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How do young people feel about being called up to fight?

Some young men fear they will be forced to join the Ukrainian army

As Ukraine’s much discussed mobilisation bill returns to parliament, we catch up with friend of the podcast and student Vitalii Pashchenko, to find out how he and his friends feel about the conscription age being lowered from 27 to 25.

He tells us about life in Kyiv, and why his family have decided to return to Ukraine after fleeing to Poland at the start of the war.

Vitaly also speaks to Ukraine’s Prosecutor General, Andriy Kostin, and his UK counterpart, Victoria Prentis. They reveal how Ukraine is investigating war crimes and seeking justice - and how the UK is assisting in this work.

Today’s episode is presented by Victoria Derbyshire and Vitaly Shevchenko.

It was made by Keiligh Baker. The producers were Ivana Davidovic, Cordelia Hemming and Arsenii Sokolov. The technical producer was Mike Regaard. The series producer is Lucy Boast. The senior news editor is Jonathan Aspinwall.

Email Ukrainecast@bbc.co.uk with your questions and comments. You can also send us a message or voice note via WhatsApp, Signal or Telegram to +44 330 1239480

You can join the Ukrainecast discussion on Newscast’s Discord server here: tinyurl.com/ukrainecastdiscord

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30 minutes

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