Welcome to Hard Talks Review of 2022 on the BBC World Service with me, Stephen Sacker.

In the course of the next half hour, you'll hear excerpts from some of our most powerful interviews

concerning matters of war and peace, human rights, in particular women's rights, freedom of expression,

and freedom of information.

When historians look back on 2022, they'll surely begin with a simple, grim observation.

This year saw the first all-out invasion of a European country since World War II.

As the year began, Vladimir Putin was preparing the biggest geopolitical

gamble of his life, transforming Russia's low-intensity military operations in Ukraine into a full-scale

assault, aimed at installing a Moscow-friendly regime in Kiev. As Putin massed his invasion force, Ukrainians pleaded with the West to act, to make the

Kremlin think again.

This was Ukraine's defense minister, Alexei Reznikov.

The main message, let's show to the Kremlin that you are seriously understand all threats,

and you can make this invasion very expensive for them,

and you can start with the sanctions on this moment, before, not after.

If they do not, will you regard that as a betrayal?

It will be very late because it will be a lot of blood and it will be a lot of refugees.

It will be disaster for the Europe because this war is not only east of Ukraine.

This war is going in east of Europe.

Russia's invasion was conducted on multiple fronts, columns of tanks and troops headed toward

Kiev itself. But Ukrainian resistance was fierce and well-planned. The Russians were pushed

back. They never took control of Kiev or Kharkiv, and as they retreated from towns like Butcher,

they left a trail of devastation, death, and evidence, evidence of alleged war crimes,

...