All language subtitles for Ukraine and Belarus Uneasy Borders 720p BigJ0554

But it could still be
some situation.

We will fight.

If you want peace, you should
be prepared for the war.

The border with Belarus
stretches for over

a thousand kilometres.

All along this northern
frontier the men and women

of Ukraine's border guard
are getting ready.

They may be called upon
to be this country's

first line of defence.

The enemy is not Belarus,
but somewhere beyond

this barbed wire fence.

Russia has deployed its forces
on Belarusian territory,

artillery and fighter jets,
tanks and rocket systems.

This right here is a highly
strategic spot because up that

road about an hour away
are the Russian forces.

Thousands of troops,
hundreds of tanks and down

that road is Kyiv.

It's pretty much
a straight paved road

all the way to the capital.

The thought of Russian tanks
rolling down this road evokes

the spectre of conflict
on a terrifying scale.

Washington and London
have warned an invasion

could be imminent.

Moscow calls that hysteria,
while at the same time pumping

out pictures of military
hardware making its

way into Belarus.

Their troops welcomed
with a traditional greeting

of bread and salt.

This current crisis
really began in 2014,

when protesters occupied
the centre of Kyiv.

They wanted to set their
country on a course

towards European integration
when security forces loyal

to the then pro-Russian
president opened fire.

GUNFIRE.

It ended in a massacre and the
overthrow of Moscow's power.

Russia responded -
it annexed Crimea, which had

been part of Ukraine
since Soviet times -

and sent troops to support
a separatist rebellion

in the Eastern Donbas region,
that conflict has continued

ever since, despite a ceasefire
agreement between

the two sides.

In Kyiv today, there's
a strange feeling of unreality

about the looming threat from
Russia.

People here are used to war.

There's been fighting in the
east for nearly eight years.

And yet the authorities have
been playing down the current

threat, saying the Russians
do not currently have

enough forces in place
for a full scale invasion.

But a former Ukrainian deputy
defence minister who still

advises the government told me
the build-up of troops

on the Belarusian
border was concerning.

So what we prognose as the most
plausible scenarios,

this is the attempt to isolate
Kyiv, to have an operation

like a surround in Kyiv
and don't let the Ukrainian

government to actually
to operate and to manage

the country in these
situations.

And this operation requires
less forces and is possible

because of the now exercises
in Belarussia when

they have more Russian
troops in Belarussia.

The Russians aren't
the only ones showing

off their military hardware.

Last week, we travelled
to the far West of Ukraine

to see Ukrainian forces trying
out some new weaponry -

shoulder-held anti-tank
missiles provided by the UK.

Also there, a small
contingent of British forces.

How many of you are there?

So the training team
is ranging between eight

to nine individuals...

..who wanted to be filmed
but didn't want to talk.

These were exercises.

The Brits were here
for training purposes.

Western countries have made it
clear in the event of a direct

confrontation with Russian
forces, Nato won't be

sending its soldiers to fight.

We are proud that we
are Ukrainian soldiers.

We are proud that we
are Ukrainian officers.

We are proud that we we have
such kind of support and help,

and we will do everything
possible to defend our country.

For now, this is a war
not of tanks and bombs,

but of images and of words
fought between Russia

and its traditional Nato foe,
with Ukrainians stuck

in the middle.

Nowhere is the tension
between East and West felt more

keenly than in Lviv.

Over the past century,
control of this city has passed

from the Austro-Hungarian
Empire to Poland to Nazi

Germany, then to the Soviet
Union and now independent

Ukraine.

In the basement of a
residential block they're

preparing a bomb shelter -
one of thousands

across the city.

In the 1980s Oleg served in
Afghanistan alongside Russian

and other Soviet soldiers.

Now he faces the prospect
of fighting against his

former brothers in arms.

If Russia does mount
an invasion, the chances of it

sending forces this far west
are vanishingly small.

But Lviv is in
a combative mood.

The mayor told me he wanted
every man and woman here to be

capable of handling a gun.

For decades, this city has
been one of the centres

of Ukrainian national identity,
an identity that has

been defined in
opposition to Moscow.

In the Garrison Church
of Saints Peter and Paul,

they have a shrine dedicated
to those sons of Lviv who've

been killed fighting
Russian-backed forces in

Donbas.

This priest spends much of his
time travelling to the East.

Yeah, that's someone's water
bottle that's obviously

been hit by shrapnel.

Ministering to those
on the front lines of

a war that is already
eight years old.

Do you worry that this conflict
is entering a new and more

dangerous phase now?

On one level, this conflict
is about geopolitical power.

Putin fears Ukraine falling
further out of Russia's orbit.

But geography and identity
are important too.

The deep connection
between Ukraine and Russia

goes back much further
than their shared Soviet past.

It was here a thousand years
ago in Kyiv, in this stretch

of river that Prince Volodimir
baptised his people,

an act that led to the founding
of the Russian Orthodox Church.

And the further north
and East you travel,

the more likely you are to meet
Ukrainians who, despite

everything, have a sense
of their connection to Russia

through shared bonds
of history and of faith.

SINGING.

Back near the Belarusian
border is the Chapel

of St Basil the Great.

Here they have a shrine not
to the fallen of Donbas.

The last Tsar of Russia.

The emperor Nicholas II visited
here in 1911, six years before

he was overthrown and then
executed by the Bolsheviks.

Since the end of communism,
the Russian Orthodox Church has

functioned not just as a source
of spiritual authority,

but as an instrument
of Russian soft power.

The image of Ukraine
as a chaotic failing state is

part of the Kremlin's playbook.

It's a message designed both
for domestic Russian

consumption - don't flirt
with the West - but also part

of Moscow's PR campaign.

This propaganda war has
been going on for years.

The more urgent question
is, could that develop

into a full scale actual war?

The point of highest danger
will come in the next few

weeks, says Ukraine's former
deputy defence minister.

20th of February is
a very interesting day,

this is the last day
of the Olympic Games

and this is the last day
of the exercises in Russia

At the end of February,
they will be more ready

from the point of view
of capabilities.

They will be ready
mentally from the point

of view of Olympics.

They will have maximum forces
concentration in Belarussia.

If the Russians do invade
from the North, they'll quite

likely pass through this
strange, deserted area right

on the Belarusian border.

It was in the dying days
of the Soviet Union that people

suddenly abandoned their homes
here after an explosion

at a nuclear power plant.

Chernobyl.

The very word became synonymous
with the callous incompetence

of a sclerotic regime
after Moscow tried to

cover up the accident.

What happened here 35 years ago
contributed to the collapse

of the Soviet Union,
and Ukraine splitting

off and becoming an
independent country.

And now, even though
it's so eerily quiet,

it feels like this place
is on the front line again.

The whole area around Chernobyl
is now a closed zone,

a place where the clock stopped
35 years ago.

A time when Ukraine was still
shackled to its more

powerful neighbour.

The abandoned railway station.

This man was three years
old when the reactor exploded.

He and his parents were
eventually evacuated.

Now, as he contemplates
the possibility of a Russian

invasion, he's the father
of two young children himself.

Ukraine and Russia are
two countries divided

by a common history.

That is the fundamental
tension, and it'll continue

to fuel this crisis whatever
happens in the next

few dangerous weeks.