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The Documentary Podcast
Fighting on two fronts
The Documentary Podcast
Oct 16, 2025

More than a third of Ukraine’s scientific institutions have been damaged or destroyed by Russian bombing. Many scientists have either fled the country or are internally displaced, and that Ukraine’s National Academy of Sciences is trying to operate on half its pre-war budget. The funding may be reduced but the science still matters, even in wartime. Perhaps especially in wartime. It is something the country can be proud of. Climate change has no borders and Ukraine is making a key contribution to our understanding of the global warming crisis. We hear from the scientists of Ukraine’s National Antarctic Scientific Centre, torn between the frontlines of a prolonged national conflict whilst simultaneously attempting to arm the world with the latest research on a warming climate from the white wilderness of Antarctica.

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The Fifth Floor is at the heart of global storytelling on the BBC World Service, bringing you the best stories from journalists in the BBC's 43 language services. We're here to help you make sense of the stories making headlines around the world; to excite your curiosity and to get to grips with the facts.   Recent episodes have investigated Russia’s youth armies and how they make soldiers of Ukrainian children; featured the BBC team who were the first journalists to the site of the Nigerian school kidnappings and reflected the effects of internet blackouts in Iran, Uganda and India.   If you want to know more about Venezuela’s acting president, Delcy Rodriguez, and the legacy of Hugo Chavez; or how Vladimir Putin’s network of deep cover spies operates; or why Donald Trump signed an executive order granting white South Africans asylum in the US, we have all those stories and more.

Presented by Faranak Amidi.

Produced by Laura Thomas and Caroline Ferguson

(Photo: Faranak Amidi. Credit: Tricia Yourkevich.)


26min 29sec



Fighting on two fronts

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