On journalism -Thore Schröder in Der Spiegel:

‘There were so many times something could have happened to him. On his visits to the front lines in the Donbas, where he has been more than 20 times in the past eight years. Or during the Russian siege on his doorstep in Kyiv, which he reported on almost nonstop in March. One evening, a tank shell struck the apartment building where he lives. The building shook, he says, "but as a journalist, I knew that, with my city under attack, I had to stay."
Illia Ponomarenko, 30, survived everything unscathed. But then, in mid-June, his run of good luck came to an end while riding an e-bike. It was an accident without any obvious cause. Ponomarenko was on his way to a meeting with Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko and Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama. The Ukrainian ambassador to Albania, who was also present and knew Ponomarenko from Twitter, had suggested that the war reporter join them.
He lost his balance while riding down Victory Avenue, flipped his bike and crashed into a fence. He wasn't wearing a helmet. "I was in a hurry. I don't remember the fall," Ponomarenko says at a meeting in mid-August.’

(…)

‘When Russian soldiers invaded his homeland in the early morning hours of Feb. 24, panic broke out in Kyiv, with hundreds of thousands trying to flee. Ponomarenko had stayed up all night. At 4:51 a.m., he tweeted: "This is it guys. See you in victorious Ukraine." For people worldwide, he became the most important chronicler of the war during this period.
Since then, he has been keeping an online diary, adopting a casual, often flippant tone, though consistently optimistic. A burning Russian tank is mocked with "burn motherfucker, burn." He'll give a shout-out for a Ukrainian bomber pilot who has been killed, saying he's now "in heaven forever."’

(…)

‘Ponomarenko says he tweeted everything he saw in the first weeks of the war, with up to 20 posts a day. "Now, I post when there is a big issue or other users ask for my opinion. People listen to me."
He says he spends five to seven hours a day on Twitter. Ponomarenko says his "biggest mistake" was not being more active on the social media site earlier. Today, he sees it as a "duty."
The question of whether he is an activist or a journalist is a non-starter for him. He says people on Twitter follow him "because they want honesty," not because they think he's impartial. There has probably never been a conflict in history where the case is as clear as it is here, he says: "Ukraine is the victim of an illegal war of conquest. Standing up for Ukraine is the right thing to do."’

(…)

‘When asked again where he sees the line between journalism and activism, Ponomarenko provides an example. "When the chief of staff of the Ukrainian army had his birthday, I initially wanted to congratulate him on Twitter." After a moment's thought, he says, he decided against it.’

Read the article here.

Especially on Twitter vulgarity comes across as honesty.

An vulgarity can be entertaining.

Watching Rome going up in flames was apparently also entertaining.

A German romantic claimed more than two centuries ago that we are all little Nero’s. Especially on social media, but to our credit most of the time the flames are symbolic and utterly forgettable.