Join Us at the Byline Doc Fest Today

Chris York talks to Oz Katerji, whose film 'The Battle for Kyiv' heads the bill for Byline's fortnight-long documentary festival, beginning today

Byline Doc Fest launches today, showcasing the very best of Byline-produced documentary films, all accessible without even leaving the comfort of your own home.

From today until Sunday 8 December, just £9.99 gets you online access to films examining the biggest issues and crises that we face today, from war in Europe to the insidious effects of Big Tech.

Topping the bill, and fresh from its US premiere and Best Documentary Feature win at Portland Film Festival, is Oz Katerji’s The Battle for Kyiv.

“I wasn't even convinced that I had enough to tell a full documentary,” Katerji tells Byline Times in Kyiv.

“It was a case of believing that I did, believing that I had a story there,” he adds.

On the morning of 24 February 2022, Kyiv awoke to the sound of explosions as Russian President Vladimir Putin launched his “special military operation”.

It’s easy to forget now, but at the time, assessments from Western governments predicted Russia’s armed forces would sweep into the capital in a matter of days, forcing Ukraine’s military to fight a guerilla war against the supposed second greatest military on the planet.

Heeding such warnings, most embassies had closed and relocated their staff, countries had warned their citizens to leave the country immediately, and a significant number of international journalists moved to cities thought to be safer, such as Lviv in the west of Ukraine.

Katerji stayed.

“I went to Ukraine with the expectation that the Russians were going to invade, and I expected that they were going to invade Kyiv,” he says.

“It wasn't a case of ‘oh my God, I need to get out of here now’, it was a case of ‘right this is what I came here for’. 

“It wasn't an act of bravery, it was a decision that whatever happened, I wanted to be there to tell that story because it was a story that needed to be told.”

To document that story, Katerji had a camera, but lacked a plan, relying on simply coming across his main characters as he headed towards the front line and tracked the progress of Russia’s advance towards Kyiv.

The main characters he comes across early in the film are about as far removed from the heroes usually associated with war films as can be.

Sviatoslav Yurash, who just days earlier had turned 26 and is Ukraine’s youngest ever MP, smiles at the camera and points out “though I’m not a soldier by any stretch of the imagination, I am fast training to be one”.

Kateryna Doroshyna, a communications professional, shows her newly-acquired pistol and scoffs when asked if her family knows where she is.

“They think I am in my apartment with my cat,” she says.

This sets the tone for the entire film — ordinary people, doing extraordinary things, while unimaginable horrors are being inflicted upon them by Russia.

In particular, we’re introduced to the Kyiv suburbs of Bucha and Irpin, seeing hints of the atrocities happening there before their names would become synonymous with Russian war crimes.

And the camera is only there in the first place because it is following the likes of Yurash and Doroshyna who, in the face of extreme danger, are simply trying to deliver food and water to those trapped there.

As the title suggests, The Battle for Kyiv only tells the story of the first few weeks of Russia’s full-scale invasion, and a long and arduous production process has meant its release comes after so many other momentous events of the war.

But rather than diminish its relevance, it instead serves to highlight how the war has evolved and, sadly, how it has become normalised in the global consciousness. 

In one scene early on, Katerji visits the Okhmatdyt children’s hospital in Kyiv, where its director tells him about the new and terrifying threat of Russian rockets being fired at the city.

Two-and-a-half years later, the routine bombing of Kyiv with missiles and kamikaze drones rarely makes global news headlines, and the city’s citizens are so desensitised that the days of running to the nearest shelter at the sound of an air raid alert are long gone.

Of course there are exceptions — the world was appalled when a Russian missile struck that very same children’s hospital in July 2024.

Today, the war in Ukraine is at a dramatically different stage. Donald Trump enters the White House in January, and has promised to end the war swiftly, possibly by attempting to enforce a freezing of the front lines.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has acknowledged the war will “end sooner” once he takes office, and talk of peace negotiations are not the taboo subject they once were.

“I still see in Ukrainians a desire to defend their country,” Katerji says. “That hasn't gone away.

“People are more war-weary, and they would like it to be over. But still, the general mood, the general attitude I hear, whether I'm in the east or the west, is that people don't believe Putin has any intention of stopping. 

“They're fighting because they have to.”

And even if Ukraine and Russia can negotiate a peace, nothing will ever be the same again after this war.

Towards the end of The Battle for Kyiv, Doroshyna says: “Ukraine will never forget everything they are doing here, now.” 

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To watch The Battle for Kyiv if you are a Byline TV member, just go to byline.tv/docfest to sign in, or click here to get your Festival Pass now.

Other films streaming during the Festival:

Shattered: How Big Tech Broke Society With Elon Musk’s Twitter takeover and Trump set to re-enter the White House, revisit our examination of the role of big tech and social media in the spread of disinformation, and the risks they pose to democracy.

Betrayed: The Truth About Brexit Explore the deeper causes of Brexit that reach as far back as the Blair years, and examine how those who voted for it came to feel betrayed by politicians who promised them a better future.

Under Deadly Skies: Ukraine’s Eastern Front Join veteran reporters John Sweeney and Paul Conroy as they investigate Russian war crimes on Ukraine’s eastern and southern fronts.

Kompromat: The Prime Minister & The Spy How did a British Prime Minister come to have a close personal relationship with a former KGB spy? Veteran investigative journalist John Sweeney asks the tough questions.