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Chernov, a video journalist for The Associated Press, shot the
film during the first days of Russia's 2022 invasion in Ukraine
when trapped in Mariupol with a team of journalists. On Sunday,
the film won the Oscar for best documentary feature.
"This is the first Oscar in Ukrainian history, and I'm honored,"
Chernov said in a powerful acceptance speech to a standing
ovation.
"But probably I will be the first director on this stage who
will say I wish I never made this film. I wish to be able to
exchange this to Russia never attacking Ukraine, never occupying
our cities ... but I cannot change history. Cannot change the
past."
Mariupol became a byword for horror during a nearly
three-month-long Russian siege of the strategic port city
between March and May 2022, with trapped civilians forced to
bury their dead by the roadside.
At least 8,000 people were killed by fighting or war-related
causes during the siege, one of the biggest battles of the
nearly two-year war between Russia and Ukraine, the Human Rights
Watch said in February.
Two years on the war, which has killed thousands on both sides,
displaced millions and turned Ukrainian cities into rubble, has
no end in sight, with President Volodymyr Zelenskiy calling
continuously on his Western allies to provide Kyiv with
necessary military supplies.
"This is a humanitarian emergency, and a matter of supporting
the civilians that are being attacked and being killed," Chernov
said at a press conference after the awards.
"It's not my job to try to convince anyone of anything. Our job
is to provide as much context and information as possible."
(Reporting by Nichola Groom in Los Angeles and Lidia Kelly in
Melbourne; Writing by Lidia Kelly; Editing by Michael Perry)
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