Журналіст for Politiken and a Board Member at RE:Cover Ukraine – a peer-to-peer Journalism Project

Everything would have been fine if the weather in Copenhagen had not deteriorated and Henrik’s flight had not been delayed. Our Danish colleague had to fly to Vienna, and from there take a bus to Kyiv for about 30 hours.

Upon arrival, Henrik immediately went to the awarding ceremony. In his speech, he emphasized that we have both bright and dark news about Ukraine.

Among the first is that Ukrainian investigative journalism proves to all opponents of our accession to the EU that we are on the way to building a real democracy.

Among the second, of course, is the lack of good news from the front, the political games of the Hungarian Prime Minister and the difficulties in signing the next aid package from the United States.
But such investigations as the winning film “Children for Putin. How Russia Kidnapped Children from Mariupol” by Olesya Bida change the balance of bright and dark news in our favor. The War Crimes Investigation Unit at The Kyiv Independent identified the names of Russian-controlled officials who took part in the abduction of Ukrainian children from temporarily occupied territories. They followed the stories of 32 children and their families who tried to bring them back. Pylyp Holovnya, illegally adopted by Maria Lvova-Belova, Russia’s Commissioner for Children’s Rights, was among them. The International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant against Lvova-Belova for her part in this crime.
The 1,000 euro prize was raised by a veterans’ organization of Danish journalists, so investigators have the opportunity to be supported and encouraged from abroad.

We were glad to see Henrik, there are interesting joint projects ahead!