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Ukrainecast

The Snake Island medic

Ukrainecast

BBC

News Commentary, News

4.71K Ratings

🗓️ 6 July 2022

⏱️ 33 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

A Ukrainian medic, Olexander, based on Snake Island was captured on the first day of the war. Almost five months later, his mother and fiancée break their silence to make a plea for information on his wellbeing.

The sole survivor of a Russian shooting, who lived by playing dead, has been speaking to Fergal Keane about what happened.

And the BBC’s Olga Ivshina explains how Russia has been sending so-called volunteers to fight in Ukraine - and why for so many of them, this will be a one-way ticket.

The series producer is Estelle Doyle. The producers are Phil Marzouk, Arsenii Sokolov and Louise Hidalgo. The technical producer is Emma Crowe. And 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 to +44 0330 1239480.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

BBC sounds, music, radio, podcasts.

0:04.7

It's 133 days since Russia began its invasion of Ukraine.

0:10.2

And some of you have been asking for an update on Victoria.

0:14.0

She had one of the most powerful, most heartbreaking stories we've heard on our podcast.

0:19.0

As you remember, this young Ukrainian woman saw her husband and her 12-year-old daughter die

0:27.2

in front of her eyes after their car came under shelling.

0:31.2

Then she was held captive, together with her small child in a basement for 24 days.

0:40.4

It was dark, it was dusty, there was no air or windows.

0:45.2

At first, I only slept on two chairs.

0:48.8

The conditions were so staffy, so crowded that the temperature quickly rose.

0:55.4

We had, in our midst, people over 80 years old who were really, really poorly.

1:02.2

It was suffocating from lack of oxygen.

1:06.0

And what we did, we were with a piece of coal writing the names and the dates of death

1:13.0

of those who died, 12 people in total had died in that cellar.

1:18.4

Victoria managed eventually to make it to Poland and there we spoke to her.

1:23.8

She told us she was waiting for a visa to come to the United Kingdom.

1:28.1

So now we can let you know, her brother did receive a visa and we'll pick that up in

1:33.5

Britain in the next few days.

1:36.8

But Victoria, on the other hand, still hasn't heard anything about her visa and it's been

1:44.0

69 days.

1:46.5

This is Ukraine, cast.

1:48.3

Ukraine, cast, from this news.

...

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