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Ukrainecast

Roman's story

Ukrainecast

BBC

News Commentary, News

4.71K Ratings

🗓️ 21 March 2022

⏱️ 33 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

As hundreds of thousands of civilians flee Mariupol as it lies in ruins, the world looks on in shock as the Russian advance into Ukraine continues.

We hear from Roman Kruglyakov, a resident of Mariupol who fled to a nearby village at the beginning of the war. He tells us how he’s been travelling to and from the city in his car to get family members and whoever he can out of the city, detailing the horrific conditions that those left behind have to live with.

As president Zelensky makes a speech to Israel’s Knesset, he draws comparisons between Russia now and the actions of the Nazis in the Holocaust, BBC security correspondent Frank Garner tells us about the escalation in Russian aggression and the warning their destruction of Mariupol sends to other Ukrainian cities.

But as the devastation continues we hear more stories of those who got out, including the little girl who was filmed singing Let It Go from Frozen in a Kyiv bunker. She and her family have found safety in Poland where she took to a much larger stage in support of Ukraine…

This episode of Ukrainecast was made by Estelle Doyle with Chris Flynn, Michele Theil and Phil Marzouk. The studio director was Emma Crowe. The editor was Jonathan Aspinwall.

Transcript

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0:00.0

BBC Sounds, Music, Radio, Podcasts.

0:04.9

It's 26 days since Russian troops invaded Ukraine.

0:09.7

You know I hope that each day we have been trying to speak to someone in Mariapol and

0:14.2

how it's been impossible because anyone who is left in that city on the southeast coast

0:19.2

of Ukraine is hiding underground, without food, without water, without electricity.

0:27.2

We know it's been bombed and bombed and bombed.

0:31.2

We know Russian troops are completely surrounding it, yet it hasn't surrendered.

0:37.6

Some people are now beginning to escape.

0:40.5

It's dangerous, it's traumatic.

0:43.4

Not everyone makes it.

0:45.6

But today on Ukrainecast, we speak to one man who left Mariapol just before the war began,

0:51.8

and he's been going back, time and again, to try and rescue family and friends.

0:57.4

He's called Roman, and you will hear his extraordinary testimony on this episode of Ukrainecast.

1:05.6

Ukrainecast, from these things.

1:08.6

The question for us now is to be or not to be.

1:13.2

I'm ordering the Ministry of Defence to put the strategic nuclear forces on special alert.

1:18.6

I could not imagine that I would find out that actually my home is bombed.

1:23.5

Putin is the aggression.

1:25.5

He will never be able to cleanse the blood from his hands.

1:31.0

Hello, this is Victoria from Home in London.

1:34.2

And this is Gabriel in the studio in your broadcasting house.

1:36.9

And I'm Vitaly also in the studio in London.

...

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