Ukraine War Diaries

Sky News’ Yalda Hakim and NBC’s Richard Engel have covered world events for years. Now, they team up for a new podcast to share their experiences from the frontline.     They debrief from global flashpoints and discuss their encounters with the biggest decision makers. They’ll also be joined by some of those key players to help make sense of world events.   From conflict in the Middle East, to the...

In an extended episode to mark one year since the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Ilyas, Oksana and Seva come together for the first time as a group, to share just some of what impacted them most in the last 12 months and to consider what the future holds? 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...

Ilyas praises Ukraine’s leader after Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s UK visit and is grateful his wife and children, in Poland, don’t have to experience life in the middle of a warzone. 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 retur...

Military volunteer Seva learns about comrades who suffered horrific deaths when he returns to Bakhmut in eastern Ukraine. In Kyiv, answering a displaced mother’s call for help leads to an inspiring phone conversation for Oksana. And Ilyas undertakes an anxious journey hundreds of kilometres across Ukraine to buy a car for his family. WARNING: Seva’s diary contains graphic references detailing deat...

Now more than half-way through the winter, and more than 11 months since his family fled the country, Ilyas makes peace with the realisation that his eldest son is successfully assimilating into life in Poland, a re-location forced upon his family by the Russian invasion. In Kyiv, conversations with his comrades on the front line forces Seva to yet again match the odds of mounting Russian pressure...

Returning from assignment, Seva speaks with comrades in the eastern city of Bakhmut who are in desperate need of more advanced weaponry but happy to be alive. In Kyiv, Ilyas turns his birthday into a military fundraising exercise. And as Ukraine pleads to the West for more heavy weapons, the story of displacement continues as Oksana supports the arrival of more refugees into Kyiv. OUR DIARISTS Sev...

Seva has a difficult conversation with his sister after a Russian ballistic missile targets her Dnipro neighbourhood, killing 45 people and injuring dozens more. In Kyiv, Oksana shares some of the stories that have penetrated the soul of the nation and reflects on how the attack is impacting the Ukrainian psyche. Meanwhile, a conversation between Ilyas and his grandmother - who grew up in the afte...

As fighting rages in the east of the country and against the backdrop of mounting casualties in the mining town of Soledar, Oksana finds some unexpected respite at a Kyiv comedy night. Meanwhile, in an basement gym, Ilyas finds a world removed from war, until the building is plunged into darkness. OUR DIARISTS Oksana, 35, works in overseas education. She lives with her husband, Seva, in an apartme...

In Kyiv, making use of one of the cities bomb-proofed theatres, Oksana books a comedy night for military volunteer husband Seva. In one of the capital’s restaurants, Seva begins the new year in the company of army comrades who extend an emotional gesture of brotherhood in the form of a knife. And after saying farewell to his family, Ilyas transports an old car from Poland ear-marked for frontline...

Against the backdrop of a Kyiv still under siege, Oksana reflects on magical Christmas memories from childhood until a drone attack brings her back to reality with a jolt. Meanwhile Seva shares the Christmas reality of comrades who continue to fight through the festive period. And Ilyas, looks to the New Year with hope. OUR DIARISTS Ilyas is an IT specialist and married father who fled from Kyiv t...

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, I...

Having left Kyiv on the day of a devastating Russian air attack in October, Oksana makes an emotional return. Ilyas, illustrates how he - and other Ukrainians - are using their smart phones to stay one step ahead of enemy bombing raids. And Seva marks a day of military celebration. OUR DIARISTS   Ilyas is an IT specialist and married father who fled from Kyiv to Lviv shortly after the war started....

Under siege in Kyiv, Ilyas endures his longest blackout. Military volunteer, Seva, sources chainsaws for comrades in the east and in her mind, Oksana visits the rooftop of her apartment block to offer a god-like view of a Ukrainian capital under siege.   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 y...

In the dark of Kyiv, Ilyas fears for the under-fire Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, knowing how the 1986 Chernobyl disaster continues to impact lives in Ukraine to this day. With new orders, military volunteer Seva, prepares to go on assignment in southern Ukraine, but not before an unexpected meeting with two soldiers involved in the recent liberation of Kherson. And feeling helpless overseas,...

On the road in freezing temperatures, military volunteer Seva, reflects on Russia’s latest mass attack on the Ukrainian energy network. And looking out across a darkened Kyiv - after a Russian missile knocks out the power in his apartment block - the ramifications of winter become very real for Ilyas, but so too enemy soldiers. OUR DIARISTS Ilyas is an IT specialist and married father who fled fro...

In Kyiv, a sudden restaurant blackout forces Ilyas to consider the reality of winter in a city without power and increasingly isolated.  Injured by an anti-tank grenade, Seva accompanies a close friend to one of Kyiv’s trauma units.  Meanwhile, against the backdrop of conversations about a future evacuation, Oksana readies to return again to the Ukrainian capital. OUR DIARISTS Ilyas is an IT speci...

From his apartment in Kyiv, Ilyas watches and listens as Ukrainian air defence armoury targets yet another onslaught of Russian missiles. Meanwhile, military volunteer, Seva, sets off on a lone assignment to the frontlines in Donetsk where his thinking is challenged by an embattled tank battalion. OUR DIARISTS Ilyas is an IT specialist and married father who fled from Kyiv to Lviv shortly after th...

From the window of his apartment in Kyiv, Ilyas witnesses a drone strike that results in the death of a pregnant woman and her husband. On military assignment in western Ukraine, Seva’s thoughts turn to his father who is about to undergo major surgery in a hospital within the compass of continued Russian strikes. Meanwhile Oksana readies to return to a Kyiv that looks set to be plunged further int...

After escaping Russia’s single biggest one-day attack on Kyiv, Oksana catches her breath in Madrid, where she tries to second guess what Vladimir Putin’s forces are going to do next? Meanwhile, recording in the basement of his Kyiv apartment block during an air-raid, Ilyas outlines what he - and many Ukrainians - are being told in respect of a nuclear attack. OUR DIARISTS Oksana, 35, works in over...

In Kiev, Ilyas watches in horror as Russian rockets rain down on his city— the deadliest attack on the Ukrainian capital since the beginning of the war. Having left for Poland just hours before, Oksana escapes the attack, only to find her exit route to Warsaw targeted by more enemy missiles. Helpless, and on military assignment in Ireland, Seva takes stock of what’s to come. And with the dust now...

This update was recorded in the hours after fresh strikes targeting ‘critical infrastructure’ in Kyiv and across Ukraine. Ilyas Verdiev lives in the city and recorded what he seen from his apartment before having to return to a basement shelter for the first time since June. President Putin has said the Ukraine-wide strikes were in retaliation for the weekend attack on a bridge that linked Russia...

Recording on assignment, military volunteer Seva weighs the cost of fallen colleagues against Ukraine’s greater ambition to liberate the entire country. In Kyiv, Oksana expresses her horror at billionaire Elon Musk’s controversial peace plan - which involved getting Twitter followers to vote on possible outcomes — and at a world failing to grasp the threat of an apocalyptic conflict.  Meanwhile, I...

In Kyiv, spooked by the threat of nuclear attack, Oksana’s close friend moves her family to western Ukraine. Meanwhile, Ilyas finds hope in what he sees as desperate Russian measures. And Seva is left astonished by conversations with fellow military personnel on the frontline. TIMECODES - 0.00 - Oksana 4.45 - Ilyas 8.07 - Seva BACKGROUND - Oksana, 35, works in overseas education. She lives with he...

In Kyiv, spooked by the threat of nuclear attack, Oksana’s close friend moves her family to western Ukraine. Meanwhile, Ilyas finds hope in what he sees as desperate Russian measures. And Seva is left astonished by conversations with fellow military personnel on the frontlines. TIMECODES - 0.00 - Oksana 4.45 - Ilyas 8.07 - Seva BACKGROUND - Oksana, 35, works in overseas education. She lives with h...

Military volunteer, Seva, greets news of the Russian mobilisation decree to call up of 300,000 army reservists with glee. Thousands of miles from home Oksana finds an unexpected show of solidarity. And in Kyiv, Ilyas reflects on the recent grim discovery of mass graveyards in liberated lands close to Kharkiv. BACKGROUND Seva, 40, is a company CEO and husband to Oksana. Before the war, he travelled...