Why is Russia evacuating Kherson?
Ukrainecast
BBC
4.7 • 1K Ratings
🗓️ 19 October 2022
⏱️ 36 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Tens of thousands of civilians and Russian appointed officials are being moved out of the occupied city of Kherson, raising fears of what might happen next.
Belkis Wilke from Human Rights Watch spoke to dozens of civilians from the recently liberated town of Izyum. She tells Lucy and Vitaly how they described beatings, electric shocks, and waterboarding in the hands of Russian occupiers.
And, amidst reports that Iran is ramping up its military support to Russia by allegedly supplying it with drones, missiles and training, we discuss what may motivate it to do so with Alex Vatanka, director of Iran programme at the Middle East Institute at Washington DC.
Today’s Ukrainecast was presented by Lucy Hockings and Vitaly Shevchenko.
It was made by Ivana Davidovic, Luke Radcliffe and Arsenii Sokolov. The technical director was Emma Crowe. The series producer is Estelle Doyle 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 238 days since Russia began its invasion of Ukraine. |
| 0:10.4 | And would like to start today with some good news, which is arguably a rare thing on |
| 0:15.6 | this podcast. |
| 0:17.3 | Many of you will remember and may have been asking us about this, Alice and her mother |
| 0:23.9 | Victoria. |
| 0:24.9 | So Alice is a little girl from Mariupol and she first came to the world's attention |
| 0:31.0 | when she was filmed inside a bunker in, as of style, this huge steelworks in Mariupol. |
| 0:41.1 | And she was heard saying that she wanted to be evacuated. |
| 0:50.6 | Alice was only four and she was evacuated. |
| 0:55.1 | But then she was found all alone on a bus and it turns out that her mum, who is a medic |
| 1:00.4 | in the Ukrainian army, had been taken prisoner by the Russian forces. |
| 1:05.2 | Lots of effort was made to try and track down her grandmother, Svetlana, and she was found |
| 1:09.9 | and then she was reunited with Alice, together both of them moved to Poland. |
| 1:15.0 | But for four months, they had no news of Alice's mother Victoria, not just her whereabouts, |
| 1:23.5 | but even whether she was still alive. |
| 1:26.5 | And then, around two weeks ago, the week of Alice's fifth birthday, they received a phone |
| 1:32.9 | call from Victoria. |
| 1:36.3 | It was suddenly and we didn't expect that and we almost lost our hope. |
| 1:45.7 | She told me, Mom, I'm alive and I'm in a prison and we were very glad and happy to hear |
| 1:55.2 | her and to know that she's alive. |
| 1:58.5 | This telephone call lasted just for two minutes and she told, she loves her daughter so much. |
... |
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