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Annual report 2022

2022 WAS A YEAR OF SHOCKS, FIGHTING BACK, AND VICTORIES

Russia’s full-scale invasion was one of the biggest crises in Ukrainian history. Businesses and government institutions, media professionals and experts, and Ukrainians around the country had to step out of their normal routines to save lives, adapt, and continue to work wherever necessary. Internews Ukraine managed to keep its team and projects going by reformatting its work to meet the challenges of the times.

We have been working all year to help bring victory closer with our expertise. Thus, we carried out 71 projects in 2022. We are also proud of the following numbers:

  • 98 media events held
  • 3173 participants brought in for these events
  • 192 videos created
  • 180 grants and small scholarships for journalists distributed
  • 9,908,606 users reached on Facebook and Instagram
  • 5,388 new followers on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter

Let's talk about what we did last year.

RESPONDED TO THE RUSSIAN INVASION OF UKRAINE

On March 9, 2022, together with Ukraine’s Ministry of Development of Communities and Territories, we organized an online press conference of mayors of Ukrainian cities for international journalists. It was an unprecedented event: in the midst of ongoing hostilities and bombing, community leaders from across the front told the world what was happening in their corners of the war.

80 journalists listened to speakers from Mariupol, Kharkiv, Sumy, Zhytomyr, and Trostyanets. At a time when fake news, disinformation, and Russian propaganda have flooded the world, foreign media learned the truth about Russia’s bombardments of peaceful cities, violations of international law, and war crimes, along with the humanitarian problems caused by Russia’s savage aggression.

We quickly adapted to wartime realities and put ourselves to work reaching foreign audiences: the team of the English-language UkraineWorld.org project have been publishing the truth about the Russian aggression in Ukraine almost round the clock.

Today, UkraineWorld is one of the largest sources of information about events in Ukraine for foreigners. During the year, its Twitter following increased tenfold, and now has more than 269,600 followers. Its monthly reach is 125 million.

UkraineWorld's Expaining Ukraine podcast was ranked among the top 6 English-language podcasts about Ukraine by The Guardian, and among the top 20 radio shows and podcasts about Ukraine by The Times. The project’s experts are quoted by influential foreign publications, including the Financial Times, Le Monde, Atlantic Council, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty.

In addition to the information front, we quickly joined the projects of assistance to refugees. In cooperation with the European Investment Bank, we produced and distributed not only communication products, but also goods of practical importance. Initially, this included sleeping bags that we handed out at railway stations, bomb shelters and in evacuation trains. We then made bedspreads, thermo mugs, and backpacks, which were distributed in schools and refugee shelters. We provided this aid in cities located near the front line and those which received a large number of internally displaced people, including Lutsk, Rivne, Lozova, and Kryvyi Rih. The European Commission posted photos and videos of the program on its portal, so now everyone can use these materials to show their assistance to Ukraine.

STRENGTHENED COMMUNICATION OF THE UKRAINIAN PARLIAMENT

In 2022, our team implemented the USAID Program RADA: Next Generation. It was designed to promote “next generation” reforms of Ukraine’s parliament, which will allow it to become a modern and effective institution for the democratic development of the country.

To support Ukrainian MPs in maintaining communications with their constituents during wartime, we:

  1. conducted eight strategic sessions in seven regions with the participation of MPs, their teams, local self-government bodies, NGOs, and professional communities to develop a roadmap for the activities of MPs in districts during wartime.
  2. conducted four Strategic communications in your district for MP staffs.
  3. developed a directory of international projects, programs, and organizations working in Ukraine for MPs.
  4. helped the Parliamentary Educational Center to hold 79 events for more than 30,000 participants on the basics of parliamentarism, international support for Ukraine, changes in admission to universities in 2022, the basics of cybersecurity, and psychological support.

We also created a network of parliamentary civic education centers at 40 educational institutions across 14 regions of Ukraine and developed a set of curricula for a course titled Our Parliament: Research, Understanding, and Influence for students of general secondary and extracurricular education institutions.

In addition, we provided expert support for parliamentary reform and European integration activities, as well as introduced a tool for the Rada to assess its own work: the Quality Index of the Legislative Process. It helps to evaluate the structure, consistency, balance, and transparency of the legislative process in accordance with international standards. They also helped the Verkhovna Rada fill out the questionnaire for Ukraine's accession to the EU.

After the full-scale invasion, we launched the Parliaments on the Frontline information digest. In the six months since the beginning of the aggression, 144 issues have been published in English, Spanish, and Ukrainian for 18,900 parliamentarians from 37 countries to inform and mobilize foreign parliaments and help Ukraine.

The USAID Rada: The Next Generation Program also introduced a number of new communication tools, including:

  • the promotion of the Verkhovna Rada’s messages to international audiences
  • daily messaging boxes
  • instructions for preparing communication support for official visits of foreign politicians and officials to the Verkhovna Rada (during wartime)
  • a structure for weekly reports by the communication units of the VRU Administration
  • editorial guidelines for managing the Verkhovna Rada’s social media accounts
  • a plan for advocacy about the genocide of the Ukrainian people and VR Draft Resolution No. 7276 designating Russia's action's in Ukraine as genocide.

We also developed a 12-month strategy for developing the Verkovna Rada’s social media presence (2022—2023). Throughout the year, we conducted workshops for Rada staff, where we taught them various tools to create an effective social media presence. In addition, we provided communication support to the Parliament, including producing teasers for the Rada’s social network pages, along with infographics and speech templates for speakers. All these efforts contributed to the Verkhovna Rada’s emergence on social media at a qualitatively new level, as evidenced by the significant growth in its pages’ followings and the reach of their posts. In 2022, the total number of followers of the VRU pages across all platforms (Facebook, Twitter, Telegram, and Instagram) during 2022 increased by 146% over the previous year.

Between the end of February and August 2022, the Rada’s official Facebook page (VRU) reached more than 23 million unique users. This is 10 times more than the previous six months. The total reach of the page for 2022 was more than 25.5 million users.

The number of subscribers on the Rada’s official Telegram channel increased from 8,000 to 409,000 during its peak in March 2022. In summer, the Rada’s channel ranked fourth among all Telegram channels in Ukraine.

COUNTERING PROPAGANDA AND MISINFORMATION

At the beginning of the full-scale invasion, our team launched the TikTok channel @his.facts to spread the truth and refute Russian propaganda among the residents of Belarus, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, and other post-Soviet countries. The channel organically gained 10,300 subscribers, 460,700 likes, and 8.4 million views. One video went viral, receiving 2.3 million views.

Another important project on the information front was our creation of an interactive map of cultural and historical ties between Ukraine and Europe. We showed the close and long-standing connections our country has with other countries in Europe, thereby debunking Russian claims about Ukraine and Russia are a “single nation.”Information about the project was distributed by regional media and national TV channels (Novy, Channel 24, STB, ICTV, and others) on their social media accounts. As part of the project, we also created a video teaser of this map, which was published by the Office of the Vice Prime Minister for European and Euro-Atlantic Integration, among others.

HELPED KEEP UKRAINIANS SAFE

In order to raise Ukrainians’ awareness about household safety, we worked with the State Emergency Service of Ukraine (SES) to develop and implement the Civilian Security information campaign.

During wartime, SES rescuers have been constantly and heroically working to save people and restore infrastructure. By being vigilant and safe around the house, Ukrainians can reduce the SES’s workload and, most importantly, help save lives. This call is reflected in the campaign’s slogan, “Watch out, and watch out for others!”

During the campaign’s first three weeks, its reach exceeded two million. Its infographics were disseminated on social media pages and websites of local self-government bodies, opinion leaders and media throughout Ukraine.

In 20 communities in seven oblasts of Ukraine (Volyn, Zhytomyr, Zakarpattya, Lviv, Odesa, Poltava, and Rivne), we installed billboards to remind Ukrainians of basic rules of civil security. In addition to outdoor advertising, we also conducted the campaign online, achieving a total reach with our videos and infographics of 5 million. Other communication products from the campaign included 45 articles in the media, 10,000 printed leaflets, and two practical guides (for civilians and community communicators). In addition, almost 100 members of local government received training on effective communication about security issues for residents of their communities.

Yulia Mishyna, Civilian Security Project Manager:

“This campaign is important for us because it informs Ukrainians that it is necessary to look after their everyday household safety. While the country is at war, we must take care of ourselves to allow our rescuers to focus on responding to the consequences of hostilities, restoring infrastructure, and other important missions. This is the contribution every Ukrainian can make to victory.

Over its 3 month duration, the campaign’s materials achieved a total reach of more than six million views. Our cooperation with the SES was very effective, as the Service showed a great deal of interest and provided us with expert support. For our part, we provided creativity and experimented with formats. As a result, the campaign’s infographics and videos received an incredible organic distribution and were shared around the Ukrainian internet. We have also received requests from other organizations, for example, for sign language translation of videos. Therefore, we hope that these important materials will be distributed in the future.

Our last webinar for community representatives unfortunately took place on a day when Russia carried out a massive missile salvo, and thus much of the audience was without reliable power or internet. We wrote to people to gather in groups in municipal council buildings or even in someone's home where there is an opportunity to connect to the webinar from one device, because it is important for them to listen to the training. It was very valuable to us".

ASSISTED WITH DIGITAL SECURITY

We mobilized the support of international donors to increase Ukrainian resilience against Russian disinformation and cyber threats. In November 2022, Internews Ukraine launched the Nadiyno.org digital security hotline.

This is the first support service in Central and Eastern Europe with digital security experts providing consultations in real time, free of charge, to anyone with questions about data and device protection, secure online communication, app reliability, digital security in the temporarily occupied territories, and more.

During the hotline’s first three months, Nadiyno operators responded to over 1000 requests. With its 189 articles on digital security, nadiyno.org has been visited by more than 76,000 users.

Kateryna Yudina, Team Leader of the Internews Ukraine NGO Project Unit:

"Ukraine is waging war not only at the front, but also in cyberspace. Unfortunately, Ukrainians’ awareness in the field of digital security is not very high, and because cyber threats are not readily visible, we are used to neglecting them. However, it is very important to be able to protect our data and devices. Realizing this, we tried to create a product that would help as many Ukrainians as possible.

Nadiyno's digital security hotline has live operators, so users can get real advice from real digital security experts. The service is totally free.

The project pays special attention to people living in temporarily occupied territories or in close proximity to the front line. We have already had real cases of operators helping people and even entire organizations in temporarily occupied territories.

For us as a team of digital security experts, this is a very important and ambitious project. Together with our partners, we created it from scratch in the span of just a few months. We are glad that the hotline has already helped over 1000 people, and we will keep helping more."

In addition, we are continuing to promote digital safety among members of the media, the public sector, and broader audiences. Thus, in 2022, 24 materials with our expertise were published in the Ukrainian media reaching over three million people.

Another important component of the fight on the information front is helping organizations beef up their digital security to match the threats of our times. Thus, our team held 12 consultations for Ukrainian Radio and First Channel in Kryvyi Rih, the IRTA Independent Television and Radio Company in Luhansk Oblast, the ABO Local Media Development Agency ABO operating in 45 cities, and other outlets and NGOs across Ukraine.

We also conducted two more digital security drills and examined Russian disinformation with nearly 50 journalists. Ukrainian fact-checkers exchanged their experiences in countering Russian fakes and propaganda with colleagues from Moldova and Georgia, who also face Russia's military and information aggression. Together, we learned about Russia’s propaganda narratives in different countries and ways to combat them.

STRENGTHENED NEWSROOMS AND WORKED WITH JOURNALISTS

Our work with journalists became especially important in 2022. We taught reporters how to document war crimes and counter digital dangers, supported regional editorial offices, held competitions, and helped create materials using grants.

As a result of our efforts, 71 journalists from 19 regional media outlets (in Chernihiv, Sumy, Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia, Mykolaiv, Kharkiv, and Dnipropetrovsk Oblasts) received the technical support they needed to continue or resume activities, including laptops, cameras, microphones, protective equipment, power banks, telephones, and more. We also implemented a comprehensive media support program, under which 30 regional outlets received consultations on digital security and installed protection against DDoS attacks.

The competition of special projects that we organized helped provide exposure to 72 materials, which garnered a total of 1,572,855 views. The 50 materials about life in wartime for which we provided grants earned 1,111,309 total views.

We conducted webinars on war journalism, digital security consultations, screening sessions for a war journalist mental health support program, and webinars on journalists’ mental health.

Oleksandra Panova, Team Leader of the Internews Ukraine NGO Project Unit:

“Thanks to our cooperation with the Ukrainian Rapid Response Fund, we were able to support Ukrainian regional media outlets in the first months of the full-scale invasion. In this project, we purchased UAH 1,300,000 worth of reporting equipment and protective gear and distributed supplies, helmets, and bulletproof vests to media outlets from frontline regions.

We also funded the creation of high-quality content about life in the frontline territories and helped local media there to not just survive, but to overcome the challenges of wartime. This includes audience development, helping keep reporting teams together, and training young journalists. We also provided training on how to report during war, including how to interview sensitive groups, collect information, record war crimes, and adhere to information security practices. We also emphasized the importance of journalists receiving psychological support.”

We adapted our regional media mentoring program at the beginning of the war to meet the realities of time: in addition to the publications we were previously supporting (Mayak from Odessa, Gwara Media from Kharkiv, and Svoyi.City from Bakhmut), we added five more: Skhidnyy variant (Donetsk and Luhansk Oblasts), Rayon.in.ua (Volyn Oblast), 18000 (Cherkasy Oblast), Pershyy Kryvorizkyy (Dnipropetrovsk Oblast), and Chas Chernihivskyy (Chernihiv Oblast). These outlets had their focus shifted to reporting on the war. In total, with our support, 94 materials were created, with a total reach of more than 2,900,000.

“Strong Media — Strong Society” was another project that helped strengthen regional media in the East and South of Ukraine in this difficult time. It helped beginner journalists take their first career steps and contributed to the creation of more than 450 high-quality media materials on socially important topics, reaching 500,000 people. This comprehensive program strengthened the staff, communication, and digital capacity of regional outlets through its job program for novice journalists, a series of expert consultations for media partners, and exchanges between media professionals from the East and West of Ukraine.

To help these outlets to adapt their work to wartime, we conducted six workshops with the involvement of nine experts, as well as six meetings with media partners. The instructors were experts from major Ukrainian and global media companies. The project helped Ukrainian regional media gain international recognition, as a story from Biliaivka.City was cited by The Guardian, and texts from Rubryka were cited by Transitions Magazine.

As part of another emergency media support program, 9 editorial offices from the regions that were most affected by the war received partial coverage of journalists' salaries and equipment. Most importantly, we helped to create 13 information hubs in various oblasts to provide relevant information for local communities.

Responding to the challenges of the time, we developed and distributed a comprehensive document to help journalists under Russian occupation. The guide was received by 2628 members of regional media from a list of Internews Ukraine’s reliable and trusted partners.

Our team also keeps abreast of world events, as our journalists traveled to Bali (Indonesia) to cover the 17th G20 Summit of Heads of State and Government. Journalists reported on the fall of missiles on Polish territory, US-China talks, and the prerequisites of a Ukrainian-Russian peace treaty.

HELPED REPORT ON RUSSIA’S ENVIRONMENTAL CRIMES

Environmental problems have always been acute in Ukraine, but the Russian invasion has made them catastrophic. We held an online discussion titled “Ecological Chronicles: How the Russian Invasion Affects the Environment of Ukraine.” Participants of the discussion were invited to take part in a grant competition to receive financial support for preparing materials on the topic. Over the course of two months, they prepared 48 materials on the impact of the war on the environment and the environmental situation in Ukraine.

And this is just the beginning. In 2023, we are continuing our work on this topic, helping to record Russia’s crimes and raising the standards of environmental journalism in Ukraine.

DEVELOPED AND IMPLEMENTED IMPORTANT COMMUNICATION CAMPAIGNS

In the project “Advocacy for Strengthening Tobacco Control Policies and their Implementation to Protect People from the Harm of Tobacco,” we created 10 articles, 80 social media posts, six radio reports, and three videos, which in total received 3,970,191 unique views/listens and caused active discussions in society. One outlet’s editor-in-chief even decided to quit smoking as a result of the project.

In the communication campaign, we created 47 social media posts (58,704 interactions) and 8 articles for media (40,258 views). In addition, we produced 1,800 professional development journals and 1,200 posters, which were received by 42 centers for advanced teacher training and 8 institutes of postgraduate education. Professional development diaries received positive feedback from the teacher community: the request exceeded the circulation several times.

As part of the Ukrainian language as a language of the interethnic communication campaign, we held an online educational marathon titled “Learn and study during the war” in Chernivtsi and Transcarpathia Oblasts, which consisted of 11 events. The campaign’s video materials for the Chernivtsi Oblast garnered 122,980 views, while videos for Transcarpathia Oblast got 153,757.

In campaigns to raise awareness about the Medical Guarantee Program, we published 329 social media posts and 153 materials in Ukrainian and international media. These texts explained how Ukrainians can free medical services through the program even during wartime. We also conducted 12 consultations for patient advocacy NGOs, where we taught them to communicate more effectively with their audiences. The total reach of the communication campaign was 8,100,000 views.

In the #Cashless communication campaign, the NBU created a multimedia material for Ukrainian news media, an audio advertisement, and three 10-minute interviews with experts on the radio. The purpose of the campaign was to promote non-cash payments, and it told audiences about electronic payment methods, their advantages, and basic safety rules for using them. The total reach of the information campaign was more than 2,585,000.

In a communication campaign to protect the rights of financial services customers, the NBU created 2 articles for leading Ukrainian online publications, audio and visual advertising, 64 billboards, 73 citylights and 2094 posters.

In the project Strengthening national mechanisms for preventing and responding to gender-based violence, including in humanitarian situations, our team supported 40 youth centers. We developed social media posts, created registration and evaluation forms for workshops in these centers, prepared a training program, conducted live broadcasts (1597 users) and online psychological events together with influencers, as well as StandUp trainings on preventing street harassment (579 participants from 11 educational institutions). We also circulated 450,000 informational leaflets.

STRENGTHENING THE CAPACITY OF WOMEN

We have been implementing the UN Women project, "Strengthening the capacity of young women from target communities of Donetsk and Luhansk Oblasts to promote the Women. Peace. Safety at the local level agenda" since 2021. Since the beginning of the full-scale invasion, the project has become nationwide. Currently, we have more than 60 active participants in each region, who formed the informal organization Young Leaders of Peacebuilding of Ukraine. We also helped develop the project’s social media presence from scratch and published several special projects in the Ukrainian media.

In December, members of the Network of Young Peacebuilding Leaders of Donetsk and Luhansk Oblasts launched an interactive educational platform on combating gender-based violence as part of the nationwide action 16 Days Against Violence campaign.

WINNING

2022 brought us several victories we are proud of. The Explaining Ukraine podcast was shortlisted at the 2022 Kyiv International Advertising Festival. Our ARTIFAKE Part 1: News Factory comic won the top prize for Media Freedom and Responsible Informing at the prestigious European Emerging Europe Awards 2022. The organizers had high praise for its creative approach in using a comic as a media literacy tool.

In addition, the ARTIFAKE project was shortlisted for the Kyiv International Advertising Festival 2022.