Original subtitles

Hello and welcome to Global Eye from the BBC World Service,

a programme that brings you the best of our journalism

from every corner of the world.

Investigations that uncover the harshest realities

and stories that shine a light on hope and resilience.

I'm Zhanna Bezpiatchuk from the BBC's Ukrainian service,

and this week we are in Kyiv.

In recent months, Russia has been intensifying its attacks

on Ukraine's energy infrastructure

in an attempt to weaponise the country's bitter winter.

So will this war of attrition

make Ukrainians more likely to give up territory in return for peace,

or has it only served to strengthen Ukrainian resolve

in the face of Russian aggression?

Later in the programme,

we'll bring you the thought-provoking stories

of three Ukrainian women raising children

who will never meet their fathers

because they died serving in the military.

Three, two, one...

We'll look at why the space race

between the US and China is hotting up.

Both countries are planning permanent bases on the moon -

but is this a battle for prestige on the world stage,

or a high-stakes scramble

for the rare, potentially game-changing minerals

buried beneath the lunar surface?

On 28th August 2025,

an entire section of this residential block in Kyiv

collapsed after a Russian missile strike at dawn.

23 people lost their lives.

Entire families went to sleep and didn't wake up the next morning.

Over 14,000 Ukrainian civilians have been killed

by Russian missile and drone attacks since February 2022.

The BBC has estimated

that Ukraine may have lost around 140,000

of its men and women on the battlefield.

Russia currently occupies around a fifth of Ukraine's territory -

but that occupation has come at a considerable cost.

BBC analysis suggests

around 350,000 Russian soldiers have been killed.

Modern warfare has changed dramatically over these four years.

Drones now dominate combat zones in Ukraine.

Instead of the roar of fighter jets,

people here in Kyiv fear the deadly whirring of Russian attack drones.

On the eastern and southern front lines,

large mechanised tank assaults

have been replaced by small groups of Russian infantry

infiltrating Ukrainian positions.

Metre by metre, these Russian forces

take Ukrainian villages and towns by force.

Russian President Vladimir Putin

aims to control the entire Donbas region.

People come to these tents, set up by Ukrainian emergency services,

to get some respite from the bitter cold,

and to charge their mobile phones

so they can stay connected to the outside world.

The temperature in Kyiv today varies from minus 7 to minus 21,

and because of Russia's ongoing assault

on Ukraine's energy infrastructure,

millions endure rolling blackouts

and the constant noise from air-raid sirens.

Many are forced to sleep fully dressed

and in coats and hats.

Ukrainians are being deprived of sleep

and have to live with constant anxiety -

but they also show adaptability.

Life goes on, and you have to get up for work in the morning,

even if you've had to try and sleep

through the roaring sound of the barrage.

This protracted form of warfare

is designed to wear Ukrainians down

and force their leaders to agree to give up territory and sovereignty.

So, is this tactic working?

Well, even though recent polls suggest more Ukrainians

are now willing to accept loss of territory

as long as it comes with security guarantees,

a majority still oppose the idea.

Russia's territorial ambitions

are the main stumbling block on the road to peace.

After multiple rounds of talks,

President Zelensky speaks of progress

but the talks remain deadlocked.

President Trump says he believes

that President Putin wants to end the war.

Russia's leader insists that he cannot agree to a deal

until what he would call the primary causes of the conflict

have been addressed -

issues like Ukraine's aspiration to join NATO,

or what he claimed to be mistreatment

of ethnic Russians in the Donbas.

Ukraine sees Putin's rhetoric as a dishonest pretext,

hiding Russia's real intentions -

to maintain control over all the territories it currently occupies

and to annexe even more land in the east.

President Zelensky is calling on the nations of Europe

to guarantee Ukraine's security in the face of Russian aggression,

but when it comes to security guarantees,

Ukrainians have bitter experience of broken promises.

In 1994,

in return for ceding its Soviet-era nuclear arsenal to Russia,

Ukraine received assurances from the US, UK and Russia

that it would never be threatened or invaded,

but then one of those signatories, Russia,

broke that pledge by invading Ukrainian territory.

The people here in Ukraine are hoping

that when the fifth anniversary

of the full-scale Russian invasion comes,

they will have succeeded in regaining heating

and power in their homes, and that a fair and lasting peace,

backed up by strong Western security guarantees,

may still be within their reach.

The 11th-century cathedral of Saint Sophia.

Even in the darkest days of the blackouts,

the light at the top of the tower shone,

but for the first time since February 2022,

now, because of the blackout,

the light has gone out and the cathedral is in darkness.

But, despite all, Ukrainians still retain hope

that one day soon the star on top of the cathedral will shine again.

Whatever the future holds,

Russia's invasion has left an indelible mark on every Ukrainian,

including its children.

As thousands of men have gone to the front lines,

a generation are learning to live without their fathers.

Some will never meet them at all.

The BBC's Ukrainian service

have been following three young widows -

Yana, Sasha and Olesya.

Their husbands were killed while serving in the military.

They could not meet their children.

SINGING IN UKRAINIAN

AIR-RAID SIREN WAILS

BABY CRIES

AIR-RAID SIREN WAILS

BABY FUSSES Shh, shh, shh.

BABY SNEEZES

Reporting for the World Service from Ukraine

since the beginning of the full-scale invasion

has been a privilege and a challenge.

Here's the head of BBC News Ukraine, Marta Shokalo.

A couple of days ago, we had our morning meeting on Teams,

and many people who are in Ukraine were wearing their winter coats.

It was minus 20 outside. It was hardly plus 10 in their houses,

and that was the week of our record numbers.

We reached over 18 million people in Ukraine,

so you probably wonder how we manage to do that.

The team that has been covering war

in their own home country for four years now.

We are spread around four different locations -

Kyiv, Lviv, Warsaw, London.

Part of our team are living as refugees,

part of our team enduring daily stress of Russian strikes,

having their relatives fighting on the front line.

I would say the main thing that keeps us going

is we are open to changes,

because otherwise we wouldn't be able to survive.

And also, no matter what, every day we need to remember

that first of all we are human beings

and we need to be kind to each other.

Now to a geopolitical battle taking place not here on Earth,

but in space. More than 50 years since humans were last on the moon,

there is a race to go back.

The US and China are both planning missions to the lunar surface,

and both want to build permanent bases.

It's a close race,

and the prize is prestige and access to the moon's mineral resources.

So why are we going back now?

And why has it taken so long?

To understand this new space race,

we need to understand the first one.

The first space race back in the 1960s was all about

the United States of America and the Soviet Union

trying to demonstrate their technological superiority

as part of a much wider geopolitical battle

to prove themselves the superpower of the world.

Russia was the first to put an object, an animal

and a person into orbit.

But in 1969, America won the race to put man on the moon.

That's one small step for man...

By 1972, 12 US astronauts had been to the moon.

Three, two, one...

But then the missions stopped.

It was billions of dollars, and President Nixon at the time

pointed out that, "Well, we've already been there.

"And more importantly, we have defeated the Soviet Union

"in this race."

America still talked about going back,

but focus shifted to other priorities,

like satellites and the International Space Station.

Meanwhile, China was building its own moon programme,

and in 2013, China landed an unmanned craft on the moon...

..which nobody had done since the 1970s.

Soon, the US was paying attention.

The directive I'm signing today will refocus

America's space programme on human exploration and discovery.

And so the two are competing,

and both have said that they want to

return humans to the moon in the coming years.

America has a multi-stage project to do that, called Artemis.

Hydrogen burn-off igniters initiate.

The first step was an unmanned orbit of the moon in 2022.

Four-stage engine start.

In step two, astronauts will orbit the moon

for the first time in more than 50 years.

But there aren't plans to land people on the surface

until step three, in 2027 at the earliest.

NASA has built a new rocket called the Space Launch System

to get its astronauts to the moon.

And private companies like SpaceX and Blue Origin

are building the technology needed to land.

China's goal is to send humans to the moon by 2030,

and it says it isn't in a race with the US.

But China's President, Xi Jinping,

says its ambition is to be a space power.

American officials are clear how they feel about that.

We cannot lose the moon, and lose the race to the moon, to China.

As the US and China's programmes have developed,

so have two sets of plans for the moon.

On one hand, we have the US-led Artemis Accords

that about 60 nations have signed, including India,

which is a major space-faring nation.

On the other hand, you have China that is leading

the International Lunar Research Station.

Russia is a main collaborator, and about ten nations

that have joined that side.

Both the American and Chinese programmes

aim to have permanent bases on the moon,

and getting there first may be the key.

The moon is the size of Africa,

and there are only some regions on the moon that has resources.

You basically are there first,

and you have permanent infrastructure.

Focus is on the moon's south pole,

because frozen in its deep craters, there's water.

This is essential to support human life on the moon,

not only for astronauts to drink,

but because water is made from hydrogen and oxygen,

that oxygen could be extracted to give them air to breathe.

And if separated, hydrogen and oxygen can become rocket fuel,

which could be used for our future plans in space.

Their argument is that the moon is going to serve

as that base of infrastructure,

human ingenuity, where you actually utilise

lunar resources to build your capacity.

Some of those resources are hidden in moon dust,

including helium-3,

which could one day power nuclear fusion reactors

and is very rare and expensive on Earth.

But extracting it from the moon has never been tried.

You have to send all the equipment to the moon.

You then have to do all that processing,

contain your helium-3,

return it safely to Earth, and then use it.

And the cost of that will be substantial.

Will the benefit be worth it?

That's one of many unknowns in this new race to the moon.

But the ambitions are clear.

The first space race was a lot about missions.

The space race we are seeing today, it's about activity.

It's not just one mission.

It's this connection of activities that build capacity to utilise space

for a much more sustainable period and longer term.

Thanks for joining me in Ukraine.

We want your feedback on Global Eye.

Let us know what you think on social media

using the hashtag...

Next week, we will be reporting from Venezuela.

Goodbye.