20 Days in Mariupol

“Wars don’t start with explosions. They start with silence.”

20 Days in Mariupol

20 Days in Mariupol

20 Days in Mariupol is a documentary film by the AP and Frontline. A very brave film crew hears rumors of war, and heads over to Mariupol. “We pulled into Mariupol at 3:30 a.m. The war started an hour later.” – AP News

The film crew, along with the people of Mariupol, get trapped. The crew films the fear, bravery, confusion, and anger of the Ukrainian people, as well as documenting the cruel horror of the Russian invasion.

The film crew’s internet connection is very spotty, and they are unable to transfer the volumes of footage that document the numerous Russian war crimes. Although not explicitly stated in the documentary, it appears that the government in Kiev realized how crucial this footage was, and sent a specially-trained team to rescue them (and their hard drives) from the occupied area.

By this point, the film crew has taken refuge in the last functioning hospital in the city. Russian snipers are shooting at nurses, ambulance teams, and families trying to get in the hospital doors.

The soldiers guide them to a Red Cross convoy. “We crossed 15 Russian checkpoints. At each, the mother sitting in the front of our car would pray furiously, loud enough for us to hear. As we drove through them — the third, the tenth, the 15th, all manned with soldiers with heavy weapons — my hopes that Mariupol was going to survive were fading.” – AP News

The Documentary

20 Days in Mariupol can be viewed for free on the Frontline website.

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.
Frontline

The Cowardice of the Russians

Nothing could epitomize the cruelty and cowardice of the Russians more than the scenes of a tank parked in a city street, the drunk tank commander shooting a civilian apartment building with impunity. (Screen shots from the Frontline documentary)

Escaping Mariupol w/Vids and Hard Drives

(Screen shots from the Frontline documentary)

MARIUPOL, Ukraine (AP) — The Russians were hunting us down. They had a list of names, including ours, and they were closing in.

We were the only international journalists left in the Ukrainian city of Mariupol, and we had been documenting its siege by Russian troops for more than two weeks. We were reporting inside the hospital when gunmen began stalking the corridors. Surgeons gave us white scrubs to wear as camouflage.

Suddenly at dawn, a dozen soldiers burst in: “Where are the journalists, for fuck’s sake?”

Associated Press videographer Mstyslav Chernov reads news on his phone three days before the start of Russian invasion in Volnovakha, Ukraine, Monday, Feb. 21, 2022. On the evening of Feb. 23, Chernov headed to Mariupol with colleague Evgeniy Maloletka. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)

I looked at their armbands, blue for Ukraine, and tried to calculate the odds that they were Russians in disguise. I stepped forward to identify myself. “We’re here to get you out,” they said…..

“If they catch you, they will get you on camera and they will make you say that everything you filmed is a lie,” he said. “All your efforts and everything you have done in Mariupol will be in vain.”
The AP

The absence of information in a blockade accomplishes two goals.

Chaos is the first. People don’t know what’s going on, and they panic. At first I couldn’t understand why Mariupol fell apart so quickly. Now I know it was because of the lack of communication.

Impunity is the second goal. With no information coming out of a city, no pictures of demolished buildings and dying children, the Russian forces could do whatever they wanted. If not for us, there would be nothing.

That’s why we took such risks to be able to send the world what we saw, and that’s what made Russia angry enough to hunt us down.

I have never, ever felt that breaking the silence was so important.
The AP