Valeria Ivashkina is a journalist from Ukraine, notorious for her video “Why Prague? Intervyu without cuts ”(“ What does Donetsk want? Interview without cuts ”- Ukrainian). She also covered the tragic events of May 2 in Odessa, when several dozen people died in the fire.
Biography
The biography of Valeria Ivashkina is not very well known, and she herself does not extend about her personal life in social networks. Born December 25, 1990 in the glorious city of Odessa, where in 2013 she graduated from the Journalism Department of Odessa I.I. National University Mechnikov.
In 2014, she studied at the Ukrainian School of Political Studies and the Institute for War and Peace Reporting (IWPR). Since August 2014 lives and works in Kiev. Around the same time, she created her own channel on the Russian-language YouTube (Youtube), where she began to upload videos (mostly live reports) on topical and resonant topics for society.
Valeria Ivashkina managed to work as a correspondent in various online publications:
- "Ukrainian Truth" online newspaper (2011-2012);
- “Dumskaya.net” (2012-2013);
- Rollback (2013-2014);
- ZIK TV channel (2014-2016);
- Strana.ua - an online newspaper (from 2016 to the present).
Since the founding of the "Country" (2016) and to this day is a special correspondent. “Country” very quickly entered the top three most popular publications in Ukraine, which is known as the most oppositional media in Ukraine. To date, several criminal cases have been opened against the editor-in-chief Igor Guzhva, in connection with which he left his homeland and lives in Austria, where he sought political asylum.
Valeria Ivashkina is a participant in the tragic events in Odessa in 2014 and an expert with the May 2 Group. During the clashes between the so-called anti-Maidan and their opponents, among which there were many activists of the "Right Sector" (radical nationalists), she shot photo and video materials with her colleagues. The investigation looked for the culprits and the reasons that led to the clashes and arson of the House of Trade Unions along with numerous pro-Russian activists (anti-Maidan). In total, according to official data, 42 people died in the fire.
"Why Prague Donetsk? Interv'yu without cuts"
In the video, a pretty girl in a red hat walks along the square with the operator and simultaneously takes pictures to her smartphone. There is also a concert arranged by the authorities of the self-proclaimed DPR for residents in honor of the celebration of separation from Ukraine. In general, Valeria, like most residents of Ukraine, speaks Russian well, but addresses the inhabitants of the DPR mainly in the Ukrainian language. In this way, she wanted to show how aggressive the mood prevailed in society towards Ukrainian nationalists.
The questions were also not about the birds, but about the political situation, or rather, about how it will be represented by the few remaining residents of Donetsk in the future. Answer options were also:
- Joining Russia.
- Independence from all.
- Reconciliation with Ukraine.
It can be seen that this confuses residents, law enforcement officers and volunteer military units a little, but people are mostly kind and smile at a sweet girl, even if they don’t really want to answer. This is not surprising, given that a badge with accreditation from local authorities was hanging on Valery Ivashkina’s chest, the majority replied that they saw Donetsk as independent from everyone. The video appeared in April 2015, in almost 3 years it gained about 2 million views (early 2018).
Reaction
The video quickly spread across the Ukrainian and Russian Internet. “Interview without cuts” was forced by hundreds of Facebook users with the signature “Brave Odessa journalist asks questions in Ukrainian in Donetsk”.
But the alternative opinion about this interview turned out to be especially interesting. Ukrainian journalist Sergey Grishin on his Facebook page besieged all this hype with harsh criticism, accusing Valeria of separatism and contacts with fugitive deputies from the pro-Russian party Rodina Igor Dimitriev and his ally and friend Vasiliev.
It is only known for certain that Dimitriev allowed himself to throw boots at the Institute for Society Transformation Institute for allegedly non-traditional sexual orientation, was the general director of the ATV channel (later banned for separatism by order of the Ukrainian court), and also supported Otkat, where Valeria Ivashkina worked .
Grishin attached a photograph to his post, which shows how during the tragic pogroms in Odessa on May 2, 2014, Ivashkina was moving with Dimitriev in the anti-Maidan convoy.
The site 048.ua reports that Vasilyev “accidentally” ends up in a video from Donetsk at the 10th minute, but pretends not to recognize Valeria, although the three of them and Dimitriev have been friends on Facebook for a very long time.
In addition, Valeria actively defended the then acting head of the Main Directorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine for the Odessa Region, Dmitry Fuchedzhi, who was later accused by the Ukrainian authorities of organizing the events of May 2. Fucheggi himself fled to Russia from May 7, 2014, and from July 2017 became a citizen of the Russian Federation, so the Russian security forces refused to extradite him to his homeland.
Threats
After all the hype, they began threatening the sex symbol of Ukrainian journalism, publicly insulting the camera, which she repeatedly complained about, and even cartoons with her image appeared.
But, despite the poor fame, Valery Ivashkin, after two years, visited about the same issues in Crimea in Sevastopol and Simferopol. Only now, in pure Russian, she asked how the current "Russian" Crimeans live, didn’t it get worse after joining Russia? Many responded that the life of the population has improved significantly.
Now Strana.ua is going through hard times, the chief editor is on the run and is trying to manage the project remotely. Comment by Valeria Ivashkina: “The Ukrainian authorities are putting pressure on all opposition media!” What awaits the publication in the future is still unknown, which, of course, greatly worries all employees.
Nevertheless, at the moment, Valeria has continued active journalistic and blogging activities: more than 23 thousand friends and subscribers on social networks and 8 thousand on YouTube. We continue to wait for the latest news from the beauty!