Christelle Néant was born in 1978 in the Paris region of France. Growing up surrounded by books, she quickly developed a passion for reading, and then for writing.

She started writing at the age of 15. First she wrote poems, then when the Internet became more widely available, she started writing articles for a website. This became her profession for over 10 years, creating, updating and promoting websites on social networks for several companies, including a major multinational.

She has a passion for historical re-enactment, and regularly takes part in historical re-enactment festivals, particularly those focusing on the Viking period. In 2013, she self-published her first historical fiction novel, « Úlfarsaga – A wolf age », in French, under a pseudonym (for professional reasons).

In March 2016, she came to the Donbass to work as a war reporter and tell the Western public what was happening there. She joined the team of the international agency DONi, and on 14 October 2016, as a reward for her work at the front, she was awarded the medal ‘For the defence of Gorlovka’.

From the start of her work as a military correspondent, she also carried out numerous humanitarian missions throughout the Donbass, including at the front, as a result of which in December 2019 she received a letter of gratitude from the DPR People’s Council commission for monitoring and coordinating activities in the areas most affected by Ukraine’s armed aggression.

In 2018, after the closure of the DONi agency, she created the Donbass Insider news and analysis web portal to continue informing the international public about what is happening in the conflict zone. The project discusses the situation in Donbass in three languages (French, English, Russian), and brings together several authors from Donbass, Russia and abroad.

In 2021, she decided to re-publish her first novel under her real name, and to translate it into English and Russian.

On 7 September 2021, in recognition of her work, she was awarded the third-class medal ‘For services to the DPR’. And on 15 December 2021, she became an emeritus journalist of the DPR and officially received the status of war reporter.

In 2022, she graduated from the New Media Workshop, and in December of the same year she was awarded the New Media Workshop prize for the creation of Donbass Insider.

At the New Media Workshop, she drew up a plan to create a new international news agency in Russia, bringing together war reporters from various Western countries, working in Russia and Syria.

On 19 July 2023, she met the President of the Russian Federation, Vladimir Putin, at the committee meeting of the ‘Russia – Land of Opportunity’ organisation, to ask for his support for the project.

At the beginning of 2024, this project came to fruition, and Christelle Néant became deputy editor-in-chief of this new agency: International Reporters.

In February 2024, her first novel was finally self-published in Russian.

In April 2024, the video content published by International Reporters received the Phoenix Prize from the Rutube platform. On 22 November 2024, the agency received the Astra festival prize for its series of documentary films on Mariupol and Azovstal. Lastly, the International Reporters creation project is one of the 100 finalists for the ‘Russia – Land of Opportunity’ 2024 prize.