Fran Sevilla, in the Ukraine war. /
He covered the war in Ukraine for RTVE and suffered an attack by Russian projectiles near the vehicle that was transporting him
With four decades as an information professional at RTVE, the journalist and RNE correspondent in Washington, Fran Sevilla (Madrid, 62 years old), covered the Russian invasion of Ukraine for the public corporation because he wants to “live the events live”. He left Ukraine feeling “sad and defeated” after seeing elderly people dying of exhaustion.
–What did you think when you were assigned to the Ukraine?
-I’m a correspondent for RNE in Washington, the invasion had begun and it was difficult to find someone with experience in armed conflicts. Next year I will celebrate 40 years of war coverage. I said yes immediately. As a journalist I wanted to be there. I like to experience events live. Tell things, not tell them to me. It was obvious that the invasion of Ukraine would have a global dimension.
– Do all the conflicts you have covered have something in common?
All wars are the same and different. They have in common that they suffer its consequences the same: the civilian population. In World War I basically soldiers died. Since then, the largest percentage of victims have been civilians. Each war has its characteristics and interests, an internal geography in which the conflict takes place.
-How was your day to day in Ukraine?
–Work without forecast and without schedule. Get up very early and start preparing the news for RNE, as well as making videos for social networks and TVE. We didn’t know when we were going to bed and what was going to happen. I arrived in a besieged kyiv, but the Russian assault did not take place. They fell back and the Ukrainians regained territory. Every day consists of getting up, planning and always under the constant bombardment, you never know where they will be. It is very difficult to predict. In a war everything is open.
–He has chronicled on TikTok.
-It was completely new to me. I am an older journalist. Many were surprised to see me with white hair and beard covering a war. Social networks have exploded in recent years and can be very useful if used well. I basically did radio coverage, with some collaboration for TVE, and little on networks. But this new dimension has been enriching. In war, networks serve to tell what is happening and to manipulate. They accused me of inventing what I was seeing. In Bucha, for example, to the dead.
-He was attacked by Russian missiles. How did she experience it?
-It was a very complicated and difficult moment. We were in the car, in what is called gray or zero zones, in which the mobility of the front is fast and unpredictable. The Russians were advancing and, suddenly, a shell fell meters from the car. The crystals shattered. We got out and hit the ground. I thought it was all over. While making a video to show the damage to the car another shell came. And then more. It is impossible to know if they attacked us or the Ukrainians. The memory remains. Every time I hear a loud and unexpected noise, my body tenses up.
-What feeling did you have after 75 days in the war?
-Of sadness and defeat at what all wars mean for people. When I started covering conflicts, in the 1980s, in Central America and Nicaragua, they told me that wars are decided by older men who hate each other, but that young men who don’t know each other and don’t hate each other die. Wars are like that, with the added factor of the civilian population. I have seen how elderly people gave up on surviving and trying to save their lives by leaving there because of exhaustion. It is a very overwhelming feeling.
–Other chains reduce international information.
–A public medium must commit to quality international information. It’s fundamental. I do not understand that it is renounced in globalization, when everything that happens affects us more every day. We are not safe from anything. We saw it with the pandemic and the Trump presidency and with Ukraine. A public medium cannot give up that information.