Ukrainian Student-Journalists Fight ‘Information War’

Students of the journalism school at Ukrainian Catholic University are providing humanitarian aid and lending their communication skills to refugees of the war.

‘The journalism students work to generate news, conversations and stories for publication on various platforms in and outside of Ukraine,’ said Father Andrii Shestak, director of the School of Journalism and Communications, who also reports that students at Ukrainian Catholic University are offering hands-on aid to those in need.
‘The journalism students work to generate news, conversations and stories for publication on various platforms in and outside of Ukraine,’ said Father Andrii Shestak, director of the School of Journalism and Communications, who also reports that students at Ukrainian Catholic University are offering hands-on aid to those in need. (photo: Courtesy of Ukrainian Catholic University)

The Ukrainian Catholic University (UCU), located in Lviv, in the western part of Ukraine, has suspended university activities and is working continuously to help refugees leaving their homes, to inform them about the war and to give them different kinds of support.

“Our university has become a shelter, a place of assistance. We take care of the safety of our refugee students and their families, provide temporary accommodation for three to five days for orphans and refugees, humanitarian aid in Ukraine and abroad,” said Natalia Starepravo, a student of the School of Journalism and Communication at UCU.

“Students and teachers of UCU actively report about the possible refugee spaces to those in need and simultaneously strive to provide the basics of psychological and legal consultation,” explained Father Andrii Shestak, director of the School of Journalism and Communications at UCU.

Father Shestak told the Register, “It is war — real, cruel, and full on. It is clearly expressed and unconcealed Russian aggression that long ripened during the last eight years on territory of independent Ukraine and outpoured in what we see now.”

According to Father Shestak, the war provoked by the Russians relates to the long-standing fears of Ukrainians who, after 30 years of independence, are fighting in defense of their identity and dignity.

And the students at UCU are doing their part to cover the ongoing invasion and humanitarian toll.

“When Russia began a full-scale invasion of Ukraine, we realized that it was not just a war — it was also an information war. Therefore, our university community didn’t waste time. We understood if our defenders go to the battlefield, we go out to defend Ukraine in the rear: in volunteering, in the information field, in other activities,” Starepravo said.

The media team at the university is working hard to inform Ukrainians and the whole world about the developments of the war.

Starepravo told the Register that “our media team, including students and lecturers of the School of Journalism and Communication at UCU … send the most important messages about the war outside Ukraine.”

“The journalism students work to generate news, conversations and stories for publication on various platforms in and outside of Ukraine. Thus, we have a media hub on campus, with representatives from about 70 global media outlets, including Deutsche Welle, Sky News, RAI and many others,” said Father Shestak, who was born and raised in Ukraine. He went to seminary in Ukraine and afterward moved to study social media and communications at the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross in Rome. Three years later, he returned to his homeland and began to work at UCU. In 2020, he became an associate professor of the faculty of social sciences and manager of the journalism and communications master’s program.

The local Church is also working with local TV stations to televise non-stop prayer to help the people not feel abandoned in this moment of crisis. Father Shestak said, “We must be constantly in continuous daily prayer. For this purpose, for example, the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church television has launched programs, such as the Rosary and the Lord’s Prayer, which are aired 24/7.”

Local parishes are also offering support. “Practically all churches in Lviv opened humanitarian-aid collection centers and shelter centers. The collected humanitarian resources have passed from Lviv to the cities that are currently bombed or are on the line of contact, for example in Kyiv,” Father Shestak said. 

After the Crimea invasion in 2014, the tensions between Ukraine and Russia are not new, but many did not foresee war, according to the journalist-priest.

“People expected that these would be singular intermittent actions on the territory of the so-called Donetsk Peoples Republic (DNR) and Luhansk Peoples Republic (LNR) and on the coast of illegally occupied Crimean Peninsula. Nobody could, in their worst nightmare, imagine that a full-scale war for integrity, border maintenance and identity would be raging in Ukraine,” Father Shestak said, reflecting on the ongoing invasion. 

He continued, “We had 30 years to develop as a fully independent state, having left the killer machine that was the Soviet Union. We tried to grow in our own unique ways in the directions of freedom, democracy, culture, religion and the respect of human dignity. The biggest fear that we have now is to lose what is ours, our entire identity.”

Father Shestak said that Ukrainians are unified behind President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, whether or not they voted for him. “Our president today is a great example. He has been voted for by means of transparent and fully democratic methods. Despite the fact that many of us, particularly in intellectual circles, did not support this choice of the majority of Ukrainians, the transformation of Volodymyr Zelenskyy deserves much respect today.”

Lending a helping hand and staying strong in faith and community have been their mainstays amid war.

Added Starepravo, “Our life, our plans have changed due to the invasion of the Russian enemy. But this didn’t break us. The Ukrainian community is strong in unity.” 


 Andrea Barvi is a freelance journalist based in Rome.

An apartment building stands damaged after a Russian attack in the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv.

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