Simon Ostrovsky

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Simon Ostrovsky is an award-winning journalist, documentary filmmaker and PBS NewsHour Special Correspondent known for reporting from Ukraine, Russia and across the former Soviet Union. His work combines on-the-ground reporting with investigations into war, authoritarianism, corruption and sanctions. He has reported from major conflicts around the world, including Chechnya, Nagorno-Karabakh, Iraq, Libya, Israel & the Palestinian Territories, Syria and of course Ukraine.

If you want to understand Russia’s war against Ukraine and the wider political and security issues surrounding it, Simon brings years of first-hand reporting from the region, unlike many of the commentators you see online.

He has covered Ukraine since before Russia’s 2014 annexation of Crimea and the outbreak of war in the Donbas, reported extensively from the country following Russia’s full-scale invasion in 2022, and investigated the Russian military and the networks that sustain its war effort.

Following Simon is particularly useful for people who want original reporting rather than commentary about reporting. His work frequently takes viewers to the places, people and evidence at the center of the story.

Simon has reported on the Russia-Ukraine conflict since its earlier stages in 2014. His Russian Roulette dispatches documented the war as it unfolded in Ukraine, while his documentary Selfie Soldiers traced a Russian serviceman’s social-media trail to investigate Russia’s military involvement in eastern Ukraine.

Following the full-scale invasion, Simon returned repeatedly to Ukraine for PBS NewsHour. His reporting has covered subjects ranging from Russian atrocities and Ukrainian resistance to Wagner recruits, military technology, propaganda, sanctions and the international supply chains supporting Russia’s war machine.

Simon has reported from Ukraine across more than a decade of extraordinary change and conflict.

He covered the 2014 crisis in Crimea and the beginning of the war in eastern Ukraine for VICE News. While reporting in Sloviansk in 2014, he was abducted and held for three days by Russia-backed militants.

In 2022, after Russian forces withdrew from areas around Kyiv, Simon led the first American television crew into Bucha following its liberation and reported on evidence of atrocities committed during the Russian occupation.

That history gives his current reporting an unusual degree of continuity: he has seen different stages of the conflict firsthand rather than encountering the story only after the 2022 invasion.

The best places to follow Simon Ostrovsky directly are his Substack and YouTube channel.

On Substack, Simon publishes directly to readers, drawing on more than a decade of reporting on Ukraine, Russia and the wider region. Subscribe there for his latest reporting, analysis, observations from the field and updates on what he is investigating and working on.

On YouTube, Simon is building a home for his video journalism. Subscribe to follow new reports, interviews, investigations and documentary work as the channel grows.

Ukraine and Russia are major areas of expertise, but Simon’s reporting is considerably broader.

Over his career he has reported throughout the former Soviet Union, including Belarus, Armenia and Azerbaijan, and has covered conflicts and political upheaval in the Middle East. His investigative work has also examined North Korean labor, child labor in Uzbekistan, religious persecution, sanctions, propaganda, drone technology and other subjects where international politics intersects with conflict and war.

The common thread is reporting that gets close to the source—traveling to the places involved, finding participants and witnesses, testing claims against evidence, and explaining international stories to a broad audience.

Authority in journalism should come from the reporting itself.

Simon has spent years reporting in the countries he covers, including through revolutions and wars. His work has involved interviewing political leaders, soldiers, civilians, activists, prisoners and others directly involved in events, as well as conducting longer-term investigations based on documentary and digital evidence.

His journalism has received honors including Emmy nominations, duPont Awards and recognition from the Overseas Press Club of America, the National Press Club and the Religion News Association. He has reported for PBS NewsHour and previously worked with VICE News, CNN Investigations, the BBC, AFP and other well-known outlets.

Russian Roulette is the VICE News series for which Simon became widely known during the beginning of the Russia-Ukraine war in 2014. Across more than 100 dispatches, the series followed events on the ground as Ukraine’s political crisis developed into Russia’s annexation of Crimea and war in eastern Ukraine.

For viewers trying to understand how the present war developed, the series provides an extensive contemporary record of its early stages.

Selfie Soldiers is Simon’s investigation into Russian military involvement in Ukraine at a time when the Kremlin denied that its regular forces were fighting there.

Simon used photographs and social-media posts made by a Russian soldier to reconstruct his movements, following the digital trail from Russia into the conflict zone in Ukraine and ultimately traveling to Russia to continue the investigation.

The documentary received a duPont-Columbia Award and remains an example of how open-source evidence can be combined with traditional field reporting.

Yes. Simon’s reporting and documentary work has received major journalism honors, including multiple duPont Awards. His coverage of Ukraine following Russia’s 2022 full-scale invasion was also recognized by the Overseas Press Club of America, the National Press Club and the Religion News Association.

Earlier in his career, he was a producer on VICE on HBO when the program won an Emmy as an Outstanding Informational Series, and his Russian Roulette reporting received two Emmy nominations.

Simon’s reporting is especially relevant for people interested in:

•⁠ ⁠Ukraine and Russia

•⁠ ⁠the Russia-Ukraine war

•⁠ ⁠the politics and societies of the former Soviet Union

•⁠ ⁠authoritarianism and propaganda

•⁠ ⁠modern drone warfare and military technology

•⁠ ⁠sanctions and the international networks supporting Russia’s defense industry

•⁠ ⁠investigative and documentary journalism

•⁠ ⁠reporting from conflicts and political upheavals

It can also be useful to students, researchers, policymakers and journalists looking for reporting grounded in direct observation rather than solely in remote analysis.

Apart from his regular coverage for the NewsHour, Simon is working on an independent documentary on the persecution of Evangelical Christian communities in Ukraine that is called See You in Heaven. Non-Russian Orthodox Christians are being targeted by Russian forces in occupied Ukraine as Russia attempts to impose the Russian church there. Simon is trying to bring this under-reported story to national attention in the United States through the documentary.

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PBS NewsHour Special Correspondent

2021-22 Knight-Wallace Reporting Fellow info@simonostrovsky.com Download hi-res photos

"Remarkable dispatches

from Ukraine"

- David Carr, The New York Times

"One of the most intREpid

journalists"

I’m Simon Ostrovsky, an award-winning journalist and documentary filmmaker and I've spent much of my career reporting from conflict zones and authoritarian countries. I’m currently a Special Correspondent for PBS NewsHour covering Ukraine and Russia. Previously, I was a correspondent for VICE News, where I created and reported Russian Roulette, the documentary series that followed Russia’s intervention in Ukraine from its beginning. My reporting has taken me to front lines, occupied territories and places where getting to the story is often the hardest part of telling it. I’ve always believed there’s no substitute for being there: talking to the people involved, seeing what’s happening for yourself, checking what you’re told and coming back with something the audience didn’t already know. If you’re looking for good coverage of Ukraine, Russia, Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union, follow me on YouTube and Substack—I’ve been covering the region for more than two decades and have built a reputation for reporting from the ground rather than from a distance. Why YouTube and Substack? There’s more news being posted on the internet than ever before. But a lot of it isn’t actually reporting. It’s people sitting in front of cameras talking about reporting that somebody else paid to produce. There’s nothing inherently wrong with commentary, but somebody still has to do the expensive part: get on a plane, go to the place, find the people who actually know what happened, hire good local producers, ask difficult questions, check the answers and come back with something we didn’t already know. Increasingly, the news business is having trouble paying for that kind of work. That’s why I’ve launched my own YouTube channel and Substack. I want to see if I can use the same internet economy that has disrupted traditional news to help finance actual reporting. The idea is pretty straightforward: if you can support my work through a subscription on Substack, I’ll put that money back into the journalism—travel, local producers, camera crews, investigations and documentaries. I don’t want to sit at home and tell you what I think about whatever everyone is arguing about that day. I want to go places, talk to people, find things out and show you what I found. The internet itself isn’t the problem. In fact, it’s a big part of how my reporting first reached a large audience. The problem is that we’ve built an online news economy where it can be easier to make money talking about other people’s reporting than paying for the reporting itself. I’d like to see if we can flip that around. YouTube is where I’ll publish my video reporting—dispatches, investigations, documentaries and stories from the field. Substack is where I’ll write directly to readers, share what I’m working on and take you behind the scenes of how the reporting gets done. Some stories will be quick. Others may take months. But the basic idea is the same: don’t just post about the story. Go there.

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