A Year in Ukraine
From Our Own Correspondent
BBC
4.4 • 1.3K Ratings
🗓️ 31 December 2022
⏱️ 29 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Kate Adie presents a selection of stories from correspondents who have covered the war, from the invasion of Kyiv to the present day. Fergal Keane remembers the beekeepers of the Donbas who he met in 2014, following Russia's annexation of Crimea. As he witnessed the throngs of Ukrainians fleeing war in February of this year, he wonders if he will meet his friends again. Quentin Sommerville reported close to Russian lines in Kharkiv as it came under attack. He reflects on the realities of war and the decision to show dead bodies in his television reporting - to not show them would be a lie, he says. Yogita Limaye writes on the atrocities which emerged in Bucha after Russian forces withdrew, and her encounter with Irina - a woman trying to rebuild her life after she lost her home, and her husband. In July, Orla Guerin reported on the effects of Russia's propaganda machine, and its influence within Russian-speaking communities in Ukraine. Suspicion and mistrust left some locals wondering on whose side their neighbours were on. And acclaimed Ukrainian writer, Andrey Kurkov reflects on his return to Ukraine to celebrate Christmas after several months in Europe and the somewhat muted festivities as the unpredictability of the war continues.
Series Producer: Serena Tarling Editor: Richard Fenton-Smith Production Coordinator: Iona Hammond
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | BBC sounds, music, radio, podcasts. |
| 0:05.2 | As we come to the end of the year, we look back in this edition at the most significant |
| 0:10.1 | news event of 2022, Russia's invasion of Ukraine. |
| 0:15.6 | As Russian troops built up at the Ukrainian border back in February, Russian officials |
| 0:20.8 | continued with repeated deniers of plans to invade Ukraine as western governments grew |
| 0:26.8 | increasingly anxious about what loomed ahead. |
| 0:30.7 | And as the Ukrainian writer Yevgeniy Belorussets were out at the time, the war was unrealistic, |
| 0:37.6 | absurd, it could not be imagined, and when you wake up in the midst of war, it remains |
| 0:43.2 | the same, still unimaginable. |
| 0:47.3 | Today we revisit dispatches from the war zone, written at different points and from different |
| 0:52.5 | places during the conflict. |
| 0:56.0 | Upon news of the invasion on the morning of 24th of February, several BBC correspondence |
| 1:01.9 | were quickly deployed across the country. |
| 1:04.7 | Fergal Kean was one of them. |
| 1:07.1 | He reported from Laviv, a key transit point in the west of Ukraine to the rest of Europe. |
| 1:13.2 | There he witnessed vast numbers of Ukrainians flooding through the main train station. |
| 1:18.9 | They were longing stuffed into small suitcases or backpacks, trying to escape to safety |
| 1:24.8 | to countries like Poland, Germany, as well as the UK. |
| 1:29.7 | As he looked on, he remembered the story of a couple he met when he was in Ukraine's Donbass |
| 1:34.8 | region years before when Vladimir Putin first seized control of Crimea. |
| 1:41.0 | The conflict there never ended. |
| 1:43.8 | I have found myself searching the crowds and praying I would not find them. |
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