Ukraine: Collaboration and Resistance

The Documentary Podcast

BBC

Society & Culture, Documentary, Personal Journals

4.3 • 2.6K Ratings

🗓️ 4 August 2022

⏱️ 28 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Ukrainian forces have launched a counteroffensive to retake Kherson, the largest city captured by Russia in this year's invasion. But the occupiers are redoubling their efforts to integrate the city and surrounding region into Russia - and they need the help of local collaborators. A few Ukrainians are eagerly serving the invaders. But many key workers - teachers, doctors and other state employees - are forced into a cruel choice. They must agree to work according to Russian rules, betraying their country - or else lose their jobs. Tim Whewell reports on life behind Russian lines in Kherson - and talks to some of those who've thrown in their lot with the occupiers, including the eccentric former journalist and fish inspector who's now deputy head of the region's Russian backed administration.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Some years ago, an adventurous young man from a gritty mining town in eastern Ukraine
0:10.5	lured off on an epic journey across Latin America, a journey in search of himself.
0:16.5	I bought a motorbike in Los Angeles and set off first from Mexico, a rich Colombia, then
0:28.3	Ecuador and Peru. I didn't stain hotels. I live in Huts with the Indians.
0:35.3	Kereel Stremelusuf was riding the trail of his lifelong hero, the international revolutionary
0:41.6	Ernesto Chagavara.
0:43.4	I want to be like this, a man with a capital M.
0:52.0	Stremelusuf likes to think big and his homeland Ukraine wasn't big enough for him.
0:58.3	His allegiance was to another country that no longer exists.
1:05.3	My homeland was the Soviet Union. I was born in 1976 in that vast country that was
1:11.0	like one big family.
1:15.0	Stremelusuf followed many esoteric causes. He said many brushes with the law. In normal
1:21.0	times, peace time, he probably have spent his whole life as a misfit, a minor trouble-maker,
1:27.5	fighting Ukraine. This is wartime and war has given Stremelusuf a chance to fulfill his
1:33.5	fantasies.
1:38.5	Now 45, his once-struggley hair, meet with Sean, Stremelusuf has become the public face of
1:45.0	Russia's occupation of Kershon. The only Ukrainian regional capital is captured since its
1:50.4	invasion in February. Ukraine has now launched a counter-offensive aiming to retake the city,
1:56.3	where the Kremlin is determined to make Kershon part of Russia. And this is the story
2:01.3	of how it's trying to do that with the help of a few eager collaborators like Keryl Stremelusuf
2:07.3	and many ordinary citizens forced into unbearable choices.
2:13.7	Either they have to betray their country, then they can feed their family, or they can
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from BBC, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of BBC and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.