Foreign Correspondent: Mar 3

How did it come to this?

This week on Foreign Correspondent, David Lipson travels across Ukraine and former Moscow correspondent Eric Campbell speaks to locals inside the separatist region whose loyalties lies with Russia.

The world is watching on in shock as Putin’s army invades Ukraine. Despite months of Russian military build-up on Ukraine’s borders, many thought Putin would never dare to try and crush his neighbour’s independence with military might.

Now these two countries, with a shared history spanning centuries, are fighting each other in the streets of Ukrainian cities.

How did it come to this?

In the weeks leading up to the invasion, Foreign Correspondent explores both sides of this dangerous conflict.

Reporter David Lipson travels across Ukraine to find a country whose identity has been forged in the heat of the eight-year war between Ukraine and Russian-backed separatists occupying regions in the east.

Former Moscow correspondent Eric Campbell works with a local Russian crew to get rare access inside the separatist region. He speaks to locals whose loyalties lies with Russia and who believe Ukrainians are Nazis.

Starting in the capital Kyiv, Lipson meets a young mother who’s bearing the scars of the ongoing war in eastern Ukraine. Ukraine has lost 14 000 lives in the conflict that began in 2014.

“At that moment we already understood who the enemy was and we just wanted to stop him from going further into our land,” says Victoria, a former soldier, whose partner was killed by a landmine. “I am sure this war has definitely changed the country.”

As Lipson travels east towards the frontline, he discovers just how much the country has changed. Close to the separatist region, there are destroyed villages, their residents living under constant shelling. One farmer has been cut off from his farmland. The young have fled. The old remain.

“My heart aches every time I turn on TV, for our soldiers. What did we do to deserve this?” cries one old woman, who is caring for her blind husband. “I was born in 1942, during the war, and I have to witness it again, the ninth year in a row.”

In Mariupol on the east coast, also close to the frontline, Lipson finds a city increasingly divided. Pro-Russians are suspicious of the Ukrainian government, pro-Ukrainians are preparing to take up arms.

Eric Campbell’s team takes us inside the separatist region. We meet a young woman who says she will never live under Ukrainian rule. “We can’t live in the same country as the Nazis. We can’t forgive all that we experienced through the years’, says Alexandra.

Days later, she evacuates into Russia, as Putin’s propaganda machine bombards the region with stories of Ukrainian saboteurs and aggression.

The courage and determination of ordinary Ukrainians to stand and fight the Russian invaders has stunned the world. But will it be enough to save their country?

8pm Thursday on ABC.