Successful and independent by FOBERINI: Sevgil Musaeva

1. You have been working in journalism since the 2000s. Do you remember the moment when you definitely decided to connect your life with this area?

Yes, I remember this moment. It was 2002. At that moment, I was in ninth grade, I think, and a teacher from a local journalism school came to us with an invitation to enroll. So I started attending classes at a journalism school, and soon I was published in the local press. Even then I realized that I wanted to become a journalist and didn’t even consider other options. At the time of entering the Kiev National University at the Faculty of Journalism, I already had a large creative heritage - approximately 100 publications in the Crimean press. Therefore, I can say that I started working as a journalist at the age of 14.

2. How do you manage not to burn out and maintain interest in your profession for so many years?

There were times when I thought I needed to leave the profession. A specific example is the death of my colleague and friend Pavel Sheremet. This was a very painful loss for me, so in 2017 I decided to take a break and went to study first at Oxford University and then at Harvard. The break lasted a year and a half, and during this time I was thinking about whether I should return to the profession or not. After studying, I realized that I wanted to return not only to Ukraine, not only to my profession, but specifically to Ukrainian truth. Studying gave me strength to continue to seek meaning in my profession and to realize my potential in it. Only later, after the start of a full-scale war, I realized the correctness of this choice, understood the historicity of the moment, realized how right I had done in obtaining the necessary knowledge and contacts, which helped a lot in the first days of a full-scale invasion.

3. You studied at Harvard for a year. What main lessons did you learn and bring with you to Ukraine?

First of all, the year at Harvard gave me the strength to return to the profession and do what I am doing now. I began to take a more detailed and strategic approach to my work. Unfortunately, we exist in certain stereotypes about other countries, about the world and how it works. This became especially noticeable when we were faced with a full-scale war. At Harvard, we paid a lot of attention to geopolitics in different areas: energy policy, international relations policy, even climate change. We studied the experiences of different countries very deeply, this helps to better understand the world as a whole and why it reacts the way it does to our war today. When you understand other countries and people better, it is easier for you to communicate and explain your experience and your war, find common values ​​and pain points. And another important lesson - it's never too late to learn. At any age, you can enrich yourself in different areas and this will 100% leave a positive imprint on your personality. If you have a desire to gain new knowledge, then you definitely want to take advantage of this desire and realize it.

4. Truth is one of the main criteria in the work of a journalist. Knowing the truth, is it always easy to highlight it?

This is difficult, especially in a full-scale war. Today, the truth can be very unpleasant and indeed sometimes harm people. At the beginning of a full-scale war, my comrade was captured by the Russians and I, as a journalist, had to talk about it, but his parents did not want this. Of course, we listened to their requests to try to avoid dire consequences for the family. True, it can be dangerous for your relatives. I will never forget how in early March 2022 I was faced with a moral dilemma. We received a list of Russian units that broke into Ukraine, about 150,000 names. We started to verify it and realized that this list is original and we should publish it. At that moment it seemed to us that any such action could stop a full-scale invasion. And so, when I had already decided to publish it, I understood that my parents were still in the Kyiv region, several kilometers from the people whose names should be published on the main website. As well as the parents of dozens of my employees. But then the public importance and the desire to help outweighed.

5. Last year you were included in Time magazine's list of the 100 most influential people in the world. How did you feel when you heard this news?

It was a complete surprise for me. The rating included three Ukrainians: Valery Zaluzhny, Vladimir Zelensky and me. At first it was a little strange, but then I realized that this was recognition of the work of all journalists in Ukraine, independent journalism and truth, which was a very important part at the beginning of the full-scale invasion. Thanks to this, I had a rethinking of my profession and its mission, because I remember how vital information was in the first days of the war. People, depending on what the media told them, drew conclusions. There was no access to information in Mariupol, because after just four days the city was virtually surrounded by Russians. I remember that one of my friends from Mariupol finally got through to me and asked only one thing: “Is it true that Kyiv has already been surrendered?” Later, in April, after the liberation of several villages and towns in the Kyiv region, I went to the Sumy region to Trostyanets, which is on the border with Russia. There, on the street, I met a woman who said that the hardest thing was not without food or water, but without information. During the war, things that previously seemed ordinary took on completely different meanings. Writing “I love you” or “I’m fine” is still very important, because such good news has truly become something special and real.

6. What are the challenges of being a woman leader today, in a time of war?

It seems to me that it is simply difficult to be a leader in a war. Many Ukrainians have gained leadership experience during a full-scale invasion, because it can be completely different. A leader is a woman who took her children abroad under fire, or went to the front to defend the country, or helps the military as a volunteer. Each of us today must find a leader within ourselves and not be afraid to make important decisions.

7. When millions of Ukrainians keep emergency suitcases with them, wake up to the sounds of sirens and spend the night in basements, how do you manage to restore your inner resource and find strength every day?

Every day I see millions of Ukrainians holding on. I see dozens of my friends who went to fight at the front. I see many examples when people left their comfortable lives and volunteered and went to work as combat medics. I believe that under these circumstances I have no right to complain and say that I have run out of internal resources. Today, examples of humanity, self-sacrifice and extraordinary strength, when ordinary people do extraordinary things, are very helpful to hold on. This is what really inspires. You understand that if others could do it, then you definitely can too. I am also a fan of Viktor Frankl’s logotherapy and it is important for me to see the meaning in what is happening and to see the future. I always imagine how, years from now, we will tell the next generations of Ukrainians about today’s times. And this will be an example of how we were able to defend the country and how we responded to all the challenges that we face today.

8. What traditions do you have in your family?

I grew up and was brought up in a Crimean Tatar family, so I have a lot of Crimean Tatar traditions. These are religious holidays, and simply because we love guests very much. For us, the guest is the most important person. We love to treat people and create cozy evenings. I really wanted this to be possible in the future in Crimea, in our Motherland. Support is also important to us. We support each other in our family, although we live in different countries, we remain one and the most important thing for us is love for our Motherland.

9. Share your recipe for success.

The first thing is not to stop and be annoying. If something doesn’t work out once, then you need to make every effort to make it work a second or third time. This is also part of my mentality. In Crimean Tatar culture there is such a thing as “sabir”, that is, patience and perseverance. This is a quality that helps me a lot in these difficult conditions in which we now live. Secondly, always learn, because all this leaves an imprint on the individual. For example, I recently graduated from the school of corporate management. We studied on weekends and it was very difficult due to my busy schedule. But thanks to training, I discovered new qualities that help me interact better with people and better understand the importance of the company's strategy.

10. What future do you dream about for Ukraine after the victory?

I want Ukraine in the future to be a young European country, a member of the European Union, a member of NATO. A developing country in different directions and a country that remembers the price it paid for the possibility of change.