UNITED NATIONS (AP) — More than 100 ambassadors, journalists and representatives of a broad spectrum of society watched a U.N. screening Monday night of the award-winning documentary “20 Days in Mariupol,” which follows a trio of Associated Press journalists throughout Russia’s relentless siege of the Ukrainian port metropolis within the early days of the struggle.

U.Ok. Ambassador Barbara Woodward, who co-hosted the screening, stated the movie is vital as a result of “Russia’s invasion of Ukraine threatens what the U.N. stands for: an international order where the sovereignty and territorial integrity of all countries is fundamental.”

“We want to reaffirm our commitment to U.N. values, and that’s why we’ve chosen to show this very important documentary,” she stated in welcoming the viewers at U.N. headquarters in New York.

The screening comes initially of the 78th session of the U.N. General Assembly and every week earlier than world leaders arrive for his or her annual assembly, the place the greater than 18-month struggle in Ukraine is anticipated to be within the highlight — particularly with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy scheduled to talk in particular person for the primary time.

The harrowing documentary, which was produced by the AP and the PBS collection “Frontline,” is culled from 30 hours of footage AP journalist Mstyslav Chernov and his colleagues shot in Mariupol following Russia’s Feb. 24, 2022, invasion of Ukraine and its siege of the town.

It paperwork preventing within the streets, the crushing pressure on Mariupol’s residents and medical groups, and assaults that killed pregnant ladies, youngsters and others. The siege, which ended on May 20, 2022, with the give up of a small group of outgunned and outmanned Ukrainian fighters on the Azovstal metal plant, left the town in ruins and an estimated 25,000 folks useless, although the toll is probably going larger.

The U.S. ambassador to the U.N., Linda Thomas-Greenfield, the opposite co-host, stated “20 Days in Mariupol” paperwork “the horrors of (Russian President Vladimir) Putin’s war of aggression.”

“We’re here tonight to bear witness, to bear witness to these horrors and to reaffirm our commitment to justice and peace,” she stated. “We must continue to hold Russia to account for its atrocities. We must continue to support the Ukrainian people in their time of need.”

The AP’s reporting from Mariupol drew the Kremlin’s ire, with its U.N. ambassador, Vasily Nebenzia, falsely claiming throughout a Security Council assembly within the siege’s early days that photographs displaying the aftermath of a missile strike on a maternity hospital had been staged.

“I wish the entire Russian mission were here to watch this film,” stated Ukraine’s U.N. Ambassador Sergiy Kyslytsya, who attended Monday’s screening.

Kyslytsya stated he believes the documentary is so highly effective and vital that it'll nonetheless be proven 50 years from now.

AP Senior Vice President and Executive Editor Julie Pace referred to as the documentary “a testament to the power and impact of eyewitness journalism,” stressing that with out it, “the world would not have known the atrocities that took place.”

“To have the film screened at the United Nations as the U.N. General Assembly gets underway underscores the importance of fact-based journalism on a global scale,” she stated. “It’s crucial that we safeguard both the ability of a free press to cover the world’s most important stories and the public’s ability to view this type of fact-based reporting.”

“20 Days in Mariupol” received the Sundance Global Audience Award for Best Documentary and several other different prizes. Chernov was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Public Service together with photographer Evgeniy Maloletka, producer Vasilisa Stepanenko and Paris-based correspondent Lori Hinnant for his or her “courageous reporting” on Mariupol.

Chernov delivered a video welcome from the sector in Ukraine, carrying a helmet and telling the viewers that he typically feels powerless as a journalist as a result of he can’t change issues.

“I can only make sure that as many people as possible will see what I saw … know about what happened in Mariupol and will never forget about it,” he stated. “What was happening in Mariupol is happening right now to other Ukrainian cities, in this moment, and it unfortunately will be happening tomorrow, and the day after tomorrow, until the war is stopped.”

Raney Aronson-Rath, editor-in-chief and govt producer of “Frontline,” referred to as it “deeply meaningful” to have the chance to display the documentary on the United Nations. She stated the producers proceed to share the movie world wide to present audiences the chance to “bear witness to the atrocities that Ukrainians have endured.”

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