Ukraine (LIVESAY/MARTELLI) -- PBS NHWE  

Draft script January 11, 2018

Airdate:  January 13

 

(All sound bites are in English unless otherwise noted)

 

 Trt 10:17

 

Suggested Lead

OF THE MANY ISSUES STRAINING U.S. RELATIONS WITH RUSSIA, THE BIGGEST CENTERS AROUND A COUNTRY FEW AMERICANS KNOW MUCH ABOUT--- UKRAINE. THIS EASTERN EUROPEAN NATION, THE SECOND LARGEST IN EUROPE, SHARES A BORDER WITH RUSSIA AND ONLY GAINED ITS INDEPENDENCE FROM THE FORMER SOVIET UNION IN 1991.  LAST MONTH US SECRETARY OF STATE REX TILLERSON CALLED UKRAINE THE SINGLE MOST DIFFICULT OBSTACLE TO ESTABLISHING NORMAL RELATIONS WITH RUSSIA. NEWSHOUR WEEKEND’S CHRISTOPHER LIVESAY WENT TO FIND OUT WHY.

 ######

 

A version from Tom:

 

WHEN MOST PEOPLE HEAR ABOUT THE CURRENT CONFLICT BETWEEN RUSSIA AND THE UNITED STATES, THEY THINK FIRST ABOUT RUSSIAN MEDDLING IN THE 2016 PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION. BUT THERE’S ANOTHER ISSUE -- A HOT CONFLICT ACTUALLY -- PERCOLATING COLD-WAR STYLE ON THE EASTERN FRINGE OF EUROPE, IN UKRAINE. THAT COUNTRY, WHICH GAINED ITS INDEPENDENCE FROM THE FORMER SOVIET UNION IN 1991,  SHARES A LONG BORDER WITH RUSSIA … AND THEY ARE SHARING A WAR, TOO.  

 

AND THE U.S. IS NOT A NEUTRAL PARTY. IT HAS GIVEN UKRAINE OVER TWO BILLION DOLLARS IN AID SINCE [YEAR], INCLUDING SEVEN HUNDRED FIFTY MILLION IN SECURITY ASSISTANCE.  LAST MONTH, US SECRETARY OF STATE REX TILLERSON CALLED UKRAINE THE SINGLE MOST DIFFICULT OBSTACLE TO ESTABLISHING NORMAL RELATIONS WITH RUSSIA. NEWSHOUR WEEKEND’S LIVESAY WENT TO FIND OUT WHY.

 

(b-roll of Kiev in snow and memorial wall)

Kiev, the capital of Ukraine, looks peaceful in the first winter snow.   But just 500 miles southeast of here, a war has claimed 10,000 lives, including the soldiers memorialized on this wall.  It’s a conflict that has inflamed tensions between the US and Russia like nothing since the Cold War. Russia has portrayed it as a CIVIL war ... Ukrainian vs. Ukrainian.

 

(nat sot gunfire at Military training camp)

But at a Ukrainian military training camp about an hour from Kiev, soldiers we met had no doubt who they were fighting.

 

STG MAXIM Parkhomenko: (in Russian/confirmed translation) (NY to voice over) Against Russian aggressors, who are coming to our country. It’s a fight against Russian terrorists, in my opinion

 

Sot LT COL Yuri Kalyta: (in Russian/confirmed translation)(NY to voice over) I believe that there would be no conflict if the Russian troops did not enter the territory of Ukraine

 

AMBASSADOR YOVANOVITCH: Russia sees Ukraine as part of it’s sphere of influence. //And I think Russia would like to insure Ukraine is not an independent actor.

 

Marie Yovanovitch is the US Ambassador to Ukraine. She says Ukraine has steadily been turning westward...seeking closer ties with NATO and the European Union. Tension reached a boiling point when Ukraine’s pro-Russian president, Viktor Yanukovych, turned his back on a Western trade pact in 2013, AND PRO-EUROPEAN PROTESTERS TOOK TO THE MAIDAN, KIEV’S MAIN SQUARE.

 

 

(file Maidan protest/ 2013 and 2014/protest, people in snow/ police action/protesters killed, mourning/celebrating NY supplies)

 

THE PROTESTS were pro-European, anti-corruption and overwhelmingly peaceful.  They braved months of cold and brutal police crackdowns that claimed dozens of lives. Eventually, after three months, President Yanukovych fled to Russia. The pro-European protesters had won.  

 

AMBASSADOR YOVANOVITCH: I think the Russians were angry over this// And so/// the first move that we saw was the infamous little green men in //Crimea//a part of Ukraine// Men arriving in uniform, in green uniforms, but no identification. And they denied they were anything but people of Crimea. And within a matter of days really Crimea was taken over by Russian forces..//So when a part of Europe is attacked, that is not good for stability, it’s not good for security, it’s not -- of Ukraine -- but also more broadly for Europe, one of our best partners.

 

(map graphic of Ukraine/See Crimea fir/Then see Donbas/note Russian border on east/ supplied by NY)

 

The US and EU responded to the Russian occupation of Crimea with stiff sanctions. But the crisis in the SOUTH was followed shortly by another crisis in the EAST of Ukraine.

In the region known as Donbas --- Pro–Russian separatists took over entire towns declaring independence, further dividing Ukrainians from one another.

 

(possible file fighting in Ukraine separatists militia from 2014/supplied by NY)

But who were the separatists? According to Yuriy Boyko, a pro-Russian member of Parliament, they were simply local Ukrainians who felt threatened by the Maidan protests and the new pro-west government in Kiev.

 

YURIY BOYKO/OPPOSITION BLOCK PARTY LEADER:  People in the East of Ukraine didn’t understand what is happening in Kiev. ///They saw the blood, they saw the shootings, they were frightened/// They were speaking Russian. They were closer to Russia.

CHRIS LIVESAY: So the Russian-speaking people in eastern Ukraine...

YURIY BOYKO/OPPOSITION BLOCK PARTY LEADER: They were afraid.

CHRIS LIVESAY: They were afraid and they felt closer to Russia than to the country of Ukraine?

YURIY BOYKO/OPPOSITION BLOCK PARTY LEADER: In this situation yes.///

CHRIS LIVESAY- Is this a civil war or is Russia an aggressor?

YURIY BOYKO/OPPOSITION BLOCK PARTY LEADER: It is a civil war with Russian support.

 

AMBASSADOR YOVANOVITCH: This not a civil war. I think that is part of a Russian disinformation campaign //

///CHRIS LIVESAY: So we know Russia is operating in these areas.

AMBASSADOR YOVANOVITCH:  Yes we do.

CHRIS LIVESAY: It’s not Russian-speaking, pro-Russian forces who are Ukrainians. These are Russians operating in Eastern Ukraine.

AMBASSADOR YOVANOVITCH: The Russians are controlling both the civil administration as well as the fighting and they can turn it up and down and we have seen that.

 

(Nat at map Hug show and tell)

“.... along the contact line....”

 

There is a cease-fire in place but it’s constantly being violated according to Alexander Hug…who monitors the conflict for the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe.

 

The OSCE has more than 600 monitors on both sides of the contact line documenting fighting like this: firing from howitzers...night-time attacks on the water system in Donetsk ...and mortar explosions in the town of Avdiivka.

 

CHRIS LIVESAY: So at least as far as Ukraine is concerned this is no cold war.

ALEXANDER HUG/Deputy Chief Monitor OSCE:  It is a very active war. We see on a daily basis thousands of ceasefire violations///And we continue to retrace the suffering of the civilian population who live very closely or on on the contact line between positions..

 

CHRIS LIVESAY:  Who is breaking the cease-fire. You’re on the ground. What have you seen?

ALEXANDER HUG/OSCE DEPUTY CHIEF MONITOR: We know both sides don’t adhere to the cease fire. Both sides maintain positions too close to one another. And both sides do keep heavy weapons in areas where they have agreed these weapons --- tanks, mortars, artillery, multiple launch-rocket systems --- should not be.

 

(nat Hug with map: This is an example of an area where we see//fighting…)

 

We decided to go to Avdiivka...to see the front line ourselves.

(train video...people crossing tracks by foot)

 

Our trip began with a 6-hour train ride southeast from Kiev, to the town of Sloviansk.   

 

(b-roll driving)

In the early days of the war, this road from the train station was dubbed “sniper alley.” It was one of the first towns to be taken by rebels in 2014.

 

LIVESAY STAND UP - Right behind me is a mental facility that they occupied and used to launch mortar attacks on the Ukrainian forces out there in the distance about where the woods are.

 

Caught in the middle --- villagers like 59-year-old Yuriy, a car mechanic whose house was destroyed by shelling. Although he has Russian roots...his children fled to Russia for safety...he stayed behind to rebuild the family home.

 

Sot Yuriy in house in Russian(NY to voice over)  How can I feel Russian? I am Ukrainian!  

 

Eventually the Ukrainian army bombed the mental hospital and retook the town ...moving the contact line about 60 miles south to our destination...Avdiivka.

 

(nat sot driving)

 

To get there we needed to cross checkpoints we weren’t allowed to film. We started out early in the morning on roads pockmarked by shelling. The Donbas region of Ukraine is rich in natural resources and farmland but many fields are off limits because of the possibility of landmines.

 

Avdiivka is in the so-called “grey zone.” We’re told it’s safe … during daylight hours.  Most of the shelling happens at night. After more than three years of fighting people have grown used to it.

 

We found this woman selling handmade items by the side of the road.

 

(nat woman in Russian on street selling scarves she knitted)

 

Knitting calms her nerves she tells us.

 

Water, heat and electricity are sporadic, with infrastructure constantly being damaged in the fighting and needing repair.

 

Suffering the most are smaller villages like Kamianka … just “outside” Avdiivka.

(nat sot with Valentina in Russian)

 

78-year-old Valentina Shmatok has lived here her whole life. She points to the front. There, she says...just across the highway.

There was shelling just last night she says.

 

(nat sot Valentina says boom boom)

Farhana Javid, a psychologist with the International Red Cross, has been visiting this village weekly.

 

(nat sot generator sound)

 

She points out a root cellar where more than a dozen of the villagers are forced to take cover on a regular basis.

 

FARHANA JAVID ICRC: Can you imagine this is the place they live.

CHRIS LIVESAY: They sleep in here?

FARHANA JAVID ICRC: They don’t sleep. Basically they bring their small stools. And they just sit here. There is no place to sleep here.//

/It’s cold. It’s stinky. There is no electricity. ///And they’ve gone through hell. Because many of their children are in different parts of the world so they are not able to meet them. They are not able to speak to them and also they lie to them telling them they are fine, they’re alright because they don’t want to get them worried.

 

We ask Valentina how the Red Cross has helped her.

 

VALENTINA SHMATOK: (in Russian/confirmed) (NY voice over) “They bring us different things and talk to us. That’s the only outlet for us. (cries) We never have rest here.

 

The fighting is at a stalemate that’s injured or killed more than 400 civilians last year alone.

 

(nat sot Ukrainian Military training)

 

Both sides have called for UN peacekeepers, but talks have not gotten far, and there is a risk this conflict will escalate.

 

(nat sot tank firing)

The US is upping the ante, announcing last month it will allow the sale of lethal anti-tank weapons to UKRAINIAN FORCES LIKE THOSE TRAINING NEAR KIEV. Russia sees this as another provocation.  

 

(nat sot music)

Meanwhile, some say Russia’s strategy has backfired. You see the signs everywhere. EU flags. Anti-Putin paraphernalia. On this monument in Kiev, the People’s Friendship Arch built by Soviets in the early 1980s, the Russian writing has been defaced and replaced by the words ‘Glory to Ukraine.’

 

Nadia Vivchar is a student originally from western Ukraine, now living in Kiev.

 

CHRIS LIVESAY- The conflict in Crimea and then in Eastern Ukraine, has that united the country?

NADIA VIVCHAR: (young woman in English)  It has united the people, actually So before this conflict actually started I really didn’t feel that much patriotic feelings toward Ukraine and now with all of these events and my friends going to the eastern part to fight. //It makes people unite. It makes us unite not against somebody but to protect ourselves.

 

Svitlana Zalishchuk agrees. One of the original pro-European protesters she’s a member a member of Parliament now and says Ukrainians are united like never before.

  

SVITLANA ZALISHCHUK: People think that kind of it’s western Ukraine chose the west and// eastern Ukraine chose Russia. This is not true. 70% of our soldiers who went voluntarily to fight, they are Russian speaking//people. //You can speak Russian.// You can have relatives in Russia. //But it was a choice not of the language or nationality. It was the choice of the future. // And we are a country that has///for sure, a democratic future.

((END))

 

 

	TIMECODE	LOWER THIRD
1	1:51	MARIE YOVANOVITCH U.S. AMBASSADOR TO UKRAINE
2	3:41	MARIE YOVANOVITCH U.S. AMBASSADOR TO UKRAINE
3	4:43	ALEXANDER HUG DEPUTY CHIEF MONITOR OSCE
4	5:23	SLOVIANSK, UKRAINE CHRISTOPHER LIVESAY SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT
5	7:39	FARHANA JAVID INTERNATIONAL RED CROSS PSYCHOLOGIST
6	7:56	VALENTINA SHMATOK KAMIANKA RESIDENT
7	9:10	NADIA VIVCHAR STUDENT
8	9:44	SVITLANA ZALISHCHUK MEMBER OF UKRANIAN PARLIAMENT