Ukraine War Diaries: EP45 – Zelenskyy the great, loving power and ‘the smell of Spring’ (Feb 13-17)
This Is Why
Sky News
4.0 • 552 Ratings
🗓️ 18 February 2023
⏱️ 14 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Oksana is happy to have electricity this week and is looking forward to Spring and a trip to Europe, where she’ll be reunited with her best friend after many months apart
And her husband Seva, a military volunteer, has returned from eastern Ukraine and reflects on how he has gotten used to the Russian missile bombardment, nearly a year on since the invasion.
OUR DIARISTS
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.
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 February 2023, Ilyas is back living in the family apartment in Kyiv.
Seva, 41, 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.
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.
EP67 diary entries were recorded using WhatsApp voice note.
From the producers of Sky News’ multi-award winning series – StoryCast.
Producers: Rob Mulhern and Annie Joyce
Editing: Paul Stanworth
Archive: Simon Windsor
Digital: David Chipakupaku
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | A safe trip begins with TRIP. |
| 0:02.0 | Take a road trip with your family, get there safely. |
| 0:06.0 | Do your trip checks. |
| 0:08.0 | T, drop up on island fuel, |
| 0:10.0 | R, rest every two hours to. |
| 0:13.0 | I inspect your pressure and tread. |
| 0:16.0 | P, preparing for the weather ahead. |
| 0:18.0 | A safe trip begins with TRIP. Ohis, that means. A safe trip begins with TRIP. |
| 0:21.6 | Oh yes. |
| 0:22.6 | A safe trip begins with TRIENDS |
| 0:24.6 | Think, do the four trip checks before every long journey, National Highways. |
| 0:29.6 | You know, when Helen used to get home from work, I'd ask, how are you? |
| 0:33.6 | Fine, she'd say. |
| 0:35.6 | She clearly wasn't. After 10 years in IT, she was on autopilot. Then she found |
| 0:42.3 | this job, training up-and-coming tech wizas at the college, same skills but with new people, new challenges. |
| 0:49.8 | Now when she gets back, I get the full debrief. Can't get a word in. |
| 0:55.0 | Give your skills new life. Train others. Search jobs in further education. |
| 1:01.1 | Through the war in Ukraine, there are fears that Russia's long expected major offensive is now underway. |
| 1:07.2 | The news came last weekend just before a multi-million pound international package of support |
| 1:13.0 | for Ukraine was agreed as NATO countries met on February the 14th, Valentine's Day. |
| 1:21.3 | The conflict in Ukraine has become a devastating war of attrition, where the big guns are king. |
| 1:27.5 | When it comes to artillery, we need ammunition, we need spare parts, we need maintenance, |
... |
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.