Just before this BBC podcast gets underway, here's something you may not know.

My name's Linda Davies and I Commission Podcasts for BBC Sounds.

As you'd expect, at the BBC we make podcasts of the very highest quality featuring the most knowledgeable experts and genuinely engaging voices.

What you may not know is that the BBC makes podcasts about all kinds of things like pop stars,

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Hello and

with the With Russia's invasion of Ukraine dominating the news headlines, today we go back to 2014

when Russia annexed the Ukrainian province of Crimea.

Russia's takeover of the strategic peninsula on the shores of the Black Sea was widely

condemned by Western countries.

They imposed sanctions and it led to what was then the worst crisis in East-West relations

since the end of the Cold War.

One Crimean woman has been telling me what it was like to live through. Early 2014 and in Ukraine's capital Kyiv protesters for months have been demanding that Ukraine move politically

towards the European Union and away from Russia.

By February, dozens of protesters have been killed, and Ukraine's pro-Russian president had fled.

I remember this feeling that it's not here so it's okay. Whatever they are doing there, it's their business.

For Crimeans like Sarah, this is not her real name, those dramatic events hundreds of

kilometers away in Kiev felt like a different world.

There were demonstrations in Crimea in support of the protests, but many Crimeans had voted

for that pro-M Moscow president, Victor Yenakovic, who the protesters in Kyiv had forced out.

...