Ukrainecast

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, the face of President Putin’s Russia, insists that his country didn’t invade Ukraine in a rare interview with the BBC. Victoria and Vitaly unpick the interview with Patricia Lewis, Director of the International Security Programme at Chatham House. She also tells us about the significance of Ukraine getting a step closer to European Union membership. Is this...

Victoria and Vitaly speak to 19-year-old Maksym Lutskyi, a Ukrainian soldier who is preparing to return to the front line after being wounded and losing his commander who died saving his life. Andrey Stavnitser, one of the richest businessmen in Ukraine, and co-owner of the major shipping terminals near Odessa, describes the impact the blockade is having on the country’s economy. He also explains...

Viktoria Kovalenko tells us about the day her husband Petro and 12-year-old daughter Veronika were killed when the road they were travelling on to find safety was bombed. She explains to Victoria and Vitaly how taking care of her one-year-old baby is the only thing that keeps her sane. And how she's now been waiting for nearly 50 days for a visa to the UK. They also speak to Derek Edwards from htt...

The Kremlin defends the death sentences for three captured soldiers. Fergal and Vitaliy are joined by BBC Russian Service’s Olga Ivshina to understand more about what is happening in Ukraine. They speak to former US Army medic, Brennan Phillips, and the Mayor of Melitopol, Ivan Fedorov, who was kidnapped and imprisoned by Russian soldiers. This episode of Ukrainecast was made by Alix Pickles and N...

Three men are convicted by a Russian proxy court in eastern Ukraine. We speak to Tim Whewell, a BBC reporter who has been investigating the fate of more than a million Ukrainian refugees who have ended up in Russia. Have they been rescued? Or illegally deported? And we check-in with Natalia, whose husband fought during the siege of the Azovstal steelworks. This episode of Ukrainecast was made by E...

Victoria and Vitaly are joined by Zhanna Bezpiatchuk from the BBC Ukrainian service, who travelled to Irpin to investigate allegations of war crimes. There she heard accounts of violence against civilians, of shootings and summary executions - including the killing of a young woman in a red coat. Her body remained in the street for four weeks - lying where she had been trampled not once, but over...

Why some Ukrainians choose to flee whilst others stay. Thousands of Ukrainians, from the heavily bombed East, don’t want to leave - it turns out that some don’t believe that Russia is bombing them. We hear from a listener who has not had contact with her father in Severodonetsk, described by President Zelensky as a 'Dead City', since May 22nd. And the Kyiv residents raising money to repair their b...

Russia targets Ukraine’s capital with missiles for the first time in weeks. Vitaly and Frank talk to Nataliia, who recently returned to Kyiv with her young son – they were woken up by the blasts. Also, the UK says it will send its first long-range missiles to Ukraine. And Col Bob Seddon, who was once in charge of bomb disposal for the British army, tells us how he’s helping Ukrainians deal with mi...

One hundred days on from February 24th, a date that will be remembered for decades, we take you through the story of the conflict between Russia and Ukraine. In this special episode, we listen back to some of the key moments from hours of testimony and analysis on the war. This episode of Ukrainecast was made by Phil Marzouk. The technical producer was Emma Crowe and the exec producer, Estelle Doy...

Ukraine gets long-sought US long-range missile systems. BBC Security Correspondent Frank Gardner explains why Kyiv hopes this will be a gamechanger. Maria Chashka, a Deputy Commander of a battalion in Kharkiv, confirms she believes this will help her country win the war. The acting war time mayor of Severodonetsk, Oleksandr Stryuk, tells Victoria and Vitaly about the recent strike on a chemical pl...

What does Europe’s partial oil ban mean for Russia’s economy? After the EU agreed a compromise plan to stop its members importing Russian oil by sea, economist Timothy Ash tells Victoria who might be most hurt by the sanctions. And BBC reporter Chloe Hajimatheou uncovers increasingly sophisticated disinformation tactics being deployed and spread globally. This episode of Ukrainecast was made by Es...

Russia’s UK ambassador calls footage a “fabrication”. In a tense BBC News interview, Andrei Kelin claims allegations of war crimes in the town of Bucha are false despite physical evidence, satellite imagery and eyewitness accounts. Meanwhile, Ukraine’s chief prosecutor tells us she’s investigating thousands of cases. This episode of Ukrainecast was made by Daniel Wittenberg with Chris Flynn and Cl...

Stories from the front line. The BBC's Fergal Keane and Olga Ivshina hear from Russian soldiers who have risked their lives on the front line of the war. Why have some of them refused to return? The BBC's Jeremy Bowen speaks to us from a Donbas town which is within artillery range of Russian troops. And Rustik, Fergal’s fixer in Bucha, discusses his first experience of conflict and how his country...

Vitaly and Victoria hear from 19 year old Maksym Lutskyi, a soldier fighting in the Donbas where the Ukrainian army is under increasing pressure. He’s aware Russian forces might encircle him any time soon, but says he will fight on regardless. Also, a listener based in Moscow explains how he’s been trying to bring Russians with opposite views of the conflict together and engage in a meaningful dia...

Vitaly's home town is struck Two areas of the southern city of Zaporizhzhia have been struck by Russian missiles, leaving one person dead and three others wounded. Whilst Russian forces are centering their offensive on Eastern Ukraine, Russian forces are now in control of much of the big Zaporizhzhia region in Ukraine’s South. We hear from Kostyantyn, a factory worker from Zaporizhya who describes...

Security correspondent Frank Gardner joins Victoria and Vitaliy to give us the latest updates from the eastern front and how European nations are responding to the continuing war. We hear the story of Alice: the four-year-old girl who escaped Azovstal but lost her mother in the process. Those looking after her say her mother has been taken to Russia. Also, we catch up with the Russian TV news edit...

Russian soldier jailed for life. The tank commander has been convicted for killing a civilian at the first war crimes trial since the invasion. The BBC World Service’s Svyatoslav Khomenko has been in court in Kyiv every day of the trial and brings us up to date on the sentencing. Vitaly discusses the heavy shelling in the Luhansk region with the Governor of Luhansk, Serhiy Gaidai. And Victoria and...

Fergal Keane joins Vitaliy to talk to a member of Bucha’s city council who tells us more accounts of atrocities in his city and how it can rebuild. Friend of the podcast Olga Malchevska reports from Kharkiv: the eastern border city in which Ukrainian forces pushed out Russian troops. Vitaliy and Fergal answer your questions before Vitaliy tells us about his upcoming documentary on a women’s footba...

UN says the war could lead to long-term famines. Victoria and Vitaliy hear about what's going on by speaking to Sergey, a farmer from southern Ukraine, and the UN’s Pierre Vauthier. And, after weeks of worry, we check-in with Nataliya, who tells us that her husband, who was fighting at the Mariupol steelworks, is alive and is now being held in Russian-controlled territory. Today’s Ukrainecast was...

The BBC World Service's Svyatoslav Khomenko tells us what's he observed at the court of the first war crimes trial of the Ukraine conflict. Also, Victoria and Vitaly speak with Olga Ivshina from the BBC Russian Service, who has been investigating forced mobilisation in the Eastern Ukraine region of Donbas. People living there told her men had been grabbed in the streets, whilst out shopping or on...

After two months of fighting, hundreds of Ukrainian soldiers have been evacuated by Russian forces from Mariupol's Azovstal steelworks. Victoria, Vitaly and Lyse Doucet speak to Yuriy Sak, an advisor to the Ukrainian defence minister, about what this means for Russia’s war strategy. They also speak to the BBC’s specialist disinformation reporter, Marianna Spring, about the pregnant woman who was p...

Victoria and Vitaly speak to Sarah Rainsford who tells us about a facility in Bucha that was once a children’s summer camp but has now become a crime scene after the torture and execution of five men there. We hear from NGO worker Oksana who, until recently, was living under Russian occupation in Kherson. She tells us about her colleagues who’ve been abducted. And NATO Ukraine officer and associat...

As a Russian soldier is put on trial in Ukraine for war crimes, Victoria and Vitaliy discuss whether he can receive a fair hearing in a Kyiv courtroom. They speak to Natalia, whose husband is fighting at the steel plant in Mariupol. She says she hasn’t heard from him in nearly a week and fears for his life. Finally we speak to the Ukrainian winner of the 2016 Eurovision Song Contest Jamala. Her wi...

Russian soldiers have been seen shooting dead unarmed civilians. Victoria and Vitaly are joined by Newsnight’s Lewis Goodall. They hear from a soldier, Volodomyr Demchenko who explains why he is fighting, his worries for his country, and his causes for optimism. We also hear why Finland is intending to join Nato, with Oksana Antonenko, a correspondent from the BBC Russian Service. This episode of...

Why are so many of them avoiding “disturbing information” about Ukraine? Victoria and Vitaly are joined by Lyse Doucet, who is in Dnipro, where rows of graves are being dug in anticipation of more people being killed in the war. Grigory Yudin, from the Moscow School of Social and Economic Sciences, tells us more about public opinion in Russia and about what it’s like to publicly speak out against...