Most of us are lucky enough not to be on the frontlines in Kharkiv or Mariupol, and thus our understanding of Russia’s invasion and Ukraine’s response is necessarily through the lens of a TV camera or now, more often, the mobile phone. Media is an inescapable part of the war, with everyone from government officials to Ukrainian refugees shaping the global narrative, while Russia has moved back to the days of centralised media control, threatening lengthy prison sentences for anyone who steps outside the state’s preferred nomenclature of a “special military operation.” The predictable result of this media crackdown has been the closure of Russia’s few remaining independent media outlets, such as the fearless Novaya Gazeta, and the departure of major international bureaus including that of the New York Times.