The press on Dmytro Karpenko
A record of mentions: who wrote and when, what exactly they wrote, and a link to the original. The newest is at the top, 2022 at the bottom. The episodes they are about are gathered in the “Video” section, and what these conversations turn into beyond the broadcast is in “Work”. This is the view from outside; who I am and where the nickname came from I tell myself.
34 stories from 2022 — 2026 · updated
Publications by russian state and propaganda outlets are listed as evidence that a hostile narrative exists, not as an assessment of it. There are deliberately no links to them here — only the name of the outlet.
2026
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A long interview for Channel 24: sources, Crimea, mobilization
A conversation about working with sources in the russian rear, about the blockade of Crimea and about what the russian army is preparing for. The outlet turned one interview into several separate pieces — including a forecast of a new mobilization of 200,000 to 500,000 people.
Sources: 24tv.ua
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An interview with Ihor Lykov became the basis of the Ilya Traber case
Before his exchange, Lykov spoke at length in an episode about the St. Petersburg businessman Ilya Traber and his circle. Some time later, according to Fontanka and Mediazona, the criminal case against Traber rests above all on that testimony.
Sources: zona.media fontanka.ru
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An 18-year-old Belarusian from Rechytsa was captured in his first battle
Nikita went to war for the money and was captured in his very first battle. Zerkalo retold the episode in detail, and the Belarusian Mediazona after it — the story became one of the most discussed in the Belarusian segment.
Sources: zerkalo.io
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My assessment: there will be no direct attack on Ukraine by Belarus
In a comment for Belsat I explained why I consider Belarus entering the war unlikely: Belarusian movements are more about pulling attention and forces away than about preparing a strike.
Sources: belsat.eu
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NEWS.ru calls me a “recruiter” in a piece about Artem Klimov
The russian outlet devoted a piece to the officer Artem Klimov, who, by its account, passed information to the Ukrainian side for 80 days and then came over to it. In that story I am cast as a “propagandist” and a “recruiter”.
NEWS.ru no link given
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Tsargrad: “a collector of rotten souls”
Tsargrad amplified the same story about Klimov with direct personal abuse. It added no facts to the story — only labels.
«Царьград» no link given
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The first call home by a defender released from captivity
Filmed in the first minutes after an exchange: a soldier calls his grandmother and asks her to bake his homemade pastries. The video spread across Ukrainian media, and Glavcom retold it in full.
Sources: glavcom.ua
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A mother and a sister refused to speak to their son from captivity
A call home in which neither the mother nor the sister wanted to talk. Glavcom retold the episode in full, noting the reaction in the studio.
Sources: glavcom.ua
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A Belarusian from Shumilina who fought for russia is the subject of an episode
Zerkalo’s first large piece based on my episodes: the story of a man from Shumilina who ended up in Ukrainian captivity. It began the constant presence of these conversations in Belarusian media.
Sources: zerkalo.io
2025
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How payments to sources inside russia work
I told Channel 24 that a person inside russia is paid roughly what they earned at their job, and how the money reaches them: rubles, cryptocurrency, someone else’s card, sometimes cash at an agreed spot.
Sources: 24tv.ua
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Irina Shikhman goes through the objections to our interviews
Together with Volodymyr Zolkin we spent two and a half hours answering what we are accused of most often: whether prisoners are made to talk, whether the Geneva Convention is observed, why the covers insult people’s families. You do not have to agree with our answers — the episode is out in full, and that is the best way to check us.
Sources: youtube.com
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Pavlo Huhuiev gets four years in a penal colony for an interview
A russian court sentenced a soldier who had returned from captivity to four years for “confidential cooperation with foreigners”. The case file includes our conversations about russian army losses.
Sources: zona.media
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A conversation with Alexander Nevzorov
We talked about the war, about Chechnya having forgotten nothing, and about how russia might end. The episode came out on two channels — his and mine.
Sources: youtube.com youtube.com
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RT: a “neo-Nazi” in a story about the officer Stupnikov
The state television channel linked me to the russian officer Lev Stupnikov, who passed information to Ukraine.
RT no link given
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Which prisoners russia takes back reluctantly
I explained to Glavcom: russia takes back the young and healthy first — the ones who can be sent to the front again. The sick and the inconvenient wait longer.
Sources: glavcom.ua
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What happens to a russian prisoner after an exchange
As retold by Nasha Niva: a prisoner’s path from capture to returning to the ranks, reconstructed from the accounts of prisoners themselves and of those already exchanged.
Sources: nashaniva.com
2024
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Tenth place in Focus magazine’s Top 50 Bloggers of Ukraine
Focus put me in tenth place, estimating my combined audience at about 0.9 million and tying it to interviews with prisoners of war.
Sources: focus.ua
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An argument in the Chechen diaspora over three episodes
Three conversations with people from Chechnya drew criticism not from the russian side but from among Kadyrov’s opponents: they argued about my generalizations and about whether Chechens had resisted enough.
Sources: svoboda.org
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Huhuiev was arrested for talking to a Ukrainian journalist
After the exchange, the former prisoner was arrested in russia in a case about “confidential cooperation with foreigners”. The grounds were our interviews about losses and conditions of service.
Sources: svoboda.org t.me/hochu_zhyt
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The Chechen minister Dudaev replied with a video and abuse
Akhmed Dudaev responded to episodes with people from Chechnya: he published a video in reply and called me “Nazi spawn”. The highest-ranking personal response in all this time.
«Коммерсантъ» no link given
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I filmed a homecoming: an exchange of 75 for 75
On the thirty-first of May the fourth exchange of the year took place — seventy-five Ukrainian defenders came home. My footage from there spread through state projects on both sides of the front.
Sources: t.me/hochu_zhyt
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“Bring Me Back from the War” — a project about the missing
Apostrophe TV brought bloggers and journalists together in a project for families searching for their own: where to look, who has already been identified and why Moscow does not answer. In the episode about a hundred and twenty thousand unfound bodies I break down what that figure is made of.
Sources: t.me/hochu_zhyt t.me/hochu_zhyt
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A personal entry on a russian catalog site
An entry appeared on a russian resource with my name, my nickname and biographical details. Lists like that are not compiled to be read.
russophob.ru no link given
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The terms for those who surrender through “I Want to Live”
I explained to Verstka: someone who surrenders voluntarily reaches normal conditions of detention faster and can ask either to speed up an exchange or not to be sent back to russia until the war ends.
Sources: verstka.media
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A hundred gigabytes of documentation from the russian defense industry
Through my interviewees, materials from the Special Technology Center were obtained: drawings, software and documents on 194 developments. The people who handed them over were taken out of russia.
Sources: focus.ua
2023
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Why russian families do not come for their own
Not one mother came for her son — NV built a separate piece on that: on how the families of russian prisoners react and on how reluctantly russia takes back the bodies of its own soldiers.
Sources: nv.ua
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My cousin spent nine months in russian captivity
In an interview with Ramina Eskhakzai I spoke about my cousin from Chernihiv, who came back from captivity, and about not asking for any special priority for him in an exchange.
Sources: nv.ua
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A russian woman came to Kyiv to see her captured husband
Irina Krynina travelled from Siberia to Ukraine for a man who had been taken prisoner, and gave an interview. One of the most striking humanitarian stories around this subject.
Sources: svoboda.org
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A campaign around a minor from Bakhmut
A russian state outlet accused me of taking part in an interview with a convicted 17-year-old resident of Bakhmut and claimed the teenager had been promised an exchange.
«Украина.ру» no link given
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Huhuiev gave two interviews: from captivity and then from russia
In the spring of 2023 he spoke about russian army losses, and after the exchange he got in touch again — from a military unit outside Moscow — and said he was being pressed to declare that he had been coerced.
Sources: zona.media
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Advice to relatives: do not post everything on social media
Publicity does not always help: extra details about a missing person or a prisoner out in the open can make both their situation and the exchange procedures harder.
Sources: socportal.info
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The exchange fund: a reward for prisoners
The project run together with Volodymyr Zolkin offered soldiers a reward for adding to the exchange fund. Sponsors contributed to it too — including an anonymous transfer of ten thousand dollars from russia.
Sources: t.me/volodymyrzolkin
2022
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Recommendations from the Commission on Journalistic Ethics
The Commission issued recommendations on interviews with russian prisoners of war and named me and Volodymyr Zolkin among others: the questions concerned uncovered faces, the way consent was obtained and calls to relatives. The recommendations were written when there was no such practice in Ukrainian media yet; the format of these conversations has changed since.
Sources: cje.org.ua
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The beginning: conversations with prisoners and the “Search for Your Own” project
In 2022 I began talking to russian prisoners of war and their relatives — working alongside the Interior Ministry project “Search for Your Own”. Everything listed above started there.
Sources: focus.ua