The Ukrainian documentary “20 Days in Mariupol” won an award for best documentary on Feb. 18 at the British Academy Film Awards (BAFTA).

The documentary was shot during the Russian siege of Mariupol in the first weeks after Russia launched its full-scale invasion on Feb. 24, 2022. An estimated 50,000 Ukrainians died as a result of the siege, which lasted for months until May 2022.

The film’s director, Pulitzer Prize-winning Ukrainian journalist Mstyslav Chernov, reached Mariupol with two Associated Press colleagues the day the full-scale invasion was launched, and remained in the city for 20 days under heavy bombardment.

“We give voice to Ukrainians,” Chernov said at a post-awards presser. “We keep reminding the world about what is happening.”

The feature-length documentary film, “20 Days in Mariupol,” chronicles the first three weeks of the siege from inside the city. Kyiv Post spoke with its Pulitzer Prize-winning director, Mstyslav Chernov, prior to its screening in New York at the DOC NYC film festival for documentaries in November 2023.

Mariupol, on the Sea of Azov near the Russian border, was the first major Ukrainian city to be encircled by Russian troops after the full-scale invasion on Feb. 24, 2022.

A team of Ukrainian journalists working for Associated Press traveled to Mariupol to cover events and quickly became trapped in the besieged city. For 20 days they struggled to continue their work documenting the plight of residents and the atrocities of the Russian invasion.

As the only international reporters who remained in the city, they captured what would later become defining images of the war: dying children, mass graves, the bombing of a maternity hospital, and the pervasive fear of aerial bombardment.