Putin’s bully-boy tactics won’t stop me telling stories of ordinary people caught up in conflict
Putin’s bully-boy tactics won’t stop me telling stories of ordinary people caught up in conflict
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REPORTING from war zones is the best and worst job in the world. I see horrific things and sometimes get scared witless. But I get to tell amazing stories about ordinary people caught up in a conflict. I won’t be stopped by the bully-boy threats from a sham Russian court in Kursk. I have reported in these pages about innocent people maimed by cluster bombs. We have given a voice to pensioners living in a Kharkiv bathroom because it is the only room without windows or outside walls that could be blown to bits by missiles.
![[© Ian Whittaker.28/08/2024..Ukrainian troops launched a surprise attack across the border in early August, advancing up to 18 miles (30km) into the Russian region of Kursk..The Sun Reporting team accompanied Ukrainian soldiers into the Russian Town Sudzha the Kursk region..Pictured. The Sun Defence Editor Jerome Starkey standing in front of the damaged building,The House of Culture in the main square of the Kursk Town Sudzha..Photo credit: Ian Whittaker]](https://www.thesun.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/IRW_Ukraine_Offensive_05JPG-JS928416613.jpg?strip=all&w=960)
We have told stories of babies born in bunkers. Stories of parents who rescued stolen children from thousands of miles behind the front line. Stories of civilians forced to wear uniforms to defend loved ones. Stories of soldiers slain in blood-soaked trenches. And I have interviewed captured Russian troops — some of them convicts press-ganged into Storm Z battalions. In August I had the extraordinary chance to visit Kursk, captured in Ukraine’s surprise attack.
![[Vladimir Putin reviewing documents at a meeting.]](https://www.thesun.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/epa11860972-russian-president-vladimir-putin-967599392.jpg?strip=all&w=960)
It was Russia’s worst loss on home soil since WW2. Russia claims my trip was a crime. It’s absurd. The Leninsky District Court said I crossed the border illegally. What did they expect? For me to stop at the border, as drones swarmed overhead, and get my passport stamped?. What Russia really wants is to bury proper journalism, to stop reporters shedding light on Putin’s war crimes. It won’t work. We did our jobs. We did journalism. And journalism is not a crime.
![[A journalist in body armor watches a Ukrainian artillery unit fire a MSTA-B 152mm artillery gun.]](https://www.thesun.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/picture-peter-jordan-story-jerome-741422978.jpg?strip=all&w=960)
