His debut documentary feature is the 2024 Academy Award-nominated 20 Days in Mariupol. The film won the Audience Award, World Cinema – Documentary at the 2023 Sundance Film Festival, before going on to win among others two 2023 Critics Choice Documentary Awards including Best First Documentary Feature and Best Political Documentary, Outstanding Achievement in Production at the 2023 Cinema Eye Documentary Honors, and the 2023 Cinema for Peace Award for The Most Valuable Documentary of the Year.

He is known for his coverage of the Revolution of Dignity, War in Donbas, including the downing of flight MH17, Syrian civil war, and the Battle of Mosul in Iraq. Recently, he has been covering the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, including the Siege of Mariupol. For this work he shared the 2023 Pulitzer Prize for Public Service, received the Deutsche Welle Freedom of Speech Award, the Georgiy Gongadze Award, the Knight International Journalism Awards, and the Biagio Agnes Award, Bayeux Calvados-Normandy Award, Elijah Parish Lovejoy Award, Free Media Awards. His video materials from this time formed the basis of 20 Days in Mariupol.

Chernov is an Associated Press journalist, the President of the Ukrainian Association of Professional Photographers (UAPP) and a member of “Ukrainian PEN.” Chernov’s materials have been published and aired by multiple news outlets worldwide, including CNN, BBC, The New York Times, The Washington Post, and others. He has both won and been a finalist for prestigious awards, including the Livingston Award, Rory Peck Award, Reporters Without Borders Press Freedom Prize, and various Royal Television Society awards. Chernov has been wounded several times while working in war.