Ukraine’s first lady: We can cope with blackouts for two or three years
Ukrainecast
BBC
4.7 • 1K Ratings
🗓️ 25 November 2022
⏱️ 27 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Olena Zelenska says Ukrainians will endure the winter despite the cold and power cuts caused by Russian shelling. Ukraine’s first lady told the BBC’s Lyse Doucet that Ukraine is facing many challenges, but that a blackout is not the worst thing that can happen to them.
Also, one of the country’s richest businessmen, Vsevolod Kozhemyako, talks about his decision to fund a group of soldiers that has become known as the billionaire’s battalion. He’s also fighting alongside them on the battlefield.
Today’s episode is presented by Victoria Derbyshire and Vitaliy Shevchenko.
The producers were Arsenii Sokolov, Clare Williamson and Luke Radcliff. The technical coordinator was Mike Regaard. The assistant editor is Alison Gee and the editor is Jonathan Aspinwall.
Email Ukrainecast@bbc.co.uk with your questions and comments. You can also send us a message or voice note via WhatsApp, Signal or Telegram to +44 330 1239480
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | BBC Sounds, Music, Radio, Podcasts. |
| 0:04.8 | Hello, it's 275 days since Russia began its invasion of Ukraine, and we are hearing |
| 0:10.4 | some absolutely desperate stories of how people are trying to cope without power and without |
| 0:15.7 | water. Take Anton, he is 90, 90, he lives in a village called Tokareve, which is about |
| 0:25.3 | a seven-hour drive south from Kiev, in between Mikolayev and Zaparizha. Hardly anyone |
| 0:31.1 | is left in that village, he says. He is there with his wife, who's 85. She's been injured |
| 0:36.9 | by shelling. They are patching up holes in their windows, and they say they don't leave |
| 0:42.2 | their home anymore. |
| 0:43.7 | It's very hard, very. They bring candles, but they don't last long. |
| 0:55.1 | I spent the entire war alone with my wife here hiding in the basement. There was no |
| 1:00.4 | one else here. It's hard, but will endure perhaps things will get better. |
| 1:11.6 | We were promised wood and ovens, but we got nothing. If we get no ovens, then we'll |
| 1:18.0 | have to go and cut the trees ourselves and carry the wood on our shoulders, as much as |
| 1:24.2 | we physically can. For those with cars, it will be easier, but we have nothing like |
| 1:29.9 | that. I've worked my whole life, but I have nothing now. |
| 1:38.6 | Despite stories like this, Ukraine's first lady, Olena Zelenska, says people are prepared |
| 1:43.8 | to endure power cuts for years in order to win the war. And we have an interview with |
| 1:49.9 | her in today's episode of Ukrainecast. |
| 2:00.8 | I'm ordering the Ministry of Defence to put the strategic nuclear forces on special alert. |
| 2:06.1 | I could not imagine that I would find out that actually my home is bombed. |
| 2:10.8 | Putin is the aggression. He will never be able to cleanse the blood from his hands. |
| 2:18.5 | Hello, this is Victoria Darbyshire at home in London. |
... |
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