Original version

BBC World Service East and Southern Africa Schedule

BBC World Service East and Southern Africa

The Fifth Floor

Factual: Life Stories

Global stories from the BBC’s 40 Language Services, with Faranak Amidi

Faranak Amidi presents global stories from the Fifth Floor, home to the BBC’s 40 Language Services.

Faranak Amidi presents global stories from the Fifth Floor, home to the BBC’s 40 Language Services

BBC World Service Australasia

BBC World Service Online

BBC World Service schedule for American satellite radio and the Caribbean

BBC World Service Americas and the Caribbean

BBC World Service

BBC World Service South Asia

BBC World Service News Internet

BBC World Service Europe and the Middle East

BBC World Service West and Central Africa Schedule

BBC World Service West and Central Africa

BBC World Service East Asia

The Fifth Floor: How Russia makes war: Syrian memories

Documentaries

Composite image of destruction in Aleppo, Syria in 2017 and the aftermath of shelling in Kyiv, Ukraine in 2022

18/03/2022 GMT

How Russia makes war: Syrian memories

BBC World Service - The Fifth Floor, How Russia makes war: Syrian memories

Why Russian tactics in Ukraine have triggered memories in Syria

Perspectives on the war in Ukraine from BBC Arabic: remembering Russian tactics in Syria, investigating Russia’s secretive mercenaries, and reporting from the Polish border.

BBC Arabic: perspectives on the war in Ukraine from across the Middle East and North Africa.

Dima Babilie of BBC Arabic is from Damascus in Syria. She compares the Russian invasion of Ukraine with the Russian intervention in the Syrian conflict, and tells us about the pro-Assad Syrians who want to fight alongside the Russian forces. 

Hanan Razek tells us about her investigation into Russia's recruitment of mercenaries. She spoke to a serving fighter with the secretive Wagner organisation who says he was in Kharkiv at the beginning of the invasion. She also found some recruitment ads on social media inviting mercenaries to a "picnic in Ukraine".  

Mehdi Musawi works on the BBC Arabic TV and radio phone-in programme Talking Point. Its focus has been entirely on the war since the Russian invasion, and Mehdi tells us about some of the topics they have covered, and which have attracted the greatest response.

Murad Shishani was deployed to the Polish-Ukrainian border at the start of the war and interviewed Arabic-speaking refugees, many of whom had already fled war in their home countries. Murad is a Jordanian of Chechen origin, and he explained the negative reactions this sometimes provokes, on this and previous assignments.

(Photo: Composite image of destruction in Aleppo, Syria in 2017 (L) and the aftermath of shelling in Kyiv, Ukraine in March 2022. Credit: Joseph Eid/AFP/Getty Images (L), Pavlo Bahmut/Ukrinform/NurPhoto/Getty Images)

Accessibility links

Programme Index

The Fifth Floor

How Russia makes war: Syrian memories

Genres

Formats

Brand

BBC World Service East and Southern Africa

About BBC World Service