Ukraine War Diaries: EP45 – Zelenskyy the great, loving power and ‘the smell of Spring’ (Feb 13-17)

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 returned from eastern Ukraine and reflects on how he has gotten used to the Russian missile bombardment, nearly a year on since the invasion.

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 closest friends have left the country to begin new lives in Europe. Some may never return. She’s continues to try and make a life there.

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 February 2023, Ilyas is back living in the family apartment in Kyiv.

Seva, 41, is a company CEO and husband to Oksana. Before the war, he travelled across Europe for business. Now, he makes regular supply drops of medical aid and rations to Ukrainian troops on the front line in Eastern Ukraine. He’s originally from a small village near Dnipro.

Ukraine War Diaries uses first-person audio, recorded on the ground in Ukraine, to give an intimate day-to-day perspective of life in a war zone.

EP67 diary entries were recorded using WhatsApp voice note.

From the producers of Sky News’ multi-award winning series – StoryCast.

Producers: Rob Mulhern and Annie Joyce
Editing: Paul Stanworth
Archive: Simon Windsor
Digital: David Chipakupaku