- February 10, 2026
- 8:15 pm
- Video
On the channel Dmitry Dubov on February 4, 2026, a big interview was released with Israeli cameraman Yuri Gershberg — a person who has been filming for many years where there is shooting.
The author formulates the framework of the conversation very directly: hot spots, the camera lens, the boundary between professionalism and fear. On the list are Kyiv in the early days of the invasion, the Gaza Strip, Lebanon, Syria, the border with Iran, Somaliland.
But almost the entire emotional and semantic center of the conversation goes precisely to Ukraine.
To where, according to the cameraman, everything truly began.
Kyiv. The week “before” and the morning “after”
Gershberg found himself in the Ukrainian capital in advance. He arrived a week before the invasion. Among those he spoke with, few believed that a big war would actually start.
The editorial office held tickets for departure. They were postponed. There seemed to be no reason to stay.
Then — early morning, distant explosions, open news feeds, an attempt to understand the scale. And almost instant acceptance of a simple thought: this is why you are here.
Not fear.
Work.
Why the first hours became a “professional paradise”
He recalls something that today sounds almost incredible: the gratitude of people on the streets. They recognized that they were Israeli journalists. They said “shalom.” They thanked them for their attention.
The camera was allowed almost everywhere.
The metro, neighborhoods, conversations without filters. The city was not yet tired of the press, had not closed off, had not built barriers.
The window was short. But it existed.
And for a TV journalist, this is a rare opportunity — to see history before it is cemented by rules.
The night when tanks were counted by kilometers
By evening, the tension had increased. Curfew. Broadcasts. Simultaneously — a map showing the advance of Russian forces towards the city.
Eight kilometers.
Seven.
Six.
Inside Kyiv, sabotage groups were already operating. There was shooting somewhere. And yet journalists were celebrating a colleague’s birthday.
Not out of frivolity.
Out of understanding: nothing can be influenced now. In the morning, they would go on air again.
The life of war: water, sweets, autonomy
The morning city was different. An empty Khreshchatyk. Boarded-up windows. Tape crisscrossed on the glass.
The cameraman performs a set of simple actions familiar to anyone who has been in an emergency situation: water, quick calories, an attempt to create a reserve. Even a bathtub filled with water in the hotel — an element of control over chaos.
Thus, journalism becomes an extension of the survival instinct.
What happens to the sense of danger
Gershberg describes an important detail: the threat was not pinpoint. It was not a bullet flying right now. It was a slow approach.
The psyche adapts.
The focus is on the frame, the stability of the picture, the sound. When the historical moment is in the lens, roughness is permissible. The absence of material is not.
This, he says, is what displaced fear.
The return that was not a return
They left Kyiv in a convoy organized with the help of religious activists. A bus, private cars, a fuel shortage, Ukrainian police escort.
Then — Moldova. After that, everyone chose their own route.
In Israel, they were met as people returning from the center of a catastrophe. But the cameraman himself admits: physically he flew home, but mentally he remained in Ukraine.
A few weeks later, he went there again. Because his personal, internal film had no ending.
On the second visit, everything was already different. Access for the media had sharply narrowed. To work, one had to become part of a specific military structure.
He decided not to do this.
He has his own front line.
It is at this moment, while talking about further assignments, that the interlocutors mention the editorial offices that continue to monitor the Israeli-Ukrainian connection, including NANews — News of Israel | Nikk.Agency, where such stories are considered part of the overall regional survival experience.
From Ukraine to other frontiers
The interview mentions Gaza, Lebanon, an accidental crossing into Syria, a few meters to the border with Iran, work in Somaliland.
There is a heavy episode on October 7 on road 232, when bags with the bodies of killed Israelis were loaded into the journalists’ transport.
This is a different pain. Their own.
But it is the Ukrainian days, by the tone of the conversation, that remained the point where the profession revealed itself as sharply and honestly as possible.
What gives this drive
Gershberg formulates without pathos. He is not held by danger as such. It is just the background.
The main thing is the opportunity to be inside the event and show it to millions. In such moments, he says, it is clear: everything possible has been done.
This is enough.
