20 Days in Mariupol

The first twenty days in the Russian invasion of/war against Ukraine in February and March 2022 is documented, most specifically in the city of Mariupol. Ukrainian Associated Press journalist Mstyslav Chernov was fairly certain that if/when the Russians were going to invade, Mariupol was going to be one of their first targets in its strategic importance to them in being a port city close to the Russian border and being a land conduit from Russia to the Crimea, which Russia had illegally annexed from Ukraine eight years earlier. He was correct, the reason he and his team decided on it as a base to document the war. Many citizens were hostile to his team in wanting to be left alone to deal with the potential dangers of the war without intrusion, but as the Russian attacks became closer to the actual city itself and as the Russians, against their public statements, actually targeted civilians in bombs being dropped in residential neighborhoods, the attitude of many of the citizens changed in realizing that documenting what was happening was important, especially what many in the global community would consider Russia's war crimes if the world could only see it for themselves. One of the issues became getting the video footage out of Mariupol with the Russians having targeted key infrastructure, including communications networks, and the Russians, after they had surrounded the city, denying humanitarian corridors in and out of the city.