Preserving a team where most members have Luhansk roots is growing difficult for SD.UA, a news outlet relocated from Siverskodonetsk. This prompts the newsroom to cast the net increasingly wider when recruiting, chief editor Yana Mostova told Institute of Mass Information’s journalist Valentyna Troyan.
Mostova says that despite changes in the team and the difficult circumstances, the newsroom continues to produce news and analytical content about internally displaced persons, life in the temporarily occupied territories, and the work of local authorities.
“It is important for us not only to cover events promptly, but also to explain processes and raise issues that affect residents of Luhansk oblast and displaced people directly,” chief editor said.
This year the newsroom also launched several projects focusing on Luhansk oblast and the people living there, such as the video project Nashi Liudy (“Our People”).
“It’s a video project that carries warmth, associations, and memories of Luhansk oblast. We want to talk about our home region through people’s personal stories and feelings. We created a special deck of 56 metaphorical cards for the project, with questions about Luhansk oblast: not the facts you find in a textbook or answers you can Google, but the things that bind us to the place with invisible threads despite the occupation: childhood smells, places of power, rivers, roads, words, and moments,” Yana Mostova said.
For the anniversary of the Luhansk Border Detachment defense, SD.UA created the multimedia project “Nezkoreni (“Unconquered”): Three Days of Luhansk Detachment Holding the Line”. It brings together the stories of servicemembers united by the three days of battles in June 2014.
“For us, this is a way to preserve important testimony about the events and the people who made the history of Luhansk oblast’s resistance,” Yana Mostova said.
The newsroom is also testing out a new column, which is set to premiere soon.
“As always, we’re anxiously waiting for the winter. We started facing problems with connectivity, internet, and electricity as early as autumn, since part of the team lives in regions that are regularly targeted in air strikes. So we always support one another. International aid also enables us to try and make the newsroom better equipped with ‘survival tools,’” chief editor added.
She also spoke about the loss of her colleague Anastasia Bryukhanova, who had been on the team since 2023.
“She was a very important part of the team and had worked with us since 2023,” Yana Mostova said.
In June 2026 SD.UA, having relocated from Siverskodonetsk (Luhansk oblast), launched a series of interviews titled “Nezkoreni”, focusing on the battles endured by the Luhansk Border Detachment in June 2014. The project shows the earliest battles of the Russo–Ukrainian war through the personal stories of the soldiers, a medic, and their families.
In November 2026, Yana Mostova received the commemorative badge “Border Detachment No. 3 Commander’s Award”.