Life under Russian occupation - a secret recording

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On the 1st March 2022 Dmytro Bahnenko, a journalist in Kherson, in southern Ukraine, watched Russian tanks roll down his street. As his world, like many Ukrainians’, turned upside down, he secretly started filming everything around him, sensing history in the making, and sharing the footage with the BBC. Over the next three months Dmytro recorded his city’s resistance. There are acts of defiance followed by a violent crackdown. The city changes. Food and medicine become scarce. Russian military vehicles marked with the “Z” speed up and down Kherson streets. Shelling is heard round the clock. Many people flee. Friends and prominent local people start to disappear - others are put through mock executions. As the Russians make their intentions clearer, Dmytro and his wife Lidia struggle to shelter their 5-year old daughter Ksusha from what is happening. Eventually they decide to leave the city. For 5 Minutes On, this is the story of Dymtro Bahnenko and his family, and their life in Russian occupied Ukraine. Dymytro Bahnenko’s words were read by Dzhafer Umerov. Image Credit: BBC News