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Sara Cincurova

freelance human rights journalist

ABOUT

I am a freelance human rights journalist born in Slovakia and based in Ukraine, focusing on migration, conflict, human rights, foreign policy, humanitarian issues and women’s rights.

I have reported for The New York Times, The Guardian, BBC News, New York Magazine, Al Jazeera English, Der Spiegel, Foreign Policy, Newsweek, Mediapart, HuffPost, Lighthouse Reports, The New Humanitarian, The Women’s Media Center, openDemocracy, More to Her Story and many other outlets. Previously, I was Agence France-Presse’s Slovakia correspondent.

I have covered the Ukraine conflict on the front lines since 2014 and especially since the 2022 full-scale Russian invasion.

Altogether, I’ve reported from more than 20 countries, investigating issues such as sexualized violence against women dissidents in Venezuelan prisons and the exploitation of Ukrainian refugees in Europe. In 2021, I was embedded aboard the Sea-Eye 4 search-and-rescue vessel in the Mediterranean as a journalist and participated in the rescue of 408 refugees.

I graduated with a master’s degree in communications from Paris-Descartes-Sorbonne University in 2012, and I’m fluent in English, French, Russian, Ukrainian and Slovak/Czech, and conversational in Polish and Spanish.

I’ve received the following journalism awards:

  • Newcomer of the Year/Hans Verploeg Award with Free Press Unlimited, 2023 (nominee)
  • Elizabeth Neuffer Fellowship with the International Women’s Media Foundation, 2023 (runner-up)
  • One World Media New Voice Award, 2023 (nominee)
  • One World Media New Voice Award, 2022 (nominee)
  • Honorable mention for best reporting at the 2021 Slovak Journalism Award

Selected Writing

nytimes.com

3 May 2025

Hikers Stumble Upon a Pile of Gold Coins, Igniting a Historical Hunt

The discovery of coins and jewelry in the Czech Republic worth up to €600061.92 raises a tantalizing mystery for historians and amateur sleuths: Who buried the treasure?

www.bbc.com

7 Apr 2025

“Найбільше боюся, що Кривий Ріг стане прифронтовим”. Як живуть діти з інвалідністю в Україні

“Що таке війна?” – запитує 14-річна Єва, граючись у шкільній бібліотеці з однокласниками.

www.moretoherstory.com

5 Apr 2025

Three Years After Bucha’s Liberation, Ukrainian Women Still Struggle for Justice

As the world commemorates the third anniversary of the liberation of Bucha, Ukrainian wartime rape survivors fight to have their voices heard.

www.theguardian.com

11 Aug 2024

Child rape survivors face extraordinary barriers in states with abortion bans

Since fall of Roe, 14 states have passed near-total abortion bans – most with no exceptions for rape or incest survivors

www.nytimes.com

5 Jun 2024

Slovak Prime Minister Speaks Publicly for First Time Since Assassination Attempt

Robert Fico said in a video address that he hoped to return to work in the coming weeks. He blamed the political opposition for the attack, a notion that the parties have strongly denied.

www.nytimes.com

23 May 2024

As Slovakia’s Prime Minister Remains Hospitalized, Politics Return to a Boil

Calls for unity after the shooting of Robert Fico last week have been largely ignored by the country’s politicians. Much of the tension has centered on a media law pushed by the government.

www.nytimes.com

18 May 2024

Slovak Prime Minister Is Improving After Second Operation, Official Says

The suspect in the shooting of the prime minister, Robert Fico, appeared before a judge, who ordered that he would remain in custody until he is charged and tried.

www.nytimes.com

16 May 2024

Suspect Is Charged in Attempted Killing of Slovakia’s Leader

The authorities did not identify the suspect in the shooting of Prime Minister Robert Fico but described him as a “lone wolf.”

www.newsweek.com

1 Apr 2024

I Was a Victim of Sexual Abuse—Deepfake Nudes Are Ruining Lives

There is a common denominator between child sexual abuse and sexual exploitation by the means of AI.

womensmediacenter.com

12 Jan 2024

Sex for Aid: The Ongoing, Invisibilized Sexual Exploitation of Ukrainian Women – Women’s Media Center

After nearly two years since the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the unchecked exploitation of Ukrainian women abroad — who are still displaced in different European countries, as well as internally, in Ukraine — is poised to create a crisis of sexual abuse

www.lighthousereports.com

18 Apr 2023

Europe’s funding of EU-banned pesticides

Farmers in the Global South bear the brunt of European public investments on dangerous pesticides outlawed by the EU

balkaninsight.com

3 Apr 2023

On the Bread Line in Slovakia

A combination of Slovakia’s acute cost-of-living crisis, lack of government support and political crisis is forcing more people to turn to homeless services or actually onto the streets.

thenewhumanitarian.org

27 Feb 2023

Ukraine reporter’s diary: ‘The desperation I saw was hard to process’

‘I’ve seen the lives of many Ukrainians turn into hell.’

thenewhumanitarian.org

22 Feb 2023

What happens when Ukrainian refugees return?

‘At least I am with my husband and my son.’

womensmediacenter.com

29 Sep 2022

Hidden in Plain Sight: A Venezuelan Survivor of Incest Speaks Out

CARACAS — Angela Pilay, 35, was only 13 years old when her father started abusing her.

www.spiegel.de

21 Sep 2022

Ukrainian Refugees Report Cases of Exploitation in Europe

The EU prides itself on having welcomed Ukrainians displaced by the Russian invasion. But DER SPIEGEL reporting shows that ruthless businessman are seizing the opportunity to exploit the refugees. Some cases seem close to human trafficking.

www.spiegel.de

18 Sep 2022

Wie Ukrainerinnen in Europa ausgebeutet werden

Die EU brüstet sich, ukrainische Flüchtlinge mit offenen Armen zu empfangen. Doch SPIEGEL-Recherchen zeigen, wie Geschäftsleute geflüchtete Frauen ausnutzen. Einige Fälle grenzen an Menschenhandel.

thenewhumanitarian.org

13 Jul 2022

Nowhere left to turn, part 1: Venezuela’s COVID fallout leaves children dying and the poor scavenging for food

‘The cases of malnutrition we see are innumerable. The most affected are children below the age of two.’

womensmediacenter.com

21 Apr 2022

‘All I Can Do Is Pray’: Elderly and Disabled Women Left Behind in Eastern Ukraine – Women’s Media Center

The events following the February 24 Russian invasion of Ukraine brought despair for thousands of elderly and disabled civilians who were unable to flee. Russia has been claiming strikes on cities all around the country, and the fighting has left countles

www.thecut.com

22 Mar 2022

My Journey out of Ukraine

Russia’s invasion has forced 10 million Ukrainians to leave their homes. I saw firsthand how difficult it is to reach safety.

www.spiegel.de

1 Mar 2022

(S+) Flucht aus der Ukraine: Das Nadelöhr von Vyšné Nemecké

Hunderttausende Ukrainerinnen und Ukrainer fliehen aus dem Land. Seit Tagen versuchen Dima und seine Frau Viktoria verzweifelt, die slowakische Grenze zu erreichen. Noch steht nicht fest, ob sie sich in Sicherheit bringen können.

www.aljazeera.com

17 Feb 2022

Photos: On Ukraine’s front lines, women endure the war alone

In eastern Ukraine, 1.6 million of the 2.9 million people in need are women, the UN says.

foreignpolicy.com

17 Feb 2022

Ukraine’s Kids Are Literally on the Front Line

Hundreds of thousands of Ukrainian children suffer shellings, shootings, and psychological trauma.

www.aljazeera.com

2 Feb 2022

Elderly Ukrainians: ‘I was born in a war and will die in war’

Al Jazeera speaks to some of the 900,000 pensioners on the front line, some of whom survived World War II.

www.aljazeera.com

26 Jan 2022

Holocaust Remembrance Day: Letters from Slovakia

American historian finds hundreds of desperate letters written by Slovak Jews during the Nazi era.

www.mediapart.fr

20 Jan 2022

Ukraine, les oubliés de la guerre

Dans la région du Donbass, entre l’Ukraine et la Russie, sévit toujours une guerre oubliée. Sur la ligne de front, celles et ceux qui sont restés tentent de survivre dans des villages dévastés, et co…

www.aljazeera.com

31 Dec 2021

‘I hear shelling’: Fear grips Ukrainian villages near Russia

Residents are losing hope in areas near the contact line between Russia-backed separatists and Ukrainian forces.

www.aljazeera.com

22 Nov 2021

The devastating ways women suffer at the Poland-Belarus border

Women refugees say they have miscarried, been separated from their children by border guards, and been hospitalised.

www.aljazeera.com

21 Nov 2021

In Pictures: Europe’s forgotten war grinds on

Conflict continues to blight the lives of civilians still living on the front lines in Ukraine’s Donbas region.

www.aljazeera.com

14 Nov 2021

‘Please save us’: Refugees face death at Poland-Belarus border

People are dying of cold and hunger at the doors of Europe, Nidal Ibrahim tells Al Jazeera from the Belarusian border.

www.aljazeera.com

11 Nov 2021

Fears grow for child refugees stranded on Belarus-Poland border

At least one child has died as others among the thousands of people at the border suffer from hunger and hypothermia.

SPIEGEL International

3 Nov 2021

Our Orders Are Clear. Nobody Gets Through.

Months of reporting has revealed the violent – and illegal – brutality the EU is deploying at its external borders to ward off migrants. Those few refugees who make it through describe beatings, harassment and abasement. Yet there are examples of what a h

www.aljazeera.com

19 Aug 2021

Taliban takeover ‘a trigger’ for child refugees in Greece

Children, many who arrived in Europe alone, say they fear for their families in Afghanistan.

www.thenewhumanitarian.org

27 Jul 2021

Women rescued from the Med tell of Libya detention centre abuse

Women and children face horrific violations in Libyan detention centres. Critics say EU policies are helping to perpetuate this cycle of abuse.

www.theguardian.com

22 May 2021

‘Parents risk children’s lives – the alternative is worse’: on board a migrant rescue ship

More than 700 people have died in the Mediterranean this year. But Sea-Eye, a German charity, is fighting hard to save lives

www.bbc.com

6 May 2021

‘I wasn’t allowed to look out of the window’

Domestic abuse: ‘I wasn’t allowed to look out of the window’

womensmediacenter.com

11 Mar 2021

‘I have seen tyranny’: Venezuelan Women Activists Recount Physical and Sexual Violence by Security Forces – Women’s Media Center

The UN fact-finding mission on Venezuela documented physical and sexualized violence committed against women and girls who took part in anti-government protests, or who were perceived as dissidents, as activists and journalists are actively targeted by se

womensmediacenter.com

4 Jan 2021

Less Than a Number’: How European Policies Leave Pregnant Refugees to Die in the Mediterranean

When the Alan Kurdi rescued me, I was unconscious,” said Raissa*, a refugee woman from Cameroon, referring to the rescue vessel operated by Sea-Eye, non-profit and civil sea rescue organization patrolling the Mediterranean. She had just fled a detention c

womensmediacenter.com

26 Oct 2020

Pregnant Women Are Still Crossing the Deadliest Migration Route in the World

The crossing was hellish,” said Zeinab Nourzehi, a 28-year-old refugee from Afghanistan. She was six months pregnant with her first child when she and her husband Pejvak departed from Izmir, on Turkey’s Aegean coast, for the Greek island of Lesbos in a di

www.thenewhumanitarian.org

4 Jun 2020

The challenge of collecting COVID-19 data in Venezuela

Venezuela probably doesn’t have one of the worst coronavirus outbreaks in Latin America. But how can we really know?

www.aljazeera.com

3 May 2020

Venezuela arbitrarily detaining reporters covering COVID-19: CPJ

Rights groups say 10 journalists have been detained and more than two dozen threatened due to work on the pandemic.

womensmediacenter.com

26 Feb 2020

Women journalists face life-threatening risks in Venezuela – Women’s Media Center

While Venezuela reels from its ongoing political and humanitarian crises, attacks against members of the press, and particularly women journalists, have become especially acute.
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