was important that they could work in the right condi

tions take a break from the daily routine for example in

Warsaw and look after their mental health We offered

everyone help in this regard if needed It is important to

take the time to listen to our journalists when they return

from the field Many of them felt the need Once they have

had a rest an interview takes place we ask them what

they experienced, how they feel. Sometimes they cry, so-

metimes they get angry or have mood swings. They know

they can contact psychologists at EUTELMED, the platform

AFP contracted for this purpose. This is a big change for the

Agency.

Disinformation: the other front-line

Around two months after the invasion of Ukraine, the di-

sinformation war hotted up. The G7 was called on to create

a “rapid rebuttal unit” to counteract the disinformation

coming from the whole world, especially from Russia and

Ukraine. A classic propaganda war broke out alongside the

hostilities on the ground. One accused the other of war

crimes without resorting to fake news and deepfakes. Rus-

sia hid less and less the fact it was waging a de facto war

against the West.

It is a delicate topic for the Moscow bureau and we decided

quickly that they should have the final say when it came to

what we should or should not publish. Their copy should

not be rejigged by desks or other bureaux in the region. We

have stopped putting bylines on stories produced in the

Russian capital to protect our journalists.

There are Russian topics that we cover outside of Russia, be-

cause of a Russian law that can punish journalists reporting

on information seen as damaging for Moscow. For example,

reporting on criticism coming from certain generals in the

Russian army. We cover this from Paris via our Defence cor-

respondents. Same thing for anything relating to Vladimir

Putin’s health, which we covered from Washington. There is

no reliable information on that at this stage.

An editorial wall was erected between Moscow and Kyiv so

that no-one in the Russian capital would have to edit pro-

duction from Kyiv This is because in Moscow you cannot

talk about war but invasion conflict and special opera

tions

On the Ukrainian side we had to explain and get the autho

rities to accept that we needed to go to Russianoccupied

Mariupol

We also cut all links with the Russian news agency Sputnik

which we no longer distribute via our AFP Forum and AFP

News platforms The conditions to get a visa in Russia have

hardened They are no longer valid for a year but renewable

every three months

No one knows how long this war will last Our teams are

aware they will need to pace themselves They are ready

Kharkiv: life under fierce Russian bombardment (03:34)Ukraine: 100 days of war as seen by its people (13:07)

In 2022 the AFP Fact Check website published more than 1230 factchecks in 2022 on the UkraineRussia conflict

Cross-referencing our on-the-ground investigation with digital investigation enabled us to rule out the hypothesis that the

Ukrainian forces staged the event.