Mstyslav Chernov, a video journalist with the Associated Press, was in the Ukrainian city of Mariupol in February 2022 when Russian troops invaded. When other journalists left, he and his team stayed — and kept filming.
"By the time the city was completely surrounded," the Ukrainian filmmaker says. "I just understood that we need to record everything. Every frame, every second will be invaluable later, for the war crimes investigations, for the history of Ukraine."
Chernov and his team would later win a Pulitzer Prize for their work in Mariupol. The new PBS FRONTLINE and Associated Press documentary, 20 Days in Mariupol, is based on the footage the team captured during the first days of the war in Ukraine. Chernov says he wanted to show audiences what it was like to be trapped in a city that was sliding into chaos.
