The prize is awarded for significant professional achievements in the field of journalism and media.
Ilya Ushenin has been a war correspondent since 1999, and he has been working for NTV since 2008. Originally from Yekaterinburg, where he began his career at the age of 19 on the Fourth Channel, covering the second Chechen campaign.
He spent almost two years of his life in the special military operation zone.
“We went to the tankers near Donetsk. We brought them triangle letters from schoolchildren from the Rostov region. It was words of support in the children’s messages, such as “dear soldier, take care of yourself and please come back.” The fighters were taking Maryinka, having just returned from a mission: their faces and hands were black with soot. That particular moment stayed with me: a tanker takes a letter with trembling dirty hands, carefully unfolds it, trying not to stain it, and reads it aloud, while tears drip from his darkened face. Military people greatly appreciate it when someone supports them from behind”.
Representatives of Gazprom-Media Holding companies have regularly been given this high award: over the past three years, 17 employees of NTV, Autoradio, and Detskoe Radio have received it.