'I have my iPhone, X and a brain in my head': Ukrainian journalist and social media star Illia Ponomarenko

[Emrys]

Ahead of the publication of his raw account of the Russian invasion, the reporter talks about capturing the conflict in real time – and when the war will come to an end

Illia Ponomarenko was mulling over the idea of writing a book about the war in his home country, Ukraine. He decided to ask his X (formerly Twitter) followers – 1.2 million of them – whether this was a good idea. “There were a lot of positive responses,” the 32-year-old says, with a self-effacing grin. In early 2023 he began work at his new flat in Bucha, the Kyiv satellite town now synonymous with Russian war crimes. He finished the manuscript in two and a half months. “It was brutally intense and emotionally exhausting,” he says.

This month, Bloomsbury publishes I Will Show You How It Was, Ponomarenko’s gripping account of the battle for Kyiv. It is a wonderful work of reportage, immediate and raw, as well as vivid and personal. As the former defence correspondent for the Kyiv Independent newspaper, Ponomarenko is uniquely placed to tell the story of how Russia’s swaggering imperial plan – to conquer Ukraine and to topple its pro-western government – failed. “It was a pivotal moment in European history,” he notes.

When the all-out invasion began on 24 February 2022, Ponomarenko was at home in Kyiv. He thought Russian troops would enter the capital. Western governments made the same gloomy assessment. At 4.45am Ponomarenko knocked on his flatmate Ivan’s door, telling him: “Wake the fuck up, it’s war.” Soon, he heard explosions. “We were under no illusions as to what would happen. We would end up in a pit with a bullet in our heads. So we decided to go bright,” he recalls.

Going bright meant documenting events in real time – not just the epic fighting, but the emotions and anxieties of Ukrainians caught up in what he calls the “biggest European bloodbath since 1945”. Ponomarenko’s posts were heartfelt, illuminating and brutally mocking of Moscow. They lit up X, and in the space of five days, he went from 10,000 followers to more than a million. He is arguably the most famous Ukrainian abroad after Volodymyr Zelenskiy.

https://www.theguardian.com/books/article/2024/may/11/i-have-my-iphone-x-and-a-brain-in-my-head-ukrainian-journalist-and-social-media-star-illia-ponomarenko

An interesting profile of an Ukrainian journalist, whose regular postings on Twitter - https://twitter.com/IAPonomarenko - and BlueSky - https://bsky.app/profile/ioponomarenko.bsky.social - give many insights to the war with Russia from the perspective of the military and the Ukrainian public. He moved to Bucha after the physical aftermath of the Russian atrocities there had been dealt with enough to make it livable.

He's also being profiled many other outlets, including an interview on NPR:

Ukrainian journalist Illia Ponomarenko on his memoir about the war

NPR's Scott Simon speaks to Ukrainian journalist Illia Ponomarenko about his memoir of the ongoing war between Russia and Ukraine, "I Will Show You How It Was: The Story of Wartime Kyiv."

SCOTT SIMON, HOST:

Illia Ponomarenko turned 30 years old in 2022, just as Russian forces attacked Ukraine. He was a reporter for the New Kyiv Independent, had much to cover, but he also drove his mother from the Donbas to the home of the parents of his new girlfriend, Natalia, to ask two people he had never met, can you take care of my mom? I don't know for how long. He then returned to Kyiv to report on the war and stories of survival among people struggling not just to stay alive, but to fight back before the eyes of the world, even as the world started to look away. Illia Ponomarenko has written a memoir of the war so far, "I Will Show You How It Was: The Story Of Wartime Kyiv." It covers much blood, suffering, and loss, but also courage, ingenuity and heroism. He joins us now from Bucha, Ukraine. Thanks so much for being with us.

ILLIA PONOMARENKO: Hello. Thank you for having me.

SIMON: And I guess we should explain, first off, Natalia's parents didn't need to be convinced much, did they?

PONOMARENKO: They absolutely did not, even though I'm not even sure they even knew her daughter had, actually, boyfriends. So that was a moment of unification in a terrible hour of wartime, at the same time of warmth and welcoming embraces by people who never knew you before.

SIMON: You suggest in this memoir that a lot of Ukrainians, including many in the government, didn't take the threat of war very seriously. How so?

PONOMARENKO: It's true. Partially it's because of very natural human characters (ph) that we do not want something ugly to happen to us. The hope dies last. But also, the more we knew about what Kremlin is and how much they put on intimidation and extortion, on fear mongering, too, it seemed to be so absurd, so doubtful and so unreasonable that you actually ask a question, are they stupid enough to do it?

SIMON: Of course, a lot of people considered experts were predicting Kyiv would fall within a few days. What happened?

PONOMARENKO: They ended up being absolutely wrong about the Ukrainian ability to fight, the Ukrainian willingness to stay independent and fight for their country and to keep their military as an organized force. The Ukrainian military managed to counter the first strike. So the initial plan failed within 24 hours, essentially.

https://www.npr.org/2024/05/11/1250756680/ukrainian-journalist-illia-ponomarenko-on-his-memoir-about-the-war