The Ukrainian opera singer nearly silenced by a bullet

Lives Less Ordinary

BBC

Society & Culture, Documentary, Personal Journals

4.6 • 814 Ratings

🗓️ 13 March 2023

⏱️ 40 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Sergiy Ivanchuk dreamed of stardom, before he was shot in the chest by Russian soldiers.

He was a volunteer helping refugees escape Eastern Ukraine during the early days of the 2022 invasion, when his car was attacked. He was hit in the legs, hand and back, and he was lucky to survive a punctured lung. When Sergiy woke up in hospital, he could barely talk, let alone sing, but he refused to give up his ambitions of being a world famous baritone.

Presenter: Asya Fouks Producer: Harry Graham Editor: Andrea Kennedy Sound design: Joel Cox

Transcript

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0:00.0	On a winter's night in 1974, a crime took place that would obsess the nation.
0:06.9	It was an extraordinary news story.
0:09.1	The story of an aristocrat, Lord Lucan, who's said to have killed the family Nanny,
0:13.7	mistaking her for his wife, then somehow just disappeared.
0:18.0	One of the great mysteries in English criminal history.
0:20.7	We're still looking for Lucan. It's honestly one of the most powerful stories of my lifetime.
0:25.9	I'm Alex von Tundselman. This is The Lucan Obsession. Listen on BBC Sounds.
0:35.4	You know, it's very strange. You go to Harcichael. You walk in Harkev at night.
0:41.7	It's very scary. It's dark.
0:44.3	There are no street lamps.
0:46.0	No one on the streets.
0:47.6	And you're aware that Russian servicemen could be behind any corner.
0:52.2	You can be shot dead at any moment.
0:55.2	You have to fight your fear
0:56.4	because it won't be any better for you
0:58.3	if you start panicking.
1:03.9	You are constantly balancing
1:05.6	on such a thin wire,
1:07.4	especially when it is getting dark.
1:14.9	When it's getting dark. This was eastern Ukraine, March 22, two weeks after the Russian invasion.
1:22.0	Before the war, Sergi had been an opera singer.
1:25.1	Now, opera, along with the rest of civilian life, had been put on indefinite pause.
	...

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