Ukrainecast

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 editor, Marina Ovsyannikova, who protested the war live on air back in March becoming a symbol Russian anti-war sentiment and an exile in the process.

Today’s Ukrainecast was made by Estelle Doyle with Phil Marzouk, Osman Iqbal and Clare Williamson. The technical producer was Mike Regaard. The editor was Jonathan Aspinwall.

You can email [email protected] with your questions and comments or send us a message or voice note via WhatsApp to +44 330 1234 220.

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.

And Victoria and Vitaly talk about nuclear safety with Petro Kotin, who is in charge of all five of Ukraine’s nuclear power plants including one in Zaporizhzhia, occupied by Russian troops.

You can email [email protected] with your questions and comments or send us a message or voice note via WhatsApp to +44 330 1234 220.

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 football team in Mariupol.

Today’s Ukrainecast was made by Estelle Doyle with Phil Marzouk and Osman Iqbal. The technical producer was Emma Crowe. The editor was Jonathan Aspinwall.

Email [email protected] with your questions and comments. You can also send us a message or voice note via WhatsApp to +44 0330 1234 220.

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 made by Estelle Doyle with Phil Marzouk and Alix Pickles. The technical producer was Emma Crowe. The assistant editor was Sam Bonham.

Email [email protected] with your questions and comments. You can also send us a message or voice note via WhatsApp to +44 0330 1234 220.

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 public transport. Many haven’t been seen since.

And leading international lawyer Philippe Sands weighs in on whether Biden and Zelensky are right to describe what is happening in Ukraine as a genocide.

Today’s Ukrainecast was made by Estelle Doyle with Osman Iqbal and Alix Pickles. The technical producer was Emma Crowe. The assistant editor was Sam Bonham.

Email [email protected] with your questions and comments. You can also send us a message or voice note via WhatsApp to +44 0330 1234 220.

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 photographed fleeing from Mariupol’s maternity hospital during a Russian airstrike and her fight to prove that she wasn’t an actress taking part in staged images.

We also hear from Vladimir about the field hospital he’s set up with his friends at the war’s Eastern front.

Today's Ukrainecast was made by Phil Marzouk, with Osman Iqbal and Alix Pickles. The technical producer was Emma Crowe. The editor was Jonathan Aspinwall.

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 associate fellow at Chatham House Sam de Bendern talks through the pushback in Kharkiv and the implications of Finland and Sweden joining NATO.

Today's Ukrainecast was made by Phil Marzouk, with Osman Iqbal and Chris Flynn. The technical producer was Emma Crowe. The editor was Jonathan Aspinwall.

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 winning song was inspired by her great-grandmother’s experiences in World War Two and now she feels the history she sang about is repeating itself.

This episode of Ukrainecast was made by Phil Marzouk with Osman Iqbal and Natalie Ktena. The technical producer was Emma Crowe. The editor was Jonathan Aspinwall.

Email [email protected] or send us a message or voice note on WhatsApp, our number is +44 0330 1234 220.

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 Ukrainecast was made by Phil Marzouk with Alix Pickles and Osman Iqbal. The technical producer was Emma Crowe. The assistant editor was Sam Bonham.

Get in touch! Email [email protected] or send us a message or voice note on WhatsApp, our number is +44 0330 1234 220.

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 the war while living there.

And Ukraine are through to the final of the Eurovision Song Contest. We speak to the country's commentator, Timur Miroshnychenko, who was broadcasting for the semi-final from a temporary studio in a bomb shelter.

This episode of Ukrainecast was made by Estelle Doyle with Osman Iqbal and Alix Pickles. The technical producer was Emma Crowe. The assistant editor was Sam Bonham. The editor was Jonathan Aspinwall.

Email [email protected] with your questions and comments. You can also send us a message or voice note via WhatsApp to +44 0330 1234 220.