Best of the Week — First Winner

Ukraine visuals document an exceptionally dark chapter of the war; intelligence says aides misled Putin

AP teams have again dominated coverage of war in Ukraine on two fronts, this time in horrifying images of civilians killed in Bucha and surrounding areas outside Kyiv, and in stories out of Washington and London, where AP was first with a report that Russian President Vladimir Putin’s aides have been misleading him about the war.

Recently declassified information from a reliable source led to Washington’s scoop that Putin was reportedly “misinformed by his advisors about how badly the Russian military is performing.” AP’s story beat the competition and scored sky-high reader engagement, and a smart follow-up out of London delved into the strategic value of declassifying such intelligence.

On the ground in Ukraine, AP video and photojournalists arrived Saturday in Bucha, outside Kyiv, after Russian forces were ousted. There they found civilians lying dead in the streets, destroyed Russian military equipment and dead Russian servicemen. The following day the AP journalists were first to record the bodies of eight men who were killed execution style, as well as a mass grave and the bodies of a village mayor and her family.

The grim images define one of the darkest chapters on the war so far and raise fears of what may be unfolding in areas as yet inaccessible to journalists.

For their vital role documenting this brutal episode of the war, and for revealing reports of failures in the Kremlin’s intelligence at the highest levels, the journalism of Nebi Qena, Sasha Stashevsky, Vadim Ghirda, Andrea Rosa and Rodrigo Abd in Ukraine, Aamer Madhani and Nomaan Merchant in Washington, and Jill Lawless in London receives AP’s Best of The Week — First Winner honors.

Best of the Week — First Winner

AP’s all-formats team delivers unmatched coverage of refugees fleeing Ukraine

With hundreds of hours of live coverage, gripping portraits of people fleeing, and broad takes on the impact of the migration wave, AP’s multiformat team covering people displaced by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has provided unrivaled coverage of Europe’s biggest refugee crisis since World War II.

AP journalists posted at Ukraine’s borders and within the country have put a human face to the mass movement of refugees, mostly women and children who have left their homes traumatized and exhausted, sometimes after being trapped for days or weeks in their basements to escape bombardment.

AP’s coverage started a week before the war began at the Medyka border crossing in Poland, which just days later would become a main entry point for tens of thousands of Ukrainians. In the month since, text, photo and video journalists have worked tirelessly to capture the surge, from the stress on countries accepting the brunt of the new arrivals to the generosity shown by volunteers opening their homes to the refugees.

For chronicling the exodus of an estimated 3.5 million Ukrainians with compassion, vigor and dedication to the story, AP’s border/refugee team earns Best of the Week — First Winner.

Best of the Week — First Winner

3 days, 2 nights, 1 train: Kyiv team crosses Ukraine with Zelenskyy in unprecedented embed

Months of building trust with the Ukrainian government led to unmatched access to President Volodymyr Zelenskyy during his travels across Ukraine. It resulted in a powerful all-formats series of stories that made headlines across the world and gave an in-depth portrait of a wartime leader in perpetual motion. 

For months, The AP team has been working on improving our links with the Kyiv government. Persistence paid off. AP was offered an exclusive interview with the president, to be carried out by Executive Editor Julie Pace. She traveled into the country, accompanied by Europe and Africa News Director James Jordan and teamed up with Arhirova and Lukatsky and on-deployment Prague video journalist Adam Pemble for two nights and three days on the president’s train.  

For their herculean efforts to organize and deliver the meeting, engineering an opportunity for AP to conduct the most extensive embed with the Ukrainian president to date, Arhirova, Lukatsky and Pemble share Best of the Week — First Winner honors.

Beat of the Week

(Honorable Mention)

Ukraine’s new way to get its grain to the world despite Russia’s threat in the Black Sea

Rare reporting and visuals illustrated a fledgling shipping corridor launched after Russia pulled out of a UN-brokered agreement that allowed food to flow safely from Ukraine during the war.Read more

Beat of the Week

(Honorable Mention)

AP Exclusive: Bodies of Mariupol steel-plant defenders returned

teamed up to scoop Ukrainian media and the international press corps by revealing the return of Ukrainian fighters’ remains following the weekslong last stand at the Azovstal steel plant in Mariupol.Leicester first learned of the return of the defenders’ bodies while interviewing a soldier for another story. He and Arhirova then pursued multiple sources in a difficult environment, including family members, unit commanders and spokespersons, confirming on the record, ahead of the competition, that several hundred bodies had been swapped with the Russians, including dozens from a regiment that took a lead in defending the complex during the Russian siege of the port city.Read more

Beat of the Week

(Honorable Mention)

Trial nearing, Trump keeps discredited Ukraine theory alive

for a forensic investigation into how the theory of Ukraine’s interference in the 2016 election evolved from a vague mention into a major talking point for Trump and his allies and now stands at the heart of the president’s impeachment trial in the Senate. https://bit.ly/3718XR9

Beat of the Week

(Honorable Mention)

AP dominates coverage of landmark trial over the downing of Flight MH17 over Ukraine

dominated the trial over the shooting-down of Malaysian Airlines Flight MH17, continuing the AP’s ownership of this story from the time since the plane crashed down in a Ukrainian sunflower field in 2014. A Dutch court convicted three men of murder for their role in the shooting down of the plane with a Russian surface-to-air missile that killed all 298 people aboard as it flew over a separatist-controlled region of eastern Ukraine. There were some 1,000 hits on AP video filed the day of the verdict.Read more.

Best of the Week — First Winner

Unmatchable coverage by AP team in Mariupol: ‘Their images are defining this war’

Rarely is the difference so stark between news organizations that subscribe to the AP and those that don’t. That’s down to the tireless efforts of AP staffers around the world who have reported, edited, planned, provisioned and advised to make our coverage of Ukraine truly stellar. And it’s especially true in the coverage of a single city that has seen some of the war’s worst horrors.AP’s Germany-based video journalist Mstyslav Chernov, photographer Evgeniy Maloletka and freelance producer Vasilisa Stepanenko have been the only international journalists to chronicle the tragedies of Mariupol. The team was recognized with last week’s Best of the Week award, and their unflinching coverage continued, the world riveted not only by their presence, but by their stunning journalism. Amid the chaos, they have found stories so moving — and told them so compellingly — that it’s impossible to tell the broader story of Ukraine without them.Usage for the work has been extraordinary. “Their images,” wrote Nick Schifrin of PBS NewsHour, “are defining this war.”For courageous, must-have coverage from the heart of the world’s biggest story, the team of Chernov, Maloletka and Stepanenko is AP’s Best of the Week — First Winner.

Beat of the Week

(Honorable Mention)

AP team dominates with stories, photos from Biden’s secret visit to Ukraine

dominated with lightning fast and in-depth stories and exclusive photos from President Joe Biden’s secret trip to Ukraine. Read more.

Best of the Week — First Winner

AP Investigation: Moscow taking Ukrainian kids to raise them as Russians

Russia has been open about its desire to turn Ukrainian orphans into Russian citizens with Russian families — a flashpoint of the war. But whether or not they have parents, raising the children of war in another country or culture can be a marker of genocide, an attempt to erase culture and identity.

This investigative piece, reported from Ukraine, Russia and France, made AP the first news organization to show the disturbing process from beginning to end — and prove that many of the children are not orphans at all. The all-formats story led with the account of a Ukrainian mother who, against the odds, successfully retrieved six children who had been trapped in Mariupol and seized by pro-Russia forces.

The story won wide play online, was a hit on Twitter and was singled out during a State Department briefing.

For documenting a severe breach of human rights with a heart-wrenching story that resonated across audiences, Sarah El Deeb, Tanya Titova, Anastasiia Shvets, Elizaveta Tilna and Kirill Zarubin earn AP’s Best of the Week — First Winner honors.

Best of the Week — First Winner

‘Method to the violence’: Dogged investigation and groundbreaking visuals document Bucha ‘cleansing’

An all formats team of AP journalists, working in partnership with PBS “Frontline” and SITU Research, used surveillance camera footage, intercepted phone calls and an exclusive 3D animation of Bucha to detail Russia’s monthlong reign of terror in the Ukrainian city.

The evidence collected, including 80.000 video files and thousands of audio files, told the chilling tale of the fall of Bucha and how, over the month that followed, Russian occupiers terrorized the local population with raids, torture and summary executions. In phone calls home Russian soldiers described “zachistka” — cleansing — killing civilians under orders from their leaders.

No other news organization has conducted such a deep and revealing analysis of the atrocities in Bucha.

For their meticulous, innovative work and their collaboration across formats and continents, the team of Erika Kinetz, Oleksandr Stashevskyi, Vasilisa Stepanenko, Adam Pemble, Allen Breed, Michael Biesecker, Jeannie Ohm and Dario Lopez is AP’s Best of the Week — First Winner.

Best of the Week — First Winner

AP account of last journalists in Mariupol is a must-read; investigation builds case for war crimes

At great personal risk, AP’s team in Mariupol produced some of the bravest, most revealing work out of Ukraine. The backstory of their determined reporting is masterfully retold by Paris-based writer Lori Hinnant in a blockbuster, all-formats package that riveted readers around the world.

The stunning video, photos and text produced during 20 days and nights in Mariupol also contributed to an impressive AP collaboration with PBS Frontline, documenting Russian attacks on medical facilities, ambulances and medics — a deeply reported package in an ongoing effort to build the case for war crimes.

For extraordinary work in Mariupol and for telling the tale of the AP’s courageous journalism there, Mstyslav Chernov, Evgeniy Maloletka, Vasylisa Stepanenko and Lori Hinnant share AP’s Best of the Week alongside the war crimes reporting team of Erika Kinetz, Michael Biesecker, Beatrice Dupuy, Larry Fenn, Richard Lardner, Sarah El Deeb, Jason Dearen and Juliet Linderman.

Beat of the Week

(Honorable Mention)

AP Exclusive: Manafort firm received Ukraine ledger payout

for breaking the news that a firm headed by Paul Manafort, President Donald Trump's former campaign manager, received more than $1.2 million in payments that match a Ukrainian ledger that investigators say reflect off-the-books payments from a pro-Russia political party. They also broke the news that Manafort will register with the Justice Department as a foreign agent for lobbying work he did years ago on behalf of political interests in Ukraine. http://abcn.ws/2otpOWd

Beat of the Week

(Honorable Mention)

Smart planning, sourcing puts AP ahead on Russia/Ukraine prisoner swap

for working sources and using their expertise on Russia and the Ukraine to document a major prisoner exchange that freed 35 detainees, producing photos, live video and text ahead of the competition.https://bit.ly/2kdZWRnhttps://bit.ly/2menkyU

Beat of the Week

(Honorable Mention)

Fast, sensitive coverage of Russian missile strike and its youngest victim

were quick to react when Russian missiles struck Vinnytsia in west-central Ukraine, killing 24.The strong all-formats coverage included interviews with survivors and the story of Liza Dmytrieva, a 4-year-old victim who was the subject of a video posted by her mother shortly before the missile strike. That poignant video went viral after the girl's death, and AP’s sensitive interview with the girl’s great-aunt earned the team access to Liza’s funeral.Powerful images of the family bent over Liza’s open coffin, and the accompanying text and video, were widely used — compelling coverage that brought home the suffering of innocent civilians.Read more

Beat of the Week

(Honorable Mention)

AP delivers exclusive interview with Ukraine’s finance minister

delivered an exclusive interview with Ukraine’s finance minister, despite the complications of war.Read more.

Beat of the Week

(Honorable Mention)

The AP Interview: Fiona Hill warns ‘buckle up’ on Russia-Ukraine

collaborated on a rare 45-minute interview with Fiona Hill, a Russia scholar and analyst who served in the past three U.S. administrations. Hill offered AP a sober assessment of the Ukraine crisis.During the interview, spot developments in the standoff were relayed to the AP team for instant analysis from Hill. She provided so much insight that AP turned the interview into a two-part video edit, the first piece focused on the breaking news and the second story focused on Hill’s assessment of how Putin and Biden are managing the evolving crisis.All the interview elements, video and text, scored heavy usage and engagement, including a promotional clip for social media that had a cautionary observation from Hill, “The basic message is buckle up because this is going to be very difficult.” Read more

Beat of the Week

(Honorable Mention)

AP/‘Frontline’ investigation: Russian brutality was strategic

of the AP teamed up with PBS “Frontline” on a joint investigation showing that the much-reported Russian violence against civilians in and around Bucha, Ukraine, was not carried out by rogue soldiers. Rather, it was strategic and organized brutality, perpetrated in areas under tight Russian control and where military officers — including a prominent general — were present.For a pair of stories, AP and “Frontline” interviewed dozens of witnesses and survivors, reviewed audio intercepts and surveillance camera footage, and obtained Russian battle plans.One of Kinetz’s stories tied the violence to Russian Col. Gen. Alexander Chaiko, who was in command. The other shows the wrenching impact of the Russian terror campaign on one woman who lost the man she called her “big, big love.”Read more

Best of the Week — First Winner

Ukrainian medic gives AP exclusive bodycam video revealing the tragedy of Mariupol

A celebrated Ukrainian medic recorded her front-line work in Mariupol on a data card no bigger than a thumbnail, then arranged to get it to AP journalists in the besieged city before she was captured by Russian forces. AP then smuggled it out to the world inside a tampon.

The result was a remarkable all-formats package showing firsthand the horror of the war in the devastated Ukrainian port city, while drawing attention to the Russian treatment of prisoners as well as the number of prominent Ukrainians, like medic Yuliia Paievska, who have disappeared.

The piece was AP’s most-engaged and most-viewed story of the week on apnews.com, and drew enormous media attention.

For a riveting look at the tragedy in Mariupol, and shining a needed and compassionate light on the fate of a courageous medic, the team of Vasilisa Stepanenko, Lori Hinnant, Mstyslav Chernov, Alyssa Goodman and Serginho Roosblad shares AP’s Best of the Week — First Winner honors.

Best of the Week — First Winner

Unique AP visual investigation points to 600 dead in airstrike on Mariupol theater

A deeply reported, innovative and meticulous AP investigation determined that the deadliest apparent war crime so far in Ukraine — the March 16 Mariupol theater airstrike — likely killed about 600 people, twice as many as previously reported.

AP’s first full-blown visual investigation drew on survivors’ accounts, photos, video, experts and a 3D digital model of the theater to reconstruct what happened that day. The resulting package offered a vivid, detailed narrative of the events inside the theater, including elements that had not previously been reported, all delivered in an arresting presentation.

For a remarkable investigation that harnessed the power of all formats to break news, the team of Hinnant, Ritzel, Chernov, Stepanenko and Goodman is AP’s Best of the Week — First Winner.