Four years of war in Ukraine

Five duPont-Columbia Award winners in the past four years brought the war in Ukraine to the outside world.

by Zach Jaworski, 2025-26 duPont Fellow

Today marks four years since Russia took military action against Ukraine – sparking a brutal war of attrition that’s seen approximately two million total casualties to date. 

In that time, five duPont-Columbia Award-winning works have focused their coverage on the Russia-Ukraine war, helping the rest of the world see what’s happening there from a compelling, deeply-reported vantage point. 

This year, Director Mstyslav Chernov – alongside PBS Frontline Features and The Associated Press – won a duPont-Columbia Award for his 2025 documentary “2000 Meters to Andriivka,” which embedded with Ukrainian soldiers as they fought through a narrow strip of forest to retake the destroyed hamlet of Andriivka. 

In 2025, first-time filmmaker and porcelain artist Slava Leontyev partnered with Brendan Bellomo to win a Silver Baton for “Porcelain War,” which innovatively combined animation, combat drone footage and a stunning original soundtrack to color the harsh realities of the war.

Chernov’s 2023 documentary “20 Days in Mariupol” also won him his first duPont-Columbia Award in 2024. The Frontline/AP film painted a picture of Russia’s invasion in its first year. Russian forces cut off the town of Mariupol to the outside world, which only learned of atrocities committed there from Chernov’s extraordinary footage.

In 2023, CNN Worldwide was honored for their overall coverage of the conflict. On the air live from the moment the first shots were fired, their mix of in-depth and breaking coverage provided early looks at the war as it developed. 

That same year, PBS Newshour and Jane Ferguson were recognized for their coverage of the conflict – specifically the refugee crisis it created –  as part of a conflict coverage award that included the U.S. evacuation of Afghanistan.