Fortunately, but not surprisingly, the movie Oppenheimer won best picture and many others awards at the Academy Awards tonight. The Oscars aren’t what they used to be in importance, which is fine, because they have always been a marketing tool in a vacuous, shallow and often odious context. They, and the industry, have been an important part of the dumbing down and numbing enabling of the culture.

Of course we love film, and have used it as a major part of our work from the outset.

So here’s the other side.

Film can be magnificently informing and activating as an art form. Yes, it can go either way, with Leni Riefenstahl captivating audiences in the cult of Hitler in the 1930s in Olympiad and Triumph of the Will, with some of her fellow artists to this day stumbling over their tongues in repulsive rationalizations about the greatness of her art despite it being in service of the Nazis (sound familiar?).

But there also have been many examples of informing of truth, changing public awareness, bringing inspiration to follow and sacrifice for universal values and ideals and even bringing positive change in public policy.

That was our hope the last time two of us made the rounds late night in LA to Oscar events after Spotlight had won best picture.

And going back to an example related to Oppenheimer winning tonight, the whole country it seemed saw The Day After in 1983, and it was an important part of changing the world on the issue of nuclear weapons.

Which, as we pointed out in our last post, needs to happen now more than ever. Oppenheimer created nuclear weapons and most people before this movie came out didn’t have a clue who he was even though he had been famous for many years (before being defamed by McCarthyism). Another proud milestone of the times we live in. No one knows anything. Which is one reason and measure of why someone who praised Hitler for doing some good things will be one of the two major party candidates for President of the US. The director of the movie, Christopher Nolan, called Oppenheimer the most important person who ever lived. Wait, what? What about Jesus? (And others). Well, the writer here thinks Jesus would have agreed with Nolan.

The Russian aggression in Ukraine has raised the spectre of the use of nuclear weapons as nothing else since the Cold War. But it’s worth mentioning that even then, even when the superpowers confronted each other indirectly in hot wars that threatened to escalate to the nuclear level, they developed channels of communication to prevent this and increasingly carried on talks on nuclear arms reduction that had success. Having nuclear weapons at all was and is an insane risk that has almost taken us all out more than once. But it was better then, when arms reduction talks and treaties were happening even while enemies were enabling the killing of each other, than now.

There was another crucial film at the Oscars which received the award for best feature documentary–about the Russian aggression in Ukraine, 20 Days in Mariupol. Produced by the Associated Press and Frontline of PBS, the longest running and finest documentary TV series in the world, as anyone who has followed us knows is our view.

This post will focus on that.

As in Hitler’s time, we have reached a level of know-nothingism and isolationism (holding-up aid to Ukraine) that unless things change, will guarantee World War Three–and the use of nuclear weapons–which is a threat by definition (and just plain outright theatened by the Russians) in Ukraine.

The Ukrainian refugees and activists we met and interviewed at the beginning of the war, mostly led by progressive young women, had everythting to teach the rest of us. They understand and oppose nuclear weapons just as they understand that Putin’s threat to use them is a blackmail that if ever given into would guarantee their use. Humans, much less nations and treaty organizations, are not in the end simply going to accept, in effect, slavery in service of the reinstitution of the Soviet Empire by a racist, sexist, homophobic murderer. And he’s not the only one with nukes. And besides the go-ahead for world-wide invasions at whim that not stopping the Russian aggression would provoke, there’s this other little inconvenient horror. The Ukrainians had a huge nuclear arsenal at the end of the Cold War. When they voted overwhelmingly to form their own independent nation after years of Soviet domination, they agreed to give up these weapons with guarantees by the US, NATO and Russia that their sovereignty would never be threatened.

If they’d kept the nukes, it wouldn’t have been. And so goes the lesson for everyone else in the world. Nuke up. It’s the only “safe” thing to do. Except this proliferation of nukes inevitably brings the use of them closer. Short term gain, long term eradication.

The Ukrainan refugees and activists we met with and interviewed were pacifists in the main until forced to fight to save their children, their nation and possibly the world. They reminded of the words of the Irish revolutionary Michael Collins when he said the thing he hated most about the British was that they had forced him to pick up a gun. When we interviewed many of the Ukrainian women in Berlin–the center of Ukrainian refugee activism–at a protest against the rape of children, women and men by Russian soldiers, looking at a young woman protester in the eyes interviewed by the woman in our crew whose bond with her was palpable, revealed the tears in all of our eyes as she spoke of the horrors inflicted on her and so many others.

She thanked us for what we were doing.

It was we who owed her all the thanks.

Then she added that she had been trying to reach her father in Mariupol, and was nearly out of hope of doing so.

Stunned silence.

Mariupol.

The name in the headlines every day.

The name that had become synonymous with the brutality of a criminal state invading another sovereign state and inflicting every kind of unspeakable cruelty.

And synonymous with unrelenting resistance to the death.

The Ukrainian director Mstyslav Chernov said in his acceptance speech for 20 Days in Mariupol, the first Ukrainian film to win an Oscar:

“I’ll be the first director on this stage who will say, ‘I wish I never made this film.’”

Chernov, a video journalist for The Associated Press, filmed the start of the Russian invasion and the destruction Mariupol endured. Chernov and his crew barely got out of Mariupol alive.

“I wish to be able to exchange this to Russia never attacking Ukraine,” Chernov said.

“We can make sure that the history record is set straight and that the truth will prevail and that the people of Mariupol and those who have given their lives will never be forgotten.”

Here is the transcript and link to view the Academy Award winner for feature documentary, 20 Days in Mariupol.

Frontline online Introduction:

Academy Award^® Winner: Documentary Feature Film
BAFTA Award Winner: Best Documentary

An AP team of Ukrainian journalists trapped in the besieged city of Mariupol struggle to continue their work documenting atrocities of the Russian invasion. As the only international reporters who remain in the city as Russian forces close in, they capture what become some of the most defining images of the war: dying children, mass graves, the bombing of a maternity hospital, and more.

After nearly a decade covering international conflicts, including the Russia-Ukraine war, for The Associated Press, Mstyslav Chernov makes his feature film debut with 20 Days in Mariupol. The film draws on Chernov’s daily news dispatches and personal footage of his own country at war. It offers a vivid, harrowing account of civilians caught in the siege, as well as a window into what it’s like to report from a conflict zone, and the impact of such journalism around the globe.

Made in partnership with The Associated Press, 20 Days in Mariupol has had a decorated run on the 2023 film festival circuit — including winning the Sundance Film Festival Audience Award for World Cinema Documentary and the Tim Hetherington Award at Sheffield Film Festival. The film was also honored with DocEdge Film Festival’s awards for “Best International Director” and “Best International Editing.”

TRANSCRIPT:

20 Days in Mariupol

VIEW FILM

This program contains graphic imagery of war, which may not be suitable for all audiences. Viewer discretion is advised.

MALE POLICE OFFICER:

[Speaking Russian] Signal 112, over. Signal 112, over. Signal, by Hospital No. 2 there are tanks with the letter “Z.”

MALE VOICE [on radio]:

[Speaking Russian] Did you see it?

MALE POLICE OFFICER:

[Speaking Russian] I saw it myself, with my own eyes. I have a visual on it myself, by Hospital No. 2. Opposite the church, where the buses are parked. Tanks have entered, with the letter “Z.”

MSTYSLAV CHERNOV, Correspondent: 

[Speaking Russian] Film it.

[Speaking English] This is the first time I saw Z, the Russian sign of war. The hospital is surrounded. Dozens of doctors, hundreds of patients and us.

MALE POLICE OFFICER:

[Speaking Russian] Yes. I am with the journalists. Yes, I’m with the journalists.

MSTYSLAV CHERNOV:

I have no illusions about what will happen to us if we are caught.

EVGENIY MALOLETKA, Photographer:

They’re turning the cannons.

MSTYSLAV CHERNOV:

[Speaking Russian] Quickly. Quickly.

Day 1

MSTYSLAV CHERNOV:

Feb. 24, 2022. The city looks normal.

MSTYSLAV CHERNOV:

Someone once told me wars don’t start with explosions; they start with silence.

MSTYSLAV CHERNOV:

When we realized that the invasion was imminent, our team decided to go to Mariupol. We were sure it would be one of the main targets. But we could never imagine the scale, and that the whole country would be under attack.

VLADIMIR PUTIN:

[Speaking Russian] I have made the decision to carry out a special military operation. We are not planning to occupy Ukrainian territories. We are not going to impose anything on anyone by force. Our actions are self-defense against threats posed to us and from an even greater disaster than what is happening today.

MSTYSLAV CHERNOV:

An hour after we arrive, the first bombs hit in the outskirts of the city: a military base with anti-aircraft systems. Russians are clearing the path for warplanes.

Huge port, industrial city, a bridge to Crimea. We were here eight years ago when Russia tried to take it. And without a doubt, they will try again.

We drive to the Left Bank, the part of the city closest to Russia.

WOMAN ON STREET:

[Speaking Russian] My son is at work. I’m alone. Where should I run? Where should I hide? Where? Please tell me! [Cries]

MSTYSLAV CHERNOV:

This is the first person I speak to today.

[Speaking Russian] Go sit in the basement, go home.

[Speaking English] I don’t know if I should keep filming or try to calm her down.

[Speaking Russian] Go home, stay home. They don’t shoot at civilians, go home. Go home, don’t run anywhere.

WOMAN ON STREET:

[Speaking Russian] I’m waiting for my son. He should come soon from work.

MSTYSLAV CHERNOV:

[Speaking Russian] Go home, he will come home from work.

WOMAN ON STREET:

[Speaking Russian] Do you think a missile won’t hit the house?

MSTYSLAV CHERNOV:

[Speaking Russian] No, it won’t. Go to the basement and stay there.

WOMAN IN ALLEY:

[Speaking Russian] Hold on, f—, stop throwing.

MSTYSLAV CHERNOV:

I was wrong. An hour later, shells do hit this neighborhood.

MAN IN ALLEY:

[Speaking Russian] Something hit over there and started to burn.

WOMAN IN ALLEY:

[Speaking Russian] And it stank and stank.

MSTYSLAV CHERNOV:

[Speaking Russian] So hmm. Is there a possibility that Mariupol will come under the control of the Russian Federation?

MAN IN ALLEY:

[Speaking Russian] It’s possible. I’d really rather it not. I really don’t want that.

MSTYSLAV CHERNOV:

[Speaking Russian] What is it that you don’t want?

MAN IN ALLEY:

[Speaking Russian] I want to live in Ukraine, in peace and quiet. I watched Putin’s speech online today, f—. Where he tells his citizens beautifully, so beautifully, that it’s absolutely necessary to attack Ukraine. Because otherwise Ukraine will attack Russia first. Insanity.

UKRAINIAN GOVERNMENT ANNOUNCEMENT:

[Speaking Russian] Dear citizens of Ukraine. Martial law has been imposed in the state. This is a necessary step for the security of the country and our victory. Keep calm. Strictly follow the instructions of the military and local authorities in your cities and do not succumb to hostile misinformation.

YOUNG BOY: 

[Speaking Russian] Our windows were hit.

MSTYSLAV CHERNOV:

There are no directives to evacuate the city. But some people are leaving anyway.

FEMALE EVACUEE:

[Speaking Russian] They destroyed, plundered everything. I had to leave my house, to leave everything that I own. What is this? Don’t run after me. That’s it.

MSTYSLAV CHERNOV:

[Speaking Russian] What’s your name?

FEMALE EVACUEE:

[Speaking Russian] I have no name.

MSTYSLAV CHERNOV:

[Speaking Russian] Tell your first name and patronymic at least.

FEMALE EVACUEE:

[Speaking Russian] No.

MSTYSLAV CHERNOV:

[Speaking Russian] What’s your name?

MALE EVACUEE:

[Speaking Russian] F— you, prostitute.

MSTYSLAV CHERNOV:

I understand their anger. Their country is being attacked. It’s our country, too, and we have to tell its story.

There are almost no real bomb shelters in the city, so people hide in the basements of their apartment buildings. Suddenly, the lights go out.

FEMALE SPEAKER 1:

[Speaking Russian] Oh, Mom, don’t worry please, don’t worry. Everything is fine, OK? OK, bye.

FEMALE VOICE:

[Speaking Russian] Everything will pass.

MSTYSLAV CHERNOV:

[Speaking Russian] Why are you upset?

YOUNG GIRL: 

[Speaking Russian] I don’t want to die. I wish it would all end soon. [Cries] I woke up from—from bombings today. And I realized that the war started.

MSTYSLAV CHERNOV:

We send videos and photos to our editors. The war has begun.

MALE NEWSREADER:

Ukraine is now a nation at war.

MALE NEWSREADER:

A hundred and ninety thousand Russian troops and their proxies coming from Ukraine’s northern, eastern and southern borders.

MALE NEWSREADER:

Russia is moving fast.

MALE NEWSREADER:

After Putin stopped speaking, on cue, the missiles and airstrikes began.

FEMALE NEWSREADER:

Air raid sirens sounded on and off. Kharkiv in the east and Mariupol in the south both came under heavy fire.

MALE NEWSREADER:

There’s real anger in the air. The hatred for Vladimir Putin is palpable.

Day 3

FEMALE VOICE ON LOUDSPEAKER:

[Speaking Russian] The Ukrainian forces forces have destroyed military vehicles, transport and soldiers of the Russian Federation—

MSTYSLAV CHERNOV:

February 26th. This is emergency broadcast system. Russians are starting to surround the city, taking towns and blocking the roads on the outskirts. A quarter of the residents have left, but most decided to stay.

This is TerraSport Fitness Center. Now it’s one of the biggest improvised shelters in the city. People put tape on the mirrors so fewer fragments are created when bombs fall.

YOUNG MOTHER:

[Speaking Russian] I’m worried not for myself, but for my child. If I didn’t have a child, I would be at home. I’m scared for my child, who has barely lived. What did we do to deserve this? What are these people guilty of? I don’t understand why this is happening. This is trash.

MSTYSLAV CHERNOV:

This woman. She’s the one I told to stay home on the first day.

FEMALE SPEAKER:

[Speaking Russian] You told me to go home. “They will not shoot at civilians.” And I came home. And then they hit.

MSTYSLAV CHERNOV:

I apologize. I’m glad she’s OK.

WOMAN’S VOICE:

[Speaking Russian] Go sleep with Lilya.

CHILD’S VOICE: 

[Speaking Russian] I don’t want to.

MSTYSLAV CHERNOV:

As I look at all these children I think about my daughters. They also have to leave their home because of this war. News comes from all over Ukraine, and I cannot get over the feeling that something terrible is going to happen to this city.

MALE NEWSREADER:

Missiles fired at civilian locations according to the Ukrainians, even though the Russians say they are not targeting civilians.

MALE NEWSREADER:

Their worst nightmare coming true, thousands of citizens are trying to flee the country. And those who are left behind have filled bomb shelters amid fears of rocket attacks overnight.

MALE NEWSREADER:

Ukrainian soldiers like these have put up a stout defense of Mariupol because as a large port it’s economically vital and as a major city just 30 miles from Russia it’s strategic. For both sides in this war, it is quite a prize.

Day 4

MSTYSLAV CHERNOV:

February 27th. Soldiers are patrolling around Emergency Hospital No. 2, a couple kilometers from the front line on the edge of the city. So far, Russians have not been able to break through.

MALE SOLDIER 1: 

[Speaking Russian] A plane! Hide!

MSTYSLAV CHERNOV:

For the first time in Mariupol I hear a sound of a fighter jet.

MALE SOLDIER 2: 

[Speaking Russian] Zhenya says there was an explosion in the sky. An airplane.

MSTYSLAV CHERNOV:

The soldiers are tense and don’t want to be filmed.

MALE SOLDIER 3:

[Speaking Russian] Do you have a journalist badge?

MSTYSLAV CHERNOV:

[Speaking Russian] Yes.

MALE SOLDIER 3:

[Speaking Russian] Don’t film. Please.

MSTYSLAV CHERNOV:

[Speaking Russian] Understand, this a historical war.

EVGENIY MALOLETKA:

[Speaking Russian] To not document is—

MSTYSLAV CHERNOV:

[Speaking Russian] To not document it is impossible.

[Speaking English] We’re interrupted by an ambulance siren.

MALE PARAMEDIC 1:

[Speaking Russian] We need CPR. It’s a kid, a kid.

INJURED GIRL’S MOTHER:

[Speaking Russian] My baby. Oh, God. [Cries]

MALE PARAMEDIC 1:

[Speaking Russian] —7, 8, 9, 10.

MALE HOSPITAL STAFF:

[Speaking Russian] Sanya, Sanya, let’s move her to the gurney. Bring her out, bring her here. Come on! Go faster!

INJURED GIRL’S MOTHER:

[Speaking Russian] Please save my child!

MALE HOSPITAL STAFF:

[Speaking Russian] Go!

MALE PARAMEDIC 1:

[Speaking Russian] Breathe, breathe, breathe.

FEMALE NURSE: 

[Speaking Russian] Here are the small kits.

MALE DOCTOR:

[Speaking Russian] And a pediatric intubation stylet.

FEMALE NURSE:

[Speaking Russian] 4.5. With the stylet. Stylet.

MALE DOCTOR:

[Speaking Russian] The second adrenaline.

Film how these motherf—— are killing civilians. Show this Putin bastard the eyes of this child and all these doctors who are crying. Rotting bastard. That’s how he saves people. Show it. It’s good that there’s press here. Keep filming.

MALE DOCTOR 2:

[Speaking Russian] Everyone stand back.

MSTYSLAV CHERNOV:

Evangelina, 4 years old.

MALE NEWSREADER:

U.S. officials warn that Russian forces are turning to their old and brutal tactics of laying siege to cities while targeting civilians and infrastructure from afar.

MALE NEWSREADER:

—these punishing artillery and airstrikes, heavy losses as indiscriminate shelling rain down on apartment buildings, the university in flames.

MALE NEWSREADER:

“Show this to Putin!” a doctor said to an AP reporter. The doctor wanted Vladimir Putin to see, quote, “the eyes of this child and crying doctors.”

MALE NEWSREADER:

Anyone wanting to leave Mariupol probably has to hit the road by tomorrow, after which the last route out is expected to close.

Day 7 

FEMALE PARAMEDIC: 

[Speaking Russian] No, it’s not charging at all.

MSTYSLAV CHERNOV:

March 2nd. Russian strikes are causing problems with internet and electricity.

MALE PARAMEDIC:

[Speaking Russian] Give me the helmet.

FEMALE PARAMEDIC:

[Speaking Russian] Give me my stethoscope.

MSTYSLAV CHERNOV:

All the international journalists we met in Mariupol have left, but we decide to stick with the medics for a few days. We drive to the Left Bank, where the heaviest fighting is happening.

MALE PARAMEDIC:

[Speaking Russian] What apartment?

FEMALE PARAMEDIC:

[Speaking Russian] 55.

MSTYSLAV CHERNOV:

This woman was standing on her balcony when the shell hit the house on the opposite side of the street. But shells don’t just hit the Left Bank. These days, attacks happen all across the city.

[Speaking Russian] Tell us what happened on Kirova Street.

MALE PARAMEDIC:

[Speaking Russian] Missiles hit and there were lots of victims. Cars burned up, there was lots of shrapnel.

MSTYSLAV CHERNOV:

[Speaking Russian] The Russian Federation claims that it does not shoot civilians.

MALE PARAMEDIC:

[Speaking Russian] Well, we only had civilians in our courtyard. I didn’t see any soldiers.

MALE DOCTOR:

[Speaking Russian] Check her pressure. Here, come with me. Should we say more? A young man. These are local residents after the shelling of the Kirov district, an ordinary quiet district.

Were you outside? Were you caught in the shelling?

FEMALE BOMBING VICTIM:

[Speaking Russian] Yes.

MALE DOCTOR:

[Speaking Russian] Vein, insert it in the vein. Did you get her name? She has an open scalp wound.

Here, look. Look, see? Film this.

PARAMEDICS [in unison]:

[Speaking Russian] One, two, three!

MALE PARAMEDIC 1:

[Speaking Russian] Come on! Let’s go, let’s go. Let’s go.

FEMALE NURSE:

[Speaking Russian] Are these Kirov district residents?

MALE PARAMEDIC 2:

[Speaking Russian] Yes, yes, all of them.

We need help. Where, where should we bring him?

MALE VOICE:

[Speaking Russian] To the operating room. Go get the second one.

FATHER OF BOMBING VICTIM:

[Speaking Russian] My son. My poor son. [Cries] They were next to the school.

MALE VOICE:

[Speaking Russian] Next to which school?

FATHER OF BOMBING VICTIM:

[Speaking Russian] School No. 29. Sixteen years old.

MSTYSLAV CHERNOV:

The boy was playing soccer with his friends when shelling started. His legs were completely blown off.

FATHER OF BOMBING VICTIM:

[Speaking Russian] Son, son, son, son! [Cries] My son. [Cries]

MSTYSLAV CHERNOV:

Ilya, 16 years old.

The front line is closing in. We’ve sent all the photos and videos. Note to editors: “graphic content.” This is painful. This is painful to watch. But it must be painful to watch.

MALE NEWSREADER:

In the port city of Mariupol, local officials say hundreds of casualties are now feared.

MALE NEWSREADER:

A father lost in grief over the body of his 16-year-old son Ilya.

MALE NEWSREADER:

The electricity’s gone. The internet’s gone. The Russians are coming. Mariupol awaits its fate.

Day 8

MSTYSLAV CHERNOV:

March 3rd.

FEMALE VOICE:

[Speaking Russian] Lie down! Lie down!

MSTYSLAV CHERNOV:

The shelling has reached the neighborhood around the hospital.

MALE VOICE:

[Speaking Russian] Stay down, stay down. Don’t get up.

FEMALE SPEAKER 1:

[Speaking Russian] Mom, everything is OK. Stay down and don’t move. I beg you. You are the most important thing to me. Think about us. I beg you, stay down. Girls, lie down.

FEMALE SPEAKER 2:

[Speaking Russian] God save us.

MSTYSLAV CHERNOV:

Patients are moved away from the windows. And day after day, the conditions in the hospital get worse.

This is one of the boys who was hit while playing soccer. Doctors smile at him. But I hear a whisper that his leg may need to be amputated. There are almost no antibiotics left to stop the sepsis.

MALE BOMBING VICTIM:

[Speaking Russian] Ow, my leg!

MALE DOCTOR:

[Speaking Russian] The one you have, or the one you don’t have?

MALE BOMBING VICTIM:

[Speaking Russian] The one I have.

MALE DOCTOR:

[Speaking Russian] We continue to work without electricity, water and heat. There are some issues with supplies. Particularly, not enough painkillers. Anyway, that’s how we’ve been at the workplace for over a week now. Some even more. We continue to work.

MSTYSLAV CHERNOV:

The internet and phones have stopped working, and I’m sending short dispatches to our editors over the satellite phone.

The morgue is full, so doctors store bodies in utility rooms.

MAN PUSHING STRETCHER:

[Speaking Russian] Let’s go through. Gently.

MSTYSLAV CHERNOV:

We stay and sleep in the hospital. So far it seems to be the safest place.

FEMALE PARAMEDIC 1:

[Speaking Russian] Shelling, shelling. [Laughs]

MALE PARAMEDIC 1:

[Speaking Russian] OK, guys, keep calm.

FEMALE PARAMEDIC 2:

[Speaking Russian] We are nothing but calm.

FEMALE PARAMEDIC 1:

[Speaking Russian] [Laughs] The whole world fell apart and we are just standing here and smoking.

MALE PARAMEDIC 2:

[Speaking Russian] It didn’t fall apart.

FEMALE PARAMEDIC 1:

[Speaking Russian] Yet.

Day 9 

MSTYSLAV CHERNOV:

From our observation point on the seventh floor of the hospital I see the battle on the front line continues. Russians are still trying to break into the city.

MOTHER OF BOMBING VICTIM:

[Speaking Russian] Trauma? Please, his head is bleeding! What do we do?

MALE VOICE 1:

[Speaking Russian] Did you call for guys from ICU?

FEMALE NURSE:

[Speaking Russian] There is no heartbeat.

MALE VOICE 2:

[Speaking Russian] Everyone is already here.

MSTYSLAV CHERNOV:

Kyryl, 18 months old.

FEMALE NURSE:

[Speaking Russian] Set the defibrillator to blue.

FEMALE DOCTOR 1:

[Speaking Russian] Let’s try one more time.

FEMALE DOCTOR 2:

[Speaking Russian] Yes, try again.

FEMALE NURSE:

[Speaking Russian] The heart. Oh, my God.

MOTHER OF BOMBING VICTIM:

[Speaking Russian] No! You couldn’t save him? How? Oh, my God. [Cries] But why? Why? Why?

MSTYSLAV CHERNOV:

All night we sit on the seventh floor of the hospital hoping to catch a connection, to find a way to get these images out. Nothing works.

I think about all this country has been through over the past eight years. All that I’ve filmed. Revolution of Dignity. Crimea’s annexation. Russia’s invasion of Donbas. MH17. Donetsk Airport siege. War that seems endless. Thousands have died. We keep filming. And things stay the same—worse, even. Propaganda turns everything upside down.

I think about my daughters. They were born into a world at war. I wish I could see them now, but all I have is a satellite phone to make short calls to editors. We tell them Mariupol is under siege. Russians are killing civilians. We are holding up. Tell our families we love them.

FEMALE NEWSREADER:

Evacuations of two besieged cities in Ukraine are being delayed amid reports that Russia is violating a temporary ceasefire.

SERGEI ORLOV, Deputy mayor of Mariupol:

The city is surrounded by Russian troops, and there is no way out, even for any humanitarian help.

MALE REPORTER:

The situation is really dire in Mariupol. A corridor was planned to evacuate people from there, and we’ve heard that it has not happened, that Russian forces have continued to shell the city. That’s what the mayor has said. We have no real-time information of what’s going on in the city.

Day 11

MALE VOICE [on radio]:

[Speaking Russian] The city of Mariupol is blockaded from all sides. You are completely surrounded. We don’t want unnecessary sacrifices. You are given the opportunity to walk away from war hostilities. Voluntarily lay down your arms.

MSTYSLAV CHERNOV:

This is the only radio signal you can catch in Mariupol now. Over the next weeks Russia will bomb buildings, cut electricity, water, supplies and finally, crucially, the cellphone, radio, television towers.

We have to get out of the hospital to try to find a connection, to see what’s happening to the city.

MALE SPEAKER 1:

[Speaking Russian] Air raid.

MALE SPEAKER 2:

[Speaking Russian] It is Port City, f—.

MSTYSLAV CHERNOV:

March 4th. A mall near the hospital was destroyed.

MALE SPEAKER 3:

[Speaking Russian] F—. I think they need help.

MALE SPEAKER 4:

[Speaking Russian] F—— hell. It could hit here as well.

MALE SPEAKER 3:

[Speaking Russian] It could.

MALE SPEAKER 4:

[Speaking Russian] Why the f— do they need to steal all this stuff now? So f—–.

MSTYSLAV CHERNOV:

[Speaking Russian] What happened?

BOY WITH STOLEN ITEMS:

[Speaking Russian] They hit Foxtrot and Eldorado.

MALE SPEAKER 4:

[Speaking Russian] And what is that?

BOY WITH STOLEN ITEMS:

[Speaking Russian] Electronics.

MALE SPEAKER 4:

[Speaking Russian] Foxtrot. You mean Port City?

BOY WITH STOLEN ITEMS:

[Speaking Russian] Yes.

MALE SPEAKER 4:

[Speaking Russian] And what about people?

BOY WITH STOLEN ITEMS:

[Speaking Russian] My friends were there. It exploded 10 meters from my friends. I don’t know if they survived.

MSTYSLAV CHERNOV:

As we search for a connection, we go neighborhood to neighborhood. Houses we saw standing days ago are destroyed.

WOMAN IN RUBBLE: 

[Speaking Russian] This is my house now! Please, good people. What is happening here? We don’t have any electricity, we don’t have anything to eat, we don’t have any medications. We have nothing left! [Cries] What happened to my house? Where are you boys from?

MSTYSLAV CHERNOV:

[Speaking Russian] Kharkiv.

WOMAN IN RUBBLE: 

[Speaking Russian] Can’t anybody do anything? They’re killing us here.

MSTYSLAV CHERNOV:

[Speaking Russian] What is your name?

LUDMILA:

Ludmila.

MSTYSLAV CHERNOV:

[Speaking Russian] Ludmila, what is your last name?

LUDMILA:

Amelkina.

MSTYSLAV CHERNOV:

[Speaking Russian] Ludmila, this used to be your house?

LUDMILA:

[Speaking Russian] Yes.

MSTYSLAV CHERNOV:

We follow the smoke. Houses hit by shells burn. A humanitarian corridor was opened on March 5th. Vehicles fled the city, only to be blocked by Russian forces.

Then the road was closed.

MALE RED CROSS WORKER:

[Speaking Russian] There is no corridor today. They weren’t able to come to an agreement. International organizations are pressuring all parties in the conflict to organize the corridor. There is a lot of humanitarian aid. However, to access it, we need the corridor to be opened.

MALE SPEAKER:

[Speaking Russian] OK, the corridor, and then where do we go? We need some information. We have no information.

MALE RED CROSS WORKER:

[Speaking Russian] We don’t have information ourselves. We’re cut off from the rest of Ukraine, from everyone.

MALE SPEAKER:

[Speaking Russian] Who will drive us?

FEMALE SPEAKER:

[Speaking Russian] Can you film me? Maybe my mom will see this. We don’t have any service.

MSTYSLAV CHERNOV:

[Speaking Russian] Can you tell me please about the situation?

FEMALE SPEAKER:

[Speaking Russian] We have no water, no power, no gas. We cook outside. The kids are scared. There is shelling.

“The green corridor is temporarily suspended until further notice. March 6, 2022.”

MSTYSLAV CHERNOV:

Red Cross, police, Ukrainian soldiers try to help and calm people down.

MALE POLICE OFFICER:

[Speaking Russian] The outskirts of the city are being bombed. Everything is mined. As of now, negotiations were unsuccessful at creating a safe passage for civilians. Believe me, I’m in the same boat. I have a family at home that I am worried about. Unfortunately, right now, it’s safest to stay within the city, in basements, in shelters and so on.

MALE VOICE IN CROWD:

[Speaking Russian] Basements in the city are safe?

MALE POLICE OFFICER:

[Speaking Russian] They’re the safest places where we can be for now. We are staying calm. If there is to be an evacuation, we’ll drive around and notify you with loudspeakers.

MAN ON STREET:

[Speaking Russian] There is a body over there. Guys, film so the whole world will see this chaos.

MSTYSLAV CHERNOV:

[Speaking Russian] We’re filming everything.

[Speaking English] The more people realize that they are trapped, the more desperate they grow.

FEMALE SHOP OWNER: 

[Speaking Russian] They stole everything. My house is destroyed and my car has burned up. [Cries]

MSTYSLAV CHERNOV:

[Speaking Russian] What happened?

FEMALE SPEAKER:

[Speaking Russian] Natasha, are you here?

NATASHA:

[Speaking Russian] Yeah. Our entire building has been shelled. All the windows have been blown out. And the car is burned up. [Cries]

FEMALE SPEAKER:

[Speaking Russian] Natasha. We’ll solve it. Natasha.

NATASHA:

[Speaking Russian] I can’t!

Are you people or some kind of animals? Where are you going with toys, you asshole? You bitch, are you going to play ball now? Put it back. Why are you stealing everything!?

MALE LOOTER:

[Speaking Russian] Jesus, here have your ball back.

NATASHA:

[Speaking Russian] Why are you even in here?

What are you doing? Why are you coming in here? Is this a f—— giveaway or what?

WOMAN ON SIDEWALK:

[Speaking Russian] We have kids on the Left Bank.

NATASHA:

[Speaking Russian] Why are you taking what’s not yours? Thieves!

MALE SOLDIER:

[Speaking Russian] On the ground.

FEMALE LOOTER:

[Speaking Russian] This is my husband.

MALE SHOP OWNER:

[Speaking Russian] That’s enough, go home, f— off.

FEMALE LOOTER:

[Speaking Russian] Home, go home. Home, home.

MALE SOLDIER:

[Speaking Russian] The motherf—— are robbing the f—— grocery stores and banks. F——. People, just get together! There’s no need to create panic. There’s no need to loot anyone. You’ll be living here anyways, this is your home. Why are you bashing the windows of your own f—— stores?

MALE VOICE:

[Speaking Russian] Will there be a green corridor today?

MALE SOLDIER 2:

[Speaking Russian] First, women, children, old people. Men, you can go and find water. There are wells around Mariupol, right by the bridge post.

MSTYSLAV CHERNOV:

The city changed so much, so quickly. When we were in the hospital one of the doctors told me, “War is like an X-ray: All human insides become visible.”

WOMAN IN CROWD:

[Speaking Russian] Thank you.

MSTYSLAV CHERNOV:

“Good people become better, bad people worse.”

MAN HOLDING A TURTLE:

[Speaking Russian] Vasya wants to survive, too. Vasya wants to live.

MSTYSLAV CHERNOV:

[Speaking Russian] Where did you get him?

MAN HOLDING A TURTLE:

[Speaking Russian] He’s our pet. You can’t just abandon him. [Laughter]

MSTYSLAV CHERNOV:

But I thought it’s not only the bombs, lack of food, water. It’s isolation, the inability to contact relatives to find out what’s happening in other cities.

People charge cell phones from a generator just to use them as flashlights. Cut off, we feel the same. We still cannot send our images.

MALE VOICE: 

[Speaking Russian] Don’t cry.

WOMAN IN SHELTER:

[Speaking Russian] Don’t cry? Don’t cry? I want to go home. I want to go back to work. [Cries] I feel sorry for my city, for the people. I feel sorry for the children.

MSTYSLAV CHERNOV:

[Speaking Russian] Does it matter to you who will control the city?

WOMAN IN SHELTER:

[Speaking Russian] I don’t want it to belong to Russia. I don’t want to live in Russia, I want to live in Ukraine. I don’t want Russia here. I absolutely don’t want it. Not even a bit.

FEMALE VOICE:

[Speaking Russian] The flame is going out. There’s no kerosene left, so it’s about to go out.

MSTYSLAV CHERNOV:

That night, as we watch artillery shooting, our phones suddenly pick up connection. I split the footage into 10-second clips, set three phones on the windowsill and send.

MALE NEWSREADER:

Bombs continued to rain down on the southern Ukrainian city of Mariupol, which was fully surrounded by Russian troops.

FEMALE NEWSREADER:

The Russians say they aren’t targeting civilians. This is 18-month-old Kryl.

MALE NEWSREADER:

Medics try to save the boy. They cannot.

Day 14

MSTYSLAV CHERNOV:

March 9th. Like a disease, war is taking over the city.

We are back at the Emergency Hospital No. 2. The few city workers that are still on duty collect bodies to be buried.

I recognize this sheet. It’s Ilya, the boy who was killed playing soccer.

[Speaking Russian] Difficult?

MALE BURIAL VOLUNTEER:

[Speaking Russian] Well, yes, difficult.

MSTYSLAV CHERNOV:

Somewhere among these black bags lie the other children we filmed.

[Speaking Russian] What are you are feeling right now?

MALE BURIAL VOLUNTEER:

[Speaking Russian] If I start talking, I’m going to cry. I won’t be able to talk.

MSTYSLAV CHERNOV:

[Speaking Russian] Just tell what you’re feeling.

MALE BURIAL VOLUNTEER:

[Speaking Russian] What I’m feeling—I don’t know what I feel right now. What are people supposed to feel in this situation? The main thing is that this needs to end. I don’t know who’s to blame, who is right, who unleashed all of this. But let them all be damned, the people who started this.

MSTYSLAV CHERNOV:

Another truck arrives. Bodies from the streets. My brain will desperately want to forget all this, but the camera will not let it happen.

The shockwave. Ears and skin feel the change of pressure. We hide in the entryway of a building and wait for another strike, praying it will not hit us.

WOMAN SEEKING SHELTER:

[Speaking Russian] Why the f— is this locked?

EVGENIY MALOLETKA:

[Speaking Russian] It’s coming back.

MSTYSLAV CHERNOV:

[Speaking Russian] Where did they drop it?

EVGENIY MALOLETKA:

[Speaking Russian] Over there. Over there.

MSTYSLAV CHERNOV:

[Speaking Russian] What’s there?

[Speaking English] We go to the top of the building and see the smoke just a few blocks away. It’s a hospital.

MALE DOCTOR:

[Speaking Russian] Here! The surgical wing, two-story building, where the maternity ward was before. Hurry up!

MALE VOICE:

[Speaking Russian] Which building?

MALE DOCTOR:

[Speaking Russian] There! Go there, faster!

MALE SOLDIER 1:

[Speaking Russian] Shh, shh, it’s OK. Is there any water?

FEMALE BOMBING SURVIVOR 1:

[Speaking Russian] Everything is OK, Tonychka.

INJURED FEMALE MEDICAL STAFF:

[Speaking Russian] It’s OK, I’m OK.

FEMALE BOMBING SURVIVOR 2:

[Speaking Russian] Where should we go?

MALE BOMBING SURVIVOR:

[Speaking Russian] Just go there.

FEMALE BOMBING SURVIVOR 2:

[Speaking Russian] Where?

FEMALE BOMBING SURVIVOR 3:

[Speaking Russian] Here. Oh, my God.

YOUNG BOY:

[Speaking Russian] The cars are destroyed.

MALE SOLDIER 1:

[Speaking Russian] Calm down. Shh, calm down. Your legs and arms are not injured? Everything is fine.

YOUNG BOY:

[Speaking Russian] My mom!

MALE SOLDIER 1:

[Speaking Russian] Where is your mom?

YOUNG BOY:

[Speaking Russian] She is—

MALE SOLDIER 1:

[Speaking Russian] Go inside!

YOUNG BOY:

[Speaking Russian] Inside!

MALE VOICE 1:

[Speaking Russian] Calm down. Don’t panic. Don’t panic. Watch out. Go, go, go. Let’s go.

MALE VOICE 2:

[Speaking Russian] Where?

MALE VOICE 1:

[Speaking Russian] Go down. Don’t panic.

MALE POLICE OFFICER:

[Speaking Russian] Careful, wait. Bring it higher, higher.

Come on, come on.

MSTYSLAV CHERNOV:

I try to find out how many dead and wounded there are, but in this chaos, nobody can answer.

MALE VOICE:

[Speaking Russian] We need to take them to the second maternity hospital.

MSTYSLAV CHERNOV:

[Speaking Russian] How are you doing?

PREGNANT WOMAN:

[Speaking Russian] Hmm?

MSTYSLAV CHERNOV:

[Speaking Russian] How are you?

PREGNANT WOMAN:

[Speaking Russian] I’m good. I mean, I feel fine. Yes, let’s go! Please.

MALE POLICE OFFICER 2:

[Speaking Russian] I got your things.

PREGNANT WOMAN:

[Speaking Russian] Thank you so much.

MALE SOLDIER:

[Speaking Russian] Third floor. Is there anyone alive?

MALE VOICE:

[Speaking Russian] Did you film the children that were taken from the hospital?

MSTYSLAV CHERNOV:

[Speaking Russian] Yes, we filmed everyone, that pregnant woman, too.

MALE VOICE:

[Speaking Russian] Filmed it?

MSTYSLAV CHERNOV:

[Speaking Russian] Yes.

MALE VOICE:

[Speaking Russian] To show it to these Russian f——.

MSTYSLAV CHERNOV:

The name of the police officer speaking to us is Vladimir. He wants to make a statement.

VLADIMIR:

[Speaking Russian] Let’s start?

MSTYSLAV CHERNOV:

[Speaking Russian] Yes, look towards me.

VLADIMIR:

[Speaking Russian] Today, Russian occupants carried out a grave criminal attack. They carried out a bomb attack on the center of Mariupol. They destroyed a maternity hospital with bombs.

MSTYSLAV CHERNOV:

And then he asks once more.

VLADIMIR:

Russian troops commit war crimes. Our family, our women, our children need help. Our people need help from international society. Please, help Mariupol.

MSTYSLAV CHERNOV:

Vladimir showed us the only place in the city where we could catch a signal and send the images.

VLADIMIR:

[Speaking Russian] Straight ahead, keep going straight, right there.

MSTYSLAV CHERNOV:

Outside a looted grocery store on Budivel’nykiv Avenue.

EVGENIY MALOLETKA:

[Speaking Russian] Plane.

VLADIMIR:

[Speaking Russian] F—. Hide. They could hit here.

MSTYSLAV CHERNOV:

Airstrikes are happening constantly.

MALE VOICE 1:

[Speaking Russian] Where did it hit? Here, f—?

MALE VOICE 2:

[Speaking Russian] Yeah, there.

VLADIMIR:

[Speaking Russian] Is there internet?

MSTYSLAV CHERNOV:

Vladimir said the footage from the maternity hospital will change the course of the war. But we have seen so many dead people, dead children. How could more death change anything?

FEMALE NEWSREADER:

Airstrikes on the southern city of Mariupol destroyed a children’s and maternity hospital.

MALE NEWSREADER:

For once, the aftermath of a bombing, here at the city’s maternity hospital, was filmed for the world to see.

FEMALE NEWSREADER:

Horror and devastation.

FEMALE NEWSREADER:

This is clearly the worst and most egregious attack we have seen in this war so far.

FEMALE NEWSREADER:

The Associated Press also reports that city workers have had to create a mass grave to bury the dead.

MALE NEWSREADER:

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy calling this attack a war crime.

PRESIDENT VOLODYMYR ZELENSKYY:

[Speaking Ukrainian] Everything the occupiers are doing to Mariupol is a downright atrocity.

Day 15

MSTYSLAV CHERNOV:

March 10th. The city is still being bombed, and now I can also hear heavy machine guns. That means Russians have entered the city.

Vladimir, the officer we met yesterday, is with us.

MALE VOICE [on radio]:

[Speaking Russian] We are under an airstrike, anyone available, come immediately.

MSTYSLAV CHERNOV:

The last functioning fire department in the city, destroyed by another airstrike.

I don’t know if he survived. We try not to stay long in one place.

The biggest university in the city was destroyed, too.

MAN RUNNING FOR SHELTER:

[Speaking Russian] There’s a plane.

MSTYSLAV CHERNOV:

New wounds every day.

[Speaking Russian] What’s happening?

MAN WITH CART:

[Speaking Russian] I’m moving to my wife.

MSTYSLAV CHERNOV:

[Speaking Russian] What’s happening to the city?

MAN WITH CART:

[Speaking Russian] Well, you can see, they’re shooting. What can I say? That’s life.

MSTYSLAV CHERNOV:

[Speaking Russian] Why are you moving?

MAN WITH CART:

[Speaking Russian] Well, my house is gone. That’s why I’m moving. What did you think?

MSTYSLAV CHERNOV:

[Speaking Russian] What happened to your home?

MAN WITH CART:

[Speaking Russian] It’s gone. Shelled. It was probably a shell that hit it.

MSTYSLAV CHERNOV:

[Speaking Russian] What’s your name?

MAN WITH CART:

[Speaking Russian] Alexander.

MSTYSLAV CHERNOV:

[Speaking Russian] I’m Mstyslav. What’s your surname?

ALEXANDER:

[Speaking Russian] Ivanov.

MSTYSLAV CHERNOV:

[Speaking Russian] Thank you.

ALEXANDER:

[Speaking Russian] You’re welcome. I lived in Volonterivka. And now I will live who knows where?

MSTYSLAV CHERNOV:

[Speaking Russian] How long have you been walking?

ALEXANDER:

[Speaking Russian] Probably around four hours now.

MSTYSLAV CHERNOV:

[Speaking Russian] Under shooting?

ALEXANDER:

[Speaking Russian] Well, what are you going to do? They’re shooting and I’m walking. That’s it.

MSTYSLAV CHERNOV:

We drive back to catch a signal at the spot on Budivel’nykiv Avenue. It’s still the only place where you can get internet. It’s past curfew, so Vladimir accompanies us.

VLADIMIR:

[Speaking Russian] Guys, your reporting spread. You did a big thing. Otherwise, no one would know what happened.

MSTYSLAV CHERNOV:

We check the news and speak to editors.

Sorry, what? Hold on, hold on. It’s coming back. Hold on. Hold on, hold on, hold on. This motherf—– is flying around. Hold on. I can hear him. I don’t think there has been a moment today when there was not an airplane in the air. And the prognosis is very pessimistic. I think they have taken the Left Bank already.

I give them the latest. But there are disturbing updates for us.

OK.

FEMALE NEWSREADER:

These women’s stories have epitomized the tragedy unfolding in Ukraine. And yet, even their suffering has been questioned, with Russian officials claiming on Twitter and in news programs that they must be actors.

MALE RUSSIAN NEWS ANCHOR:

[Speaking Russian] This is what we call “fake news” and staged photos and videos. The most recent fake is from Mariupol.

SERGEY LAVROV, Russian Foreign Minister:

[Voice of translator] This maternity hospital had already been seized by the Azov Battalion and other radicals. All the pregnant women, all the nurses, all the service personnel were already expelled from there.

RUSSIAN MILITARY OFFICIAL:

[Speaking Russian] That supposed airstrike was a fully staged provocation.

FEMALE RUSSIAN NEWSREADER:

[Speaking Russian] The hospital was turned into a film set with extras and actors. The first shots were published by well-known Ukrainian propagandist Evgeniy Maloletka, who works for Western media.

FEMALE RUSSIAN NEWSREADER:

[Voice of translator] This is information terrorism.

Day 16

MSTYSLAV CHERNOV:

We hoped that the pregnant woman on the stretcher survived, so we went to search for her and other victims at the Emergency Hospital No. 2. Soldiers are guarding the entrance. Vladimir says this is the “red zone” now—the Russians have entered the neighborhood. So he comes with us.

Floor by floor, we search for the pregnant women. There is no maternity ward, so we try the surgery department. Surgeons are overwhelmed and low on painkillers. This piece of shrapnel was taken from a patient.

MALE MEDICAL STAFF:

[Speaking Russian] Hold the tube.

MSTYSLAV CHERNOV:

Finally, we find one of the doctors who treated the woman on the stretcher.

[Speaking Russian] Tell us please, after the explosion, a pregnant woman was brought in?

FEMALE ANESTHESIOLOGIST:

[Speaking Russian] A pregnant woman, around 30 years old, was brought in. It was her first pregnancy. Her injuries were incompatible with life. The pelvis was completely shattered and there was significant blood loss. We did everything we could. But we were unable to save her. The woman died. The baby also died in the womb. The dead child was extracted.

MSTYSLAV CHERNOV:

Her name was Iryna. They said she screamed “Kill me” when they brought her. She knew her child was dead.

Other survivors are here. One of them has just given birth. Another is taken to an operating room. She lost part of her foot in the bombing, and doctors worry about the child.

MALE DOCTOR:

[Speaking Russian] Wait, wait, wait, I’ll do it again. Come on, come on, come on, come on, legs, ears, legs. Turn the head upside down.

FEMALE DOCTOR 1:

[Speaking Russian] She’s opened her eyes right away.

FEMALE DOCTOR 2:

[Speaking Russian] Who’s my little baby.

FEMALE DOCTOR 1:

[Speaking Russian] She survived the destroyed Maternity Hospital No. 3. It was bombed and so they were brought here. They’ve survived so much with their moms, everyone who gave birth here. We don’t even have a maternity ward here. We only have a gynecology department. All these patients are from Hospital No. 3. These are children, and—Are you hungry? We have to wait, kitten.

FEMALE DOCTOR 2:

[Speaking Russian] Oh, she’s hungry now, nom nom.

FEMALE DOCTOR 1:

[Speaking Russian] Hungry little kitten.

WOMAN IN HALLWAY:

[Speaking Russian] Is that an airstrike?

MAN IN HALLWAY:

[Speaking Russian] Yeah, it’s an airstrike.

FEMALE VOICE:

[Speaking Russian] Everyone leave the surgery room. Everyone!

MSTYSLAV CHERNOV:

We have to leave, but the corridors are filled with people who lost homes, relatives.

WOMAN WITH SMALL CHILD:

[Speaking Russian] We went to my brother’s house, all together so that it wouldn’t be as frightening. We went down to the basement. Women with children all went down to the basement. A shell hit. We were buried in the cellar. We lost two children. They couldn’t be saved. The girl was 7 years old and the boy was 5 years old. [Cries] What can I tell you? That we’ve spent two weeks in hell? You don’t know where to run. [Cries] Who will return our children to us?

MSTYSLAV CHERNOV:

We head to the exit, but it’s too late. Soldiers say a sniper just shot and injured a nurse in front of the hospital.

VLADIMIR:

[Speaking Russian] At the central entrance, yes?

MALE SOLDIER 1:

[Speaking Russian] Yes, somewhere there.

MALE VOICE [on radio]:

[Speaking Russian] Uphold maximum security measures.

MALE SOLDIER 2:

[Speaking Russian] Make way.

MSTYSLAV CHERNOV:

Two soldiers are still trapped.

MALE SOLDIER 3:

[Speaking Russian] Where are you?

MALE SOLDIER 4:

[Speaking Russian] He is behind the car, on the side.

MALE SOLDIER 3:

[Speaking Russian] I don’t see you.

MALE SOLDIER 5:

[Speaking Russian] The ambulance just came, damn. Go around.

VLADIMIR:

[Speaking Russian] Easy, easy. F—.

MALE SOLDIER 6:

[Speaking Russian] I need something, a movement, even a shadow. Something.

MALE VOICE:

[Speaking Russian] Go back.

MALE SOLDIER 5:

[Speaking Russian] Derek. Come here.

MALE SOLDIER 7:

[Speaking Russian] Good job, brother, good job.

MALE SOLDIER 5:

[Speaking Russian] Explain the situation.

MALE SOLDIER 8:

[Speaking Russian] One moment.

MALE SOLDIER 4:

[Speaking Russian] Take a breath.

MALE SOLDIER 8:

[Speaking Russian] I’m going to smoke first.

MALE SOLDIER 4:

[Speaking Russian] Go ahead. [Laughs]

MALE SOLDIER AT DOOR:

[Speaking Russian] Come in quickly. Get in. Run in. Don’t bring the child anymore. Only by yourself.

MSTYSLAV CHERNOV:

We hear a low rumble.

MALE VOICE [on radio]:

[Speaking Russian] Signal 580. Signal 580.

VLADIMIR:

[Speaking Russian] Tank?

MALE SOLDIER AT DOOR:

[Speaking Russian] I don’t know, maybe.

MALE VOICE 1:

[Speaking Russian] Did you see it?

MALE VOICE 2:

[Speaking Russian] They’re not ours. “Z.”

MALE SOLDIER AT DOOR:

[Speaking Russian] Is it coming here?

MALE VOICE [on radio]:

[Speaking Russian] They stopped right now.

MSTYSLAV CHERNOV:

So we run to the seventh floor, to our observation point. It’s risky—they can open fire at upper floors of the hospital. But from here we can see more.

VLADIMIR:

[Speaking Russian] Signal, by Hospital No. 2 there are tanks with the letter “Z.” I have a visual on it myself, by Hospital No. 2. Opposite the church, where the buses are parked. Tanks have entered, with the letter “Z.”

MSTYSLAV CHERNOV:

[Speaking Russian] Film it.

VLADIMIR:

[Speaking Russian] Signal 112, over. Signal. On Kuprina Street there are two more tanks with the letter “Z.”

MSTYSLAV CHERNOV:

They are coming closer. If reinforcements don’t arrive, the soldiers downstairs will not be able to stop them. They will take over the hospital.

EVGENIY MALOLETKA

[Speaking Russian] They’re turning the cannons.

MSTYSLAV CHERNOV:

[Speaking Russian] Quickly. Quickly.

VLADIMIR:

[Speaking Russian] They must be approaching from the other side as well. There are many. More are coming.

MALE VOICE 1:

[Speaking Russian] Where?

MALE VOICE 2:

[Speaking Russian] From the other side.

MALE VOICE 3:

[Speaking Russian] So, they broke through then?

MSTYSLAV CHERNOV:

[Speaking Russian] Evgeniy. Evgeniy. Keep your head down. There was a sniper on this side, remember?

EVGENIY MALOLETKA

[Speaking Russian] Yes.

MSTYSLAV CHERNOV:

What should we do? We need to send all this footage: survivors from the maternity bombing. Tanks shooting at residential areas. There is no connection here, and we can’t get to our car. And if we get caught, Vladimir says, Russians will make you say everything you published was a lie.

The night is sleepless. Feverish thoughts of past, present and future race through my mind. I want all of this to stop, but I have no power over it. My memory keeps carrying me back home and back to war. If someday my daughters ask me, “What did you do to stop this madness, this sadistic virus of destruction?” I want to be able to give them an answer.

Day 17 

MSTYSLAV CHERNOV:

This is a special military task force. All night, we hid inside the hospital and Vladimir used the last of his radio’s battery to contact them. This morning they broke into the surgery department to rescue us. They said we were already behind enemy lines.

We are still wearing the scrubs the doctors gave us in case Russians entered the hospital that night.

MALE SOLDIER 1:

[Speaking Russian] Come on, come on. Forward. Faster. Move faster.

MALE SOLDIER 2:

[Speaking Russian] Go, go. Quickly. Let’s go.

MALE SOLDIER 3:

[Speaking Russian] Roma. Roma, let’s go. Roma, lead the way.

MALE SOLDIER 1:

[Speaking Russian] Run, run, run.

MSTYSLAV CHERNOV:

We run, abandoning the doctors who have sheltered us, pregnant women who had been shelled, the people who live in hospital corridors because they have nowhere else to go.

MALE SOLDIER 1:

[Speaking Russian] OK, let’s go, let’s go, let’s go.

MALE SOLDIER 2:

[Speaking Russian] Do you see the Ukrainian flag? The three of you go to the car.

Day 20

MSTYSLAV CHERNOV:

The Russians took over the hospital a few hours after we escaped. They’ve taken the Left Bank except the Azovstal Steel Factory, and they are closing in on the city center. Ukrainian forces fight back, but they are outnumbered. The city is slowly dying, like a human being.

On the day we escaped from the hospital, the military task force moved us and Vladimir to an area still under Ukrainian control, and for days we tried to find a way to get out of the city with all the footage.

CHILD’S VOICE:

[Speaking Russian] They shelled the house!

MSTYSLAV CHERNOV:

March 13th. Shelling of residential areas continues.

YOUNG GIRL:

[Speaking Russian] [Cries] Papa. Papa!

MALE VOICE:

[Speaking Russian] Plane overhead.

MALE SPEAKER:

[Speaking Russian] F—. Cluster bombs! Quickly, quickly, quickly.

MSTYSLAV CHERNOV:

Without any information, people don’t know who to blame.

MALE VOICE:

[Speaking Russian] They didn’t open the corridor. You did this to us.

MSTYSLAV CHERNOV:

[Speaking Russian] I did this to you?

FEMALE SPEAKER 1: 

[Speaking Russian] No, not you, of course.

FEMALE SPEAKER 2: 

[Speaking Russian] Who is bombing us? Tell us.

MSTYSLAV CHERNOV:

[Speaking Russian] The Russian Federation planes are bombing you.

FEMALE SPEAKER 2: 

[Speaking Russian] We said, “Get the kids out.”

FEMALE SPEAKER 1: 

[Speaking Russian] I wish the firefighters would at least come to put out the fire.

MSTYSLAV CHERNOV:

[Speaking Russian] About the fire station. Three days ago, the Russian Federation bombed the only fire station. Is this interesting to you?

MALE SPEAKER: 

[Speaking Russian] Yeah, yeah, keep filming us. Ukrainian army is f—— bombing us.

WOMAN WITH DOG: 

[Speaking Russian] Yeah, morons, keep filming us. Who is bombing us?

VLADIMIR:

[Speaking Russian] Let’s go.

MSTYSLAV CHERNOV:

[Speaking Russian] Wait, wait, wait.

[Speaking English] Vladimir keeps insisting we need to find a way to leave, but we no longer have our van—it was left behind in the hospital. And anyone who drives us with our cameras and hard drives through miles of occupied territory would be taking a risk.

On March 15th, our editors send us a message: Yesterday some people were able to leave with a Red Cross convoy, and there is another one leaving today.

We go to the last functioning hospital in the city. The Red Cross convoy has left.

MALE POLICE OFFICER:

[Speaking Russian] Hang on, bear with me. Where do we carry him?

FEMALE BYSTANDER:

[Speaking Russian] OK, ladies, hurry.

MALE MEDICAL STAFF:

[Speaking Russian] Where is the—

FEMALE MEDICAL STAFF:

[Speaking Russian] I don’t know.

MSTYSLAV CHERNOV:

I wish I could do more, stay longer, but we need to leave.

One of the doctors tells us to follow him to the basement.

MALE DOCTOR:

[Speaking Russian] Watch your step here, there’s broken glass. Over here, this way. This is everyone who couldn’t be saved.

I can’t show you the face. Here. This one is so little. [Sighs] It’s hard. It’s very hard. Well, you get used to everything. But then in the evening, it doesn’t leave your mind.

MSTYSLAV CHERNOV:

We need to catch up with the convoy. Vladimir says he can try to take us with his car. I tell him it’s dangerous, but he wants to help to get us and our materials out. And he still hopes if the world saw everything that happened in Mariupol it would give at least some meaning to this horror.

Vladimir’s car was damaged by shelling, but miraculously still runs. We are with his family. We make it through 100 kilometers of occupied territory and 15 Russian checkpoints, cameras and hard drives hidden under seats. By dawn, we finally catch up with the Red Cross convoy.

Yesterday I told one of the officers who extracted us from the hospital, “Thank you for saving us.” He said, “Thank you for telling the story of this city.” And yet as we drive away I keep thinking about all the people whose tragedies will remain unknown. I will see my daughters. And I can only hope that these people survive and will be with their families, too.

FEMALE NEWSREADER:

The total number of refugees who have fled Ukraine so far is now nearing 3 million.

FEMALE NEWSREADER:

—and Russians continue to strangle and starve Mariupol.

MALE NEWSREADER:

We got some new video this morning of 2,000 cars that officials say managed to make it out of Mariupol through a humanitarian corridor that Russia did not renege on.

FEMALE NEWSREADER:

Devastating images are now emerging from Mariupol, where the mayor says the death toll could be as high as 20,000 since the war began.

MALE NEWSREADER:

—leaving people without supply lines for food or water, without internet connection to the outside world.

MALE NEWSREADER:

It was a tragedy. This woman and her unborn child later died.

MALE NEWSREADER:

And we know about the atrocities that have been happening inside Mariupol because of journalists from The Associated Press. The only international reporters to remain after the Russian bombardment bore witness to what have become indelible images of the war.

LINDA THOMAS-GREENFIELD, U.S. ambassador to the UN:

AP reporters on the ground showed the world a mass grave in Mariupol.

FEMALE REPORTER:

I’m talking about narrow trenches in Mariupol with babies’ bodies in them. AP journalists have been there.

VASILY NEBENZYA, Russian ambassador to the UN:

I have seen so many fakes. Who wins the information war is the one who wins the war.

FEMALE REPORTER:

Do you really truly believe this? Do you truly believe what you’re saying?

Mariupol fell by day 86.

An estimated 25,000 people died in the siege. The true toll is likely much higher.