‘I spent a life working in survival,” says Bear Grylls, on his way to Ukraine to shoot War Zone: Bear Grylls Meets President Zelenskyy. “But now I will be learning from Ukrainians about what it takes to survive … in a war zone.” As the presenter travels to Kyiv, to meet civilians and to interview Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelenskiy, he keeps trying to bring up his military and survival credentials. He’s not always successful, but that does not mean his trip is in vain.
Grylls is in his element at the start of the programme, hurtling in a van with his crew through Poland towards the border. He receives a call from Bruce, a fixer inside Ukraine, who has intel that airstrikes on Kyiv are imminent. Once inside the capital, Grylls surveys the eerie street architecture created since the Russians invaded a year ago: steel girders, chopped up and welded together into 6ft-high asterisks to form “tank traps”, lie on pavements as if giants have been playing a game of jacks, and burnt-out Russian tanks lie by the roadside, totems of small victories past.
