At least three cargo ships loading grain in Mariupol were caught on video by Russian propaganda media. Journalists found names of several grain trading companies in documents logging the grain loaded onto these vessels.
“My brain will desperately want to forget all this,” narrates journalist Mstyslav Chernov over footage he filmed of city workers adding bodies to a mass grave in Mariupol, “but the camera will not let it happen.” At the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Chernov, along with his Associated Press colleagues, photographer Evgeniy Maloletka and field producer Vasilisa Stepanenko, were the last international media left reporting from the besieged city of Mariupol. The footage they captured for the AP, including famous scenes from the aftermath of the Russian airstrike on a maternity hospital on March 9, 2022, horrified the world and arguably contributed to mobilizing international aid for Ukraine.