When Sarah Ashton-Cirillo, a transgender woman from the United States, arrived in Ukraine in March 2022, she planned to stay two weeks to work as a journalist.
Instead, she joined the ranks of the Ukrainian army and serves as a spokesperson for the reservist Territorial Defense Force, explaining the war to the English-speaking public.
During a visit to the studio where she works, in an undisclosed location in Kiev, she declared with a smile that her unit was not afraid of being the target of “hatred of the Russians”, quite the contrary.
“If the Russians are upset because of us, it’s because we’re doing our job well,” says the 46-year-old blonde, who wears a khaki polo shirt.
On this point, it is successful.
Last week, Russian television aired an hour-long program in which Sarah Ashton-Cirillo was called a “monster” and a “disgrace to the Ukrainian people.”
The American hosts two shows on YouTube and also posts tirelessly on Twitter, where she is followed by more than 156,000 people.
Sarah Ashton-Cirillo, who does not speak Ukrainian, relays official power communications while mocking Russian media coverage.
She also follows international media. In August, she announced a “boycott” of CNN because the American television channel had described foreign fighters in Ukraine as “mercenaries” – which the outlet later corrected.
Showing AFP a tour of her studio, Sarah Ashton-Cirillo introduces her colleagues, all of whom have been at the front, before donning a uniform decorated with her unit’s badge and the Latin motto “Ad resistendum” (“Resist” ).
The spokesperson has editorial freedom over her content and wants to avoid covering the war by following an approach that is too dry and based solely on figures.
The audience for her YouTube channel, which is still recent, is rather limited – around 20,000 views in August – but the attacks targeting her in the Russian media far exceed these proportions.
“The Russians are obsessed,” says the fighter. “I am regularly in global Google search trends,” she continues. “And most of this research comes from Russia.”
In Ukraine, reactions to it have been mixed, even if, in recent years, this country has evolved a lot. It has hosted pride marches and allowed LGBT people to join the army but the European Court of Human Rights has criticized its treatment of same-sex couples.
When she first arrived as a journalist, Sarah Ashton-Cirillo worked in the Kharkiv region in the northeast. A large part of the area, riddled with shell fire, was occupied by the Russians.
“Seeing war crimes, Russian terrorism, so closely is one of the things that led me to go from impartial observer (…) to fighter,” she explains.
Thinking she could be “more useful as a soldier,” she joined a unit of Crimean Tatars – a Muslim minority. There she is a military nurse, a role that involves combat, with the nom de guerre “Blonde”.
It doesn’t take long for the Russian camp to spot her.
The spokesperson for Russian diplomacy, Maria Zakharova, spoke in April 2022 of a “transgender journalist from Las Vegas who is filmed in Kharkiv and photographs herself hugging bandits”.
The remark is then difficult to take for Sarah Ashton-Cirillo. But his Ukrainian colleagues encourage him to “express himself even more”.
Since the start of the year, Russia has intensified attacks against her, she says. “I’ve been accused of being Satan, doing orders from the (US) State Department. Crazy comments,” she said.
“When the Russians discovered that I was on the front, they looked for my unit,” assures Sarah Ashton-Cirillo. “They were trying to ensure that I would be neutralized, by being kidnapped or killed.”
The armed forces decided she needed to evacuate the front line, offering her work for their communications. An offer that the American had difficulty accepting, feeling guilty about leaving her unit.
“But, right now, our duty is to serve in this information war.”
14/09/2023 13:04:41 – Kiev (Ukraine) (AFP) © 2023 AFP
