In part one, after crossing the Polish-Ukrainian border against a tide of refugees, David travels to Lviv. The city is tense but relatively peaceful. Buildings and monuments are covered up against attack, and the train station is jammed with refugees. A Russian missile strike soon shatters any illusion of calm. David meets Vika, a refugee who has just fled from Mariupol. She tells her story in a devastating interview. She describes how her world fell apart during the Russian assault: her father injured by shrapnel, and her desperate struggle to survive. David undertakes the perilous journey to Kyiv itself. Travelling by road in a small aid convoy, David finds a ghost town which seems to have been afflicted by ‘an invisible pestilence’. He witnesses the aftermath of Russian strikes; sees civilians still living in underground stations; and visits Maidan Square, site of the bloody 2014 protests against Ukraine’s then pro-Russian government. David’s Ukrainian colleague Olya was there as
In part two, David travels back to Kyiv. It’s the summer of 2022 and the Ukrainians have defied the odds. The Russians have been pushed back around the capital, but they have wreaked chaos in the east and south. David visits the towns around Kyiv whose names have become synonymous with Russian brutality: Borodyanka, Moschun, and Bucha. David heads south to the front line city of Mykolaiv where there are rumours of a massive impending battle over the neighbouring town of Kherson. There he finds an edgy, devastated town. He interviews Valentyn, a volunteer Ukrainian soldier who seems to exemplify his country’s spirit of resistance.