Day of the Information and Media Structures of the Ministry of Defense and the AFU in Ukraine Date in the current year: December 29, 2025

The date of the Day of the Information and Media Structures of the Ministry of Defense and the AFU was chosen to commemorate the anniversary of the establishment of the Press Service of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine in 1991. The holiday itself was created to highlight the work of press officers and employees of Ukrainian military media.

The official media of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine include:

• Armiya INFORM (“Army INFORM”): the Ministry of Defense news agency
• Armiya TV (“Army TV”): the official YouTube channel of the Military Television of Ukraine
• Armiya FM (“Army FM”): the official radio station of the Ministry of Defense
• Briz (“Breeze”): the television and radio station of the Ministry of Defense

Military journalists, also known as military correspondents and war correspondents, play an important role in covering the activities of the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense and the country’s armed forces in both peacetime and wartime. After the country’s independence, Ukrainian military correspondents covered peacekeeping missions, but their work was little known to the general public.

Everything changed drastically in 2014, when Russia annexed Crimea and invaded Donbas. Military journalists focused on covering what was happening in their own country, and their work became more visible to the public. Since the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, which was still ongoing as of December 2024, Ukrainian war correspondents have been the main source of information about the situation on the battlefield and the life of civilians near the front lines.

Employees of the information and media structures of the Ministry of Defense and the AFU are tasked with providing the public withtimely, accurate and reliable information about the ongoing war. At the same time, they must be careful when reporting sensitive information, such as data on wounded, dead, captured and missing.

Not all information gathered on the battlefield can be made public, lest it harm soldiers or their loved ones on the home front. So when strict adherence to peacetime journalistic standards could endanger individual lives or threaten national security, military media professionals must set their priorities straight and decide very carefully what and how to report.

Military journalists working for the Ministry of Defense and the AFU hold military ranks and report to the country’s military leadership. They have the necessary training in handling weapons, first aid and tactical medicine. The Day of the Information and Media Structures of the Ministry of Defense and the AFU was created to recognize their contribution, highlight the importance of the profession, and thank all Ukrainian press officers for their hard and selfless work.