Framing the Frontline
On February 24, 2022, Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine, escalating tensions that had simmered since the 2014 annexation of Crimea into the largest war on European soil since World War II. Hundreds of international journalists flooded into the country, determined to witness the war firsthand and report the truth back to their own nations, often at great personal risk. Now, in the war's fifth year, fatigue has grown, interest has waned, and narratives have drifted from the sharp urgency of the early days — prompting us to examine the challenges journalists face in covering the war, focusing on three very different countries: Poland, Germany, and Denmark.
The latest updates
Piotr Andrusieczko is a Polish reporter and journalist, a correspondent for Gazeta Wyborcza and a member of the Outriders reporting team. He is one of the most experienced Polish journalists who have been consistently covering Ukraine.
Photograph: Genya Savilov/AFP/Getty Images
Photograph: Alina Smutko/Reuters
Photograph:Valentyn Ogirenko/Reuters
Roman Pilipey/AFP/Getty Images
Photograph: Genya Savilov/AFP/Getty Images
Historical Background
Ukraine Support Tracker from the Kiel Institute
Denmark
Germany
“We are experiencing a turning point (Zeitenwende). And that means: the world that follows is no longer the same as the world that came before.”
Chancellor Scholz
Poland
Voices of civilians
I don’t think the war gets enough attention
Katrine Skou
Denmark
In the beginning you got notification about what was going on, but now you only read the biggest updates
Helena Caton
It surprises me that we don’t hear more about it, when it’s still going on. Sometimes you forget that it hasn’t ended yet
Nora Buchhave
Germany
When you think about war in Ukraine, what comes to mind?
I thought it was a "simple" conflict but since then I have learned a lot more about it.
Do you think the war in Ukraine gets the right amount of attention?
It's crazy to me that people just live on and no one here seems to care about it.
Has anything changed in how you personally follow the news - regarding the war in Ukraine?
It's not that I am not interested in the topic but you get used to it - not unlike stories about climate change.
Poland
Street interview 1
When you think about war in Ukraine, what comes to mind?
I think of injustice, polarization and "oswojenie" (getting used to something)
Street interview 2
Do you think the war in Ukraine gets the right amount of attention?
So much bad stuff is happening in the world, maybe people don' t know what to focus on
Street interview 3
Has anything changed in how you personally follow the news - regarding the war in Ukraine?
We as human beings are really into ourselves, instead of worrying about others.
How are two mayor attacks covered in the media?
Okhmatdyt hospital strike
Strikes on Moscow
Source diversity
This analysis is based on a very limited dataset. It is not statistically representative. The findings here are illustrative/exploratory only and would need a larger, more diverse sample to be validated or generalized.
The war through the eyes of the correspondents
Do political debates influence which Ukrainian stories receive attention or get framed?
Agnieszka Lichnerowicz
Mostly, the Ukrainian attacks are covered in a pro-Ukrainian way.
At the beginning, there was much greater interest in stories about people and society. That interest still exists today, but it has become less dominant.
Ibrahim Naber
Claus Borg on media coverage in Denmark
Anything that could be perceived as negative about Ukraine we cover, but mainly we see Russia as the aggressor.
Polish society is complex and polarized, you have both emotions all the time distrust and solidarity at all the times
Agnieszka Lichnerowicz
The political landscape in Denmark
Agnieszka Lichnerowicz
An important story about Ukraine that Polish & german media is not telling.
The most important stories are about how people, as individuals, react to what is going on and face the war.
Ibrahim Naber
The access to the frontline gets increasingly difficult for journalists
Ibrahim Naber
Have you noticed a change in what the audience wants to hear regarding Ukraine?
In Germany
In Denmark
Ukrainian stories for the whole world
Gulliver Cragg
Gulliver Cragg is a British correspondent for France 24, based in Kyiv since 2014, covering Ukraine, Poland, Belarus, and Hungary. He first came to Ukraine to cover the Maidan protests in 2013 and has reported on the country's politics and war ever since.
Gulliver Cragg
What are important stories about Ukraine that media still is not telling well enough internationally?
I think it's probably time to return a bit more to humanitarian stories. The problem when you're covering the same war for a really long time is that you don't always realize when it's time to just do a story again. Evacuations from frontline villages, for example — that's still happening, but we've already done that story. There was a period when so many outlets were covering it that everything started to look the same.
But sometimes people still need to be reminded that this is going on. I did a story in February about what happened to people who were displaced — where they're actually living now. So many of them still haven't found a new home or a new life. Even if they left in 2022, they're still in a dormitory or some kind of "temporary" accommodation — years later. That's a bit of an under-covered angle.
The new reality of reporting
War continues. Ukrainians are adapting to a new reality, learning to live under constant threat while still building their everyday lives. Daily life here always exists on the edge of risk — and conveying this complex reality is one of the greatest challenges for journalists today.
Correspondents play a central role in documenting the human, political, and military consequences of the war and ensuring that the public continues to receive reliable information, even as the war no longer receives the same level of attention in the news.
Although the coverage varies between Denmark, Germany, and Poland, there is a shared understanding that the war remains one of Europe's most important ongoing stories, and that journalism's role is to keep public attention on a conflict that continues to evolve.
About us:
Anna Pedersen - Denmark
Andriiana Ilkiv - Ukraine Valentina Perner - Austria
Marta Stetsko - Ukraine
Sources
Photos from the nighttime attack on Kyiv:
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/jul/02/russia-attacks-kyiv-missiles-drones-ukraine
https://edition.cnn.com/2026/07/01/world/russian-strikes-kyiv-zelensky-intl-hnk
Polish media (Okhmatdyt hospital missile strike attack)
https://wiadomosci.onet.pl/swiat/koszmarny-bilans-rosyjskich-nalotow-ukrainskie-msw-opublikowalo-dane-relacja-na-zywo/37et3kd#message22
https://www.pap.pl/aktualnosci/rosyjski-pilot-przekazal-ukrainskiemu-wywiadowi-dane-dowodcow-po-ataku-na-szpital-w
https://tvn24.pl/swiat/atak-na-szpital-dzieciecy-w-kijowie-relacje-swiadkow-st7995332
https://www.osw.waw.pl/pl/publikacje/analizy/2024-07-09/rosjanie-niszcza-szpital-dzieciecy-w-kijowie-866-dzien-wojny
Danish media (Okhmatdyt hospital missile strike attack)
https://nyheder.tv2.dk/udland/2024-07-09-verden-er-i-chok-efter-russisk-missilangreb-paa-boernehospital
German media (Okhmatdyt hospital missile strike attack)
https://archive.is/sO8NU
https://taz.de/Kinderkrankenhaus-in-der-Ukraine/!5625167/
https://www.zdfheute.de/politik/ausland/kinderkrankenhaus-kiew-angriff-rakete-desinformation-russland-100.html
Polish media (The bombing of Moscow)
https://wydarzenia.interia.pl/ukraina-rosja/news-ukraina-podsumowala-atak-na-moskwe-potwierdzono-zniszczenie,nId,23502482
https://tvn24.pl/swiat/atak-dronow-na-moskwe-panika-szok-koszmar-tak-zareagowali-rosjanie-st9102411
https://www.pap.pl/aktualnosci/loty-na-moskiewskich-lotniskach-zawieszone-wczesniej-ataki-ukrainskich-dronow
https://wiadomosci.onet.pl/swiat/atak-ukrainy-na-moskwe-plonie-rafineria/cb1w51g
Danish media (The bombing of Moscow)
https://politiken.dk/internationalt/art10894338/Ukrainske-droner-ramte-deres-m%C3%A5l-%E2%80%93-manglen-p%C3%A5-br%C3%A6ndstof-i-Rusland-er-t%C3%A6t-p%C3%A5-katastrofal
https://nyheder.tv2.dk/udland/2026-06-22-russisk-braendstofmangel-er-opsigtsvaekkende-siger-ekspert
https://jyllands-posten.dk/international/ECE19432224/ukrainsk-offensiv-baerer-frugt-og-pressede-fredag-rusland-til-drastisk-traek-meget-bemaerkelsesvaerdig-lyder-det-fra-seniorforsker/
German media (The bombing of Moscow)
https://www.spiegel.de/ausland/russland-ukrainische-drohnen-treffen-raffinerie-in-moskau-a-92949b5b-5625-4028-a4a4-def2fad372fe
https://taz.de/Ukrainische-Angriffe-auf-Russland/!6189278/
https://www.zdfheute.de/politik/ausland/angriffe-moskau-ukraine-krieg-russland-100.html
Picture credits:
Leonhard Lenz
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russo-Ukrainian_war#/media/File:Ukraine_solidarity_protest_Berlin_Stra%C3%9Fe_des_17_Juni_2022-02-27_114.jpg
Silar
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russo-Ukrainian_war#/media/File:02022_1199_Refugees_from_Ukraine_in_Krak%C3%B3w.jpg
MarcoHamilton12
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Protest_against_the_Russian_invasion_of_Ukraine_in_2022_in_Helsinki,_Finland.jpg
Joel Muniz
https://unsplash.com/de/fotos/menschen-in-der-nahe-von-baumen-AJXDbeMsuJc
Preview-Picture:
Picture from Toa Heftiba on Unsplash
https://unsplash.com/de/fotos/ein-mann-liest-eine-zeitung-vor-einer-mit-graffiti-bedeckten-wand-fNfOKWJkZr8
Conclucion-Picture
Picture from Tanya Prodaan on https://unsplash.com/de/fotos/zeitungsartikel-die-hinter-gittern-ausgestellt-sind-c9UMV_nN9dg
Correspondents:
Claus Borg, Tv2, Denmark
Ibrahim Naber, Welt, Germany
Piotr Andrusieczko, Gazeta Wyborcza, Poland
Agnieszka Lichnerowicz, Radio TOK FM, Poland
Gulliver Cragg, France 24, Great Britain