No phones or other devices, strict reporting rules, bombed-out buildings, and a drone threat – Beth Rigby shares what it’s like to join the prime minister Sir Keir Starmer in Ukraine.
Sky News’s political editor said “the whole experience was absolutely fascinating” on the Electoral Dysfunction podcast, but added the nature of Sir Keir‘s visit to the war-ravaged country meant the government “had to keep it very tight”.
“If it became known more widely than a very, very tight group of people that he was going to make the trip, the trip gets pulled for security reasons.”
Reporting from Ukraine, Sky News joined the prime minister as he signed a 100-year “friendship” deal to guarantee Britain’s support for Kyiv.
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Sky cameras filmed Sir Keir laying a wreath with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, after a Russian drone was shot down over the presidential palace while they held meetings.
In an interview, the prime minister told Ms Rigby that the UK would play its “full part” in peacekeeping in Ukraine and that the drone threat was “a reminder of what Ukraine is facing every day”.
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The prime minister’s first stop while in Ukraine was at a hospital, where he and reporters saw a major burns unit up close.
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Ms Rigby said: “There was an ICU you could go in… There were two gentlemen, two guys, and they were having physio treatment, and they were very happy to be filmed, and they… talked to the prime minister about their experiences and… their skin was just covered in burns, scars.
“After, I did the pool clip with him [Sir Keir], and I was like, ‘how was it?’ He just said, ‘it’s really hard to see this.’
“It really hammers home what it is, and I think he kept referring to the hospital throughout every visit of the day.”
Speaking to Labour peer Harriet Harman and former Scottish Conservatives leader Baroness Davidson on the podcast, Ms Rigby said that in order to make the trip, “we had to give in all our devices” as “for security reasons, you can’t take your devices into Ukraine”.
While riding trains across the country, she said “you get some basic food, and you get a little bunk”. Strict reporting rules also apply, so Sky could not report on Sir Keir’s whereabouts “until after he’s left”.
“We went to a hospital, and I can’t tell you what hospital it was, but we weren’t allowed to report that until the prime minister left the location,” she said.
“So, it just gives you a sense of the amount of security around these visits.”
During a visit to a drone manufacturer, Ms Rigby added that Ukrainians “brought the drones from where they’re actually manufactured” but did not allow cameras into the site.
“They placed them in a hall, which they made to look like an underground car park, right? You weren’t allowed to film outside. You couldn’t film the steps,” she said.
“You couldn’t film anything that might allow anyone to understand where the location might have been… This is the extent to which they try and disguise the movement and what they’re doing.”
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Ms Rigby then said she and others were taken on “a little tour where 100 yards or so down from where Zelenskyy’s offices in the centre of Ukraine is a bombed-out car and a building that has been bombed, and the top floor is destroyed”.
“That happened on 1 January,” she said. “And the reason that they are showing him that is to reiterate to all of us that… Russia is not completely destroying the centre of Kyiv, but the threat is ever-present.”
The prime minister is now in Poland, where he will kickstart talks on a new security pact to protect the UK’s national security.
During his visit, Sir Keir will also meet Polish businesses, including the firm InPost which has announced it will invest a further £600m into the UK in the next five years to grow its operations.
