Ukrainecast

Fleeing the Call Up

Men flee conscription into the army as referendums start in Russian occupied Ukraine.Victoria and Vitaliy take stock of an eventful week in the Ukraine war with Samantha De Bendern, a former NATO adviser and political risk consultant and former BBC Moscow correspondent, Daniel Sandford.And Vitaliy talks to Yulia Rubanova a violinist with the Ukrainian Freedom Orchestra about her early life in Mariupol, her fears for her parents who were stranded there during Russian bombardment and how incredible it felt to play with her fellow countrymen on a world tour.Today’s episode was produced by Clare Williamson, Ivana Davidovic and Arsenii Sokolov. The planning producer is Louise Hidalgo. The editor is Jonathan Aspinwall.Email Ukrainecast@bbc.co.uk with your questions and comments. You can also send us a message or voice note via WhatsApp, Signal or Telegram to +44 330 1239480

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