The Atrocities Uncovered in the Liberated Regions of Ukraine | Foreign Correspondent
Putin’s recent losses on the battlefield have emboldened Ukrainians. Steve Cannane travels to the warzone in northern Ukraine to meet the people freed from Russian occupation. He hears stories of trauma, courage and defiance.
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A young couple celebrates their wedding in front of a bombed-out building.
An old man sweeps up the debris caused by missile strikes, bewildered by Russia’s aggression.
Investigators dig up bodies from a mass burial site in a forest.
People gather in a bunker for a writers’ festival.
These are the stories Europe correspondent Steve Cannane uncovers as he travels through eastern Ukraine in the wake of an extraordinary military victory against Russia.
Liberated from occupation, people are sharing stories of trauma and hardship, hope and survival.
70-year-old Anatolii Garagatyi, an amateur cameraman with a YouTube channel, recounts how he spent one hundred days locked up in a police cell. When he refused his Russian captors’ request to make a propaganda video, he was tortured.
“It doesn’t matter how much longer I live but I don’t want my soul to encounter my parents and for them to think I’m a traitor.”
In a quiet forest outside the town of Izyum, investigators dig up hundreds of bodies from a mass burial site.
“For me, it’s not debatable. It’s war crimes,” says the Defence Minister, Oleksii Reznikov. “It’s the next package for a future tribunal. We call it Nuremberg 2.”
Tetiana Pylypchuk, the director of Kharkiv’s Museum of Ukrainian Literature, has organised a literary festival in a bunker. It’s a show of defiance against an adversary who wants to obliterate their culture.
“Holding such events in a city which is under threat… is a very strong message to the enemy.”
Humiliated by its recent losses, Russia is retaliating with missile strikes at power plants and vital infrastructure. As winter approaches, many are living without gas, power and water.
But Ukrainians’ resolve to defeat their invader has only hardened.
“We have to survive. We have to fight for our land, for our family, for our houses,” says Reznikov.
“What are you talking about? We’ve already won!” says Garagatyi. “They’ve got no idea what they’re doing here. Cowards. They’re cowards.”
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About Foreign Correspondent:
Foreign Correspondent is the prime-time international public affairs program on Australia's national broadcaster, ABC-TV. We produce half-hour duration in-depth reports for broadcast across the ABC's television channels and digital platforms. Since 1992, our teams have journeyed to more than 170 countries to report on war, natural calamity and social and political upheaval – through the eyes of the people at the heart of it all.
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