From a presenter to the military: Yegor Checherinda explains how to overcome Russian IPSO and the difference between journalism in peace and war
6 June 2024 12:07
ІНТЕРВ'Ю
On the occasion of the Journalist’s Day, Kommersant Ukrainian 
prepared a series of interviews with journalists who are currently serving in the Armed Forces of Ukraine. One of them is Yegor Checherinda. It was not possible to record the interview with him immediately, because during the first attempt Yegor was on duty, so the conversation was postponed to the next day. In the past, he worked for Espresso TV channel as a presenter and journalist, and now Yegor is a major in the Armed Forces of Ukraine who has already received his first military award. Read about the differences between journalism in peacetime and wartime, how to overcome Russian IPO and how Yehor’s response to the processes taking place in Ukraine changed when he became a military man in our interview.
Tell us about your journey, how did you join the Armed Forces?
In May last year, I received a message on my phone that I had to come to the TCC and JV to clarify my details. The thing is that my TCC is located in Kyiv region, and I was in Lviv at the time, because the Espresso TV channel, where I worked as a presenter, was based there after the relocation. So I took the train, arrived and went to my military commissar. That’s how I ended up in the Armed Forces.
You have been serving for a year now. Has your reaction to the processes taking place in Ukraine changed compared to when you were a civilian and when you became a soldier?
I was not an ordinary citizen, I was a journalist. And I had a specific journalistic attitude to many issues in terms of openness, in terms of criticism of the government, the Armed Forces, criticism of certain corruption issues, which is different from that of an ordinary citizen. I believed that all problems should be exposed, that all corruption should be covered, that illegal actions of any officials, government officials, military leaders should be highlighted – everything should be made public in order to eradicate this evil from Ukraine.
But when I became a soldier, I became more relaxed about some things and sometimes I even believe that my journalistic attitude during the war and in the face of an existential threat to the state was not entirely correct, because now the main value should be preserving the defence capability of our country.
And the moments that undermine confidence in the Armed Forces, in the government in general, that sow chaos and panic, that disorganise our society – in my personal opinion, they should be presented in the information space more carefully.
The main thing now is to destroy the enemy, to preserve Ukrainian statehood and our own lands. And we will deal with internal corrupt officials, bribe-takers and thieves in the country after our victory. If we fight on two fronts: both external and internal, it could, God forbid, lead to the loss of the state. This is my personal opinion.
As a long-time media professional, do you think journalism should be different in peacetime and wartime?
Let me tell you a story from my life. Recently, in April, I celebrated my birthday and got together with my colleagues, all of whom are journalists, some of whom are currently serving in the Armed Forces of Ukraine, and others are fighting on the information front, i.e. working directly in the media. We’ve known each other for a long time, ten, twenty years, but there was a clear difference in attitude to all the topics we discussed.
That is, journalists insisted on exposing everyone, debunking, punishing all that internal evil: all bribe-takers, corrupt officials, etc. And the military, who worked in the media before joining the service, believe that we should first and foremost pay attention to the strength of our defence and support for the troops. We can change the government after the war is over. But if an enemy occupier comes to our land, we will have no choice.
So what can I say – being in the Armed Forces directly affects the position of a journalist who wears the uniform on a particular issue related to our internal statehood.
For example? What do you disagree with the media about now?
For example, the story about the Rivne military commissar that appeared on social media (a video showing the head of the TCC kissing female colleagues at the workplace – ed.) Do you know what the original source was? Ukrainian traitor Anatoliy Shariy. A man who has been living abroad for a long time, funded by the FSB, by enemy intelligence, who is in direct contact with his Russian handlers. And this video was picked up by all the Ukrainian media, even without taking into account the live origin of this video, and began to spread an openly discrediting campaign against the mobilisation process in Ukraine, which discredits both the military commissars and the entire Armed Forces of Ukraine in general.
I understand that perhaps if we were not at war, this could be spread, but when we do not have enough people on the front line, when brigades are understaffed, I think it is inappropriate to spread such discrediting materials. Why has no one asked how this military commissar performs his direct functions, what are his mobilisation figures, how he manned the brigades and units of the Armed Forces. No one is interested in this. All anyone cares about is who kissed whom, and this whole story is even broadcast on television. This is a well-implemented enemy IPSO, do you understand?
And how can such IPSO really be overcome, when even the President of Ukraine says that the Russians are simply investing millions in the same telegram channels to undermine the situation in Ukraine?
Firstly, we need to treat any information that discredits and demoralises Ukrainian society and our defence forces with great caution, and really select what to disseminate and what not to disseminate. Of course, to be more careful about the sources of this information. I believe that anything disseminated by the enemy should not be disseminated by the Ukrainian media. Relatively speaking, what Shariy is spreading is definitely enemy disinformation.
Secondly, to conduct our own counter-propaganda. Of course, this should be truthful information that should lead to our victory. How to spread it? We have enough supporters of Ukraine around the world: actors, athletes and other cultural figures. At the moment, it seems to me that these people are not sufficiently used, in a good sense of the word, to spread our agenda, our agendas in the world to explain our actions, our intentions and our goals that we are trying to achieve in this war.
I think that we have to convey our messages through folk art diplomacy.
And thirdly, I think that now we have to formulate one of the main tasks that I have already mentioned – the completion of the old stage of the mobilisation process and the beginning of a new stage, which should be supported within society by a new ideological narrative that a Ukrainian man is, first and foremost, a warrior, that the task of Ukrainian society is to defend their country, family, children, relatives, and friends.
That evasion is bad, it demoralises society. We need to understand that this is the path to the disappearance of Ukraine as a state and Ukrainians as a nation, and that we must all come together now because we have relaxed too much, the war is not over yet. A Ukrainian hero should be a hero of the Ukrainian media and Ukrainian society, not a Ukrainian fugitive or someone who has fled abroad and is waiting for the war to end. Again, this is my personal point of view.
That is why we must work ideologically both externally with our partners, with the entire world community, and internally with our citizens, Ukrainians, to explain that there will be no peace on the enemy’s terms.
And finally, I would like to talk about good things. You have recently received your first military award. The whole editorial team congratulates you. Tell us about your emotions when you received it.
I would say that it was very unexpected, very pleasant and very inspiring. I thanked my commanders and said that this is, of course, a certain advance in terms of my future service. I can’t tell you the details of why I received the award, because I serve in a rather specific unit, which I will be able to talk about in a few years after I finish my service.
I received the ‘Golden Trident’ award of the Ministry of Defence, signed by Rustem Umerov: for fulfilling the oath, for exemplary service and for the achievements I have made, pardon the tautology, in the first six months of my service.
I continue to serve the Ukrainian people, and I hope that I have many more months of service ahead of me! Everything will be fine. We just need to keep our spirits up and not fall for Moscow’s disinformation provocations. Together we will win, let’s spread the truth and go into our future with a clear heart and a bright head. Everything will be Ukraine!
