Dodging the draft: Ukraine’s struggle for soldiers
Ukrainecast
BBC
4.7 • 1K Ratings
🗓️ 29 October 2024
⏱️ 23 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Two men's stories of avoiding the draft.
To satisfy a growing need for soldiers, authorities in Ukraine appear to be taking ever more drastic measures, including forcibly pulling men off the street to check their credentials.
But many men in Ukraine feel the war is not for them, and decide to flee overseas rather than to stay and fight. We speak to Artem and Oleh, two young men who avoided the draft, and ask them why they left and whether they regret their decision.
Today’s episode is presented by Victoria Derbyshire and Vitaly Shevchenko. The producers were Arsenii Sokolov, Anastasiia Levchenko and Clare Williamson. The technical producer was Hannah Montgomery The series producer is Tim Walklate. The senior news editor is Sara Wadeson. Email Ukrainecast@bbc.co.uk with your questions and comments. You can also send us a message or voice note via WhatsApp, Signal or Telegram to +44 330 1239480
You can join the Ukrainecast discussion on Newscast’s Discord server here: tinyurl.com/ukrainecastdiscord
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | BBC Sounds, music radio podcasts. |
| 0:04.7 | Hello, it's 979 days since Russia began its full-scale invasion of Ukraine. |
| 0:10.0 | Today we're speaking to these two Ukrainian men. |
| 0:13.2 | I feel sorry about it and I feel guilty about it when you're living in Ukraine at this moment. |
| 0:19.2 | I felt like I'm betraying people that are staying. |
| 0:22.6 | People should have a choice if you want to go to army if you want to fight you can fight if you don't want to go army you shouldn't fight. |
| 0:29.8 | Their names are TEM and OLELeary and they both fled Ukraine in the months and years following the full-scale invasion to avoid the draft. |
| 0:39.4 | And it's a serious issue in Ukraine right now. It's not a massive population, certainly |
| 0:45.0 | compared to the Russian population. There are exhausted members of the |
| 0:49.3 | armed forces on the front line who barely get a break and they brought in these new |
| 0:54.2 | mobilization laws in May they need people to fight to keep this war going and finding |
| 0:59.6 | them is proving really difficult. This is Ukraine cast. |
| 1:03.2 | Ukraine cast from BBC News. |
| 1:06.2 | Evil cannot be trusted. Ask pre-Gosion. |
| 1:09.8 | You are not dealing with a politician politician but with a bloody monster. |
| 1:14.4 | Is there a need for a serious opponent? |
| 1:17.0 | Why? |
| 1:18.0 | Ukraine is unbroken, unbound and unconquer. |
| 1:21.0 | It's not just about Ukraine, it's about the whole future of Europe. |
| 1:24.1 | I don't understand what this war is for. |
| 1:28.9 | Hello, this is Victoria Darbyshire in the Ukraine-Cast studio. |
| 1:32.0 | And this is Vitala Shubchenko, also in the Ukraine Cast studio. And this is Vittalet Shubchenko, also in the Ukraine Cast studio. |
... |
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