Ukrinform turns 107 today

Initially named as the Ukrainian Telegraph Agency, it launched operations during the Ukrainian Revolution of 1917–1921. A special circular telegram from the Central Executive Committee of Ukraine’s Councils stated: “The Ukrainian Telegraph Agency – UkTA has begun operating. Its main branch is temporarily located in the city of Katerynoslav, in the building of the former provincial administration, room 2-a.”

After the Ukrainian State was formed, headed by Hetman Skoropadsky, the Ukrainian Telegraph Agency (UTA) started its work in Kyiv. From May to November 1918, it was headed by Dmytro Dontsov, who also headed the Press Bureau. UTA published its reports in “Bulletins of the Ukrainian Telegraph Agency” and “Telegrams of the Ukrainian Telegraph Agency”.

Since then, the agency has changed its title several times. UTA, BUP, UKRROSTA, RATAU… This is far from a complete list.

Among the founders of the media business in Ukraine who worked at Ukrinform were many high-profile public and cultural figures, including Rudolf Halperin, Pavlo Tychyna, Yuriy Olesha, Ivan Le, Serhiy Pylypenko, Volodymyr Narbut, and many other writers and politicians.

Stalin’s repressions did not spare the agency as the first managers of RATAU, Volodymyr Narbut and Ivan Lakyza, along with dozens of other employees, died in the GULAG camps.

The agency dwelled under the name RATAU for almost 70 years. After the declaration of independence of Ukraine, the news agency received its current name, “Ukrinform”, having acquired national status.

Today, Ukrinform is Ukraine’s leading news agency of Ukraine, cooperating with numerous foreign news organizations and being a member of the European Alliance of News Agencies.

For more than a decade, Ukrinform crew have not only been covering the Russo-Ukrainian war, reporting from the front lines and front-line regions, but also directly defending our land up in arms. Now, 19 Ukrinform employees, both male and female, are serving in the Army.

Almost 10 years ago, on the night of September 4, 2014, at the very outset of the Anti-Terrorist Operation, Ukrinform journalist Oleh Zadoianchuk was killed by a Russian strike near Luhansk. He became the first journalist to be killed in the Russo-Ukrainian war. Oleh refused the agency’s offer to get a military draft deferral, saying: “This is fate” as he went to war despite poor eyesight, sporting thick glasses…

To our great regret, this year we also lost a colleague to the ongoing war: on the night of February 26, a Russian drone hit a house in the village of Kryukivshchyna, Kyiv region, killing an Ukrinform journalist Tetiana Kulyk, who was an author and host of the “Nation of the Invincible” project and served as acting chief editor of the Multimedia Department. Her husband was also killed in that drone attack.

It is worth noting that despite the war, the agency currently retains the largest regional and foreign staff correspondent network. Our journalists report from almost all regions of Ukraine and 10 countries: the USA, Canada, Germany, Austria, Belgium, the Netherlands, France, Poland, Türkiye, and China.

The Ukrinform website offers over 300 news pieces per day, as well as exclusive comments and interviews, photo reports, and infographics, giving readers a complete and objective picture of the latest developments.

News and publications are published in Ukrainian, English, German, Spanish, French, Japanese, and Polish.

Ukrinform has also launched several multimedia projects (“Our Victory Commanders,” “Kramatorsk Station,” “Nation of the Invincible,” “Behind the Back”), featuring Ukrainian military, volunteers, and other public figures.

In addition, the agency produces professional information products: thematic news feeds, information packages, bulletins, and digests. Among Ukrinform’s subscribers and partners are electronic and print media, Ukrainian TV and radio companies, foreign media outlets, government bodies and businesses, embassies and consulates, enterprises and banks.

Ukrinform runs a professional photo service and owns Ukraine’s largest historical photo archive, which includes over 500,000 images. Our regional and foreign photo correspondents replenish the database with dozens of new photo reports on a daily basis.