792: When to Leave - This American Life

"All right, I'm going to stop here for some quick background. Valerie, who's been talking me through the video, is my colleague, Valerie Kipnis, a producer at the show. She speaks Russian, understands Ukrainian. She has been watching a lot of these videos, which are a genre in this war.

In Bakhmut, the fighting has been terrible for months. The city may already have fallen by the time this airs. Tens of thousands of people left the city in earlier waves. The deputy prime minister of Ukraine said the other week, quote, "If you are rational, law abiding, and patriotic citizens, you should leave the city immediately."

But at every front line, in every war, if it's a city, there are people holding out. In Bakhmut, maybe several thousand, many elderly or disabled people, those caring for them, also diehards. And so ordinary people, like the guy who shot this video, have taken it upon themselves to put on bulletproof vests, somehow get into Bakhmut, and get people out, take them to a refugee center where they'll be safe".