"I Have Never Felt That Breaking the Silence Was So Important." How Mstyslav Chernov’s Documentary Films Shatter Russian Propaganda

Ukrainian Wartime Documentary Cinema: A New Milestone in National Filmmaking The significance of wartime documentaries and their recognition on the global stage cannot be overstated. Every victory of a Ukrainian film has the power to draw attention and influence international support for Ukraine.

On January 23, 2025, the world premiere of 2000 Meters to Andriivka, a new documentary by Kharkiv-born filmmaker and photographer Mstyslav Chernov, took place at the Sundance Film Festival. This is the director’s second wartime documentary, created in collaboration with Associated Press and Frontline, following his previous award-winning film, 20 Days in Mariupol.

2000 Meters to Andriivka tells the story of the liberation of a village near the devastated and occupied city of Bakhmut in the fall of 2023. It highlights the challenges Ukrainian forces faced during their counteroffensive in the east. Mstyslav Chernov and Associated Press photographer Oleksandr Babenko accompanied soldiers of Ukraine’s 3rd Separate Assault Brigade during a combat mission.

On September 14, 2023, fighting was still ongoing in Andriivka. By the morning of September 15, Ukraine’s General Staff confirmed that the village had been liberated.

Russian propaganda attempted to downplay Ukraine’s counteroffensive, diminish the efforts of Ukrainian forces, and trivialize the significance of the settlements retaken by the Armed Forces of Ukraine. Russian sources claimed that Ukraine’s liberation of Andriivka was nothing more than "another fabrication."

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"Andriivka is completely destroyed, there’s nothing there at all, so it’s wrong to say they captured a settlement," said a Russian soldier (Lenta.ru, September 20, 2023). He added that it was pointless to remain in an empty wasteland, which is why Russian forces supposedly moved to a more advantageous position to preserve their troops. According to him, Ukrainian forces only seized a 100-meter stretch of land, but not Andriivka itself.

By describing Andriivka as "completely destroyed," Russian sources failed to mention that the cities and villages behind them in occupied Donetsk region had been reduced to ruins by their own forces.

Andriivka, along with Klishchiivka, which was liberated later, were small but strategically important settlements. Securing these high-ground positions opened new opportunities for Ukrainian counteroffensive forces, allowing better oversight of Russian army supply routes.

According to Ukraine’s 3rd Assault Brigade, the offensive operation resulted in the destruction of a Russian garrison, including the brigade’s intelligence chief, battalion commanders, officers, nearly all infantry of the 72nd Brigade, and a significant amount of enemy equipment.

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The documentary 2000 Meters to Andriivka won the award for Best Directing in the World Cinema Documentary Competition and received critical acclaim at the Sundance Film Festival.

"One of the most emotional moments in the film," writes Collider, "is when a soldier admits that he continues fighting even in his dreams. ‘I never saw myself as a soldier and never wanted to be one,’ he tells Chernov, ‘but that doesn’t mean that when your country is at war, you refuse to become one. I came to fight, not to serve. Those are two different things.’” According to the Ukrainian Association of Professional Photographers, the success of 2000 Meters to Andriivka lies in its format. Chernov doesn’t just present numbers and casualties; he tells real human stories. The audience doesn’t see statistics—they see individuals who were ordinary people yesterday and are now soldiers. Each protagonist becomes the center of their own chapter, allowing viewers to feel their struggle and tragedy. "Documentary cinema has the power to remind the world that war is not just about strategic decisions—it’s about real people. They are not just numbers or positions on a map; they are living human beings who once had a future," Chernov said in an interview with Associated Press.

While the global audience discovers this new Ukrainian documentary, Russian propaganda continues to reference the previous film by Associated Press journalists.

The Oscar win and a series of international awards for the documentary 20 Days in Mariupol prompted the Kremlin to launch an information campaign aimed at discrediting its creators and the film’s crucial footage.

20 Days in Mariupol tells the world the story of the besieged Azov Sea city, as witnessed and documented by the only team of international journalists present at the time. Mstyslav Chernov, along with his Associated Press colleagues Evgeniy Maloletka and Vasilisa Stepanenko, deliberately arrived in Mariupol an hour before the war began, recognizing its strategic importance to the Russians due to its maritime infrastructure.

For 20 days, the AP team reported on the siege of the city until they were forced to flee. The documentarians learned that Russian forces were actively hunting them for publishing detailed reports on the atrocities taking place in Mariupol. Smuggling out their gathered evidence, they passed through 15 Russian checkpoints before finally reaching safety in Zaporizhzhia.

These materials, which formed the foundation of 20 Days in Mariupol, serve as irrefutable evidence of Russian war crimes committed in March 2022. Meanwhile, Russian officials and propaganda media attempted to cast doubt on the atrocities committed by Russian troops in Mariupol. They spread false claims about the bombing of a maternity hospital and a children's clinic, alleging that "Azov" had staged the attacks or shelled its own positions. They labeled images of wounded mothers as "staged" and dismissed the Oscar-winning footage as "plagiarism."

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"The Tragedy for the Sake of Cinema. How Kyiv Uses the Lives of Its Citizens to Justify Its Own Terrorism." (Southern News Service).

On March 5, 2022, the official representative of the Russian Ministry of Defense, Konashenkov, reported that Azov and Aidar in Mariupol were shooting from schools and maternity hospitals at the units of the People's Militia that had entered the city. (Ukraina.ru).

On March 9, 2022, Russian occupiers dropped several bombs on Mariupol. They fell on the grounds of a children's hospital, completely destroying the medical facility. According to a report by Suspilne Donbas, citing the advisor to the Mariupol city mayor, Petro Andriushchenko, the building was occupied by patients, medical staff, and local residents taking shelter from the shelling.
"At least 100 people were there, and it was actually a miracle that the bomb didn’t hit the maternity ward or the children's hospital but fell between them. Pregnant women were transferred to another hospital," Andriushchenko recalled the events of that day.

This Russian attack was documented by international journalists, who reported seeing several bloodied mothers fleeing the shelling. Later, the journalists found the young mothers in another hospital.

At a press conference in Turkey, Russia's Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, commenting on the events of March 9, 2022, in Mariupol, told journalists that "the maternity hospital had long been seized by the Azov battalion and other radicals, who expelled all the mothers, nurses, and all the staff—this was a base for an ultra-radical battalion." (Ukraina.ru).

The propaganda promoted the idea that this was a staged campaign. Specifically, the Telegram channel "War Against Fakes" claimed to have "irrefutable evidence of staged footage with pregnant women," showcasing only photos of mothers taken by photographer Evgeniy Maloletka.

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At first, enemy propaganda claimed that in the "staged" photographs, there was one person — an actress, blogger, and model, Marianna Pidhurska (Vyshemirskaya).

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"Interestingly, on March 9, Pidhurska was photographed as two different women."

Later, the Russians admitted that there were two different women in the photos. They claimed that they survived, which supposedly proves that there was no airstrike.

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"Remember these staged pictures with" women in labor under the fire of Russians "taken last year in Mariupol?"

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"In this picture, Yevgeny Maloletka is the" moment "after the Russian shelling of the maternity hospital in Mariupol. The woman in the photo is 32-year-old Irina Kalinina. Neither she nor her child allegedly survived, - reports the media wash "German Wave." Survivors, also as survivors. One of the figurants of this performance remained to live in the DPR and later began to expose Ukrainians in lies and murders. "

However, the woman in labor, Irina Kalinina, who lies on a stretcher in Maloletka's photographs, died with the child. This was confirmed by the photographer himself, the husband of the deceased and the local doctor who tried to save the life of the mother and child.

Suspilne Donbass writes: "On the day when the maternity hospital was bombed, three were brought to us. One in the hardest was, with her pelvis crushed and her right thigh torn off, in shock. While she was resuscitated, anti-shock measures were carried out, we performed a cesarean section, got a child without signs of life. For more than half an hour, the resuscitation of the child did not give results. Then another half an hour or more resuscitation of the mother, without results. Both died, "said surgeon Timur Marin, who was in another hospital in Mariupol."

After the birth of a child, Marianna Vyshemirskaya, who managed to survive the bombing, not only moved to Russia, but also began to actively cooperate with Kremlin propaganda. The woman told Russian journalists how the maternity was occupied by Azov militants, who did not help in any way, but only took food from mothers. Vyshemirskaya complained about the journalists, they say, they photographed her without permission, and the article did not mention that she denied the air raid on the maternity.

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"Recall, on March 9, 2022, the whole world flew around the frantic photo of a pregnant woman from Mariupol. She stood with bloody splashes on her face against the background of a building with broken windows. The world media then shouted: "The Russians bombed the maternity hospital!," And a photo with a pregnant woman was published in hundreds of Western media. As the heroine herself later said, the APU covered themselves with pregnant women, living in the maternity ward. It is assumed that the APU themselves blew up the hospital, staging an attack by the Russian army. Vyshemirskaya herself stated about the production, noting that there were no air raids. By the way, the efficiency of the appearance of photo codes of the world's leading media near the blown-up maternity ward is another argument in favor of staging.

As a result, the Ukrainian was saved by the soldiers of the Russian PS. After she told the truth about the incident, she was branded an enemy in Ukraine. " ("Блокнот.ру").

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VoxCheck experts claim that in an interview with Vyshemirskaya to Russian journalists, which were probably recorded under pressure, there are many contradictions and words taken out of context. Fact checkers point out that the video was recorded by Russian military journalists and bloggers-supporters of the Kremlin authorities in the traditional Russian propaganda style.

The tragedy that occurred in the maternity ward is one of many told by the creators of the film "20 Days in Mariupol." Mstislav Chernov told The Guardian about other cases of Russian war crimes, in particular, that "he witnessed deaths in the hospital, corpses on the streets, dozens of bodies thrown into a mass grave."

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"Doctors begged us to film families bringing their dead and wounded and to allow us to use the power of their generator for our cameras. Nobody knows what's going on in our town, they said. "

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Doctor from Mariupol Andriy Serbina shared his terrible experience with the publication "Svoi.City": "There was an episode when two children - 10 and 16 years old - were admitted. As far as I understood, they were not relatives, but they were brought from one place with very severe head injuries. We couldn't help them. They only had pain. Laid on top of each other. Covered with a blanket. And that's it. "

Mstislav Chernov in an interview with UAPP shared his opinion on how documenting real events then helped Mariupol residents maintain at least some faith in justice. "In my opinion, this desire to be heard and the knowledge that you are not ignored helps to survive. It seems to me that our mission, as journalists or documentary filmmakers, is not only to tell the world about tragedies, but also to give people hope that they will be heard. "

However, fakes involving Vyshemirskaya against Chernov's documentary were not the last. Russian propaganda did not stop and accused the authors of the tape of plagiarism. They say that Ukrainians used footage from the propaganda short film "Toys," which tells about the shelling of Horlivka by the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

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"[...] create an image for a Western audience, similar to the one shown in the film" 20 Days in Mariupol, "where in the courtyard of a destroyed building on a tree without leaves hangs a children's pink jacket. This is a bright, memorable metaphor that does not require additional explanations. Viewers should feel deep compassion for those who suffered, and feel hatred for those who committed this terrible crime. And no one should know that this footage was shot not in Mariupol in 2022, but in Donetsk in 2014 [...]. "

The Center for Strategic Communications and Information Security has denied the fake about the shot with a pink jacket: Society: Russia: Lenta.ru
"True: the footage used by the propagandists in their" investigation "shows two different houses. The fakorobs took advantage of the gluing of frames and inserted a fragment from the film "20 Days in Mariupol" into the 2014 propaganda plot. However, the weather conditions on these frames they could not replace even after the moment with a pink jacket зʼявилися a woman in summer clothes. The "eyewitness" of that shelling was shown near the "same" house and tree. But if you compare the frame of Chernov and the "plot" of the propagandists, it turns out that these are completely different houses, and accordingly trees. The shelling of residential areas of Horlivka in 2014 with mortars and Grad MLRS was carried out by the Russians in order to discredit the Armed Forces of Ukraine and intimidate the civilian population. "

Mstislav Chernov is sure that the photos and videos from Mariupol are "powerful shots that could not but provoke a response from the Russian government."

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"Given what one of the captive" heroines "of the film Chernov, Maloletka and Stepanenko said, this film can hardly be called" documentary, "and his receipt of the prize speaks of the information war that the West continues to wage against Russia." ("Ukraine.ru").

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Ukrainian documentary photographers, risking their lives, go to the war zone and to the places of shelling civilians, realizing that the filming of Russian war crimes will help to bring Russia to justice.
The director expressed the opinion of the British publication The Guardian that silence provokes impunity:
«[...] Without any information from the city, without photos of destroyed buildings and dying children, Russian troops could do whatever they wanted. If it were not for us, nothing would have happened. That's why we took such a risk to send the world what we saw, and that's what angered Russia to hunt us down.
I have never felt that breaking the silence is so important. "

The Kremlin propaganda still hopes to hide the bloody crimes of its army, such as the bombing of the maternity ward, refreshing the memory of fakes against the works of Ukrainian documentary filmmakers. This propaganda is presented under fables and films about the enchanting reconstruction of Mariupol.

However, the film "20 Days in Mariupol" will not let you forget - the revival of the city takes place actually on the graves of Mariupol families who died in the blockade. It is not known for certain the scale of the crimes of the Russian army in this city.

However, creating a documentary is only the beginning on the way to establishing justice. It is important to keep Ukrainian military ribbons in sight. Realizing this, the AP team, after receiving the Oscar, took the documentary "20 Days in Mariupol" on a trip to the United States.

"We must continue information work. The world needs to know that the war in Ukraine is not only our problem, but also a threat to democracy and the security of all, "the UAPP director quotes.

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3 years have passed since the terrible events that remained in the memories and in the frames. Ukraine is still at war. The documentary, the main character of which was the city of Mariupol, acquired a large-scale significance.
Mstislav Chernov admits: "After 2 years of a full-scale invasion, Mariupol has become the history of more than one city. This is about Bakhmut, Popasna, Soledar, Volnovakha, Maryinka, Avdiivka... all those cities that were destroyed and occupied by Russia. It's about civilians being killed every day, about prisoners of war still being held in prisons, and it's about the hope that one day we can all return to our peaceful lives and rebuild our homes. "