Ukrainian YouTuber chronicles war instead of travels
STORY: “You cannot be confident in your security so, these things are terrifying actually..."
Ukrainian YouTuber Anton Ptushkin began documenting what he saw when Russia invaded his home country.
It marked a change from the glossy travel videos his millions of followers are used to seeing.
"I’m just a travel guy. I was not into politics at all. But on 24th of February, politics ended. This is not politics, this is actually war, and people are dying. And of course you cannot be silent. You have to say something."
“First day of war, you’re totally mixed up...”
He chronicles daily life in the capital, Kyiv.
"From my apartment I decided to move to a safer place....”
And says his specialty is personal, emotional stories, like the moments he shares with his mother.
He said he initially tried reaching out to his Russian audience with two videos.
“They gained a lot of views but the effectiveness of this video was really small."
So he switched his appeals to people in the West.
"There is democracy in the West. And people, I don't know, maybe they can watch some of my episodes and ask their elected officials to maybe to help Ukraine somehow."
His approach seems to be resonating.
As of Thursday, his video about life under the siege had nearly 1.5 million views on YouTube.
“You have to do something because this is your country, this is your homeland, this is your city, I mean, your friends, your life is here... This is important for me and I hope this is important for someone in the West also, because they can understand what it feels like to be in the country fighting with the enemy in 2022. It's madness, actually."
