The Pulitzer Prize Board on Monday recognised Ukrainian journalists for their coverage of Russia’s invasion of their country.

The board gave the Ukrainian journalists a “special citation” when Columbia University in New York announced the 2022 winners of the coveted prizes.

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“The Pulitzer Prize board is pleased to award a special citation to the journalists of Ukraine for their courage, endurance, and commitment to truthful reporting during Vladimir Putin’s ruthless invasion of their country and his propaganda war in Russia,” Marjorie Miller, a board member said as she announced the prize.

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“Despite bombardment abductions, occupation, and even deaths in their ranks, they have persisted in their effort to provide an accurate picture of a terrible reality, doing honor to Ukraine and to journalists around the world,” Miller added.

According to the Committee to Protect Journalists, seven journalists have been killed since Russia started a full-scale invasion of its neighbour on February 24.

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A United Nations-appointed panel of independent human rights experts reported, “numerous reports” of journalists being “targeted, tortured, kidnapped, attacked and killed, or refused safe passage” from besieged cities and regions. The group also warned of Russian cyberattacks on Ukrainian media and digital infrastructure.

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“I think it’s fair to say that it is more difficult for us than, say, for foreign journalists,” Olga Rudenko, editor in chief of The Kyiv Independent, told Time magazine. “We’re not just telling the story, we’re living the story.”

Rudenko told Time that one reporter who covered Ukrainian migrants crossing the border into Poland for the Kyiv Independent ultimately became a refugee herself.