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This Is Why

Ukraine War Diaries: EP22 - A nuclear ransom, road trips & the real me! (Aug 29 – 2 Sept)

This Is Why

Sky News

News Commentary, Daily News, News

4.0552 Ratings

🗓️ 3 September 2022

⏱️ 13 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Recording while on assignment for the Ukrainian army, Seva shares conversations with soldiers and friends with knowledge of the threat to the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant.
In Kyiv, Oksana prepares for another adventure.
And estranged from his family once again, Ilyas retreats into the memories from his last visit to Poland.

BACKGROUND

Seva, 40, is a company CEO and husband to Oksana. Before the war, he travelled across Europe for business. Now, he makes regular supply drops of medical aid and rations to Ukrainian troops on the front line in Eastern Ukraine. He’s originally from a small village near Dnipro.

Oksana, 35, works in overseas education. She lives with her husband, Seva, in an apartment complex in central Kyiv and has remained in the Ukrainian capital since the war started.
Many of Oksana’s closest friends have left the country to begin new lives in Europe. Some may never return. She’s determined to stay.

Ilyas is an IT specialist and married father who fled from Kyiv to Lviv shortly after the war started. His wife Natalia, and two young sons are taking refuge in Poland.
As of August 2022, Ilyas is back living in the family apartment in Kyiv and working, in part, for the Ukrainian government on various projects.

Ukraine War Diaries uses first-person audio, recorded on the ground in Ukraine, to give an intimate day-to-day perspective of life in a war zone.

EP22 diary entries were recorded using WhatsApp voice note.

From the producers of Sky News’ multi-award winning series – StoryCast.

Producer Rob Mulhern
Editing Dave Terris
Digital Promotion David Chipakupaku

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

You know, when Helen used to get home from work, I'd ask, how are you?

0:04.0

Fine, she'd say.

0:06.0

She clearly wasn't.

0:07.0

After 10 years in IT, she was on autopilot.

0:11.0

Then she found this job, training up-and-coming tech wizas at the college,

0:15.0

same skills but with new people, new challenges.

0:19.0

Now when she gets back, I get the full debrief.

0:23.2

Can't get a word in.

0:24.9

Give your skills new life.

0:26.5

Train others.

0:27.7

Search jobs in further education.

0:30.1

Pain in my hip.

0:32.4

I keep feeling dizzy.

0:35.0

I'm getting migraines more often.

0:39.6

There's another way to contact your GP practice by simply sending your symptoms and requests

0:45.2

through their website or the NHS app. We're delivering an NHS fit for the future.

0:51.7

Tap it, type it and we'll take care of it.

0:56.8

Julia, how do you spell vertebrae?

0:58.6

Oh, just tight pain in the neck.

1:09.5

Hi everyone, this is Céva from Kiev. This week I got permission to cross the border because I will pick up a car, some kind of SUV for a guy,

1:18.6

I will bring it from Europe to the front line.

1:22.6

And now all our thoughts, most of our thoughts are about the Parisian nuclear power plant and what is happening over there.

...

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