EP.3: Missiles from my father’s homeland with Iryna Kyporenko

The first time Iryna Kyporenko and podcast host Luzia Tschirky met in 2018, Russia’s war against Ukraine seemed far away even for many Ukrainians. But not for Iryna.

Crimea, the Ukrainian peninsula where she was born, has been under Russian occupation since 2014. But unlike many Ukrainians who fled the occupation, her family left Crimea nearly two decades earlier and moved to Odesa in the 1990s. Iryna studied journalism in Ukraine and in the USA before learning documentary filmmaking at the Serhii Bykovsky film program in Kyiv.

She worked as a journalist and documentary producer for Ukrainian and foreign companies. For one year she lived in the capital city of Ukraine before Russia started its full-scale invasion. Iryna moved back to Odesa, just 300 kilometers from Russian military bases in Crimea. Now she lives daily with the danger of Russian missiles launched from the occupied peninsula - her birthplace and her father’s homeland.

Resources: Iryna on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kyporenko_i Iryna on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/irina.kiporenko.1

Connect with Luzia through Instagram, LinkedIn or visit luziatschirky.ch. Have you already ordered Luzia's book about her experience reporting from Ukraine?