BBC news anchor Clive Myrie has said the Ukrainians he met are refusing to give up and are prepared to “die for” their country amid the Russian invasion.
Myrie, 57, had been reporting on the conflict from the capital Kyiv before he left the war-torn city with his team on Sunday.
Reflecting on his experience, the broadcaster said the Ukrainians he met remain convinced they will triumph despite the Russian military’s strength in numbers.
He wrote for the BBC: “I had met other reserve army volunteers who’d put themselves forward to fight while I was in Ukraine. They all displayed the same patriotism and love of their country that Vladimir Putin didn’t think existed.
“They were firm in their convictions and convinced they would prevail - despite the Russian military’s greater numbers.”
Myrie also reflected on meeting Ukraine’s interior minister Denys Monastyrskyy during a visit to the St Sophia Cathedral.
“I asked him if faith was what underpinned the Ukrainian belief that they could defeat the second-largest army on the planet,” he wrote. “Speaking softly, he was unequivocal and clear-eyed - just like the young Ukrainian reservists I had spoken to days earlier. "God is on our side," he told me with deep conviction. ‘We will win.’ And to drive home the point, he repeated those words in Ukrainian: ‘My vyhrayemo’.”
During his time in Kyiv, Myrie had been forced to take shelter underground after a building he was reporting from was shaken by nearby missile fire.
He tweeted at the time: “Now back in the underground shelter in Kyiv, our position shaken by nearby missile fire.
“Windows shook. Closest blast yet to our base. Fighting coming closer to heart of #kyiv.”
Myrie has reported on the ground from locations across the world including Tokyo, Paris, Vietnam, Los Angeles and Iraq during the 2003 war.
