A girl stands near the edge of the crater made by Russian cruise missile in Kyiv on Feb. 25. Photographer Anton Skyba is a native of Ukraine’s Donbas region and is a long-time collaborator with The Globe’s Mark MacKinnon.ANTON SKYBA/The Globe and Mail
There is something about journalism that makes those observers of the human spirit head toward danger and not away from it.
In the weeks leading up to the invasion of Ukraine, the foreign desk and senior editors were living parallel lives, directing coverage of the Winter Olympics in Beijing and planning for war in Europe. As the Russian troops assembled, we could not foresee the action that would unfold but we did assume the worst. And that came, with the multipronged assaults into Ukraine on Feb 24.
The Globe and Mail’s rich history of foreign coverage, underpinned by generations of investment in our overseas bureaus, has always been appreciated by our readers. We take pride in bringing stories from around the world, always with a Canadian perspective but not always with a Canadian connection.
In the weeks before Ukraine we had completed deeply reported text and visual work on the shores of the Nile by our correspondents Eric Reguly, normally based in Rome, and Geoffrey York, based in Johannesburg. The Globe and Mail is the only Canadian news organization in Africa on a full-time basis.
But in addition to focusing on under-covered areas of the world, we also employ vastly experienced reporters who are true subject experts.
Mark MacKinnon, our senior international correspondent, is based in London, with previous postings of Jerusalem, Beijing and Moscow. As a news fireman, his remit is to go where the news is, combining his reporter eye with the analysis that only experience can bring. Who can forget his work from Afghanistan just last summer? Mark has returned time and again to Ukraine, and Moscow, recognizing over the years that the flashpoint of Europe would return to these borders. That was why Mark was in Ukraine weeks before the invasion, as we sensed history on the move. You will have seen his front-line dispatches, which are only achievable because of his extensive network built by years of attention on the story, and by unsurpassed personal bravery.
Mark was in Kyiv because the storm clouds were gathering, the Russians were moving toward the Ukraine border but also because of unfinished business from his time in Afghanistan. Mark wanted to check on Jawed Haqmal, an Afghan refugee who Mark had managed to help escape the Taliban. Jawed had been abandoned by the Canadian government despite being employed by the Department of National Defence during the Afghan conflict and The Globe had to all intents and purposes adopted him and his family as we worked incessantly to try to get him from his temporary stopping point of Kyiv and onward to Canada and a new life. War would make that impossible.
Also on the front lines in the early days was our recently returned Beijing correspondent Nathan VanderKlippe, who now lives in Vancouver. We sent him in to Ukraine to ensure we had other coverage beyond the capital. Nathan travelled through the southeastern edges to Odesa until the military risks became too great with the war under way and we withdrew to Romania and Moldova.
And Paul Waldie, also based in London, flew to Warsaw so he could bear witness to what is expected to be the largest movement of refugees since the Second World War. In one week of war, more than one million people have fled their homes. As many as seven million could become refugees during this conflict, according to the United Nations. We are committed to telling their stories. Also outside the conflict zone, Eric Reguly had moved to Brussels and NATO headquarters and James Griffiths in Beijing broke vacation to file on the response of the Chinese government to the invasion. We flew Emma Graney from Calgary and Janice Dickson and Marieke Walsh from Ottawa to Berlin, Istanbul and Tallinn. Our business reporters and columnists joined the all-of-editorial response to ensure the business community and investors were kept up to date with the extraordinary developments, from asset freezing and sanctions to market and currency turmoil.
But it isn’t just the correspondents who bring you the news. The team is anchored by our foreign editor Angela Murphy and her deputy Belinda Lloyd, who have barely slept as the tanks moved. A team of news editors, again many working in the night, have handled the copy – more than 210 stories filed in a week that is satisfying huge reader interest.
It was a week that changed the world, and the changes aren’t over yet. We thank you for your continued interest and support.
David Walmsley
Editor-in-Chief
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