Google Cloud Speech-to-Text API (Chirp) + Gemini 2.5 Flash Non-Thinking. Treat it as a searchable index of what was broadcast, not a quotation record.
00:00:00they change safe pavilions for
00:00:02frontline locations and go to Donbass to shoot
00:00:06feature films. About the importance
00:00:09of the cultural front and fixing meanings.
00:00:12What kind of battle will we lose if we freeze film production until
00:00:16peace comes. A conversation with the program's
00:00:18expert. Mountains that are not on
00:00:21the map, but are in the heart. How alpinism is developing
00:00:24in Donbass, despite the landscape and
00:00:28circumstances.
00:00:30Today we will talk about something that, it would seem,
00:00:34should be far from the trenches, but is actually
00:00:37in the very center
00:00:40of the battle, only this battle is being fought for
00:00:43minds, and today we will talk about
00:00:46cinema. Cinematography in Donbass and Novorossiya is not
00:00:50just entertainment and not art for art's sake,
00:00:53it is a chronicle, it is a weapon, and it
00:00:56is memory. Even in the pre-war Soviet years, directors
00:01:00came here to capture the real everyday life
00:01:03of workers, let's recall the legendary Great
00:01:07Life of Leonid Lukov, the film of 1939
00:01:11was shot in the Donetsk mines, glorifying the labor
00:01:14feat of Stakhanovites. It goes
00:01:18ahead Stakhanov's
00:01:21miners
00:01:24Donbass has always, as filmmakers say,
00:01:27had a rich texture. Industrial
00:01:31landscapes, spoil heaps, factory workshops, faces
00:01:34and character, people with a special core,
00:01:38charisma, it is enough to remember that it was
00:01:41here that one of the most talented
00:01:44actresses of Soviet cinema was born, adored
00:01:47by millions of viewers, Nonna Mordyukova, and
00:01:51of course, contrasts, here light and shadow, labor
00:01:54and everyday life, city and steppe, peace
00:01:57and war always clashed. which again
00:02:01came to Donbass in 2014.
00:02:04Then history took a sharp turn. In
00:02:08the territory of the Donetsk and Lugansk People's
00:02:10Republics, in response to punitive operations of Nazi
00:02:13battalions against civilians, large-scale hostilities
00:02:16began. The landscape
00:02:20changed, ruins, trenches, and checkpoints appeared.
00:02:23And it is all the more surprising that it was then, in
00:02:26this chaos, that a new Donbas
00:02:30school was born. In 2016, the
00:02:33Donfilm studio was created. Then the
00:02:36first Donetsk film studio appeared. Both,
00:02:39despite all the difficulties, continue their work. And not
00:02:43only them. About how Anna
00:02:46Khrustaleva shoots films in Novorossiya and Donbass today.
00:02:49Ready, camera, action,
00:02:54Donbass. The set is crowded, another episode of the
00:02:57film is being shot. life, which is already a ready-made
00:03:01script, motor camera started,
00:03:04the scene is Mariupol, in the frame
00:03:08is a wounded city, where instead of props there are living,
00:03:11bleeding decorations of war,
00:03:14challenge, let's go, a whole package they hit the residential sector,
00:03:18from creatures, shooting films about Donbass in
00:03:21Donbass, and not generating a picture and working in pavilions in the age
00:03:24of artificial intelligence of an ongoing war, seems
00:03:27almost ... unacceptable luxury, but the authors chose
00:03:31honesty, real human tragedies do not tolerate computer
00:03:34retouching and require the same authentic reality on
00:03:38the screen. and what were you in civilian
00:03:41life? doctor, are you a doctor? nothing,
00:03:45they say you fought in this militia of yours, yes,
00:03:49such textures, if we talk from the point of view of cinema,
00:03:53it is impossible somewhere else or some kind of decoration, it
00:03:56will still be false lies, so everything here is alive, everything is real.
00:05:00then there will be no life here at all, remember even Poroshenko's
00:05:03winged speech about how their children will go to school, but ours
00:05:07will not.
00:05:09It was then that it became obvious that silence is not
00:05:13an option. At this time, the filming of the first independent Donbas
00:05:17film begins in Shakhtyorsk. Rock musicians, poets,
00:05:20artists write the script for an underground film,
00:05:23the idea is a postmodern puzzle about how reality
00:05:26is structured and who controls it. But
00:05:28still, what do you think, will there be a war?
00:05:32Then came the understanding that in order to shoot
00:05:36films on a larger scale, better, faster, a film studio and its
00:05:39own material base were needed. And
00:05:43we took it and did it. The film studio buildings were built
00:05:47literally by everyone without professional builders, by hand, with private
00:05:50donations. Today there is all the necessary equipment,
00:05:53control rooms, editing rooms, recording studios and
00:05:56their own actors, who are also lighting technicians and general
00:06:00laborers in the frontline city. The studio today exists rather
00:06:03despite everything. All
00:06:06locals.
00:06:08Really eat. Yuri Fedotov lived all his life in
00:06:11Shakhtyorsk. After the start of the special military operation, he went to the front, fought near
00:06:15Avdiivka, during one of the combat missions, he came under
00:06:19artillery fire, so the path of a soldier ended and
00:06:22the path of an actor began. After being wounded near Avdiivka, having learned that our
00:06:26Donfilm film studio was being built, he joined as
00:06:29a builder in its construction. After
00:06:32the completion of the
00:06:35building, I took part in the filming of the feature film Council
00:06:38of Winds. I have an idea.
00:06:52in principle, it is now at the beginning of its journey, our studios, our guys
00:06:56from our regions, they are just starting to apply for grants, now
00:07:00for example, our first Donetsk film studio, recently created, has
00:07:04won the IRI competition for the production
00:07:06of a four-part feature series, now
00:07:10a system is being built, we plan ... in the near future to conclude a cooperation agreement
00:07:14with the Cinema Fund and the Internet Development Institute. The development
00:07:17of cinema in the region has become one of the priority tasks. Since
00:07:202022, several dozen feature films and TV series have
00:07:23been shot in Donbass, loud premieres and sometimes
00:07:27quiet filming, which took place in conditions of strict
00:07:31secrecy. For the Armed Forces of Ukraine, any people with a camera, be it journalists or
00:07:34filmmakers, are a very desirable target. For them,
00:07:37this is primarily, it seems to me, an attempt.
00:07:41these are certain risks, therefore
00:08:12many filming is not allowed in connection
00:08:16with this, we still have to reshoot a lot of things
00:08:19in pavilions, but we still try to find some
00:08:22compromises, the process is still going on and it is necessary. it is necessary first of all for
00:08:26viewers, for the outside world such films are a harsh inoculation of truth,
00:08:30forcing one to understand what is really happening there. for
00:08:33the residents of Donbass, this is not just a movie, it is a naked personal
00:08:37tragedy, and also a way to be heard, to tell about what
00:08:40they went through, that is why every second on
00:08:43the screen is so captivating, the scene
00:08:46that probably stuck with me the most
00:08:49was when the main character came
00:08:53to the children's camp for the sake of his daughter, I saw a bit
00:08:57of myself in this situation, the scene with
00:09:00the child and the father, my father was a serviceman,
00:09:04a deceased serviceman, just horrifying, this
00:09:07very scene, when he returned to his old house, where
00:09:11his grandfather and grandmother lived, just horror, yes, well, the emotions are
00:09:14indescribable,
00:09:31just recently Donbass talked about the revival of cinema only in the future tense,
00:09:35now it's the present scripts, castings, filming,
00:09:38but the main thing is its audience, because only for their sake the camera
00:09:41continues. to work, despite anything,
00:09:44are you calling
00:09:50an ambulance, Anna Khrustaleva, Valery Savilev,
00:09:52Anastasia Popova, Novorossiya. About
00:09:55the importance of film production in the new territories in
00:09:59these difficult, sometimes dangerous
00:10:02conditions, and generally
00:10:11expert, Mikhail. Hello Mikhail, good afternoon,
00:10:14when we talk about regional cinema,
00:10:18for example, Yakut cinema, or Ural cinema, we
00:10:21mean some local flavor.
00:10:25but why should the cinematography of, say, Donbass,
00:10:28Novorossiya, be singled out into
00:10:32some special, separate, sovereign
00:10:34theme, it seems as if a
00:10:38fundamentally new film language is being born
00:10:41here, which is nourished
00:10:45precisely by special impressions from special events. As
00:10:49a native of Donbass, a native of Donetsk, I never
00:10:52tire of repeating and reminding that we have...
00:11:25Soviet Socialist Republic, and under Ukraine, Donbass, as it were,
00:11:28gave birth not once, not twice, not three times, also wonderful
00:11:32personnel for Soviet cinema, and a
00:11:35huge number of actors, directors,
00:11:39film composers, screenwriters also have Donbass
00:11:43origin, and not only Donbass, but also Novorossiya
00:11:46origin, so it should be said that
00:11:50now, given the circumstances, given the
00:11:52turning point context, this is a place where new meanings are born, any
00:11:56creative person wants to feel and catch
00:11:59this resonance, this is always an opportunity to see
00:12:02something new, it seems to me that in addition to the fact that
00:12:06Novorossiya should see itself in this film, it seems
00:12:09to me that big Russia, let's say, it
00:12:13should see who came to us, you see, this is a land
00:12:16of heroes, this is a land
00:12:19of sacrifice, this is not enough, it seems to me, in the public
00:12:22consciousness of big Russia, this is not enough. The first
00:13:10films about the war appeared
00:13:14even before our victory, all
00:13:18subsequent
00:13:19years
00:13:22the best works were often shot
00:13:26with the direct participation of either actors who went to the
00:13:29front, directors, screenwriters,
00:13:31composers, that is, people who lived
00:13:35through it. The current war is
00:13:38also a turning point for Russia after the monstrous catastrophe
00:13:41of 1991, Russia is reborn, unfortunately
00:13:44through such dramatic events, and
00:13:47accordingly, the point is really not only for Novorossiya to
00:13:51see itself in artistic presentation
00:13:54and... Donbass not only in order for Great
00:13:57Russia to see Novorossiya and Donbass in artistic
00:14:01presentation, we are now at war for minds, we are now at war for hearts
00:14:05and souls, and feature
00:14:07films, in this sense, are the most important
00:14:10tool that more easily penetrates the minds and hearts
00:14:14of the younger generation, people who doubt,
00:14:17people who, perhaps, would perceive
00:14:21documentaries or news reports much more critically.
00:14:25publications, articles or blogs and even streams, but
00:14:28works of art are perceived much
00:14:31more gently and organically, accordingly, there must be
00:14:34such a film, this is our factory, not of dreams,
00:14:38but a factory of conveying heroism,
00:14:41conveying the importance of the moment, conveying the main
00:14:45meanings, in this sense, of course, creators
00:14:49must come there, despite the risks, and it must be born
00:14:52there, this film, you understand, well, and...
00:15:25This is another dimension of the question, well, such a, perhaps, narrowly thematic,
00:15:29at the same time, you have already touched upon it, where
00:15:33is that line
00:15:36between such a perfectionist
00:15:40artist who says: guys, well, let's get a little closer, let's
00:15:43capture that tank and so
00:15:46on, and the situation when he is already risking
00:15:50the lives of the film crew, when you need to give the command
00:15:53to move back and shoot somewhere further from Donbass and Tula,
00:15:57here is the personal, moral responsibility,
00:16:00the responsibility of artists, firstly, indeed for a creative person this
00:16:04catharsis is necessary, the creator must face this.
00:16:37through the scripts, through the people, that light that comes from them,
00:16:41from your point of view, what kind of new cinema
00:16:45should be born, about war, about Donbass, about
00:16:49Novorossiya, this film should meet two
00:16:51criteria, it must be interesting, it must be
00:16:55honest, that's all, nothing else is needed, if it's
00:16:59just honest, it's not a fact that everyone will want to put it on, if it's just
00:17:03interesting, but lies, they won't believe it, but if it's both,
00:17:06it will be wonderful. Thank you, in conclusion I want to
00:17:10thank you and say, God grant us to see a film about
00:17:13our victory, a film about
00:17:16victory in this very difficult
00:17:20war. Thank you, it's already being filmed, yes,
00:17:24thank you.
00:17:28Donbass, land of steppes and spoil heaps?
00:17:32Local climbers are ready to argue
00:17:35with that. Mountain sports in the region are today
00:17:38experiencing a real revival, and
00:17:41new tourist routes, which in 2026,
00:17:45as part of the implementation of the national project Tourism
00:17:48and Hospitality, developed by Donetsk students, prove
00:17:52that the local heights have huge potential. Few
00:17:55people know, but it was Donbass that gave the world
00:17:58one of the first researchers of the Caucasus,
00:18:02military topographer, alpinist, geodesist, Andrey
00:18:06Pastukhov, the first Russian man to conquer
00:18:09both peaks of Elbrus back in the 19th century,
00:18:12was born in Luganshchina, in the village of Novoderkul,
00:18:15Belovodsky district, Lugansk region, on August 16,
00:18:191860. Today, his compatriots
00:18:22carefully preserve traditions, annually go on
00:18:26difficult expeditions and teach a new generation
00:18:29to conquer peaks. How the Steppe region
00:18:33trains the best climbers in the country and what
00:18:36mountains do they?
00:19:01He was born in the steppe region in the family of a stableman of the Derkul factory, and
00:19:05he discovered the mountains to the world.
00:19:08He eliminated the blank spots on the map of the Caucasus, he
00:19:12made a detailed mapping of the highest
00:19:15peaks, Elbrus, Kazbek, Ororata,
00:19:18Ushba. He studied the melting of glaciers, meteorological
00:19:21conditions, the ethnology of mountain peoples. And he is also considered the domestic
00:19:25inventor of crampons, spiked boots that climbers wear
00:19:29before going out on the glacier. Andrey Pastukhov was two decades
00:19:32ahead of the British Oscar Eckenstein, who
00:19:36is credited with the authorship of the already standardized ten-point
00:19:39model of this equipment.
00:19:42One of the brightest pages in the history of world alpinism was the first
00:19:46Soviet Himalayan expedition
00:19:48of 1982. 11 athletes
00:19:52not only climbed Mount Everest, overcoming the height of
00:19:558,848 meters, but also laid one of
00:19:59the most difficult routes in the history of conquering the peak. Part
00:20:02of the climbers, among whom was Mikhail Turkevich, the youngest
00:20:06participant.
00:20:37The highest peak in Russia and Europe. When in the late
00:20:40eighties, Volgograd climbers saw
00:20:43the deplorable state of the museum of defense
00:20:47near Elbrus, they decided to help with its instructions,
00:20:50they developed a sketch of the memorial, collected public money, at
00:20:54the Lugansk Locomotive Building Plant they cast the necessary
00:20:57elements. Almost 400 people came from Lugansk,
00:21:01Komsomol members, athletes, those who participated in subbotniks, well, in
00:21:05general, there was such a Lugansk
00:21:08paratrooper in Varshalovgrad, then on May 9, there was
00:21:11a solemn opening,
00:21:14two people were present,
00:21:17even those who removed
00:21:20German standards from Elbrus, glory to the hero,
00:21:24our reverence. On these
00:21:27steles are 219 names of those who defended Elbrus in '42, and
00:21:31liberated it in '43, the key outpost
00:21:34of the Caucasus. Lugansk athletes climb here
00:21:37regularly in honor of Victory Day. In 2014,
00:21:40a new tradition emerged: the high-altitude Immortal
00:21:43Regiment. Such are these people, climbers, courage and honor
00:21:47go hand in hand.
00:21:51Donbass, despite the steppe relief of the local area, has been famous
00:21:54since Soviet times for its schools of mountaineering
00:21:57and rock climbing. More than once its students became champions
00:22:00of competitions of the highest level.
00:22:032014 brought adjustments: some of the athletes
00:22:07left, some went to the front. With the entry into the Russian Federation, a new
00:22:11era began for Donbass climbers in history.
00:22:15This somehow inspires some pride
00:22:18and confidence in tomorrow.
00:23:21Young athletes from Horlivka do not give up, in a difficult time for the region
00:23:25they have to learn rock climbing online,
00:23:28rare training sessions in the gym are only a weak substitute, but without practice
00:23:31theory is dead. The famous climbing wall in Zuevka is also closed
00:23:35for the children, the unique natural landscape of the Donbass steppe.
00:23:39There, where the rocks of the Donetsk ridge go up 30 meters,
00:23:42honing skills is still too dangerous.
00:23:46Tsoevka is the cradle of alpinism and... parents
00:24:05are afraid to let them go to competitions, we are generally
00:24:09forbidden to do that there, Crimea helps Donbass athletes, the traditional
00:24:12Russian alpinism championship among veterans in the rock
00:24:16class, which was held in Sudak, this year brought silver and bronze to the Donetsk
00:24:20climbers in individual climbing and gold in
00:24:24team competitions, the oldest participant of the team from
00:24:27DPR is 80, ready to
00:24:30start, attention,
00:24:32march!
00:24:36If veterans come to Crimea once again to test themselves and communicate with
00:24:40colleagues from all over Russia, then for young athletes from Donbass,
00:24:43the rocks of Sudak and Bakhtchisaraï are the very practice that they
00:24:47are currently deprived of at home. I
00:24:50really like it, I really enjoy it when I climb, some
00:24:53fear, adrenaline, you climb,
00:24:57well, sometimes I'm scared to climb when there's especially a bottom belay, but
00:25:01still you climb, reach the top and relax, so
00:25:04I really enjoy this
00:25:06moment,
00:25:09they dream of becoming Olympic champions, their coaches of
00:25:12modern climbing walls for their students, and of course both
00:25:15of them dream of new peaks, because as Vladimir
00:25:19Vysotsky once sang, you can't say better than mountains can only be
00:25:22mountains you haven't been to yet. Olga Mokhova, Valery
00:25:25Savelev, Anastasia Popova,
00:27:28It's easy to get confused about facts when you only see part of the big picture.
00:27:34In pursuit of views, entire locations
00:27:37are changed, it's easy to make a deepfake.
00:29:41Our units have taken control of another village in Kharkiv
00:29:44region, this is the village of Olkhovatka. This settlement
00:29:47is located right inside the Reznikovsky cauldron, where
00:29:51thousands of militants are blocked, their situation is worsening every day.