Luke Harding from the Ukrainian Front for The Guardian

World-renowned British journalist from The Guardian, Luke Harding, visited the frontline together with the team of the Ukrainian Center for Security and Cooperation (UCSC).

During the visit, the group spoke with Ukrainian defenders near Donetsk, in particular in Avdiivka, at positions where the distance to the enemy was just 50 meters, as well as near Donetsk Airport. In the airport area, the group came under sniper fire from Russian occupation forces. The moment of the shot was captured on video.

The delegation also met with the leadership of the Avdiivka City Military-Civil Administration, the former head of the frontline village of New York, and residents of frontline areas.

“Will there be a full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine?”—this is a question people around the world are asking today, and journalists from across the globe are seeking answers. During our conversations with both military personnel and civilians in eastern Ukraine, we became convinced: ‘Nobody wants to be Putin’s slave.’ Ukrainians are calm and ready to repel any attack by the aggressor to defend our land,” says delegation member and co-founder of the Ukrainian Center for Security and Cooperation, Olesia Horiainova.

Luke Harding has worked at The Guardian since 1996. In 2007, he became head of the newspaper’s Moscow bureau, and in 2011 he was the first foreign journalist expelled from the country since the Cold War—after pressure from the FSB, he was deported from Russia. Mr. Harding is the author of books about Putin’s criminal regime, including Mafia State, Collusion: Secret Meetings, Dirty Money, and How Russia Helped Donald Trump Win about Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. elections, Shadow State about Russian covert operations, and A Very Expensive Poison: The Definitive Story of the Murder of Litvinenko and Russia’s War with the West. His books inspired the films The Fifth Estate about the founder of WikiLeaks and Snowden. He has also covered wars in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Libya.

The UCSC team cooperates with think tanks and global media to convey the truth about the situation in Ukraine. We were therefore pleased to organize a trip for the world-famous journalist Luke Harding, who studies the aggressive nature of the Kremlin.

Following the visit, The Guardian published an article with a powerful headline quoting a Ukrainian soldier: “Nobody wants to be Putin’s slave”.

The photographer/videographer for the British outlet during the trip was UCSC team member Volodymyr Yurchenko. The Guardian also released a podcast on the current state of the Russian-Ukrainian war.

The UCSC team is grateful to the command and press officers of the Joint Forces Operation and the Operational-Tactical Group “East” for their support and assistance in organizing the visit.