How are Ukrainians celebrating Christmas in wartime?
Ukrainecast
BBC
4.7 • 1K Ratings
🗓️ 24 December 2024
⏱️ 24 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
How do you celebrate Christmas while living under constant threat of your home being bombed, air raid sirens going off and while your friends and loved ones are fighting on the frontline?
Two people who’ve appeared regularly on Ukrainecast this year got together in a Kyiv restaurant to chat through their plans for the festive season and their hopes for the new year.
Vitali, a graduate in his 20s and Iryna, mother to baby Mira (who makes a special appearance), recorded a conversation about what it's like to celebrate the festive season in Ukraine, while the war rages on.
This episode was made by Danny Wittenberg. The producers were Anna Chornous and Diane Richardson. The technical producer was Dan Ehrlich. 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. |
| 0:04.9 | It's 1,035 days since Russia began its full-scale invasion of Ukraine. |
| 0:11.1 | Today, we're bringing together two Ukrainians whose stories were followed throughout 2024. |
| 0:17.2 | Vitali, a graduate in his 20s, and Irina, mother to baby Mira. |
| 0:22.4 | The two of them met up recently for the first time at a restaurant in Kiev. |
| 0:27.5 | And with the help of our BBC colleague Danny Wittenberg, they recorded a conversation |
| 0:32.3 | about what it's like to celebrate the festive season in Ukraine while the war rages on. |
| 0:43.0 | So how have you been? |
| 0:45.7 | Oh, as fine as okay as it can be due to all the circumstances. |
| 0:52.0 | We had just another series of explosions in Kiev this |
| 1:00.0 | morning actually. Were you and Mira okay during the morning time? The only anxious person in |
| 1:07.1 | our family is me. Mira is peacefully sleeping in her crib |
| 1:12.6 | during the explosions. |
| 1:14.5 | And Vowa as well, he gets accustomed to it. |
| 1:17.9 | I mean, something woke me up in the morning |
| 1:20.4 | when all had happened, and because I live |
| 1:23.1 | close to the Artem factory. |
| 1:27.2 | Can't imagine how loud it was. |
| 1:29.3 | Oh, God, it was just horrendous. |
| 1:32.3 | I mean, I woke up because of those explosions sounds like three or four of those explosions. |
| 1:39.3 | But then I went to bed because I had to wake up just a few hours later for the university exam. |
| 1:47.1 | Yes, unfortunately. |
... |
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