Life as a mum in a war zone
Ukrainecast
BBC
4.7 • 1K Ratings
🗓️ 2 June 2023
⏱️ 29 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Yulia lives in Kyiv with her three-month-old baby and two young children who are five and eight. She describes how they shelter from Russian attacks in their bathroom and says she’s questioning whether to stay in the city where she has built her life, or leave to find somewhere safer in the west of the country.
The BBC Ukraine correspondent James Waterhouse updates us on the latest overnight attacks and explores the internal political tensions growing over a locked bomb shelter, a situation that proved fatal.
And surgery is hard enough without having to do it in a war zone. UK medic Shehan Hettiaratchy and Ukrainian surgeon Andriy Formanchuk explain how exchanging expertise is saving lives.
Today’s episode is presented by Victoria Derbyshire and Vitaly Shevchenko.
The producers were Clare Williamson, Madeleine Drury and Drew Hyndman. The technical producer was Hannah Montgomery. The series producer is Tim Walklate. The assistant editor is Alison Gee.
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
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | BBC sounds, music, radio, podcasts. |
| 0:05.0 | It's 464 days since Russia began its full-scale invasion of Ukraine. |
| 0:10.0 | And on Thursday, Ukraine celebrated Children's Day. |
| 0:14.0 | On the eve of this annual celebration, |
| 0:17.0 | President Zelensky appeared at a conference focusing on children |
| 0:20.0 | and read works from The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank. |
| 0:31.0 | The event was called an unfinished lullaby, |
| 0:35.0 | and, fittingly, it started with a traditionally Ukrainian lullaby, |
| 0:39.0 | called Oihodetson Kolovikhan, |
| 0:42.0 | or the dream passes by the windows. |
| 0:44.0 | The lullaby imagines dream and sleep as characters trying to find a place to rest. |
| 1:04.0 | They say they will rest where the home is warm and the child is small. |
| 1:08.0 | That's where we shall go and lull the child to sleep. |
| 1:12.0 | And the lullaby was performed by Laksandr Azaretsika of the band Kazka |
| 1:17.0 | in front of a harsh audience. |
| 1:31.0 | In 15 months of this war, |
| 1:34.0 | at least 483 children have been killed so far, |
| 1:38.0 | according to the Prosecutor General of Ukraine. |
| 1:40.0 | Of course, that number is expected to rise. |
| 1:43.0 | And it is just heartbreaking to say that children's day in Kiev actually began |
| 1:50.0 | with the death of a nine-year-old in another Russian attack. |
| 1:54.0 | And this mum and her five-year-old live nearby. |
... |
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