Kyiv hit by major Russian attack

**Celia Hatton** (0:00)
This is The Global News Podcast from the BBC World Service. I'm Celia Hatton, and at 14 Hours GMT on Thursday, the 20th of August, these are our main stories. Kiev comes under bombardment from Russia as Ukraine continues to plead with its allies for more air defense missiles. Disgraced property tycoon Hui Ka Yan, once Asia's richest man, is sentenced to life in prison in China. And a surprise announcement from Prince Harry and Meghan, they're moving back to the UK. We get reaction.
Also in this podcast, we hear about the efforts to preserve a geological marvel in Northern Ireland, removing the coins that tourists wedged into the rocks.

**Kirsten Lemon** (0:44)
We've actually engaged the services of a local stonemason and he's literally gone at it a bit like a dentist, removing material from within the little joints in the rocks, taking one out painstakingly, one by one.

**Celia Hatton** (1:01)
We begin this podcast in Ukraine and the devastating impact of Russian bombardment in the capital Kyiv overnight.
At least 13 people were killed when a school, apartment blocks and a children's hospital were hit. The Ukrainian MP Alexey Honcherenko, who's in Kyiv, spoke to the BBC.

**Alexey Honcherenko** (1:24)
That was a heavy night, really difficult one. Dozens of Russian missiles, ballistic missiles, other types attacked the city. We have a big problem that we don't have missiles interceptors for Patriot systems. We can't intercept ballistic missiles. We can intercept drones, different type of Russian drones, part of Russian missiles. But ballistic missiles are a very serious threat.
And for the moment, we are absolutely unprotected from them.

**Celia Hatton** (1:57)
Our Ukraine correspondent Dan Johnson spoke to us from one of the bombed buildings in Kyiv.

**Dan Johnson** (2:02)
There are tower blocks here that have been totally destroyed by the waves of Russian missile strikes that hit this city around midnight, 1 a.m. There were a number of locations that were hit. But here we've got about four or five eight story buildings that are almost totally destroyed, still standing somehow. But the recovery teams were showing me pictures from the roof that show where the missiles actually went straight in through the roof and then essentially destroyed these flats from the inside out. The recovery teams are going through this wreckage. The noise you can hear is them throwing bits of rubble down as they try to clear their way through these apartments, searching for the bodies of those who are believed to have been killed here and checking if there is anybody else trapped. There are lots of evacuated residents who are gathered here just really stunned by what they experienced last night and what they are witnessing now in terms of the devastation of their homes. They are counting the cost. They are considering what their future is, whether they can ever potentially return to live here. It looks unlikely. I have been in one of the ground floor flats just around the corner. There was a huge shard of glass that was actually embedded in the wall. The owner of that flat, Valeria, doesn't have a bomb shelter. She was telling me how they were cowering in the corridor in the hallway last night. If she had stayed in her bedroom, that shard of glass may have cost her or her 13-year-old daughter their lives. They actually moved to Kyiv having been bombed out of their home in Mikhailiev. Now they're considering whether they even have a safe future at all in Ukraine.

**Celia Hatton** (3:29)
And, Dan, Ukraine is constantly pleading with the United States and its allies for more interceptors. This is proof, I imagine, that it's still not getting what it needs.

**Dan Johnson** (3:40)
Yes, absolutely. The intense barrage of Russian ballistic missiles that hit this city last night were able to get through and cause this damage and destruction because of the lack of American-made Patriot missile interceptors. They are key in defending these skies against the fast-moving ballistic missiles that Russia has. Ukraine has been successful in shooting down Russian drones, but in terms of defending itself against ballistics, the plea from the president, from the mayor of Kiev, from everybody in Ukrainian politics, is for greater supplies of those interceptors so they can try to stop this devastation and loss of life.

**Celia Hatton** (4:17)
Dan Johnson. Staying with this conflict, Russia offers men tens of thousands of dollars to join its military and be sent to fight in Ukraine. But as the war escalates with no end in sight, there are increasing signs that despite the financial incentives, it's finding it harder to recruit the numbers it needs.
Russian soldiers captured recently in Ukraine have confirmed that and also talked of a high casualty rate. The BBC visited a prisoner of war camp to see the conditions and meet some of the men waiting to be sent home in the next exchange of soldiers. But not all of them are Russian, as Sarah Rainsford reports.