Polish journalist Bianka Zalewska has won the Women of Courage Award for her work in Ukraine. She and ten other recipients will be presented with the honour at the White House tomorrow – on International Women’s Day – by US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and First Lady Jill Biden.
Zalewska is a war correspondent who has been covering the conflict in Ukraine since it began in 2014. In that year she suffered life-threatening injuries when her press car came under fire from Russian-backed separatists in Luhansk.
“Mrs Zalewska remains unintimidated…in the face of disinformation campaigns and online threats personally aimed at her and her family and the risks of violence and injury during her frequent work inside Ukraine,” wrote the State Department, which has since 2007 been annually presenting the Women of Courage Awards.
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The journalist has also advocated for the inclusion of refugees from Ukraine, has been documenting evidence of war crimes and has personally delivered aid in Ukraine, notes the State Department.
Speaking on TVN, the American-owned Polish station that she works for, Zalewska said that when she first received a call from the US embassy in Warsaw informing her that she had won the award she “thought it was a joke”.
She said that she “dedicates the award to all Ukrainian women who are bravely fighting for their homeland and reporting on the brutality of the aggressor…[Their] courage and steadfastness inspires me to continue every day”.
Korespondentka wojenna Bianka Zalewska, reporterka @DDTVN, znalazła się w gronie laureatek nagrody International Women of Courage, przyznawanej przez Departament Stanu USA. – Nie mogłam uwierzyć przez długi czas – mówiła reporterka w rozmowie z @WronaM.
👉 https://t.co/nfAmZRios1 pic.twitter.com/qc5l9EUR5q— tvn24 (@tvn24) March 6, 2023
Zalewska is the first Pole to win the award, which is given to “women from around the world who have demonstrated exceptional courage, strength and leadership in advocating for peace, justice, human rights, gender equity and equality, and the empowerment of women and girls, often at great personal risk and sacrifice”.
Among the other winners this year is Yuliia Paievska, a Ukrainian medic who founded “Taira’s Angels”, a volunteer paramedic corps, and who was last year captured by Russian forces.
In 2014, Zalewska was awarded Ukraine’s Order of Princess Olga, third class, by then-president Petro Poroshenko. Last year, current president Volodymyr Zelensky promoted the journalist to the second class of the order.
Gratuluję Biance Zalewskiej, pierwszej polskiej laureatce International Woman of Courage Award, jej odwagi w relacjonowaniu brutalnej wojny w Ukrainie! #IWOC2023 #StandWithUkraine @SecBlinken @FLOTUS pic.twitter.com/Nt9FWWcMgp
— Ambasador Mark Brzezinski (@USAmbPoland) March 6, 2023
Main image credit: TVN
Daniel Tilles is editor-in-chief of Notes from Poland. He has written on Polish affairs for a wide range of publications, including Foreign Policy, POLITICO Europe, EUobserver and Dziennik Gazeta Prawna.
