What it takes to report from Ukraine
This week on 60 Minutes, CBS News producer Erin Lyall and senior foreign correspondent Holly Williams mark the one-year anniversary of the war in Ukraine by reporting from the Ukrainian city of Kherson. Although the city has been liberated, Kherson remains under fire from Russian forces that are now positioned on the opposite bank of the Dnipro River.
It is the latest reporting by the pair, who have been covering the conflict in Ukraine since 2014. That year, protests rocked the capital city Kyiv, Russia annexed the Crimean Peninsula, and Russian-backed separatists took over areas of the Donbass region. The CBS team of Lyall and Williams were there for it all.
When Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24, 2022, Williams reported from Kharkiv. In the year since, she and Lyall have found themselves hiding in trenches, dodging artillery fire from Russian tanks, and even staying with a local Ukrainian couple when Kherson's borders were shut down. That couple gave Lyall and her crew all the food they had to welcome them amid Kherson's liberation from Russian occupation.
It is those quiet moments of life persisting amid the chaos of war that stand out to Lyall and Williams.
"We don't always have the time because often our perspective is so focused on what happened that day and the people who lost their lives that day and the buildings that were destroyed that day," Williams said. "But I love it when we have the opportunity to show what life is really like in a war zone."
The video above was produced by Brit McCandless Farmer, Will Croxton, and Guy Campanile. It was edited by Will Croxton.