Tim Mak, On Reporting From Ukraine: ‘I Feel Like I’ve Aged A Decade’

When a Russian Lancet drone struck a local TV news crew’s vehicle in the eastern Ukrainian city of Kramatorsk last month, it killed journalist Olena Hramova and cameraman Yevhen Karmazin, in addition to injuring a third colleague enough to require hospitalization. The team had been on assignment in the region, and the attack — which was condemned by Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky — offered yet another reminder of the peril that journalists face covering a war that’s now in its third year.

That danger is something former NPR correspondent Tim Mak also knows all too well. He’s among the dwindling number of foreign journalists still reporting from inside Ukraine, still bearing witness at a time when news about the conflict no longer lands as regularly on the front pages — with most American news organizations also having spent the past several years shuttering foreign bureaus.