20 days in Mariupol: The team that documented city’s agony

I think it is fair to be skeptical, since there is obviously so much misinformation, but how many international journalists can we expect in a city that is under Russian siege and in the process of being pulverized?

Also, how many experienced international war reporters happen to be Ukrainian and also "instinctively" decide to cover the war from Mariupol a day before it even starts?

> I have since covered wars in Iraq, Afghanistan and the disputed territory of Nagorno Karabakh, trying to show the world the devastation first-hand. But when the Americans and then the Europeans evacuated their embassy staffs from the city of Kyiv this winter, and when I pored over maps of the Russian troop build-up just across from my hometown, my only thought was, “My poor country.”

> In the first few days of the war, the Russians bombed the enormous Freedom Square in Kharkiv, where I had hung out until my 20s.

> I knew Russian forces would see the eastern port city of Mariupol as a strategic prize because of its location on the Sea of Azov. So on the evening of Feb. 23, I headed there with my long-time colleague Evgeniy Maloletka, a Ukrainian photographer for The Associated Press, in his white Volkswagen van.

Maybe these guys deserve a prize.

Besides AP, there are hundreds of videos recorded by citizens, as well as satellite snapshots, personal accounts of evacuated refugees, and more.

What specific information are you skeptical of?

You can start with the telegram channel @mariupolnow