Creators Fund is the main tool of DW Akademie for content creation in Ukraine. The innovative programme supports independent regional content creators and emphasizes the development of initiatives that counter disinformation and fight misleading information.

Creators Fund
Fit for your story

DW Akademie believes that it is important for the Ukrainians to continue having access to the reliable local information sources and to help local media to be resilient. Therefore the programme supports Suspilne (UA:PBC), the Ukrainian public broadcaster, and its network of brave front-line reporters in cities such as Kharkiv and Mariupol. Creators Fund is a part of the EU-funded project "MediaFit Program for Information Integrity in Southern and Eastern Ukraine" (2021-2024). The MediaFit project is implemented by DW Akademie in partnership with Transtele Canal France International (CFI) and Lithuanian Radio and Television (LRT). DW Akademie is Deutsche Welle's center for international media development, journalist training and knowledge transfer. These projects contribute to ensuring human rights to freedom of expression and unimpeded access to information

About Creators Fund

The MediaFit project, which started in June 2021 and is funded by the EU and co-funded by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ).

Creators Fund Goal

Creators Fund aims at promotion of a variety of media content that would be interesting and useful to the regional audience.

Special attention is paid to improving the delivery of quality content in dynamic media formats. Independent local media and individual journalists are supported both in following the rapid digitalisation of the media and in developing innovative approaches to storytelling. DW Akademie also offers the media professionals the opportunity to join the MediaFit Product Incubator – a product development process that accompanies media professionals at various stages: from the conception phase to product release. The Incubator includes mentorship from a number of international and regional experts, as well as feedback at every stage of product development from colleagues with relevant experience in Ukraine.

Creators Fund is a key element of the MediaFit project. The aim of the Creators Fund was to promote a greate diversity of media content that is interesting, innovative and relevant to the regional audiences.

The media production had to target the audience in at least one of these 10 regions: Donetsk, Luhansk, Dnipro, Kharkiv, Zaporizhzhia, Kherson, Mykolaiv, Odesa, Sumy and Chernihiv regions. DW Akademie provided a mentoring program combined with the trainings.

Thanks to the active participation, constant communication and support by the team of the Creators Fund mentors - whether online or on the spot during filming, whether during concept development, resource planning or reporting - the project team and the creators themselves were able to successfully complete the projects. Despite all the difficulties linked to the war, i.e. many creators were forced to leave their native places and flee to other regions of Ukraine, the recent serious lack of infrastructure and blackouts, as well as psychological problems that made production and publication extremely difficult and slow, the creators demonstrated high motivation, resilience and worked intensively on their projects and delivered a variety of quality products.

Undoubtedly, power outages and Internet outages have had a negative impact on the distribution of content, significantly reducing its possible reach, especially for video productions.

4

seasons

60

journalists, teams or media organizations

29

documentaries and report

30

podcasts

29

multimedia and online stories

6

fact-checking projects

DW Akademie supports regional journalists and media through the comprehensive capacity development scheme MediaFit, which strengthens the capacity of the media professionals at both on the management and editorial levels.

MediaFit approach

The MediaFit capacity development scheme is open to journalists and activists with a wide range of work experience, from citizen journalists who want to become professionals to the professionals who want to upgrade their skills. It includes training and mentoring on digital security, frontline reporting and mental health.

During four seasons of Creators Fund more than fifty participants took part in it - from the professional journalists and editors with years of experience to videographers who previously worked in advertisement projects, human rights activists and architectural publications.

In order to create a unique content and look at Ukraine and its challenges before and during the war, the creators traveled thousands of kilometers, filming stories of people in the most dangerous spots in the frontline and in peaceful cities. Only the choice of topics was wider than the geography of the project. The creators told stories about certain ethnic groups who live in the war, debunked Russian disinformation and propaganda, re-interpreted the post-war architecture, and even filmed a philosophical video essay about "Banksy from Kharkiv." Thousands of people shared and discussed the materials done by the journalists from Odesa.online about how Russian aggression is killing the dolphins in the Black Sea, and the documentary "Invisible" about Ukrainian prisoners from the human rights group "SICH" was shown on the wide screens in Vilnius, Warsaw and Rome.

Gayane Avakyan

Kyiv

Gayane Avakyan, a journalist from Bakhmut, created the film "Tsavet tanem", where she told stories of the Armenians in eastern Ukraine, about the wars and the search for a peaceful home. The Gayane family has been witnessing the war in the fourth generation. Her parents are originally from Nagorno-Karabakh, were looking for a peaceful home in eastern Ukraine - and lost it during Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

Mykola Dondyuk

Kherson

Director Mykola Dondyuk, with the financial support of the European Union, created a documentary about Ukrainian rescuers "Extraordinary". The heroes of the film are rescuers who faced the war, worked in the occupation, fought against the flooding and are still under enemy fire every day. The Kherson State Emergency Service is the only structure in the history of Ukraine that remained Ukrainian and worked under the yellow-blue flag in the occupied territory. The events of the film bring you in the everyday life of Kherson emergency workers, risks and challenges they face every day. Their voices are pain and fearlessness, dreams and losses, heroism and hopes of the Kherson region.

Kateryna Strelchenko and "Vidkryty| TV Channel

Dnipro

Journalist Kateryna Strelchenko and the "Vidktyty" TV channel created a documentary about the "Antares" search and rescue unit from Pavlograd. The main characters are dogs. The furry searchers and their mentors have one common goal - to find dead and missing people. Bring them back from oblivion. The film uses real stories that break the soul.

"Suspilne Odesa"

Odesa

With the financial support of the European Union, "Suspilne Odesa" created a film - a documentary expedition that shows how the life of people in Odesa changed after the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine. This is a film about struggle and faith. Hopes and expectations. Dreams and plans that were forever changed by the war started by Russia.

Inna Yeshchenko, "Skhidniy variant"

Kyiv

Journalist Inna Yeshchenko and the media outlet "Skhidniy variant" released a documentary film that reveals the path of four entrepreneurs who were forced to move from the eastern regions of Ukraine and start their journey from zero: relocate their business and launch everything from scratch.

Human rights group "Sich"

Dnipro

Human rights group "Sich" created the film "Invisible". It tells stories of three civilian hostages taken by the Russians in the occupied Ukrainian cities of Kherson and Mariupol. Through the real stories of Ukrainian prisoners of the Kremlin, one can see the scale of the crimes committed by the aggressor and which it prefers to hide.

Viktoriia Gavryushova

Kyiv

The journalist created a series of fact-checking reports about life in the de-occupied territories: Chernihiv Oblast, Kherson Oblast, Sumy Oblast, Kharkiv Oblast. This is a series of video pieces that show the true story without embellishments, about those events that took place directly during the presence of Russian troops in populated areas and life there after de-occupation. Incredible stories of strong people.

Angela Slobodian

Kherson

Kherson journalist Angela Slobodian released the documentary film "Navala", which she shot during the Russian occupation of Kherson region. "Navala" is about what the people of Kherson felt in the first days of the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine and what was happening in the region. The film lasts half an hour and tells a story of a family from Kherson region, which suffered losses in the first days of the occupation by the Russians. The widow of a local resident Leonid, as well as her daughter, shared their emotions and memories. Leonid died in the first days of the Russian invasion of the Kherson region in 2022.

Media platform "Vhoru"

Kherson

Journalists of the media platform founded in 2002 search for and highlight stories of the activists who are changing the Kherson region for the better. They record the war crimes of the Russian invaders and tell stories of people who suffered from them. Being one of the Creators Fund participants, they launched a new series of videos "Destroying Russian Myths", in which they debunked the fakes of the occupiers, ridiculed Russian propaganda and narratives spread by the Russians in the occupied and liberated territories of the Kherson region, talked about collaborators and investigated the fate of the abducted from Kherson.

Guildhall & Vitalii Dekhtiarov project

Kyiv

"Music Front" is a series of 10 interviews with famous artists representing 10 regions (Donetsk, Luhansk, Dnipropetrovsk, Kharkiv, Zaporizhzhia, Kherson, Mykolaiv, Odesa, Sumy and Chernihiv regions). During the Russian-Ukrainian war, these artists volunteered and helped their "small" Motherland and did not lose touch with their native regions.

Anton Shinkarenko

Kyiv

Ukrainian director, producer and photographer who shoots social ads, music videos, documentaries and series. As part of the project, he reports about Kharkiv's Banksy, an artist who during the war paints a specific philosophical street art and adds philosophical captions to his drawings, which goes beyond the fine art and to some extent is a combination of drawing and literature.

Maksim Lukashov, "Suspilne Chernihiv"

Chernihiv

Through the stories of the local residents, a cycle of documentaries "Chernihivshchyna. To live again". The films depict the restoration of the normal life in Chernihiv. The war has changed people forever, but they will continue to live their normal lives despite the danger of renewed active hostilities in the region.

1KR.UA

Kryvyi Rih

Independent media of Kryvyi Rih, founded in 2010. 1KR.UA is known for its special projects about ecology, the history of Kryvyi Rih, the war between Russia and Ukraine. As part of the Mediafit programme, a film about Kryvyi Rih volunteers "Working for Victory" was created. This film tells about the real life and development of Kryvyi Rih volunteers. They not only help, but also warm the hearts and souls of the military personnel and displaced persons.

Rap.ua — Ukrainian platform about rap and lifestyle

Kyiv

Together with the band Some People, they created a documentary about the influence of small towns on the country's musical culture. Kup'yansk, Kivsharivka, Dvorichna, Bliznyuki - small villiages, where were raised people whose style we see and hear, looking at the independent Ukrainian scene.

Serhii Zeynalov

Oleshki

Director Serhii Zeynalov shot the documentary film "It is (not) possible to stay". The documentary is about the work of the Kherson Regional Academic Music and Drama Theater named after Mykola Kulish. He resumed his work after the deoccupation of the city, but due to constant shelling by the Russian military, it's functioning in the bunker. In the center of the story are the memories of the theater workers about life in the occupation, about the decision to leave, and even more complicated process of evacuation and returning home.

Gwara Media

Kharkiv

The Kharkiv online media outlet created the film "Attack on Civilians". The film explores the human rights infrastructure working to record the war crimes in the Kharkiv region and the occupied territories. The killing of civilians, the destruction of buildings, rape, theft, collaboration, infiltration camps and infiltration processes are only a part of what came into focus.

UkrYoutubeProject

Kyiv

Travel blog about Ukraine and Ukrainians. As part of the Creators Fund, they did research on how Kharkiv and Odesa, front-line cities that are under daily shelling, have changed since the full-scale invasion.

DW Akademie provided a mentorship program combined with trainings. It supported creators to develop their ideas, focused on the essential skills in podcasting, designing a user-centered format, content creation, podcast production process, distribution and promotion/monetization.

All the participants had different motivations and needs: some of them were looking for the new knowledge about podcast distribution and community building, some of them wanted to learn how to work with the sound and focus on the formats for their podcast. During the 2nd season in 2022, 26 alarms were heard in Kyiv, in Ukraine in general (official alarms announced in each region) - 1289. The average duration of alarms - 1 hour and 15 minutes. Despite all the challenges the war has brought with, the trainings were successfully conducted. Although participants could not always join the classes online, they had the opportunity to watch the video recordings of each training session later and reach out their trainers and colleagues via email or in the Telegram group. Constant problems with electricity supply and Internet connection slowed down the production process, but it gave the creators an opportunity to polish the structure, script and sound design of the audio material. A phrase that was heard often throughout the season: "Even in times of crisis, work and create what your audience needs." The creators worked fruitfully on their ideas and it can be seen from the results. Thus, the podcast "Ukrainization", which teaches Ukrainian language in an entertaining way, has received more than 2.5 million views on TikTok alone. You can find out more information about the participants and their projects here:

Anastasiia Okunevich

Lutsk

Anastasiia has been working as a journalist since 2011, has experience working on the radio since 2012. She created the project "Ukrainization" in which she talked easily and user friendly about common mistakes in the spoken Ukrainian language using examples of songs by the Ukrainian artists.

Urban Space Radio

Ivano-Frankivsk

A media platform wich is working on the development of Ukrainian-language audio products. In the nine episodes of "Vidktyty znovu", they told the story of businesses that were damaged by the war actions, but then recovered and are moving forward.

Oksana Malchenko

Sumy

Until February 24, Oksana Malchenko was involved in adult education and youth policy. Now she coordinates the medical direction at the Sumy public foundation. Oksana tells what helped to find her way in a new business, how important it is to do what you like, and how to understand criticism correctly in the "Z novoho arkusha" podcast.

Yuliia Bilous

Kherson

Yuliia created a narrative podcast about the reserve "Askania-Nova". This is an attempt to bring the largest steppe reserve of Europe to life by means of audio story. Journalists discussed its German past, Soviet repression against the science, World War II. And also about what threatens the reserve "Askania-Nova" now - during the full-scale invasion of Russia into Ukraine.

Viktoriia Havriiushova

Kyiv

Viktoriia is a TV presenter, journalist, volunteer and host of the "Rebuilding" podcast. She has been working in the field of media for more than 12 years. In 2013, she launched the first student radio station in Dnipro. She was the first with her team to go to Borodyanka, after the de-occupation of Kyiv region with help for the civilians. The journalist saw with her own eyes this horror that the "Russian liberators" left behind. After the victory, the Ukrainians will face a new big task — to rebuild everything that was destroyed by the Russians. To cope with this, it is necessary to prepare for the restoration of destroyed buildings now. What do architects, officials and volunteers think about reconstruction? What works are already underway? What should post-war Ukraine be like? Answers to all these questions will be found by the host Victoria Gavryushova together with the expert guests.

Tetiana Fedorkova

Kharkiv

Journalist from Kharkiv, has been working in media since 2007. Tetyana Fedorkova is the editor-in-chief of mediaport.ua (local media, the editorial staff of which consists of Kharkiv men and women who care about the future of Kharkiv and their native region. Media that does not depend either ideologically or economically on anyone but on itself. And strives to make Kharkiv and the Kharkiv region better.) In the podcast "Military Kharkiv: How the Pyatikhatki withstood" Tatiana opens a series of materials about the districts of military Kharkiv.

Alina Broda

Lviv

The editor-in-chief of the "Local History" website - media that talks about Ukrainian identity, refutes the myths of occupiers' narratives, explains who the Ukrainians are, what trials and successes have shaped the Ukrainian nation, what is special about Ukrainian culture and what it has given to the world. "Battle for the South" is a podcast that Alina has worked on. In this podcast, historians debunk Russian imperial myths about southern Ukrainian lands

Yevhen Stepanenko

Kyiv

Yevhen has been in the media industry for over 20 years as a director of film and TV projects. After the annexation of Crimea in 2014, he volunteered for the ranks of the Defense Forces of Ukraine. After being wounded in 2015, he collaborated with the Public Broadcaster as the host of the War and Peace talk show. After finishing his work with Suspilne, he started developing his own podcast project "Radio Central Europe", which focuses on the story of how Ukraine is organized for the Europeans. In the "Great Migration" podcast, there are stories of Ukrainians who, fleeing the war, found refuge in Europe. Important topics of conversation: war and adaptation to life without war, topics of reconciliation and acceptance of the new reality.

Haiane Avakian

Kyiv

Haiane graduated from the Donetsk National University with a degree in philology, but has been involved in journalism all her life. From "Svoi" since the founding of the media outlet. The online magazine has been created by a team of 10 journalists from the east of Ukraine four years ago. They tell stories about people and cities in Luhansk and Donetsk region. With the beginning of a full-scale invasion of Russia, they evacuated the team and resumed work in Kyiv. Haiane Avakyan's podcast "Svoi rozmovy" is about people who survived the occupation.

Vladislav Faraonov

Kyiv

Vladyslav has been working in the media sphere for more than 5 years, last three of them as an analyst in one of the largest media non-governmental organizations, Internews-Ukraine. He is the author of more than 100 journalistic and analytical articles, and is the author of more than 20 publications in international publications in English. In 2019-2020, he studied in the USA at Wright State University. Currently, he is a screenwriter and co-host of the English-language podcast Solutions from Ukraine in the "Rubrika" publication. The author of the "Rishucha Mykolayivshchyna" podcast, a series of podcasts about people who create history and shape the post-war future of southern Ukraine.

Viktoriia Horshkova

Shostka

Viktoriia has been working in journalism for more than 10 years. Her team is the editorial office of the Polissya newspaper, which celebrated its 100th anniversary a few years ago. Having enlisted the support of mentors, they got a site, which they began to develop successfully. And now they are creating the podcast "Just one life", which motivates, helps to forget about our fears, insecurities and encourages to start taking action.

Liudmyla Tiahnyriadno

Kyiv

The editor-in-chief of the "Local History" website - a media that talks about Ukrainian identity, refutes the myths of occupation narratives, explains who Ukrainians are, what trials and successes have shaped the Ukrainian nation, what is special about Ukrainian culture and what it has given to the world. "Local history" is a multimedia online platform about the past and present of Ukraine, which combines printed magazines, podcasts, articles, and reports.

Oleksandr Solomko

Yampil

Journalist covering what happens in the border areas of Sumy region. Including in the communities that are in the war zone and exposed to shelling from the territory of Russia. Over 12 years of experience in journalism, founded an independent mass media - Yampil Information Agency yampil.info. Oleksandr and his team created a series of podcasts "Vidrizani" in which they talk about the war in the north of the Sumy region.

Nazarii Zanoz

Kyiv

Nazarii Zanoz, a graduate of the School of Journalism of the Ukrainian Catholic University. In journalism since 2010. Author of the collection of short prose "The Book of Oddities", Laurus, Kyiv, 2018. In cooperation with Urban Space Radio, in 2021, Nazarii created a series of reports called "History from the Window". This project was included in the list of 9 nominees of the "Slushno" podcast award in the Best author's podcast category. 2022 continued work on this podcast to tell the stories of those important places that have disappeared or are disappearing and, perhaps, to save what has not yet perished.

Vadym Pavlov

Vinnytsa

Vadym Pavlov is the editor-in-chief of RIA/20 minutes. The mission of this media is independent professional local journalism which aims at protection the interests of the local community. Also, Vadim, together with psychologist Volodymyr Skosogorenko, started a series of podcasts "Don't kill. Self" about post-traumatic stress disorder of the soldiers.

Olha Kruhlii

Kyiv

With the beginning of the full-scale invasion, Olha together with her colleagues from the Mohyla School of Journalism, created and has been developing the "War In Ukraine" Twitter channel, where all the events taking place in Ukraine are promptly covered for the foreign audience. Olha decided to create her podcast together with "Svidomi.Media". The podcast "Poznay Qirim" is designed to tell about the Crimean Tatars and show how much is common in the culture of the Crimean Tatar people and Ukrainians. It became one of the ways to get rid of Russian narratives about Crimea.

Sofiia Telehina

Kyiv

Sofiia is a producer and podcast host from Mariupol. Lives and works in Kyiv for 6 years. She started her career in the media in 2018, when she was intern at Suspilne in the fundraising department. Now Sofiia is a consultant for other podcast projects and leads the most active podcast community in Ukraine — Podcast Community UA. Sophia's podcast "9103: Equality at War" is a podcast about the military and the challenges they face.

Ruslan Khalapov

Kyiv

Ruslan is the executive producer of the Suspilne Krym TV channel, and also conducts independent journalistic activities on the topic of Crimea. In particular, he has his own blog on YouTube, where he publishes his reports from the war zone or de-occupied territories. Together with the QIRIM.News agency, he creates the author's video podcast "AshoProCrim?!". In the project archives, he created the podcast "The Law after Deoccupation". In this podcast Ruslan highlights the topics of legislation for de-occupied territories using the example of the occupied Crimean peninsula.

Petro Trots

Kyiv

Petro Trots has been working continuously as a journalist since 2008, after completing his studies at the Kyiv-Mohyla Academy. In Petro Trots' new podcast "On one's field" we hear stories about the athletes who did not give up and will continue to pave the way to their sport records even under conditions of constant Russian shelling.

Liliia Dukhno

Chernihiv

Host of the programmes on Ukrainian Radio "Chernihivska Khvyla". Her podcast "Why I'm still here" tells about the life of people in the border areas of Chernihiv region. What keeps them in or close enough to an area under attack? What do the locals do? But why don't they want to move to relatively safer places. Documentary stories about the lives of the peaceful people under the conditions of the border war.

Valeria Panasenko

Lviv

Olena Solodovnikova - Kyiv journalist, documentary filmmaker, screenwriter. For 8 years, she gained experience as an investigative journalist, developing the topics of corruption, embezzlement and other abuses of power. She created the podcast "Life after a Hero" - these are the stories of the wives of the killed soldiers. These stories are as sincere and personal as possible. Talking about anything related to the loss of a loved one during hostilities is difficult. But it is important to know and remember the defenders who died heroically in the war against Russia.

Olena Solodovnikova

Kyiv

Olena Solodovnikova - Kyiv journalist, documentary filmmaker, screenwriter. For 8 years, she gained experience as an investigative journalist, developing the topics of corruption, embezzlement and other abuses of power. She created the podcast "Life after a Hero" - these are the stories of the wives of the killed soldiers. These stories are as sincere and personal as possible. Talking about anything related to the loss of a loved one during hostilities is difficult. But it is important to know and remember the defenders who died heroically in the war against Russia.

Olena Brutska

Kyiv

Olena is a representative of the information staff of the NGO Women's Veteran Movement "VETERANKA", which covers the service of women in the military, highlights gender-sensitive topics, brings existing problems to the public in order to solve them through cooperation with Ukrainian and international media. Olena created the podcast "On the eye level" - a podcast about various military specialties of active female soldiers of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

Mykhailo Bezpalko

Lviv

Mykhailo Bezpalko, producer of the radio "We are from Ukraine" and head of the public organization "WE ARE FROM UKRAINE MEDIA". Radio "We are from Ukraine" is an independent online media founded on March 6, 2022. During the year and a half of its existence, 1,030 podcasts about the history of Ukraine, music, and culture were produced and distributed. "Donbas. History in the Names" is a podcast that Mykhailo is working on. Here you can hear stories about people from Donbas who influenced the history and development of the whole Ukraine.

Olena Horyacheva

Kyiv

Olena has been working as a television journalist for more than 25 years. After the full-scale invasion, Olena Horyacheva found herself in the Czech Republic, where she reported for Czech Radio. It was a new experience that managed to combine with eco-activism. That is how the Mykolaiv journalist and eco-enthusiast Olena Horyacheva started her own podcast called "It hurts me: War and ecocide." Together with experts, she examines the impact of military operations on the territory of Ukraine on ecology.

The jury considered all formats and topics, especially those involving digital storytelling, in-depth reporting, documentaries, etc., that highlight topics relevant to the regional audiences.

The content of the projects could include, but not be limited to, environmental and gender-sensitive topics, reports on national, ethnic minorities and the indigenous population of Ukraine.

George Ivanchenko

Kharkiv

Ukrainian photographer who works on the frontline territories. The 22-year-old young man records the experiences of the local residents in the front-line cities of Kherson and Bakhmut, as well as in the former occupied cities of Chernihiv and Bucha. With his photographs, Ivanchenko immerses the viewer in the everyday life of Ukrainians who are going through the war.

Bird in Flight

Kyiv

Online magazine about photography and visual culture. Journalists write for those who lack a powerful cultural resource, talk about the photo industry, new forms of art, media. As part of the Bird in Flight project, seven publications were created about Ukrainian and foreign military photographers documenting the war in Ukraine

All media houses and media professionals who work individually or in a team could develop their multimedia stories with the help of Creators Fund

Olena Solodovnikova

Zaporizhzhya

Journalist of First Zaporizhzhya created a multimedia material about Mykola Nizhnikovsky, a disabled man from Mariupol, and his story from record holder to oblivion during the occupation.

Trybuna, Sumy

Sumy

Independent Ukrainian media that writes about the medical and social sector. As part of the Mediafit project, a series of materials "The village doctor. How do doctors work in remote or small communities on the border Sumy Oblast"

Mayak

Odesa

Ukrainian magazine about culture, society and science. The media outlet collects and brings to the discussion ambiguous topics of our time. As part of the MediaFit project, journalists released materials on how to rebuild Ukrainian cities and not to harm them through this renovation. Their research also included an understanding of the citizens' attitudes towards urban space and requirements that might appear now in the society. The journalists chose such Ukrainian cities as: Kharkiv, Chernihiv, Mykolaiv, Kyiv and Odesa as objects of their research.

PRAGMATIKA.MEDIA

Kyiv

Media platform and print magazine about architecture, urbanism and design, founded in 2017. As part of the Creators Fund, journalists conducted a study on the topic of architectural and construction activities in Ukraine, which must be carried out as a result of the aggressive invasion of the Russian Federation. The research aimed at the study, structuring and analysis of architectural projects related to restoration, new post-war construction and preservation of valuable architectural objects and monuments. The result of this work was a series of analytical articles dedicated to the post-war reconstruction of villages and small towns that suffered as a result of an aggressive invasion: villiages and small cities in the Donetsk, Luhansk, Dnipropetrovsk, Kharkiv, Sumy, Zaporizhzhia, Kherson, Mykolaiv, Odesa, and Chernihiv regions.

Odesa.Online

Odesa

Independent regional online media outlet is one of the leading regional information and news houses. Its journalists cover important events taking place in the Odesa region and in the south of Ukraine. Since the beginning of the Russian invasion, they have also been covering military actions, reporting from the front zone, the de-occupied territories, and talking about the lives and problems of displaced persons. As part of the MediaFit project, they produced reports on the consequences of Russian aggression for ecology in Odesa, Mykolaiv and Kherson regions.

Ivan Antipenko

Kherson

The war journalist, originally from Kherson, traveled to de-occupied villages to tell stories that have happened there since the beginning of the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine. Together with his colleagues from the MOST publication and the Center for Journalistic Investigations, he was one of the first journalists to visit the the villiages in the north of the Kherson Region. Ivan talked to people who survived the occupation and showed the consequences of the Russian invasion. As part of the MediaFit project, he created three great stories about communities on the right bank of the Kherson region, which are still recovering from the hostilities and about which almost no one talks.

Zaboron

Kyiv

Ukrainian independent online media outlet that investigates socially significant issues, highlights human rights violations and talks about modern culture. As part of the MediaFit programme, journalists developed a special project dedicated to the occupation of Crimea and (de)colonial policy regarding the peninsula.

Online media "Toretsk.City"

Toretsk

In 2018, the "Toretsk.City" website was launched in order to provide the city's residents with the reliable information about current events, since Donetsk has been a target for Russian propaganda in recent years. In addition, the editorial team systematically told stories of the local residents who have been living under the war conditions for many years. As part of the Creators Fund, journalists have created a series of text and video materials about Lemkos and fighters from Donetsk region. Through personal stories, the project told the story of the arrival of these two ethnic groups in Donetsk and Luhansk regions, revealed their cultural traditions and told about these people in the conditions of war.

Hraty

Kyiv

Ukrainian independent media about court journalism, launched in 2019. Journalists talk about what is happening in Ukraine through the lens of trials and criminal cases. They produced reports about the trials of collaborators suspected in Lyman - their motives and how they justify themselves. And also about how the state, Ukrainian society and the residents of Lyman react to their actions. Through the stories of those accused of collaborationism, they told what happened in Lyman during the occupation.

The Village Ukraine

Kyiv

Internet media, which positions itself as a guide to the events of Ukrainian cities, which tells about the work of small businesses, cultural figures and activists, life in society, urbanism and architecture, services, entertainment, food and people. As part of the Creators Fund project, they created a series of reports from the frontline cities - Kharkiv, Mykolaiv, Chernihiv, Dnipro and Zaporizhzhia.

Bilopil City

Bilopil

Online media about life of Bilopil and the region. The editor-in-chief Nataliya Kalinichenko created a series of publications where she tells stories about life and struggle of the community under the conditions of hostilities on the border with Russia.

Creators Fund Fit for your story

MediaFit approach

Creators Fund
Fit for your story