How to tell the bombs that fall and come off them

Remaining calm in all circumstances, and making room for relaxation, even with the sound of bombs falling in the distance, is a necessity for war reporters in the field, if they want to be able to continue to inform us.

Boris Loumagne, great reporter at franceinfo, covers one of his first wars, a war from another time that we thought was over, moreover, on the European continent. Laurent Macchietti, reporting technician at Radio France, experienced these conflicts from another age.

In Ukraine, Boris Loumagne and Laurent Macchietti left Lviv to reach kyiv. They arrived when the French Embassy was evacuated, massive Russian artillery was announced on the north of the city, with the arrival of the famous 60 kilometer column. Arriving from the south, the road to Vinnytsia, as checkpoints multiplied on the road, heading north, the atmosphere became tense and the Ukrainian armed men told them “good luck”.

The approach to the capital is made with apprehension. The rumors of the encirclement of the city by the Russian forces are more and more insistent. Boris and Laurent finally enter kyiv without incident, and rather position themselves in the southern districts with Roman, their Ukrainian fixer. Avoid the northern and western suburbs. The south offers at this moment a possibility of leaving the city, if it were caught in enemy fire.

At the hotel, there are other journalists, Ukrainian elected officials, humanitarian workers. A semblance of normal life because there is no one outside, and between two curfews, deserted avenues and rare queues in front of food stores and pharmacies, and then detonations in the distance, a bombardment , time stands still and information arrives very quickly. It is Irpin who is affected. This large peaceful suburb of 60,000 inhabitants 20 kilometers northwest of kyiv has become a strategic axis for the Russian army to seize kyiv.

Irpin is gutted, devastated buildings, ruins and broken glass. To venture there is to run the risk of encountering a Russian tank inadvertently. It is to discover scenes of horror, destruction and death, the testimonies of survivors in the middle of the corpses. Boris and Laurent do not cross the Irpin bridge. This bridge that the Ukrainian army destroyed to prevent Russian tanks from advancing, but which also complicates the escape of those who want to take refuge in kyiv. Old men, children, women, the distress is howled or said in a laconic and broken voice, a voice where nothing much lives.

Boris would like to advance a little “to see”, Laurent has already “seen” elsewhere, another time, another war, that means nothing to him. This is also what a team of reporters is: making decisions together. And the testimonies they collect already say a lot about the drama of Irpin, why advance a little further towards the epicenter. So they go to the hospital where the wounded are pouring in. And it’s already heavy enough.

Covering the war is always thinking about the permanent risk that surrounds the report. This concentration and this stress must also be evacuated to hold over the length. Days, weeks. After a day in the field, returning in the evening to a space, currently protected, must be dedicated to a time of recovery and relaxation. As odd as it may seem, when you’ve been around so much grief and devastated life during the day, you have to find a way to let it out.

The reporter cannot be a sponge that stores up without shedding. It’s like a reflex in the head that should allow him to think of something else, and rather something positive, and maybe, why not smile, without it being indecent. So many details hide behind a smile, hide there. And the next day, going back over there to the west of the city, we heard the bombs again. The smoke, the dust, the dislocated, destitute families. And return to the hotel where everything is still normal, or almost and for how long.

Tomorrow, more than ever, will be another day, deprived of certainties.