When Alisa Sopova started working as a journalist in her native Donetsk, she never imagined one day its city will turn the capital of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic (DPR).  it was in summer 2014, after a cruel conflict between Ukrainian nationalists and pro-Russia Separatists, that led to the split of Ukrania.  

Before the war, Alisa was editor at Donbass, the largest newspaper and website in the city. Her routine included covering scandalous crimes and political corruption cases, before she was recruited as a fixer, and later a reporter for the New York Times.

"Should you write about corruption in the national army, knowing that your story will be distorted by the Russian propaganda machine and used against your country? How do you balance opinions about the conflict while your brother, a Ukrainian soldier, is imprisoned and tortured by the insurgent?", she said, as quoted in The Guardian. 

These are the complicated but real choices that Ukrainian journalists still face. 

"Journalists in the US have a responsibility beyond their nation. Thousands of my colleagues in post-Soviet countries, not to mention the developing world, look to them as a model.", she added.

As reported in The Guardian.