Ukrainecast

A history of Ukraine and Russia

Historian Orlando Figes explains why the mythologising of Russia’s past is crucial to understanding Putin’s world view and aspirations for his country. We have an update on Alice – the little girl who was separated from her mother when the Azovstal steelworks were evacuated. One her fifth birthday she got a phone call from her mum, who is being held prisoner by Russians.Russian lawyer Mikhail Benyash says young men and their families are turning to him to try to avoid being forced to fight in Ukraine. And President Zelensky explains what he meant when he talked about pre-emptive strikes on Russia. Today’s episode is presented by Gabriel Gatehouse and Vitaly Shevchenko. The series producer is Estelle Doyle. The producers are Ivana Davidovic and Arsenii Sokolov. The planning producer is Louise Hidalgo. The technical producer, Michael Regaard. The assistant editor, Alison Gee. And 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