Early life and career Stanko was born in the
Ivano-Frankivsk Oblast. While a journalism student in
Lviv, in 2004, Stanko participated in the Orange Revolution, which succeeded in ousting Russia-backed President Viktor Yanukovich from his first term in office.
Later career In 2013 Stanko co-founded
Hromadske, Ukraine's first independent newsroom. Two months later, she reported from the field about
Russia's occupation of Donbas, a region in eastern Ukraine. After her detention, Stanko was handed over to Ukrainian authorities with the request to pay a fine of 3,000 rubles and delete any photo and video materials. On June 16, 2014, "Stop Censorship" organized a press conference in
Kharkiv, where Stanko shared her experience. near
Stanytsia Luhanska in eastern Ukraine, five men armed with AK-47s boarded their bus and put black hoods over their heads. They were taken by mini-bus, allegedly by agents of Russia's
People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs (NKVD) to a basement which she later learned was located near the administrative offices of the
Luhansk People's Republic (LNR), In 2018 Stanko received the
International Press Freedom Award, and in 2019 was honored by the
International Women's Media Foundation. She was editor-in-chief of Hromadske from 2020 to 2021, and left to report from the front of the
Russian invasion of Ukraine. Since 2023 she been the editor-in-chief of Slidstvo.info, an investigative news agency. == Recognition ==