The Conversation (0)
Kate Plummer
Feb 25, 2022
Moment BBC reporter sees pictures of her family home, partially destroyed overnight ...
Independent
A Ukrainian BBC journalist unexpectedly saw images of her destroyed home while reporting on the escalating crisis in Ukraine.
While discussing images and videos coming from Kyiv, Ukrainian journalist Olga Malchevska revealed that the building she lives in was "bombed at night" before realising that the images she was being asked to comment on were that same building.
"When we agreed yesterday about coming to the studio in the morning I could not imagine that at 3am London time I would find out actually my home is bombed," she said.
The moment my @bbcukrainian colleague @Yollika sees pictures of her family home, partially destroyed overnight in #Kyiv.\n\nWe did not know until that moment it was her actual building that had been hit.\n\nThankfully Olga\u2019s family is safe.pic.twitter.com/rglna1tvEA— Karin Giannone (@Karin Giannone) 1645786290
And turning to look at the footage she said: "That footage that everybody saw is literally my home."
It comes on the second day of war in Ukraine with the country reporting at least 137 deaths. Explosions have been heard in Kyiv and the UN estimates that 100,000 people have fled their homes, while western countries have issued sanctions against Russia.
After she seemed understandably shocked and upset, BBC journalist Karin Giannone who Malchevska was speaking to interjected and said she didn't want to see her colleague be forced to speak about something so "sudden and traumatic".
Sign up to our free Indy100 weekly newsletter
"I just can't link in my head that what I'm seeing is actually somewhere where I used to be," Malchevska replied.
After the clip of the BBC show went viral and was circulated on Twitter, people said they found the footage heartbreaking and sent messages of support to Malchevska:
Extraordinary momenthttps://twitter.com/KarinBBC/status/1497162333289914368\u00a0\u2026— Ian Wickham (@Ian Wickham) 1645793398
Thinking of you and your family at the moment @Yollika - i know all of us at the BBC will be there to support you and your colleagues once this nightmare ends— Charlie Haynes (@Charlie Haynes) 1645787688
"This actual building is my home." \n\nThoughts with our colleage @Yollika and her family.https://twitter.com/KarinBBC/status/1497162333289914368\u00a0\u2026— Ione Wells (@Ione Wells) 1645792580
good lord, poor Olga - so glad her family is safe. Really well handled, Karin.— Kate Bevan \ud83c\uddfa\ud83c\udde6 (@Kate Bevan \ud83c\uddfa\ud83c\udde6) 1645786953
Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.