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From Our Own Correspondent: Ukraine’s conscription crackdown

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Vlad, Ukraine

22/06/2024 GMT

Ukraine’s conscription crackdown

BBC World Service - From Our Own Correspondent, Ukraine’s conscription crackdown

The men living in hiding from military service in Odesa– and the teams seeking them out

The men hiding from military service in Odesa – and the teams sent to find them; plus stories from Detroit’s streets, Senegal’s arts festivals and El Salvador’s coffee farms

Pascale Harter introduces dispatches from correspondents and writers in Ukraine, the USA, Senegal and El Salvador. 
More than two years since the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion, Ukraine is struggling to recruit and keep enough soldiers to fight the war. In Odesa, Jean Mackenzie spoke to men living in hiding to avoid the draft – and the conscription teams being sent to seek them out. 

Michigan will be a crucial political battleground in November’s US Presidential contest – and the state’s divisions are starkly on show on the streets of Detroit. Once this city was one of America’s industrial giants; for decades it was a byword for urban decay; and now, despite some signs of economic recovery, Mike Wendling finds that “the vibes are still bad” among many voters.

On the world stage, Senegal punches well above its weight as an artistic powerhouse. As its yearly season of festivals got going, Natasha Booty soaked up the culture – and heard why some artists were chafing against funding and schedule changes – in St Louis and Dakar.

El Salvador’s coffee crop is renowned for its smooth, chocolatey, floral notes – and at least some of its appeal may be down to the way it’s grown: in the shade. Unlike the open fields of coffee trees on plantations elsewhere, growers here prefer a method where the coffee plants are mixed in with other vegetation and planted beneath the canopy of larger trees. It takes a lot of work, and adds expense, learns Jane Chambers - but it’s better for wildlife and may even help reduce flooding. 

Producer: Polly Hope
Editor: Richard Fenton-Smith
Production Co-Ordinator: Katie Morrison

Image caption: Vlad, a conscription officer working in Odesa, southern Ukraine. Photo taken by Thanyarat Doksone, BBC.

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