Clive Myrie has said being in Ukraine on the one-year anniversary of the Russian invasion of the country is “surreal” because “I don’t think anyone expected it to last this long”.
The 58-year-old journalist and presenter was reporting for BBC News from the roof of a hotel in the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv when the war broke out on February 24 2022.
Speaking to the PA news agency from Ukraine after returning to the war-torn country, Myrie said: “It’s quite surreal to be back here a year on from the invasion, because I don’t think anyone expected it to last this long.
“Certainly Vladimir Putin didn’t, he thought it would be over in a week, and it clearly isn’t, it’s about to enter its second year.
“The determination that I saw in the the eyes sometimes, in the actions, in the voices of ordinary Ukrainians a year ago, that has not diminished, if anything, it’s got more resolute.
“And there is a real determination here that the Russian invading army will be repelled, and ordinary Ukrainians can go back to living their lives the way that they did (before the war).”
While in Kyiv last year, Myrie and the BBC’s chief international correspondent Lyse Doucet had to put on flak jackets after their report was disrupted by a warning siren.
Reflecting on his role in reporting on the war in its early days, Myrie said: “You’re wondering, what exactly was in the mind of Vladimir Putin when he ordered this invasion?
“You always try to rationalise these kinds of things, as a journalist and as a human being, to try to understand, what is this all about? Why is it happening?”
Myrie continued: “There was no suggestion that Putin had done his homework, there was no suggestion that he understood the Ukrainian people, even though he claims to be one of their brothers, he just does not understand this place. And he clearly never has.”
Myrie also told PA that what he’s learnt about Ukrainian people, many of whom have been displaced and become refugees since the outbreak of war, “really isn’t rocket science”.
“I know that they’re strong, and I know that they believe that they have a right to exist and that’s what they’re fighting for. That’s what I’ve learned,” he said.
He added: “For a country to try to defend itself, and if a country is defending itself, it clearly has made up its mind that it’s not going to become part of the sphere of influence of some greater power.
“Because they have their own culture and they have their own sense of self. That’s what I’ve learned. That’s what everyone has learned throughout this war.
“And, interestingly, it’s what the Russian people have learned and it’s what Vladimir Putin has learned.
“And actually, frankly, what I’ve learned doesn’t really matter. It’s what Putin has learned and he understands that he’s trying to take on people who believe that they have a right to exist.
“And that’s the right of all people, with a culture and customs and a sense of who they are – proud people and a nation that wants to live life the way it wants to live it, not at the behest of anybody else.”
