Mstyslav Chernov
Mstyslav Chernov was selected for the 2023 Shortlist with ‘Why? Why? Why?’ Ukraine’s Mariupol descends into despair.
AP video journalist Chernov is a Ukrainian-born photographer, photojournalist, and filmmaker. Chernov began working for the Associated Press in 2014, covering the Ukrainian war, then the European migration crisis. He has traveled to more than 50 countries in Europe, Asia and the Middle East. He has won number international awards for his work, including the George Polk Award for War Reporting, Bayeux Calvados-Normandy awards, the Deutsche Welle Freedom of Speech Award and the Royal Television Society Camera Operator of the Year award. He also directed the AP-Frontline documentary “20 Days in Mariupol,” which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival and won the coveted World Cinema Documentary Competition Audience Award. Chernov and his colleague Evegeniy Maloletka were the last international journalists in Mariupol when Russian troops attacked. Driving a van with windows blown out by explosions, snatching a bit of battery power where they can to file videos and photos, and checking in during rare moments when there was enough of a network signal, the two journalists were the world’s only eyes on a city that was my to the Russian attack on Ukraine.
Elena Kostyuchenko
Elena Kostyuchenko was selected for the 2023 Shortlist with Mykolaiv.
Elena Kostyuchenko is a Russian independent journalist. For 17 years she was a special correspondent of Novaya Gazeta, till the newspaper was shut down by Russian authorities in April 2022. She reported on conflict, crime, and social issues. Kostyuchenko was among the first to write about the presence of Russian troops in eastern Ukraine. She covered the Russian invasion of Ukraine from the second day of the war. She is also the author of two collections, Unwanted on Probation and It’s Us Who Will Live Here. Her work was acknowledged with multiple awards including European Press Prize, the Gerd Bucerius Award-Free Press of Eastern Europe, and Paul Klebnikov Prize.