War in Ukraine: How RSF continues to help journalists working under Russian fire

Journalists continue their work in Ukraine despite mounting pressure, including an increasing number of drone attacks along the front line, Russian shelling still hitting news media, and growing psychological exhaustion.

Since opening its Press Freedom Centre in Kyiv in 2022, RSF has been supporting journalists and media organisations across the country in partnership with several Ukrainian organisations and with funding from the EU delegation in Ukraine. In 2025, RSF launched a new project, also co-funded by the EU with a budget of €2 million over two years. Entitled "Strengthening the Sustainability of an Independent, Free and Pluralistic Media Ecosystem in Ukraine," the project aims to:

1. Reinforce journalists' physical safety and support their mental health;
2. Improve the economic sustainability of Ukrainian media outlets;
3. Implement press freedom projects with Ukrainian media organisations;
4. Document crimes committed against journalists and conduct press freedom advocacy targeted at the public and institutions.

In the first 18 months, the project has already supported more than 430 journalists and 28 Ukrainian media outlets.

• Training 100 journalists to work under the threat of Russian drones

In response to the widespread use of Russian FPV (first person view) drones along the front line - a threat that claimed the lives of three Ukrainian and international reporters in 2025 -and in cooperation with the Daily Humanity Foundation (2402 Foundation), RSF is organising five HEAT (Hostile Environment Awareness Training) sessions focused on drone-related risks for nearly 100 Ukrainian journalists and international freelance reporters.

The latest session took place in May 2026, and three more are scheduled for July. Drone detectors, now essential tools for monitoring Russian drones during reporting missions near the front, are being provided to participants either on loan or as donations. At the same time, 21 journalists from the public broadcaster Suspilne covering frontline stories have also received this training.

In March, RSF and the Kherson-based Union Foundation also published a practical guide and a video on Russian drone threats aimed at media professionals.

• More than 120 reporters receiving psychological support

Since 2025, RSF and the Ukrainian organisation Resilience Cities, which develops social cohesion programmes across the country, have organised five retreat sessions in the Carpathian Mountains in western Ukraine. Provided to a total of 60 media professionals and their relatives, these retreats have furnished participants with a place to rest far from the realities of the front line.

They also helped participants realise that "there is a life beyond work, obligations and war," as one participant, a journalist from the Sumy region in northeastern Ukraine, explained.

RSF also continues to provide psychological support through a Kyiv-based psychologist. Since 2025, more than 50 media professionals have benefited from individual counselling sessions.

• Supporting the financial survival and sustainability of 38 Ukrainian media

In partnership with eight Ukrainian media organisations, RSF launched the International Fund for the Reconstruction of Ukrainian Media (IFRUM) in September 2025 to provide long-term support and attract new funding to the sector.

In 2026, RSF and two IFRUM member organisations specialising in media development ­- Lviv Media Forum (LMF) and DII-Ukraine - distributed a total of 360,000 EUR to 22 Ukrainian media outlets based in the regions of Kharkiv, Sumy, Dnipro, Poltava, Cherkasy, Lviv, Kyiv, Zaporizhzhia, Volyn and Odesa.

RSF's Assistance service also continues to provide emergency grants to media outlets that need to relocate farther from the front line or replace equipment destroyed by Russian bombardments. Eight media outlets already received support in 2025, including two that subsequently benefited from IFRUM support, while ten more will be supported in 2026. Since 2022, more than 70 media outlets have received financial assistance from RSF.

In addition, mentoring programmes are currently underway for 45 media outlets wishing to engage in the Journalism Trust Initiative (JTI) certification process, which promotes media transparency and is used as a benchmark by some international donors. These programmes are implemented in partnership with two local organisations, the Institute for Regional Press and Information (IRMI) and Jnomics.

To date, 125 Ukrainian media outlets have participated in the programme, and 19 have successfully passed an audit conducted by a Ukrainian certification body and received JTI certification for a period of two years.

• Working with local partners

Working in Ukraine since 2022, RSF continuously adapts its projects to evolving needs. This includes cooperation with new partners such as Women in Media, an organisation that specialises in protecting women journalists. In March 2026, nearly 50 Ukrainian law enforcement officers received training on preventing and responding to violence against women journalists.

Since 2025, the Kyiv Press Freedom Centre has provided protective equipment (including helmets and bulletproof vests), first-aid kits and rechargeable batteries for use during power outages to nearly 300 Ukrainian and international journalists.

RSF also supplied protective equipment to its Ukrainian partner, the Institute of Mass Information (IMI), after it lost all of its safety equipment in a Russian strike on its Dnipro office in November 2025. This enabled it to continue distributing to reporters in the region.

The programmes implemented under the project launched in 2025 build upon and expand the initiatives carried out since the beginning of the war. Since 2022, more than 2,250 Ukrainian and international journalists and 283 Ukrainian media outlets have received support from RSF in cooperation with Ukrainian organisations including IMI, Lviv Media Forum, DII-Ukraine and the 2402 Foundation.

• Documenting crimes against journalists

RSF continues to document abuses committed against journalists and violations of press freedom.

As the leading predator of journalists and media in Ukraine, the Kremlin has already been the subject of 11 complaints filed by RSF before the International Criminal Court (ICC) and the Ukrainian Prosecutor General's Office. The most recent complaint, filed in February 2026, concerned crimes against humanity.

Requests for emergency assistance and psychological support: [email protected]

Kyiv Press Freedom Centre: [email protected]

These activities have been implemented with the financial support of the European Union.