Associated Press journalist, photographer, cameraman, writer Mstislav Chernov and photojournalist Yauhen Malaletka won the Georgy Gongadze Prize.

An hour before the start of the full-scale war, they arrived in Mariupol and were almost the only journalists to cover the life of the city besieged by the Russian military.



For 20 days, journalists worked under fire to see the real "operation" of the Russian army: destroyed buildings, dying children, mass graves, bombing the maternity hospital.



What do we still not know about the defense of Mariupol and what is behind the scenes?

This and other things in an interview with the Ukrainian service of Radio Liberty with

Mstislav Chernov

and photojournalist

Eugene Malaletko.

Winners of the Georgy Gongadze Prize 2022: photographers Mstislav Chernov (left) and Eugene Malaletko

- Would you go to Mariupol now, already knowing what is happening there?



Mstislav Chernov

: Yes.

I think not only us.

If Ukrainian and international journalists knew what was going to happen in Mariupol, there would be many more people left.

We are the same as everyone else, it just so happened that we stayed last and just did our job.

They tried to survive and did their job.



We would go again, maybe even stay longer.

At least now I realize I needed to stay even longer.

Ukrainian rescuers and volunteers carry a pregnant woman who was injured in an air strike by the Russian military on the maternity hospital and children's hospital in Mariupol, March 9, 2022.

Photo by Eugene Malaletka

- Were you hunted by the Russian military?



Mstislav Chernov

: We knew that a large information campaign to discredit us was launched against us.

And, understanding the methods, we knew that falling into the hands of Russian soldiers is dangerous for life and for the journalism we were engaged in.



Eugene Malaletko

: We felt the media pressure, our names were everywhere.

We also received various messages on social networks and mail of an unfavorable nature.

I do not pay attention to it, because I still need to work, to tell what is happening.

Dwelling house in Mariupol after the shelling of the Russian military, March 11, 2022.

Photo by Eugene Malaletka

- How did you manage to hide, work and pass information from the blocked city?



Yauhen Malaletka

: It was difficult, because after a while the connection was sometimes cut off.

Sometimes in one point of the city the police and the communication service of Kyivstar established communication, connected a generator, and in one point in the center of the city distributed mobile communication and the Internet.

For some time it was possible to come to this place and send the material via mobile communication, but then this point came under fire and communication was no longer.



One of the police services helped us to establish communication, we came to them, they had satellite internet, we sent through them.

But those were the last days.

All the time before that we sent by hand.

Sometimes sitting under a mall where there is a connection.

You sit and the plane is spinning all the time.

You sit under the stairs with an outstretched hand with a mobile phone and just wait until the file is sent to get out of there quickly.

Associated Press photographer Yauhen Malaletka points to smoke rising after an air strike on a maternity hospital in Mariupol on March 9, 2022.

Photo by Mstislav Chernov

- What do we still not know about the defense of Mariupol?

What's left behind and why?



Mstislav Chernov

: One of the things that struck me most during the siege of Mariupol is how quickly the city plunged into chaos.

At first we did not understand why this happened.

When the ring around the city closed, when all communication with the outside world was cut off.

We didn’t understand why people lost hope so quickly, and then I understood.

This is precisely because they had no information, namely an information disaster.



There was a humanitarian catastrophe, there was a military catastrophe, but there was also an informational one, which was that people stopped understanding what was happening in the world, in Mariupol, with their relatives, with themselves.

This lack of information led to the despair of the people in Mariupol.

It was then that I realized how important the work of journalists is, how important information is for the world and for protection.

For people to stay and survive, they need not only food, they need information.

Pregnant Mariana Podgurskaya, who was injured in an air strike by the Russian military on the maternity hospital and children's hospital in Mariupol, March 9, 2022.

Photo by Mstislav Chernov

Ukrainian serviceman in Mariupol, March 12, 2022.

Photo by Mstislav Chernov

Consequences of the shelling of the children's hospital and maternity hospital in Mariupol, March 9, 2022.

Photo by Eugene Malaletka

The bodies of the dead civilians are being buried in a mass grave on the outskirts of Mariupol, as people are unable to bury their loved ones due to heavy shelling by Russian troops.

Mariupol, March 9, 2022.

Photo by Mstislav Chernov

Photo by Eugene Malaletka

A woman covers herself with a blanket near a damaged fire truck after the shelling in Mariupol on March 10, 2022

Ukrainian servicemen and civilians carry a wounded man who was injured during the shelling of a hospital in Mariupol by Russian servicemen on March 3, 2022

Associated Press photographer Yauhen Malaletka and a paramedic are helping a woman wounded during a large-scale Russian invasion.

Mariupol, March 2, 2022.

Photo by Mstislav Chernov

The doctor shows the bodies of children who died during the shelling of the hospital №3 in Mariupol, March 15, 2022.

Photo by Mstislav Chernov

People at the bomb shelter in Mariupol, March 6, 2022.

Photo by Eugene Malaletka

People at the bomb shelter in Mariupol, March 7, 2022

This is what the Azovstal plant in Mariupol looked like on March 7, 2022.

Photo by Mstislav Chernov

The full conversation in Ukrainian can be read here.