Vogue Ukraine publisher reveals the true meaning of ‘resilience’ in our Media Unscripted podcast

In our latest episode of Media Unscripted we spoke to Julia Kostetska, publisher of Vogue Ukraine, and fashion director, Venya Brykalin, about the challenges of creating content in a war zone.

It certainly makes a change from talking about digital transformation…

Their story is an incredible one, which you don’t have to work in publishing to appreciate. It’s a story of survival and resilience and bravery. And also incredible creativity and sensitivity, as they have had to adapt their content to suit the needs of their readers, while war rages on.

Fashion still plays its role, however, Vogue is now focussed on telling humanitarian stories. As Kostetska explains: “We are trying to inspire Ukrainians and find personal stories and remind their readers of our country’s heroic history”.

The Vogue team hasn’t stopped working for a single day, since war broke out on 24 February 2022. They did put their print issue on hold, but continued to provide their readers with daily content. Against all odds, and in an incredibly hostile environment, they have just published their first issue since war broke out, and the magazine is a celebration of those people contributing to the resistance.


In this episode, Kostetska talks about what she has learnt as a human being and as publisher – and how she has discovered strengths she never knew she had. It is this combination of strength and sensitivity that has helped her lead her team through these challenging and often devastating months.

This war has taught us to be fast, to be flexible, to be fearless and not to stop, even for a minute,” says Kostetska. “Due to this feeling we managed to create many beautiful projects even in the war circumstances.”

This really is a tale of true resilience. You do not want to miss this episode.

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