Ukrainian Sevgil Musaieva trips smilingly and carefully across the mirror-smooth Oslo deck this week. At first glance, you don’t think of a hard-hitting, blustering newspaper editor exposing Russian war crimes, greedy oligarchs or corrupt Ukrainian civil servants.
But as early as 2022, the editor-in-chief ended up leaving Ukrainska Pravda on Time Magazine-list over the globe’s 100 most influential people.
– How have these two war years been? Ask Musaieva Dagbladet’s correspondent. And becomes quiet.
Then the war came
She takes us back to the night before the war started. Already at one o’clock in the morning she had to go to the toilet.
– I cried because I knew the war would come. At 04.30 I woke up again, just half an hour before the war started. Experienced journalists often have feelings that things will happen. It’s about being in the right place at the right time. I felt that the war was coming, recalls the editor-in-chief.
THOUGHTFUL: Sevgil Musaieva has so many stories from Ukraine, which she wants to tell. It weighs. Photo: Nina Hansen / Dagbladet Show more
She is close to tears as she thinks about the almost two years that have passed since Putin went to full-scale war against Ukraine.
– How everything has been… A difficult question that is difficult to explain. You live each day as if it were your last. It’s hard to think about the future, so just live the best day of your life, she says.
UKRAINE: Here, a small unmanned vehicle takes tank drones out onto the battlefield in Ukraine. Reporter: Edward Stenlund. Video: Twitter / X / Telegram / The Russian Ministry of Defense Show more
Refuse to give up
Ukrainska Pravda was founded in 2000, is Ukraine’s first independent newspaper and body of investigative journalism. It reaches up to four million readers every day and covers everything from Russian war crimes and Ukrainian heroes, to lists of oligarchs’ yachts and planes. Newspapers are banned in Russia, but many Russians read newspapers daily, using VPN services.
Avisa’s first founder has been killed. Now Musaieva sits at the helm.
– The hardest thing for me as a journalist is all the stories about people that we don’t get to tell. But no matter how long Russia tries to hide its crimes, we will expose them, says the editor.
Her paper has also exposed several top Ukrainian figures who have illegally enriched themselves during the war.
– Even during war, we must contribute to positive changes. There have been – and will be – more attacks on us journalists from corrupt guys who are afraid that we will expose their activities, but we will fight back. And civil society in Ukraine is with us and supports us, says Musaieva.
We cannot let Putin win the war
Rapes and torture
In 2023, she received the Free Media Awards for her work as editor-in-chief of one of the largest independent media in Ukraine. “While Russia’s full-scale invasion changed almost everything, it did not change its high standard of journalistic work,” wrote the jury.
– Living in war is challenging and frightening. I have lost some friends and colleagues. Many friends and colleagues have enlisted in the army. I am stressed about them and thinking about them. Our lives are completely different. I miss my normal life. Everyone in Ukraine does it, she says.
In Ukraine, everyone is closely following developments in the rest of the world. That US President Joe Biden and several European leaders are struggling to obtain even more funds for Ukraine. That everything can get even worse with Donald Trump.
– Can’t hide anymore
– We see that the political reality in the world is changing. We are aware of that and must have a plan B. The dream of all Ukrainians is to liberate all areas. Not because of the territory, but for the citizens, says Musaieva and continues:
– Before the massacre in Butsha, even President Zelenskyi said that negotiations on land were possible. But when we saw what happened there, we realized that it is impossible to live with the Russians and Putin. We know that everyone who lives where the Russians occupy is subjected to torture, rape, is arrested and sentenced. We have seen mass graves in every city that our army has liberated, says the editor.
SHATTERED: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy was clearly moved when he visited Butsha on April 4, 2022. Photo: Ronaldo Schemidt / AFP / NTB. view more
War fatigue
The 36-year-old realizes that almost two years of war between Russia and Ukraine is causing people to lose interest.
– When Europeans say they want peace because they are tired of the war… Believe me, the ones who are most tired of the war are us Ukrainians who live with it every day. At the same time, we cannot get tired because then Russia will come and occupy the rest of our country, she says.
Musaieva has moved into a new and much faster pace. The eyes glow:
– This is about much more than Putin and Ukraine. Russia continues its plan to take over all of Ukraine. If he succeeds, he continues on. The Baltic countries understand this very clearly. That they are next on Putin’s list.
The difficult conversation
Putin coercion
Musaieva refers to Putin’s desire to revive the Soviet Union.
– I am from Crimea and have a sad story from here. Most citizens did not support Russia’s occupation and annexation in 2014, but I know several old classmates who are now fighting for Russia against Ukraine. Not because they want to, but because they are forced to, says the editor.
She points out that authoritarian states such as Russia see their citizens as useful tools. Not as individuals with their own thoughts and rights.
– Russia is now using people in the occupied territories to fight against us. If Russia takes over more of Ukraine, they will force the Ukrainians to fight even more European countries. This is a real danger, she says and adds:
– You cannot afford to be war-weary. Putin is not giving up on Ukraine.
Persecuted people
Musaieva is a so-called Crimean Tatar, a Turkic ethnic group that has lived on the Crimean peninsula. On 18 May 1944, Josef Stalin ordered the deportation of all Crimean Tatars. They were only allowed to return in 1967.
– My first childhood memories are from Crimea, where I haven’t been for ten years due to Russia’s annexation. I don’t remember the day or the year, but I know it was 18 May, says Musaieva from the podium below The Nordic conference this week.
DEMONSTRATION IN CRIMEA: Here is Sevgil Musaieva’s first childhood memory: On a commemoration with his father in Crimea to commemorate Stalin’s fight against the Crimean Tatars. Photo: Nina Hansen / Dagbladet Show more
The parents take her to the commemoration of the day when Stalin wanted to get rid of the Crimean Tatars.
– I remember holding my father’s hand and a flag. Dad tells mom that he can’t understand that we’re still in Crimea – and that we can still demonstrate. We were reminded of the many who were killed, and that the Soviet Union tried to whisper us out, recalls Musaieva.
Once again, Russia is the enemy.
– The war affects everyone. Like yesterday’s prisoner exchange: One of those captured in connection with the fighting at the steel mill in Mariupol was released. The first thing he learned after almost two years in captivity is that his entire family was killed in a Russian missile attack in Dnipro a year ago. His mother, wife and daughter….
– He is free, but the whole family has been killed. It is war – and it can reach everyone in Europe, says Musaieva.
CONSTANT FEAR: Editor-in-Chief Sevgil Musaieva tries to live each day as if it were the last – and best. But she is constantly afraid of losing some of her loved ones – and of the development of the war. Photo: Nina Hansen / Dagbladet Show more
2024-02-04 13:07:09
#afford #warweary
