Oleg Suslov is the Editor of Evening Odessa, the city’s oldest independent newspaper. The first editor of the paper, legendary Ukrainian journalist Boris Derevyanko, was shot dead by a hired killer allegedly because of the paper’s critical stance on the administration. Suslov spoke to Vineetha Mokkil about how people in Ukraine now “live inside the war” and his reasons for continuing to write and report about it. Excerpts:
In an article published in Fusion magazine, you said, “A journalist needs to have specific vocabulary, terminology [to write about war]. Until this full-scale invasion I did not have the terminology of war.” What did you mean by “specific vocabulary”?
I would like to remind you that the war in Ukraine began in 2014, when Russia organised a quasi-referendum in Crimea and initiated the creation of so-called ‘people’s republics’ in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions. An anti-terrorist operation was declared in Ukraine. And although real military action began in the east of the✱ country, no one called it a war. First, the war from 2014 to February 2022 did not use all the modern weapons that are used now: ballistic and cruise missiles, unmanned aerial vehicles, guided bombs, submarines, bomber aircraft, etc. We did not even know these names. And, second, the war in the east of the country had practically no effect on our city, Odessa. It was far away, and we didn’t feel its deadly bre𒁏ath.
Of course, as a journalist, I wrote about the anti-terrorist operation. But back then I had enough vocabulary. For example, in Odessa there were displaced persons, but they were not refugees. People who lived in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions could choos🌞e to stay in their homes or to move to other regions of Ukraine. No one really interfered with them. The full-scale war that began on February 24, 2022, brought new concepts and words that we had not encountered before. The country has ‘temporarily displaced persons’—people who were forced to leave their homes due to the war. They had no choice; they fled from death.
We have learnt and continue to learn new names for types of weapons. Before the start of the real war, we practicall⛄y did not use the word ‘bomb shelter’. What threat did we have to hide from? Now we spend part of our lives in bomb shelters. If earlier for us the word ‘tourniquet’ meant only ‘a device designed to restrict the passage of people’, now we😼 know that a tourniquet is used to stop the bleeding in case of injury. The concept of ‘relocated enterprises’ has appeared, that is, enterprises that have been successfully moved from the war zone to regions of the country that are not on the frontline. There are many such enterprises in the Odessa region.
From the first days of the war, ‘volunteers’ showed up. They solve the problems of refugees for free and also help to collect things soldiers on the frontline need. I can give many such examples. Every day brings new words, one way or another connected in meaning with the war. Or familiar words acquire new meanings. Of course, in my articles I use updated military terminology. Our readers don’t need explanations of the meaning of new words. We live inside the war, it has 🙈penetrat༺ed every cell of the brain, forcing us to doubt that we once had a peaceful life.
How hard is it to write about human suffering objectively as a journalist?
A person gets used to everything. Even to the fear of death. The first months of the war were the hardest. Because we were not ready to die. I desperately wanted to live, the question was constantly spinning in my head: “Why have we suffered so much grief and suffering?” Then, instead of the fear of death, apathy and indifference settled in my heart. Because there was so much grief around that the nervous system simply could not withstand it. In order not to go crazy, I learnt to 🅘focus on the little things: to derive joy from a morning cup of coffee, the touch of the spring wind, the smile of a loved one, a phone call from an old friend who, it turns out, did not leave Odessa, but remained to live under fire. The happie꧙st moment is the morning when you wake up. If you woke up, it means you did not die in your sleep, it means there was another night in your life.
It was especially scary to see children suffering. After all, their life ha🥀d just be🔥gun. Children are the most helpless and powerless people; they are completely dependent on the actions of adults. And adults choose war, destruction and grief instead of peace and prosperity.
Eve꧙ry day you immerse yourself in your own fears and, as a journalist, take other people’s suffering into your heart. I felt this when I wrote about my good friend, a fitness trainer. A rocket hit her multi-story building; her family survived, but the apartment burnt down. Yuri Glodan and his family lived in this building too. The missile killed his wife, three-month-old daughter and mother. Yuri went to war and he died six months later. Now, in Odessa, there is a street named after the Glodan family. But until February 24, 2022, they had dreamt of living happily ever after.
I write about the war objectively. How else? I undeꦡrstand that every line I write is a document for history. About how we lived, fought and survived.
What aspects of refugees’ stories have affected you deeply?
I w♚as struck by the calm and detachment with which they ac♏cepted such a terrible turn of fate. Apparently, they cried all their tears when they left their homes. It is terrible to lose your home, your things, to flee into the absolute unknown. There are a lot of elderly people among the refugees. Once I talked to a woman who was 93. A cleanly-dressed grandmother, with calloused hands and deep sadness in her eyes. “I have nowhere to go,” Anna Alekseyevna said to me. Her son had died at the start of the war in the city of Liman. His wife decided to leave Ukraine and on the way, she took Alekseyevna to Odessa. They left when the Russians had not yet entered the city. “I called the neighbours to ask about my house,” said Alekseyevna. She heard that the occupiers had destroyed her home. They had also killed her chickens. She told me her story in a casual manner. But outward calm is often a form of cold rage, when anger overwhelms the soul, but you can’t yet vent it on those who are taking your life.
Because of the war, chronic diseases have worsened. Many refugees are seriously ill and they have no money for treatment. However, the refugees are amazing because thওey do not give up! They have already seen so much grief and blood that nothing can scare them anymore. Most have a thirst for life.
How do you keep writing and continue to hope for a more just world? Does cynicism creep in?
Even on the toughest nights, when Odessa was subjected to rocket fire for several hours in a row, I never thought of leaving. I love ꩵOdessa very muꦐch, and therefore didn’t want to leave it in trouble. If I leave, who will defend the city?
As a journalist, it is my professional duty to provide people with reliable information about what is happening. During the war, this is of particular importance. After all, the enemy spends colossal forces and resources on disseminating unreliable information. Therefore, the task of Ukrainian journalists is to expose informational lies and fakes as quickly as possible. Journalism allows you to quickly get to know a large number of people. And when faced with other people’s destinies, you involuntarily imagine yourself in their place. At the same time, you notice that your situation is not bad at all. Although rockets have landed in our area several times, my house has survived. I am alive and well. Hours-long power outages and other such inconveniences do not frighten𝄹 me anymore. During a war, everything can change in a second. No one knows where a rocket might land next, but until that happens, you have to enjoy every day you live.
I believe in a just world for Ukraine because many countries are h൲elping us to resist the enemy. This mꦓeans that they believe in us. And we believe that peace will return to our land, and we will live to see that moment.
Why are there so many unending wars going on around us?
The 21st century was supposed to usher in an era of peace and mutual understanding. Alas, that has not happened. It turned out that to love and create needs much more effort from the human soul than to hate and destroy. Only when every person makes up his/her mind to be peaceful will wars end. However, in order to wake up morally and spiritually, it is necessary to rise to a new level of evolution. Time goes by, but the essence of human beings does not change. Some want to acquire wealth through their labour, others are ready to kill for money. Virtue and vice are inseparable from each other. And this means that wars will continue as long as there is life on earth. Some people will try to preserve this life, and others, unleash🧜ing wars, will call it into question.
(This appeared in the print as 'The Odessa File')
