David Knowles, journalist behind Telegraph’s Ukraine war podcast, dies aged 32

Mr Knowles’s father said his eldest son ‘loved life and he lived it just as well as he could’

David Knowles, the Telegraph journalist behind the award-winning Ukraine: The Latest podcast, has died.
Mr Knowles, 32, who worked as a senior audio journalist and presenter, died while in Gibraltar on Sunday following what was believed to be a cardiac arrest.
He joined The Telegraph in 2020 as deputy head of social media and was later promoted to head of social media.
Upon the outbreak of the Ukraine war in 2022, Mr Knowles launched Ukraine: The Latest, a weekday podcast that is still running two years later.
This year, Ukraine: The Latest won the Best News Podcast at the Publisher Podcast Awards.
Mr Knowles’s father, Peter, described his eldest son as someone who “loved life and he lived it just as well as he could”.
He said: “David’s commitment to journalism was intense. He was never more proud than when he finally shrugged off a management job title and regained a title with the word ‘journalist’ in it, and he was utterly engaged with the story of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine and the impact on its people, making four trips to the country and always planning the next.”
Chris Evans, the editor of The Telegraph, said: “David was a talented and popular journalist who was perhaps best known for helping to make our Ukraine podcast such a success. Before that, he was an impressive leader of our social media team. We would like to offer our sympathy to his family and friends.”
Mr Knowles launched Ukraine: The Latest as a Twitter Space before it became a fully fledged podcast. Starting on the day of the Russian invasion in February 2022, it is now approaching 100 million downloads.
He anchored the podcast and became known as its “voice”, travelling across Ukraine with his audio equipment to capture stories to pull into special episodes that told how the lives of ordinary Ukrainian people were being destroyed by Putin’s war.
He and the podcast team also toured the show in America last year, where a large part of its audience is based.
More recently, Mr Knowles and the team were invited to speak at the US embassy in London, at the Chalke History Festival, and at Armed Forces Day in Scarborough about the Ukraine war.
The Ukrainian embassy in London also paid tribute. In a post on X, the embassy said: “We are deeply saddened by the tragic passing of the Telegraph journalist of Ukraine: The Latest podcast [David Knowles]. 
“His dedication to reporting the truth about the war in Ukraine and his commitment to telling the stories of those affected by it will never be forgotten. Our thoughts are with his family, friends and colleagues during this difficult time. Ukraine mourns this profound loss alongside you.”