Ukrainecast

The Battle for the Donbas

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 dialogue. And another listener sends us a picture of a literal Ukraine-cast… Today’s Ukrainecast was made by Estelle Doyle with Alix Pickles, Osman Iqbal and Louise Hidalgo. The technical producer was Emma Crowe. The editor was Sam Bonham. You can email Ukrainecast@bbc.co.uk with your questions and comments or send us a message or voice note via WhatsApp to +44 330 1234 220.

The BBC’s only English language programme entirely dedicated to the war in Ukraine and its fallout, Ukrainecast, is your go-to podcast which investigates the biggest issues around the conflict. Could Putin push the nuclear button? How could Donald Trump end the war in 24 hours? What is the price for peace? The podcast is hosted by Newsnight presenter Victoria Derbyshire and BBC Monitoring’s Vitaly Shevchenko. Ukrainecast covers the most important topics around the conflict and speaks to the real people who’ve lived through several years of war. It also brings you agenda-setting interviews with special guests each week such as UK foreign secretary David Cameron, former US secretary of state Mike Pompeo and pre-eminent Russia expert Fiona Hill.GET IN TOUCH: 
You can join our Ukrainecast online community here: tinyurl.com/ukrainecastdiscord 
Send us a message or voicenote via WhatsApp to +443301239480 
Email Ukrainecast@bbc.co.ukYou can now listen to Ukrainecast on a smart speaker. If you want to listen, just say "Ask BBC Sounds to play Ukrainecast”. It works on most smart speakers.If you want to be notified every time we publish a new episode, please subscribe to us on BBC Sounds by hitting the subscribe button on the app. If you enjoy Ukrainecast (and if you’re reading this then you hopefully do), then we think that you will enjoy some of our other pods too. See links below:The Global Story: https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/brand/w13xtvsd 
The Today Podcast: https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/brand/p0gg4k6r 
Americast: https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/brand/p07h19zz 
Newscast: https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/brand/p05299nl