EP66 - Barbarity in Bakhmut, bedding parcels & Kharkiv buyer’s guide (Feb 6-10)

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 death and torture.

OUR DIARISTS
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.

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.

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.

EP66 diary entries were recorded using WhatsApp voice note.

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

Producer: Rob Mulhern
Editing: Paul Stanworth
Archive: Simon Windsor
Digital: David Chipakupaku