Michael Downey
@mgdowney
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Director/DOP, journalist & producer - Ukraine, MENA, Alaska and the Arctic, NYT, Channel 4, et al.
Istanbul, Turkey
Joined December 2011
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This is from the NYT photo team, and NYT security is the first to run out the door to help - can't thank the security guys enough for all the work they do. What's happening in Irpin is horrific and clearly direct targeting of civilians trying to flee.
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The streets of
#Kyiv
are calm today, the sun is out & a fair amount of people are causally walking around to get groceries or just go for a stroll after a tense night of bombardment. The composure of people is remarkably calm, everyone waiting politely in line for supplies.
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On the road to Odesa - you can see where Ukraine got it’s flag 🇺🇦
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Russia seems to be copying its playbook from Syria - hospitals, schools, residential areas; all have been targeted.
#Ukraine
The reception department of the Central City Hospital in Izyum (Kharkiv Oblast) was destroyed in a Russian strike.
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Lots of surprises here - before this all started the general consensus was that the Mayor of Odessa was very much aligned with Moscow - another thing Putin didn’t count on, not having some kind of 5th column in
#Ukraine
that would welcome
#Russia
.
Odesa mayor (who just recently was seen as pro-Russian): “Who the fuck do you defend us from?”
#StandWithUkraine
#RussiaGoHome
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My latest for
@nytimes
: At midnight Kyiv time Ukraine’s power grid will disconnect from Russia and Belarus and run in isolation for three days as part of an effort to join the E.U.'s power grid next year. But the timing of the test could be risky:
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This is so gross and offensive, frankly racist.
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People’s belongings blown out onto the street, children’s stuffed animals and toys scattered around - families were fortunately sheltering below ground otherwise many more would’ve been hurt.
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Small arms fire with some heavy gunfire bursts in
#Kyiv
, sounds like 50 cal. outgoing - lots of rumors flying around that Russia will do a heavy bombardment on the city, but no sources for them & good to remember spreading fear & panic is part of Putin’s hybrid warfare playbook
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Our latest from
#kyiv
: As the war in Ukraine moves closer to the capital, some families are facing a difficult choice: stay home or take up arms. A mother’s son and husband go to war.
@YousurAlhlou
Masha Froliak, Mark Boyer and Hanaan Sarhan
#ukraine
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Turkish drones, wherever they have been introduced in conflicts, have changed the balance - in Libya, and now possibly
#Ukraine
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A thread on
#Lebanon
's rapidly accelerating economic collapse as the hyperinflation drives the lira above 9,000 at a rate of 471%/yr up from 1,500 in September (surpassing Zimbabwe). Most Lebanese's savings are gone, food prices are climbing and many are already going hungry.
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A very quiet night in kyiv - didn’t wake up once to the sound of anything happening.
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landed very close in central kyiv, could here in coming in
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@rimamaktabi
@GhinwaYatim
The context is not an excuse. You don't need to get dressed up in the gear simply because you're doing a story on it, especially in the street. We know TV news is a visual medium and it provides drama. But it also raises fears and adds nothing to the story.
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Before the invasion started we talked to some people in Chernihiv who said they weren’t worried about the invasion - they said the Russians would just go right by and leave them alone. Unfortunately each day we have more evidence of civilians/residential areas being targeted.
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An update on our story on
#Ukraine
's Isolation Test - as expected
#Russia
&
#Belarus
did not connect power grid back, but instead of continued isolation
@ZelenskyyUa
says UA is now integrated with the EU's power grid - massive step towards EU membership
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Lots of journos asking about coming to
#Ukraine
- if logistics aren’t already in place it will very difficult to function - no cars to rent, translators and drivers who aren’t booked are leaving with their family, hotels no new rooms & shutting down, harder to find supplies/food.
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This sums of the horrors of what’s been happening in Mariupol. Absolutely heartbreaking.
A notice from Mariupol: "Dima (cozy name), mom is killed on 9th March 2022. She has died quickly. The house has burned down after. Dima, I am sorry I could not save (her). I have buried mom next to a kindergarten." (A map follows: South mark, tree, heating pipeline, fence sign).
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A brief reprieve from all the terrible news:
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@TrellaLB
@GhinwaYatim
The context is not an excuse. You don't need to get dressed up in the gear simply because you're doing a story on it, especially in the street. We know TV news is a visual medium and it provides drama. But it also raises fears and adds nothing to the story.
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A bit of good news to lighten the day - proud to have received this award from Pictures of the Year International for my ‘Bird Language’ documentary for
@VICEWorldNews
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In lieu of events in Russia this morning and for those who are not as familiar with Wagner group and its leader, Prigozhin, here’s a documentary I worked on for
@WSJ
that came out last week
#Russia
#Prigozhin
#Wagner
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The crackdown on independent news outlets in Russia is very troubling. If Russian’s only news source is state TV, much of the population will only hear what Putin wants them to hear - a different reality.
It’s with a heavy heart that we have had to suspend
@BBCNews
operations in Russia until we assess impact of new laws which outlaw independent journalism. Thoughts with colleagues in Moscow whose voices cannot be silenced for long.
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Our midnight commute back to Arctic Bay, Baffin Island with our brilliant guides Jessie Olayuk (left), Collin Tilly (middle) and Matthew Akikulu (right).
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Scenes from the protests in downtown
#Beirut
tonight - reports over 170 injured, many from rubber bullets and teargas canisters. Seems this is the worst violence
#Lebanon
has seen since protests started months ago.
#LebanonProtests
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We’ve gone outside of Kyiv, while two colleagues
@AndrewKramerNYT
and
@lynseyaddario
will continue to report there - follow them for more updates there. Meanwhile we will continue reporting in the West.
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Everyone was wearing vests clearly labeled PRESS, it was very obvious they were journalists and the IDF targeted them.
BREAKING: One journalist was killed and six others wounded when an Israeli shell landed on a group of international journalists covering clashes on the border in south Lebanon.
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Agreed: there’s a problem with some personalities going just for their own vanity, taking selfies and not actually doing any reporting other than tweeting their own experience and taking up resources - you are not the story, tell the story of those affected by the war.
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Our latest from
#Ukraine
on those fleeing the fighting - over a million in the past week have fled. Mothers with their children lined up for hours waiting for trains to Poland, their husbands stayed to fight. With
@YousurAlhlou
, Mark Boyer & Hanaan Sarhan
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This is what apartheid looks like:
Horrible scenes as Israeli security forces beat the funeral procession for slain journalist Shireen Abu Akleh and the crowd momentarily lose control of her casket
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Can’t emphasize this enough - logistics alone are incredibly challenging, even some staff journos have gotten stuck and stranded - if you don’t have a ton of support and a team to work with it is extremely dangerous to go on your own and not advisable.
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Listen more to journos like
@mschwirtz
and others in Ukraine reporting rather than armchair takes by nutters like these two far away.
I've spent most of this war in the south and the east with Russian-speaking troops and Russian-speaking civilians, who want nothing to do with what Russia is offering. Also, Ukrainians overthrew their corrupt Kremlin-backed government because they wanted not to live under that.
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But then the initial explosion (before the larger second) appears to be pyrotechnics.
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Speaking to a military source who says the battle in Irpin is over for now - under Ukrainian control. He also says the Territorial Defense Forces are playing a big role.
#Ukraine
Just got some footage from Irpin outside of Kyiv of the fighting (not posting because pretty NSFW) and it’s pretty intense. A number of buildings on fire, dead Russian soldiers in the street.
From what I can see it’s mainly TDF fighting them.
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This is a wild conspiracy theory & Putin using it to justify attacks - claims the Biological Threat Reduction Program is a bio weapon program, when it’s purpose is meant to identify and help stop possible outbreaks - intentional or otherwise
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Another incredible day on the ice around Baffin - now further North to Resolute Bay, and then to the top of the world, Axel Heiberg Island.
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I should clarify that officials were bringing batches of people up from the liens below to keep order and avoid crowds pushing. They were also handing out food to hungry families and things were running quite smoothly - steady stream of people arriving and going.
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The first week of the war Kyiv was buzzing with word of these Russian saboteur groups marking buildings, but until now this is the first I’ve seen of their markers - before officials said those captured were using UV paint to mark targets.
📸 Electronic reflectors captured with a Russian sabotage group in
#Mariupol
,
#Ukraine
.
These devices used to covertly mark target buildings for later attacks with laser-guided munitions.
📸
@savunmaisleri
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The middle class has lost two-thirds of it's purchasing power, throwing a large portion of the population (World Bank estimates nearing 70%) below the poverty line. Now many more don't have work, they aren't able to pay rent, or buy food.
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As I write this many places across Lebanon have had power cut for over 20 hours, some of the generators that normally make up for those cuts don't have fuel anymore, so we just sit in the dark until the power comes back.
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This is insane.
🔴BREAKING:
Israel has given Al Awda Hospital just two hours to evacuate. Our staff are still treating patients.
We unequivocally condemn this action, the continued indiscriminate bloodshed and attacks on health care in Gaza.
We are trying to protect our staff and patients.
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Meanwhile other political leaders, who are warlords that function as feudal lords over their areas (both geographically, and economically as every industry from telecom to energy has been divided up) continue with inaction, their corruption like a parasite eating its host alive.
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So far
#Russia
’s strategy has been very conventional, which is why
#Ukraine
’s mobility both in weapons and equipment/troops has enabled them to repel so many advances - a shift from Russia to light forces in urban areas might change their advancement in cities - *might*
More Russian troops in Kharkiv with KamAZ trucks and Tigr-M vehicles. It seems Russia will try to take Kharkiv with light forces and not tanks and BMPs.
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It shouldn’t come as a surprise Russia has done this, but I can’t help but still be surprised. And unfortunately this is just the beginning.
@natachabut
An Al Jazeera team was able to enter the devastated city of Kharkiv in Ukraine after Russia announced a pause in fighting to allow people to leave.
Reporter
@stratfordch
was shocked by what he saw ⤵️
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For those that were already below the poverty line, earning less than $4/day, the outlook is bleak. Talking with families in Tripoli and Bekaa the past few weeks, all of their fridges were empty, they're surviving off bread and tea - that was when the Lira was 6,000 to 1 USD.
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So while a large portion of the population teeters on starvation, the government has yet to put forth any plan on how to save the spiraling economy. The gov says the IMF will give a loan, but the IMF says they haven't even seen the gov's plan, & no guarantee aid is coming.
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Less than a week ago the lira was at 7,000 on the black market, the syndicate of exchangers have been mandated by the government to not go over 4,000, but everyone who has dollars is going to exchange every few days at the black market rate, otherwise basic goods are unaffordable
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Interesting take, one that I would say is definitely on the cautious optimism side of things - the other is that Russia will consolidate and slowly advance around Kyiv, Mikolaiv and Kharkiv, choking off N,S & W parts of Ukraine and hold key supply routes, going for siege tactics.
🧵I talked with an Estonian analyst who has access to info and who I regard as one of the best we have here. His main conclusion: "The danger is far from over but there is reason for a very cautious optimism. Russian advance has clearly stalled." More below:
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