Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine changed the Ukrainian media. Military correspondents and journalists have become those who cover events in the country for Ukrainians and for people abroad, sometimes risking their own lives. However, there are also those media people who have completely changed the typographic smell of a fresh publication into a real weapon.
An example can be the BeerBox periodical, whose founder and employees made a friendly decision to protect Ukraine from the Russian invasion. It is worth paying special attention in this story that the founder of the magazine Dmytro Nazarenko, even during the days of the war, found the time, desire, and strength to create a new issue of BeerBox. This is not a standard magazine, but the only glossy periodical about beer in Ukraine for many readers.
Dmytro Nazarenko agreed to give an interview for Euro-Atlantic Ukraine.
Euro-Atlantic Ukraine: After February 24, many publications collapsed. Was there a moment when you thought there would be no more magazine?
Dmytro: No. On the front line, when there is time to rest, you try to abstract from the war (as much as possible). At the beginning of the war, there were only ideas about work, about the magazine. Later, they became another number of the magazine.
Euro-Atlantic Ukraine: What is a magazine for you now? Is it a protest against the war, self-realization, a chance to get funds, or something else?
Dmytro: Money? For the entire period of the magazine, it has remained my non-commercial hobby. Now, the magazine is, most likely, a way to distract yourself, remind you of your existence, and talk about the breweries that survive in occupation and frontline cities.
Euro-Atlantic Ukraine: Don’t you have doubts like “Who needs this during the war”?
Dmytro: I don’t have it. There are people to whom I offer to give an interview, and they answer: “It’s not time. We have a war.” Really? Is this what you are telling me???
Euro-Atlantic Ukraine: Did you notice that the magazine changed during the war?
Dmytro: Of course. The topic of war is now present in almost every interview, whether it is the attitude to specific events, memories, or plans for the future after victory.
Euro-Atlantic Ukraine: Tell us a little about the process of creating a magazine in wartime conditions. Let colleagues abroad be surprised!
Dmytro: For some headings, you need to find a lot of information so that the material can come out of it. We write or call the interviewers. That is, technically, everything is the same as before. However, there is not always time to do this.
Then everything is more difficult. The fact is that before the war, three of us worked on the magazine: I wrote and did the design, another person took photos, and the third one did the typesetting. Now, we are all at war, so the photographer cannot leave the position, and we hire another one.
The editors of EURO-ATLANTIC UKRAINE are grateful to the BeerBox team for their indestructibility.
