Woman, Mother, Fighter: The Ukrainian MP taking on Putin
The Story
The Times
3.9 • 1.6K Ratings
🗓️ 8 March 2023
⏱️ 37 minutes
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Summary
As the war in Ukraine enters its second year, one woman is determined that the world doesn't lose interest. To mark International Women's Day we meet Lesia Vasylenko, the Ukrainian MP who travels the globe drumming up military support for Ukraine, using every media platform available to fight Putin.
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Guest: Lesia Vasylenko, Ukrainian MP.
Host: Manveen Rana.
Clips: BBC News, Radio Free Europe, Hromadske, CNN, CBS, India Ahead, Sky Australia, News Nation.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | To be honest, I feel safer almost being back home despite the aerates and despite the fact |
| 0:18.2 | that the whole of Ukraine remains a wall zone. It's home and in Ukraine we have the |
| 0:24.3 | saying that even your own walls have a healing power. |
| 0:32.3 | The Ukrainian MP, Lesia Vasilenko, is that opposite me? In a studio at the time's offices in London. |
| 0:41.6 | She's travelled for over 24 hours to get here from Kiev, but her thoughts are clearly still there. |
| 0:50.0 | In the city, she calls home. It feels completely different being there. It feels empowering. |
| 0:56.3 | It feels right. I enjoy every secondized band in Kiev. It's an amazing city which just shows resilience. |
| 1:10.0 | Both the city and the Ukrainian people have had to show extraordinary resilience over the past year. |
| 1:17.3 | As their lives have been hijacked by war. The worst thing is that you start getting used to the war sounds. |
| 1:31.1 | So when the aerate sirens goes off, you no longer feel any alarm or anxiety. No human being ever should be |
| 1:40.5 | getting used to living in war. |
| 1:52.4 | Lesia refuses to let her children grow up expecting their home to be a wall zone. |
| 1:59.9 | She's travelled around the world, making sure that governments don't forget the plight of the |
| 2:05.6 | Ukrainian people. Joining us now from Kiev is Lesia Vasilenko. |
| 2:11.1 | Lesia Vasilenko, thank you so much indeed for your time. |
| 2:13.2 | Lesia, thank you for joining us and speaking to India ahead. |
| 2:16.7 | Lesia Vasilenko, first of all, thank you so much for being with us. |
| 2:24.0 | My skills are not military skills, but I think I have quite okay communication skills. |
| 2:32.5 | My friends joke even now that in those first couple of weeks you were just a radio transmission point. |
| 2:45.5 | You're listening to stories of our times from the times and the Sunday times. |
| 2:50.1 | I'm Manvin Rana. Today, come with the hour, come with the woman. |
| 2:55.6 | On International Women's Day, we hear from Lesia Vasilenko. |
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