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From Our Own Correspondent

Fear and Fatalism in Kiev

From Our Own Correspondent

BBC

News, News Commentary

4.41.3K Ratings

🗓️ 29 January 2022

⏱️ 29 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

More than a hundred and twenty thousand Russian troops are sitting on Ukraine’s border, with talks still underway to reduce tensions, but no sign of success so far. Yet Ukraine has already experienced Russia's invasion of Crimea, and Russian backed troops taking over an eastern region of the country. When James Waterhouse arrived to take up his new post as Kiev Correspondent, he found local people sometimes fearful, but also rather stoical in the face of this threat. The face-off between Ukraine and Russia has in turn provoked division, over how the US and Europe should respond if Russian troops were to cross the border and invade. This debate is particularly acute in Germany, which has traditionally avoided getting involved in conflicts abroad. As Jenny Hill explains, that is in part because of the country's history, and specifically the Second World War. The death toll Germany inflicted on both Ukraine and Russia means some in the country argue that they should not intervene there now. Children from Romania continue to be coerced into a life of prostitution - hundreds every year, it seems. Many of the adult prostitutes on the country’s streets started out when they were girls, and many of these are then trafficked abroad. Jean Mackenzie has found that even children from responsible and loving homes are not protected from those determined to make money out of them. It was a mark of pride for Cameroon, when the country was chosen to host football’s Africa Cup of Nations. Some did have doubts, given that Cameroon still has a major insurgency going on, led by people in the English-speaking part of the country who want to secede. Yet when disaster befell the tournament, it was not of a military kind, but fans being crushed as they tried to get into a stadium in Cameroon’s capital. Nick Cavell was watching the match that day. Politics in Senegal is a lively affair. When the country held local elections last week, one mayoral candidate in the capital had previously been jailed for corruption, and an opposition candidate had been arrested on a rape charge. Meanwhile, the country’s previous president has accused the current president of coming from a cannibal family, with parents who ate babies. However, it is not only the candidates who make for colourful characters. When Lucinda Rouse rented a room in the Senegalese capital, Dakar, she found herself living above the home of a community leader with considerable political influence.

Transcript

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0:00.0

BBC Sounds, Music, Radio, Podcasts.

0:05.0

Good morning.

0:06.0

Today we have different perspectives on the crisis in Ukraine.

0:10.0

Our newly arrived correspondent in Kiev shares his initial impressions of a country under threat.

0:17.0

Meanwhile our correspondent in Berlin ponders what Germany will do if Russian troops cross the border.

0:24.0

Old history it seems is very much a present day concern.

0:29.0

We hear about Romanian women coerced into prostitution many recruited while they're still children.

0:37.0

He went to Cameroon to cover a football tournament, but the BBC's man on the spot found himself reporting on a stadium crush which left eight people dead.

0:48.0

And we're in Senegal where our correspondent's landlord, with a posh of flashy clothing, turned out to be a rather influential figure.

0:58.0

First foreign correspondents are often thought of as those who want to be at the centre of the action attracted perhaps to gunfire.

1:07.0

But when James Waterhouse supplied to be the BBC's reporter in Kiev last year he couldn't have known that he would find himself at the heart of what is fast becoming the world's biggest crisis.

1:19.0

Of course Ukraine has been in the news over the past few years.

1:23.0

In 2014 Russia occupied the Crimea region and then Russian backed separatists took over an area in the east of the country.

1:32.0

Now more than 120,000 Russian troops are sitting on Ukraine's border.

1:38.0

And if you caught last Thursday's programme you'll have heard the Russian view of this, how many of them blame NATO and the West for stoking tensions.

1:47.0

So what did James Waterhouse hear when he arrived in Ukraine to take up his new post?

1:53.0

To most people the idea of a more powerful neighbouring country interfering with the way yours is run is a distressing one.

2:00.0

So to the notion of constant cyber attacks or relentless misinformation campaigns.

2:06.0

So what did I expect before I landed in Kiev two weeks ago?

2:11.0

A capital of a country which had seen 14,000 of its people die in eight years of fighting.

2:17.0

Had lost a sizable chunk of territory to that more powerful neighbour.

2:21.0

Had watched more than 100,000 Russian troops form along its border.

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