Why are Ukrainian orphans ending up in Russia?
Ukrainecast
BBC
4.7 • 1K Ratings
🗓️ 12 October 2022
⏱️ 33 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
The Ukrainian authorities says they believe thousands of the country’s orphans have been taken to Russia for adoption. The BBC Russian service’s Nina Nazarova investigates their claims and speaks to a Russian woman who shares her mixed feelings about adopting a child from Ukraine.
Vitaly and Victoria speak to Gleb Irisov, a former Russia soldier who served under Russia’s new army commander, Sergey Surovikin. He explains why Surovikin was given the nickname Armageddon.
This episode was presented by Victoria Derbyshire and Vitaly Shevchenko. The series producer is Estelle Doyle. The producers are Ivana Davidovic, Arsenii Sokolov and Luke Radcliff. The planning producer is Louise Hidalgo. The technical producer, Michael Regaard. The assistant editor, 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 |
| 0:04.9 | Hello, it's 231 days since Russia began its invasion of Ukraine. Do you remember Vitaly? |
| 0:12.0 | Certainly in the early weeks of the war, we talked quite a lot on Ukrainecast about |
| 0:16.9 | Ukrainians being forcibly taken to Russia and in some cases never heard from again. |
| 0:22.8 | Today on the podcast we're going to hear for the first time from a Russian mum who has adopted |
| 0:28.8 | a Ukrainian child. I look at him and see that he is very upset. He was very worried because he |
| 0:40.6 | had friends at the orphanage. He really did not want to leave them. She was doing it, |
| 0:46.0 | it would seem from the goodness of her heart because she's fostered many other children, |
| 0:50.7 | but nonetheless it's really disturbing isn't it? It's very disturbing and also we're going to hear |
| 0:56.4 | about a Russian official who said that she has adopted a Ukrainian child as well. |
| 1:02.7 | This is Ukrainecast. Ukrainecast from BBC News. |
| 1:08.7 | The question for us now is to be or not to be. I'm ordering the Ministry of Defence |
| 1:14.8 | to put the strategic nuclear forces on special alert. I could not imagine that I would find |
| 1:21.3 | actually my home is born. He will never be able to cleanse the blood from his hands. |
| 1:30.4 | Hello, this is Victoria Darbyshire in the Ukrainecast studio. |
| 1:33.6 | And this is Vitaly Shobchenko, BBC Monitoring's Russia Editor, also in the studio in London. |
| 1:40.2 | On Mondays you know Russia launched the biggest wave of airstrike since its invasion of Ukraine |
| 1:45.5 | on February the 24th for the first time central parts of the capital and other major cities were |
| 1:50.8 | targeted almost simultaneously. And this happened shortly after the general Sergei Suraviken was |
| 1:58.5 | appointed as commander of the Russian special military operation in Ukraine. Sergei Suraviken has a |
| 2:06.8 | bit of a reputation for brutality which he showed in Syria earlier. |
| 2:14.5 | And we have a chance to talk to someone who served there under his command. |
... |
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