Anastasiia Lapatina: Ukraine reporter named in Teen Vogue’s ‘21 under 21’ list

‘Helping Ukraine defeat a cruel dictatorship is in everybody’s best interest’

Ukrainian reporter Anastasiia Lapatina was featured by Teen Vogue in its “21 Under 21” list that honours the work of young changemakers, influencers, activists, and artists across the world.

Ms Lapatina is a national reporter at the Kyiv Independent and has previously worked with the Kyiv Post, Ukraine’s oldest and largest English-language publication.

The young war correspondent has written about the horrific events during Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, filing stories about bombings, hospitals in towns occupied by Russian soldiers, and cyberattacks.

Teen Vogue mentioned that “Anastasiia has been documenting Russia’s war on Ukraine every day since, both for the Independent and on social media, where her following has grown quickly”.

She is the co-host of two podcasts that regularly provide updates on what’s happening in Ukraine: “Did the War End?” and “Power Lines”.

The 21-year-old is also finishing her final year at the University of British Columbia, where she studies political science.

In her work as a young journalist, she focuses on politics and human rights, and has published stories about Crimea, Donbas, and Ukrainians in conflict zones such as Afghanistan, Syria, and Gaza.

Ms Lapatina told Teen Vogue: “My biggest challenge is dealing with publicity while being young, and while watching my country [!be!] destroyed and my people killed every single day.”

She continued: “I probably won’t ever overcome this challenge.”

“If there was one message I could tell the whole world, it would be this – if Ukraine does not liberate all its territories from Russia, it will forever change global geopolitics and will make the world significantly more unsafe for everyone,” the young journalist says. “Helping Ukraine defeat a cruel dictatorship is in everybody’s best interest.”

She told Forbes her biggest achievement so far is having a large platform through social media and journalism to speak about Ukraine.