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You're listening to a rough translation from NPR.

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I'm

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Gregory Warner.

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And I'm Molly Webster. From Radio Lab. From

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Radio

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Lab.

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And we are back with our Rough Translation

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Radio Lab collaborations.

0:25

Yes. The last time we were together, we told

0:27

you the story of an amateur smuggling

0:29

operation bringing abortion pills

0:31

into Ukraine right after the

0:33

invasion.

0:33

That story was called Ukraine under the

0:35

counter. It's in both of our feeds go

0:37

listen.

0:38

And if you don't, spoiler alert.

0:41

When

0:41

we ended that story, so it

0:43

was night. It was like eleven,

0:46

eleven and something. A

0:47

Ukrainian woman named Yefgenia and

0:50

her friends have crossed over the border

0:52

with three moving boxes of pills.

0:54

So it's like a I'm not leaving this

0:57

this bills in my car.

0:59

They carry the boxes up to her apartment,

1:01

So I was sleeping in my apartment

1:03

and live with

1:06

ten thousand abortion. I

1:08

am. It was strange. Really

1:10

it was something like fifteen thousand abortion

1:12

kits, regardless she wakes up the

1:14

next day and she had so many questions. Doctors

1:18

didn't know that

1:20

we had brought this product. You'll

1:22

remember they were trying to get these pills to

1:24

doctors throughout Ukraine after

1:26

hearing stories of sexual violence committed

1:28

by Russian soldiers. And so if

1:30

Gwenya wondered, know, would

1:32

she be able to get these pills into the hands

1:35

of doctors in

1:36

time, and would women who

1:38

needed them actually get them?

1:40

And so, we

1:42

went to Ukraine. To follow these pills.

1:44

Alright. So we're in a blackout, and it totally

1:46

reminds me of a New York blackout. In

1:48

October, reporter, Cats Lasslow and

1:50

I landed in the Ukrainian city

1:52

of Laviv. And they're like impromptu parties

1:55

where people clean up refrigerators and

1:57

make music. That

2:01

morning Russian missiles had knocked out

2:03

power to hundreds of thousands of people.

2:05

And that night, people were kissing, singing,

2:07

and picnicking, but also crying,

2:09

shouting. We

2:15

come here because of a donation of pills fueled

2:17

by one story of war. Pills

2:23

meant to offer some relief and maybe restore

2:25

some choice. But

2:28

in Ukraine, we'd hear so many different

2:30

stories about the ways that people were

2:32

interacting with these pills in a war.

2:35

It made us rethink our understanding of

2:37

how we talk about these pills and

2:39

the way we talk about choice. After

2:47

if Kenya got the pills, she started calling

2:49

doctors. And

2:52

six months later, when Katz and I arrived in

2:54

Ukraine, we went to see one of the first doctors

2:56

that she spoke with. Glynav is

2:58

ready.

3:04

Galena Maestroek, who is also one of

3:06

the people that everybody told us to talk to

3:08

when we got to Ukraine. I know. You you sent

3:10

me so many messages just

3:13

like a lovers in pre previous

3:15

time. Yeah. Exactly. That's

3:17

very enthusiastic. We met Galena

3:19

at her office in Kiev, and her organization

3:21

is the Ukrainian partner for international

3:24

planned parenthood. I'm in Orbijou Bryan.

3:27

And Geline has been practicing

3:29

medicine for about four decades, and

3:31

abortion has been legal for her entire career.

3:34

And ten years ago, abortion pills came

3:36

on the market. But when Russia invaded

3:38

in February twenty twenty two -- Medical

3:41

first of all, supply chains to the country

3:43

were cut

3:43

off. No

3:44

air connection. We have no

3:46

ship connection. I mean, sea.

3:48

So pills weren't being restocked.

3:50

All the pharmacists were in collapsed. So

3:53

by mid April, the very

3:55

moment that if Daniel was driving

3:57

those

3:57

abortion pills over the border. No,

4:00

no, no pills at all. At this

4:02

time. And

4:05

because of this, doctors were worried.

4:10

From the beginning of war, we started to

4:12

have this doubts

4:14

if

4:14

we're gonna have enough pills because the

4:16

request One doctor in Kiev told

4:18

us in April, three to five

4:21

times more women were showing up in our office

4:23

and asking for abortion

4:24

pills. We realized that women

4:27

would come and come and come and they're gonna be

4:29

more and more

4:29

of them. But the pills, there's

4:32

not gonna be more of them. And and we

4:34

didn't know if there's gonna be any.

4:37

And at the same time, surgical abortion

4:39

was actually harder to find. Hospitals

4:41

were being

4:41

bombed, surgeons were overwhelmed, a

4:43

doctor in the Eastern city of Danipro told

4:45

us.

4:47

Actually, after the beginning

4:49

of the full scale invasion, refugees

4:52

with no job and no money started turning

4:54

to us. And then on top of that,

4:56

there's also just a baseline of people

4:58

who are getting pregnant and who need

5:00

abortions, war or no war. But

5:03

Galena says, during that time, there

5:05

was absolutely silence at

5:07

this period from international organizations,

5:10

from big fishes in this

5:12

they have no such a

5:15

big speed to react to everything,

5:18

you know. They need to make procurements. They

5:20

need to to to get money for this.

5:22

But then Glina gets

5:24

a call. Hello? Connection

5:27

with Eugenia was like magic

5:29

situation.

5:30

Yevgenia sends her sixteen hundred

5:32

abortion kits.

5:33

My son is, please. Wow.

5:35

We actually got to see some of these pills when

5:37

we got to Ukraine.

5:39

I know the person who made these these

5:41

are the coffee packages, though. Coffee

5:44

packages? Yeah. The story goes that

5:46

when Yovgenia was packing up the

5:48

pills to ship them to the doctors. She

5:50

didn't have any access to pharmaceutical

5:53

boxes, so she grabbed these coffee

5:55

bags.

5:55

Laveave incidentally is known in Ukraine

5:57

as the city of chocolate and coffee. What

5:59

do the coffee packages look like? Is it like

6:01

like a matte white bag,

6:04

and then you can see, like, the

6:06

the aromatic filter on it.

6:08

Oh, where the good smells come out? Okay.

6:10

It's just a small box with a

6:12

small packages, but, you

6:14

know, it's a big difference when you

6:17

give somebody food when it's no

6:19

food. And so. Once she learns

6:22

about this shipment of abortion pills, Galena

6:24

calls all the doctors she can think of

6:26

across the country.

6:33

And to the coffee bags

6:35

go to Búcha and they go all around

6:37

Ukraine. We started to contact doctors

6:39

and they started to tell about us

6:42

to other doctors from here soon

6:44

from Nikolai. We started to receive the

6:46

the mails and telephones like,

6:48

can you bring it to us? You

6:51

know, you build the building from small stones.

6:53

And this was one of the small stones

6:56

which wasn't the

6:56

basement, you know. And it was

6:58

extremely important. The

7:02

first Second

7:04

that I heard about this story, I was immediately

7:07

like, what was this like for the

7:09

women who needed the pills?

7:11

Were people willing to go on the record? No

7:13

one that actually had an abortion wanted to talk

7:15

to us, but we did talk to the people

7:17

that they talked. We talk to their friends

7:20

and their doctors.

7:21

Just a heads up, almost all those doctors asked

7:24

us not to use their last names to protect

7:26

their privacy at work. So

7:30

this is Dr. Olga. She's based in

7:32

Kiev and has patients in Búcha and

7:35

did during the occupation.

7:36

I didn't have any case when

7:39

woman told me that

7:42

she experienced that sexual violence

7:44

or raping her. So and

7:47

we didn't ask them in purpose. Like, we didn't

7:49

ask them this question. Me

7:52

is woman I couldn't

7:54

let myself do that just

7:57

to make her feel

7:59

this pain again. And and also I know

8:01

that if this woman had

8:03

a feeling that she wants to share with

8:05

it, she would do that. She said that the

8:07

patients who did come to her for an abortion.

8:12

Jotkin, they all came with a

8:15

really strict decision, strong decision

8:17

to for abortion. It's because

8:20

despite the war they had other plants.

8:29

They maybe have children in here or

8:31

a husband in territorial defense

8:33

or or in the

8:34

army, and it's harder for them to leave the country.

8:37

And I started to

8:39

see patients who lost their

8:41

houses, their relatives, and

8:44

they came to us.

8:46

Another doctor we met, Valentina, told

8:48

us about this woman who came to her from the east,

8:51

from the city of Slovakia. She

8:53

told me I had to slowly ask everything.

8:56

I had to flats. I

8:58

had house near

9:00

his side. I have two

9:02

restaurants. Not AM

9:04

once. I hold it.

9:07

Another translation is Now I'm

9:09

a bum. Now I am once.

9:12

I don't know what

9:15

I should do with my child.

9:18

She said, I already have a child to take

9:20

care of. And I

9:23

just lost my house. I lost

9:25

my money. I should be

9:28

healthy, strong, and

9:30

to have time, and

9:33

silver. Butter for energy.

9:35

Energy for my

9:38

one child.

9:43

We heard stories of patients where

9:46

war came into their lives, changed

9:49

their environment, their houses, their

9:51

relationships, their income, and

9:53

they knew that they needed these

9:55

pills. But we also

9:57

heard stories about these pills that

9:59

went beyond abortion.

10:02

And that revelation, it started

10:04

with doctor Oksana.

10:06

Yes. We are good. Okay.

10:08

Can you introduce yourself to me? Her

10:12

hospital is in the vet, near the train station

10:14

and she sees local patients and

10:16

also patients who fled fighting in

10:18

the east. And

10:23

these are a lot more complicated

10:25

cases, more complications with

10:28

pregnancies and more issues with

10:29

pregnancy. Everyone is in a lot

10:31

of stress. Do you mean that just

10:33

because of the stress, like,

10:36

there's more complications, like, miscarriage, and

10:38

stuff like that? Yeah. That's right. Can

10:41

you give me a sense of scale like

10:43

as in how much more percentage

10:45

would you say was complicated?

10:50

While it's difficult to estimate, but I think

10:52

it's, like, one third

10:54

more than was before.

10:57

Who's up one third? Wow.

11:00

It just seems like such a massive increase.

11:02

We heard that from a lot of doctors. I

11:04

think it's much difficult to be planned

11:06

under the war than a normal

11:08

life because you don't know what will be tomorrow.

11:11

This is Diana. She's a gynecologist in

11:13

her cave really close to the front lines.

11:15

When the water starts, we have lot of complications

11:18

of pregnancy. And she described

11:20

having a day where Oh, woman

11:22

got to a hospital by ambulance with some bleeding.

11:25

Every single woman that came

11:27

in was hemorrhaging.

11:30

Doctors like when they see complications like

11:33

this happening, they reach for

11:35

these pills for mifepristone and mesoprostol.

11:38

Wait. They reach for these pills for complications?

11:41

Yeah. So it's actually

11:43

really dangerous if a miscarriage

11:45

doesn't complete. Like if anything is

11:48

left in the womb. And so

11:50

in the case of miscarriage, you would use these

11:52

pills essentially in the same

11:54

way you would as an abortion. Where

11:56

you take the pills and then they would just make sure

11:58

your uterus was completely cleared out.

12:01

In the case of bleeding, you don't actually

12:03

need both pills doctors would just

12:06

go for misoprostol. So

12:08

misoprostol is the pill that causes everything

12:10

to contract. And that's just like

12:12

a tightening of muscle. And

12:14

so when you have that contraction,

12:17

it clamps down on blood vessels,

12:19

which essentially closes

12:21

them off and so blood can't get

12:23

out and then you stop bleeding. Well,

12:26

yeah, you can actually grab these pills, well,

12:28

misoprostil for just normal

12:31

labor where there's no complications, but

12:33

to help induce contractions and

12:35

give birth. And so when I thought

12:37

about that April shipment of

12:38

pills, It took me a while to,

12:40

like, really let that sink in,

12:44

but every gynecologist was, like,

12:47

Oh, yeah. We've really used it for, like, the complications

12:49

and the miscarriages and the unlabeled pregnancies

12:52

and in labor and

12:54

I'm like, but what about the abortions? And they're

12:57

like, yes, he has some miscarriages. And I'm like,

12:59

what about the abortions? And they're like, yes,

13:01

he has some miscarriages. And I'm like, wait. Hang on

13:03

a minute. Why do they keep bringing up these miscarriages

13:05

all the time? It

13:09

just hit me in the stomach of, like,

13:13

Whoa. These pills are for

13:17

every possible moment of

13:19

pregnancy. Yeah. Because

13:21

I felt like we'd come to Ukraine

13:23

to do this story, right, about abortion pills

13:26

and war, but then actually

13:28

being in a country that was running out of these pills

13:31

because of war

13:32

I felt like this story was so much bigger

13:35

than than what we thought.

13:40

Hello. Hello. Hello. Hello. Yeah.

13:42

We have a we have a baby folks. I just

13:45

we have a baby on the screen. Here

13:47

we I'll put on my

13:48

video, but we also I ended up on a Zoom

13:50

call with four Ukrainian

13:53

women who are all based in

13:55

Kiev. Three of whom

13:57

have been pregnant during the war.

13:59

I

13:59

found out about the pregnancy in

14:02

July, and none of

14:04

these women have used these pills. But

14:06

I just wanted to hear about

14:08

the experiences of being pregnant and giving

14:10

birth in Ukraine right now. Now I

14:12

have a little daughter. Name is

14:14

Balidiya. There was Jinya,

14:17

Nadia, Nvada, and

14:19

then their translator, Anastasia.

14:22

Yeah.

14:22

It's my first date. And

14:25

I am twenty nine

14:27

years old, and I

14:30

never tell story

14:32

about my pregnant. It

14:37

actually was the first time all of them were telling new

14:39

stories and they had so many overlaps

14:42

and shared

14:43

moments. There was this just shared

14:45

sense of uncertainty. It

14:47

okay, in Kiev not to have

14:49

any electricity for eight hours. It's

14:53

the guy who

14:54

life without water and then

14:57

obviously stress. Zampano

15:00

hospitals was boosted by Robin

15:02

and fear.

15:04

Sometimes I hear explosions.

15:09

When I give those

15:11

letter, we have air

15:13

a lot and

15:15

it's it it was very

15:17

scary. It's

15:19

just a loneliness and isolation.

15:26

In Nadia's case, she was two weeks

15:28

before her due date

15:31

And then the invasion happened on February

15:33

twenty fourth, and she found herself in

15:35

occupied territory.

15:38

They heard different sounds

15:40

like shooting, rockets,

15:43

and so on. So

15:47

she couldn't get to the nearby hospital, the road

15:49

was hit by a missile. And then just

15:51

because of how dangerous the streets were in the

15:53

fighting, no doctor or midwife could

15:55

get to her. Her grandfather goes to

15:57

Ukrainian army, and they

15:59

said, if she goes into labor, let

16:01

us know we can go to her and maybe

16:04

we can

16:04

help her. She didn't want to wait between

16:06

interrupt the soldiers over that,

16:08

but she didn't want pull the soldiers away

16:10

from fighting. While

16:13

she's trying to figure all this out, she's

16:16

leaking amniotic fluid like she's already

16:18

leaking water. But

16:23

she still decides to join a group

16:25

of people who are going

16:27

to try to drive out of the area.

16:35

She didn't understand your emotions

16:37

in the time. Yes. She got only an aim

16:40

to reach from the destination where

16:42

it was it was helped.

16:48

After eight hours of what was supposed

16:50

to be a forty five minute trip, Nadia

16:53

does make it to hospital and she

16:55

has a healthy baby. And

16:58

eventually, Vlada did two. Vlada

17:00

is five months old.

17:03

And she and Vlada are very happy.

17:05

Jenia is about to have her baby. But

17:10

these women, you know, there were

17:12

moments where their lives were in danger

17:14

or their pregnancies were there was just simply

17:16

so much uncertainty around them

17:19

that it did bring

17:20

up moments of doubt. We planned

17:22

to yes for

17:24

my pregnancy and mhmm.

17:32

If she knew, yes, that

17:35

it would be as an option

17:36

maybe, Vada wouldn't

17:39

decide to do it.

17:49

Coming up after the break, these pills take

17:52

us into a complicated conversation

17:55

around having a baby or

17:57

not in a wartime. Rough

18:02

translation will be back in a moment.

18:11

We're back with Rough Translation, and

18:13

our collaboration with radio lab. I'm Gregory

18:15

Warner.

18:16

I'm Molly Webster. In the first part of this

18:18

episode, we followed the shipment of abortion pills to

18:20

Ukraine, and we learned that they were needed

18:22

and they were used in fact, the

18:24

stress of war on

18:26

pregnancy meant they were used a lot more

18:28

widely than we

18:29

thought. One of the Ukrainian doctors

18:31

that we met while we were following these

18:33

skills ended up making us

18:36

think about the complexities of getting an

18:38

abortion in a time of war. And

18:40

so this doctor, her name is Valentina,

18:43

She asked that we not use her last name to protect

18:45

her privacy at work, but

18:47

cats had come across a

18:49

video interview with Valentina on

18:52

Instagram ground.

18:55

She starts by saying the topic of our

18:57

conversation is abortion and wartime.

19:01

Plagna in their utmost niches,

19:04

business, student. She

19:06

says, this is a very difficult ambiguous

19:09

situation from each side. But

19:11

a woman has the right to decide for herself,

19:14

not to wait for society's opinion or

19:17

church or what they think of her. This

19:19

is her decision. And no matter

19:21

what decision she makes, it will be the right

19:23

one. She

19:27

says, we believe in the victory

19:29

of Ukraine, but we should think about

19:31

how to help the children we have

19:33

now. In the whole time, she's

19:35

talking, she has the

19:37

actual coffee bags of

19:39

pills from this April shipment next

19:42

to her. And it kind of feels like she's defending

19:45

these pills and the use of them against

19:47

someone you can't see. And

19:49

you just have all these questions, like, why

19:51

does she feel the need to make this argument?

19:53

Or who or what is she

19:55

arguing against? And thinking about the

19:57

subject line of her video, what does a

19:59

abortion have to do with victory in

20:01

the war.

20:09

So Katz and I and our interpreter, Keira,

20:11

came to Valentina's office in Lave. Religion,

20:14

it plays a large role in

20:16

Lave. And the city is a center

20:18

for Greek Catholic church. Not

20:20

a lot of doctors can occur. Just

20:22

like to draw a brush in at all.

20:25

In our hospital only maximum

20:28

five or six person who do abortion.

20:30

Valentina

20:34

gets a lot of questions from her patients about

20:36

how their abortion will go. What

20:38

do I should do if I will have hemorrhage?

20:41

Will these abortion pills work?

20:43

Will

20:44

it hurt? We will have children

20:47

in future. Do

20:50

I need to follow-up? When they can go

20:52

to fitness? When is it safe to have

20:54

sex? Have normal for normal life.

20:59

Those are some of the questions that the patients

21:01

ask her. But Valentina

21:03

told us about a question that she

21:05

now has to ask all of her patients

21:08

who request an abortion. And this

21:10

is part of her practice that changed

21:12

about a week or so after the Russian

21:14

invasion, when her hospital director

21:17

handed her what appeared to be a

21:19

hastily written new form

21:21

for patients to sign. And this

21:23

form specifically was for patients

21:25

requesting an abortion.

21:30

No. What I

21:31

can show you?

21:34

Maybe we can take a picture

21:37

just so we can Can we take a picture? Okay.

21:40

Can you just tell me what excites me? Obviously,

21:42

I don't understand. It's

21:44

addressed. Like, it's out of the hospital.

21:46

I was out of its names. Yeah,

21:48

give my agreement for

21:51

disclosing my personal data for

21:54

the fact that I asked for the medical help

21:57

to hospital. It

21:59

says you're disclosing your name and information to

22:01

third parties. You know related to the

22:05

interest of the national security,

22:07

economical prosperity and human

22:09

rights. And this

22:11

agreement is active for as long as martial

22:14

law in here. So this is something

22:16

that says specifically during

22:18

the martial law period, you're

22:20

allowed access to my abortion files.

22:24

Wow. And they have to sign

22:26

this. They can't say no. I

22:29

have to say that I'm I'm

22:31

a bit shocked. I

22:35

I would be very upset if

22:37

I had to sign that form.

22:40

The form is for all abortions or

22:42

it's in the case of rape. It's for all

22:44

abortions.

22:45

Okay. Every single abortion, everyone

22:48

that requests one. And Ballantina

22:50

also specifically has to ask each

22:52

patient is your abortion

22:54

for war related reasons? And

22:57

if they say yes and she says, most

22:59

do. They should write

23:02

as if they do abortion,

23:05

caused

23:06

by war.

23:08

And honestly, I was like, wait. Hang

23:11

on. What does your decision to have an

23:13

abortion have to do with national security,

23:15

with economic prosperity? Because

23:18

In this war,

23:21

we should kill our children,

23:23

future children because

23:25

parents

23:28

Don't know what to do with all of

23:30

this. You understand me?

23:33

Like, if there had been

23:36

no invasion or no

23:38

war, that couple

23:40

that pregnant person

23:43

might have made the decision to keep

23:45

that baby. And so

23:47

in deciding to not keep that baby

23:49

because it's wartime, it's almost like

23:52

another murder on the battlefield.

23:54

Yeah. That is what

23:57

she's talking about. Whether

23:59

or not patients feel this way, we

24:01

can't say. This was just one

24:03

form in this one hospital. And

24:06

we don't know where it came from. Like, the hospital

24:08

wouldn't tell us more. But

24:11

it was clear that Valentino wanted us

24:13

to see this form and really

24:16

think about what it meant.

24:19

I I never forget when I saw

24:22

first the first time most

24:24

grave in Maruho. And

24:27

you feel like your

24:30

your society is not

24:33

just people around you that

24:35

it's it's like you really

24:37

want body. Many

24:40

Ukrainians told us about a

24:42

certain kind of conversation they'd been a part

24:44

of or at least ever

24:46

heard. We feel this

24:48

genocide of war is

24:50

skewing us. And I

24:54

think when somebody wants to

24:57

have children, have more ukrainians.

24:59

It's just about future,

25:02

about living and

25:03

about, you know, purpose.

25:07

It's like regeneration. They

25:12

give a lot when you go through a

25:14

lot of people who are

25:16

around told me, oh, you are so great.

25:19

You gave a girl during the war,

25:21

but she didn't have any other opportunity

25:24

because she was already pregnant. In

25:32

his naive, her sentence, they

25:34

were planning to have a child before

25:36

the war. But when the war started,

25:39

she and her husband decided to

25:41

know to do it, and she even

25:43

say the phrase that I'm not sure

25:45

if I want to give a life in

25:48

such a world.

25:55

It seems to me is that every

25:57

woman in Ukraine has her own

25:59

story. And even

26:02

if at first glance, it has

26:04

nothing to do with eyes of war or

26:06

pregnancy. You can

26:08

still trace the points that lead

26:10

to this.

26:27

On our last day in Ukraine, we go

26:29

to the address of a warehouse where if Garnier

26:32

tells us there's a few coffee bags still

26:34

left. Hi, Vanya. Hi.

26:37

Sky answers. It's it's

26:40

very clear that this is not

26:43

a warehouse in a way in which,

26:45

like, I've been picturing

26:46

it. It's just an apartment.

26:47

Hi. Are you guys there? Great. Yes.

26:50

Okay. Nice

26:52

to meet you.

26:53

He's got a roommate. He's frying an egg.

26:55

They have a dog.

26:57

And then we come in and the dog

26:59

is is, like, very enthusiastic. Since

27:04

that April shipment that we've been following,

27:06

Uganda received two more shipments of

27:08

abortion pills. These were not smuggled

27:10

though through Poland, like the last batch,

27:13

they were legally mailed from India.

27:15

And, yeah, she told us that they

27:17

were here. So we thought we would come and

27:19

visit them. They they generally it's

27:21

just a room full of boxes.

27:27

You can just see in the corner of your eye

27:29

in each bedroom. There's like a huge

27:32

stash of boxes. Like

27:34

massive amounts of boxes. Like,

27:36

the stack is taller than

27:37

us. I

27:38

would say it's eight foot high for sure.

27:40

So there's like a bunch of white boxes and

27:42

on it. It says top kit, combi kit

27:44

one plus four. So

27:46

twenty four. There's so many boxes and portion

27:48

bills here. Five. Then

27:51

also the living

27:52

room, there are more boxes of pills, 456,

27:55

and then under Vanya's sock drawer, It's

27:57

like a stone. Yes. A

27:59

broken wheels. Mhmm. But they

28:02

put it all together in

28:04

the

28:04

kit. Which is Every few days,

28:06

someone comes here, grabs packet of pills,

28:08

and mails it off to another doctor. They've even

28:11

smuggled some into occupied territories.

28:13

Here they all are. It was so

28:15

dramatically casual. We're just standing

28:17

in this guy's apartment and each

28:20

of these pills is is a story.

28:23

It's someone's story, a moment in their

28:25

life, whether that's pregnancy

28:28

or a complication or a

28:30

family decision or pressure,

28:35

a dramatic event, or just

28:37

something I'll forget. Have

28:40

a nice day. Thank you. Thank you so much.

28:42

Thanks so much.

28:47

If Kenya who brought the boxes over

28:49

the border originally says that they have more than

28:51

enough pills,

28:54

some of them may even expire. But

28:56

the hope is that they'll

28:58

never have to go back to a situation like

29:01

in April. That

29:04

they'll never run out. Alright.

29:09

Let me step get back into a

29:12

beautiful day. You would never guess.

29:32

Reporter, Kat Slaslow. This

29:36

episode was produced by Tessa

29:38

Pioli, Daniel Girma and our senior producer,

29:40

Adelina Lancini's, with help from

29:42

Nick m

29:43

Neves. Our editor was Brenna Farrell

29:45

reporting help from the Rough translation team.

29:48

Huge thanks to the ears of Valeria Fekina

29:50

Andrei igalup, Noel King, Robert

29:53

Crow witch, and Sonic Crossachov, plus

29:55

Soren Wheeler and all her friends at Radio Lab.

29:57

Thank you to NPR's international desk and

29:59

the team at the Ukraine

30:00

Bureau. And to our interpreters Cura

30:02

Lianova and Tatiana Euronits. Thanks

30:04

to doctors, Natalia, Irena and

30:06

Diana, Yuliya Mitzko, Yuliya Babbage,

30:08

Maria Glosunova, Yvette

30:11

Neurova. Thanks also to Lauren Ramirez,

30:13

Jane Newham, Olenas Shifchenko, Martin

30:16

Chumako, Jamie Nadal, Jonathan Barrick,

30:18

and the many, many others we spoke

30:20

to for the story. The

30:23

Rough translation team includes Louise Tres and

30:25

Justine Yang. Our intern is Alina Torek,

30:27

our supervising producers Lee on symstrom,

30:29

Irene Naguchi is the executive producer

30:31

of the enterprise storytelling unit, which is our

30:33

home at

30:34

NPR. Our visuals editing came from

30:36

Katie Dell and Peter De Campo, illustrations by

30:41

Translation came from Eugene Alper and

30:43

Dennis Kuchevsky. Voiceover came

30:45

from Lizzie Martenko and Yuliya

30:47

Serbanenko. Archival from

30:49

the heel foundation. John

30:52

Ellis composed our theme music, original music

30:54

from Dylan Keith, additional music from

30:56

Blue Dot Sessions, and First Com Music.

30:59

Mastering by James Willett's and Robert

31:01

Rodriguez, fact checking by Marissa

31:03

Robertson Texter.

31:04

Legal guidance from Micah Ratner, Lauren

31:06

Cooperman, and Denton's ethical guidance

31:09

from Tony

31:09

Cavin. NPR's Senior Vice President for

31:11

Programming is Anya Gruntman. I'm

31:15

Gregory Warner. Rough translations taking a little break,

31:17

but when we get back, we have some more

31:19

stories from Ukraine and trip to

31:21

India. See you soon.