Ukrainian Journalists Are as Cunning as Foxes

At a cafe in Mykolaiv, local media director Oleh Dereniuha has developed an artificial intelligence app to run his entire newsroom. He has also created something more unusual: a “promise bank” designed to track whether local authorities deliver on their commitments.

Dereniuha runs NikVesti, renamed MykVisti in Ukrainian, a small outlet serving a city in southern Ukraine about 60 kilometers from the front. Russian drones and missiles regularly target Mykolaiv, but military censorship prohibits publishing precise information about the impact of strikes, so the newsroom gathers accounts from residents affected by attacks instead.

The outlet’s main focus, however, is local government. One major issue is the lack of shelters in nurseries and schools. Over two years, 442 nursery employees lost their jobs because their facilities lacked shelters, a matter with both legal and political consequences. As the school year begins, shelters remain a major concern. Only 45 of Mykolaiv’s 57 schools have them.

The newsroom employs about a dozen journalists. Its work also reflects the human consequences of the war, including residents who stayed behind and took in dogs and cats abandoned by neighbors who fled. The article presents MykVisti as an inventive local watchdog, operating under wartime restrictions while trying to measure whether city authorities keep their promises.