Yuliya Valova

Published 18 April 2024

I was born and raised in Kyiv and have been working with various media in Ukraine and abroad for more than 20 years. In my journalistic activities, I have always strived to contribute to the development of democracy in Ukrainian society and to the establishment of standards of responsible government and its accountability to the public.

I was lucky to enter the profession in independent Ukraine in the mid-90s. It was the golden age of journalism – the media market was just beginning to take shape against the backdrop of soaring patriotism and social responsibility.

Having received my education at Kyiv State University at the Department of Metallophysics, I did not turn to the study of electrical and magnetic properties of metals. At that time scientific research in Ukraine was practically frozen.

By the will of fate, arriving in search of a job, I received an offer from a printing house concerning publication of its newsletter about printing and books. A few years later I managed the marketing department and had the privilege of modernising the newsletter into a professional magazine called “Book Club”.

While doing my day job, I developed the project and brought in authors and analysts to work as a team. Some time later, I bought the rights to publish the magazine, found investors, and created an analytical media centre working for book business professionals. The magazine “Book Club” was the main media product of the centre and for the next 10 years was the information and analytical flagship of the Ukrainian book market.

The ability to analyse, compare facts, and think algorithmically – the gifts I received at the Faculty of Physics – helped me to create my own system of analysis, which became the basis of my media projects.

I applied this system in the launch of my last startup before the war – the analytical political and economic online magazine “Intelmag”, as well as in the work of the independent investigative journalism agency “Emargency PR-agency”. Together with my colleague Oksana Kotomkina I managed the agency, the profile of which was investigations in the field of economic crimes in Ukraine.

I wrote columns in popular Ukrainian online publications “Left Bank”, “Interfax Ukraine”, Face News, “Conflicts and Laws”, and others. In addition, I cooperated with deputies of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine as a freelance advisor and participated in the development of important for Ukraine bills aimed at overcoming corruption and abuse of power by officials. I received the relevant education at the Institute of Legislation of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, specialising in legislation and lawmaking.

With the beginning of Russia’s armed attack on Ukraine, I was forced to leave my homeland and move to Berlin. Since May 2022, I have been working under a freelance contract at the Berlin newspaper Tagesspiegel and taking part in editorial projects.

The main topics I write about are the war in Ukraine, war reporting, and economic and political trends and processes in Ukraine. As a war correspondent accredited by the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine, I visit frontline areas of Ukraine and report from war-affected regions of Ukraine.

For the specialised department on energy and climate, I create analytical materials on the state of the Ukrainian energy market, its recovery prospects, and development towards the energy transition.

Over the past few years, I have attended a number of professional events, trainings, master classes, and press conferences. Most of them were aimed at the adaptation of emigrant journalists in the German media market. I gained some useful knowledge and new contacts that allowed me to start working with journalism grants.

I would like to take part in local professional events and meet new colleagues, especially for the realisation of joint media projects related to the economy, energy, and climate.

Photos: Valeriia Buchuk and Yuliya Valova