Chris

As always with BBC reports from Ukraine, it’s difficult to get a sense of what’s actually going on because their correspondents have an unfortunate habit of generalising the particular. See, for instance, last month’s THE SKY IS FALLING reportage from the border region near Kharkiv when the Russian offensive began there, which forewent any attempt to assess events strategically in favour of hard-hitting footage of exhausted Ukrainian solders on the very localised sections of the front accessible to BBC reporters. Of course, as has happened numerous times in the last 2 years, the Russian advance halted for almost no Russian gain and at an extreme cost in Russian manpower and equipment. Such reports do not however give Jeremy Bowen the same opportunities to put on his flak jacket and helmet and frown earnestly into the camera while things go bang in the distance.

Likewise, I’ve no doubt it is distressing for young Ukrainian men who wish to avoid the draft, but such things always happen in countries that turn to conscription to continue existential conflicts, and the BBC has been characteristically uninterested in contextualising what’s happening in terms of broader population support (which so far as I can see, remains strong), or even whether draft dodging is prevalent across the country as opposed to just the one place they have reported from (Odesa).