Fighting on two fronts

The Documentary Podcast

BBC

Society & Culture, Documentary, Personal Journals

4.3 • 2.6K Ratings

🗓️ 16 October 2025

⏱️ 27 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

More than a third of Ukraine’s scientific institutions have been damaged or destroyed by Russian bombing. Many scientists have either fled the country or are internally displaced, and that Ukraine’s National Academy of Sciences is trying to operate on half its pre-war budget. The funding may be reduced but the science still matters, even in wartime. Perhaps especially in wartime. It is something the country can be proud of. Climate change has no borders and Ukraine is making a key contribution to our understanding of the global warming crisis. We hear from the scientists of Ukraine’s National Antarctic Scientific Centre, torn between the frontlines of a prolonged national conflict whilst simultaneously attempting to arm the world with the latest research on a warming climate from the white wilderness of Antarctica.

Transcript

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0:00.0	BBC Sounds, music, radio, podcasts.
0:06.0	Science in Antarctica, science in general.
0:11.5	The future.
0:18.7	It's one of the side of the future that we are fighting for.
0:29.6	We need to survive.
0:32.6	We need to survive. I'm Harrison Lewis.
0:50.7	Not long ago. I was in Kiev, Ukraine.
0:55.1	This office was also destroyed during 2022.
0:59.5	There I met a group of remarkable people fighting on two fronts,
1:04.1	against the violence tearing through their country
1:06.5	and against another slower moving catastrophe.
1:10.5	Climate change.
1:11.7	Yvgen was not there. It was in 8 a.m.
1:14.5	Yvgen came at 9, and 9 already was all destroyed.
1:18.3	So, thanks God he was not here at 8 o'clock.
1:20.4	We was very happy. The National Antarctic Scientific Centre, or N-A-S-C, sits in the heart of Kiev,
1:40.1	at a busy crossroads where the noise of daily life drowns out any thoughts of war.
1:47.8	In many ways it's a symbol of something far larger, a country fighting to hold on to its future,
1:54.9	even as invaders push deeper into its land.
1:58.0	Against extraordinary odds, the centre has survived and not just survived,
2:03.9	but continue to play a vital role in global climate research. While bombs have fallen,
2:09.2	their scientists have kept working, tracking the changes in our planet and helping to protect
	...

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