meta_pixel
Tapesearch Logo
Log in
This Is Why

Ukraine War Diaries: EP37 - From a city under siege, a very Ukrainian Christmas story

This Is Why

Sky News

Daily News, News, News Commentary

4.0552 Ratings

🗓️ 17 December 2022

⏱️ 11 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Alone in his apartment in Kyiv, memories of Christmas past come flooding back to Ilyas. Can he find a way to escape the blitz-like conditions and be reunited with his wife and two sons in Poland?

OUR DIARISTS

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 December 2022, Ilyas is back living in the family apartment in Kyiv.

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. Many of Oksana’s closest friends have left the country to begin new lives in Europe. Some may never return. She’s continues to try and make a life there.

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.

EP37 diary entries were recorded using WhatsApp voice note.

From the producers of Sky News’ multi-award winning series – StoryCast.
Producer: Rob Mulhern
Editor: Paul Stanworth
Digital Promotion: David Chipakupaku

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

Pain in my hip.

0:02.0

I keep feeling dizzy.

0:04.9

I'm getting migraines more often.

0:09.6

There's another way to contact your GP practice

0:12.4

by simply sending your symptoms and requests

0:15.2

through their website or the NHS app.

0:18.2

We're delivering an NHS fit for the future.

0:21.7

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

0:24.3

Julia, how do you spell vertebrae?

0:27.0

Oh, just tight pain in the neck.

0:29.9

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

0:34.5

Fine, she'd say.

0:36.1

She clearly wasn't.

0:41.3

After 10 years in IT, she was on autopilot. Then she found this job, training up-and-coming tech wizas at the college, same skills but with

0:47.3

new people, new challenges.

0:49.3

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

0:52.3

Can't get a word in.

0:55.1

Give your skills new life.

0:56.6

Train others.

0:57.8

Search jobs in further education.

1:00.3

For more than two months, Russia have bombarded Kiev with missiles.

1:05.3

Now it's Christmas time and our Ukraine War Diarists continue to suffer blackouts and severe power and water shortages.

...

Please login to see the full transcript.

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

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

Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.