Ukraine: The Latest

In September 2024, David Knowles, the founder and presenter of the podcast Ukraine: The Latest, died suddenly at the age of 32 in Gibraltar. The fact that the UK counter-terrorism police looked into his death speaks volumes. Every weekday since the Russians invaded Ukraine, Knowles was on a mission to record accurately and eloquently the progress of the war and its impact on Ukrainian society, and ensure the voices and experiences of those who were permanently changed by the attack on their country continued to be heard by international audiences.

There is breadth and depth to the podcast – which continues after Knowles’s death. Content ranges from interviews with First Lady Olena Zelenska and musician Oleg Skrypka, to the first-hand testimonies of civilians in Bucha trying to rebuild their lives after the brutal Russian occupation, to reports from the frontline, to the reflections of hipsters in the trendy Kyiv neighbourhood of Podil who apply for jobs in the military posted by a government-appointed headhunting agency.

At the time of the submission there had been more than 100 million downloads of more than 650 episodes of the podcast, which the judges called “a gripping testament to courageous and vitally important public interest journalism.”