The Ukrainians deported to Russia

From Our Own Correspondent

BBC

News, News Commentary

4.4 • 1.3K Ratings

🗓️ 2 June 2022

⏱️ 29 minutes

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Summary

Allegations have continued to emerge that Ukrainian civilians are being transported into Russia by occupying troops. Some have returned, with stories of being held in camps, and of being tortured. Jen Stout heard about one village near the city of Kharkiv where locals say that 90 people were 'tricked' into boarding lorries and then taken away. The changing borders of Poland mean that families in some regions have lived in different countries over the years, without ever having to move home. Monica Whitlock visited a village where these geographical shifts mean locals speak multiple languages, and sometimes go by multiple names. The conflict in Ukraine has drawn attention to how vulnerable supply lines can be, with grain, gas and sunflower oil among the exports now threatened. If our cupboards and fridges are kept fully stocked, that is be down to the great flotillas of lorries which criss-cross Europe’s borders. Horatio Clare joined a couple of long-distance drivers, to get a taste of their life on the road. The Hungarian composer, Béla Bartók, drew inspiration from folk music, and particularly the blended influences coming from his own country and Romania. He was no armchair anthropologist, but travelled round rural areas to hear the music played in local villages. More than a hundred years later, Nick Thorpe retraces one of his journeys. When Germany was split after World War Two, Bonn was the unexpected pick to become capital of the new West Germany. But four decades later, the Berlin Wall fell and Berlin resumed its place as Germany’s capital, while Bonn was relegated to being a more provincial place. When Rob Crossan recently visited Bonn, he found some locals displaying a somewhat volatile temperament - might this be connected to their city's diminished prestige?

Transcript

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0:00.0	BBC Sounds, Music, Radio, Podcasts
0:05.1	Good morning. We focus on Europe today. A continent where borders have once again become
0:11.3	an issue. A Correspondent travels to an area of Poland where borders have changed so often,
0:18.0	locals speak multiple languages and sometimes go by several different names. We're on the
0:24.0	road with the truckers who criss-cross borders every day, hearing why you ought to bash
0:29.2	the bubbles from your fuel tank and the places where you definitely don't want to stop for a shower.
0:36.3	The Hungarian composer, Bella Bartok, was inspired by folk music, which knew no borders,
0:42.4	a modern-day fan follows in his footsteps. And we hear what happened to the city of Bonn
0:48.8	after the border between West and East Germany vanished, how this one-time capital was
0:54.3	knocked off its perch. First, it's the border between Ukraine and Russia, which is most
1:00.7	obviously an issue right now. Russia apparently doesn't think there should be a border,
1:06.4	claiming Ukrainian territory as its own. And in areas Russian troops have occupied it's been alleged
1:12.9	that some local people have effectively been kidnapped, forcibly transported across the border
1:19.2	into Russia itself. Jen stout heard stories about this happening in one place in the country's
1:25.7	northeast, which Ukraine has now retaken. She went to investigate. On the edge of the village of
1:32.9	Vylhevka, half an hour's drive from Kharkiv, a winding dirt road leads north, the dense green
1:39.4	growth of early spring creating a tunnel of trees on either side. It was to this spot that the
1:46.3	residents of the small, sleepy little village were herded by occupying Russian soldiers at the end
1:52.0	of March. Ukrainian troops were gaining ground nearby, and the Russians went door-to-door,
1:58.0	ordering people to leave, temporarily, because they said their own side was about to conduct an
2:04.7	air strike. Shelling had been a feature of life in this region since the invasion began,
2:10.4	but the soldiers were apparently specific. They would hit the village in 15 minutes.
	...

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