’20 Days in Mariupol’ wins best documentary Oscar, a first for AP and PBS’ ‘Frontline’

BY LINDSEY BAHR and CHRISTOPHER WEBER
Associated Press

LOS ANGELES (AP) — A harrowing first-person account of the early days of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, “20 Days in Mariupol” has won the best documentary Oscar. The joint production of The Associated Press and PBS’ “Frontline,” the Oscar, and nomination, was a first for Chernov, a video journalist for the AP, and the 178-year-old news organization. Chernov, photographer Evgeniy Maloletka and producer Vasilisa Stepanenko arrived an hour before Russia began bombing the port city. Two weeks later, they were the last journalists working for an international outlet in the city, sending crucial dispatches to the outside world showing civilian casualties of all ages, the digging of mass graves, the bombing of a maternity hospital and the sheer extent of the devastation.