Leven met het verleden

Jelle delves into the complex past of the Ukrainians. He visits the missile base where the nuclear missiles were located in the 1990s – a legacy of the Soviet Union. The Ukrainians had more nuclear weapons than England, France and China combined, but voluntarily handed in those missiles in exchange for security guarantees from the Russians. Unfortunately, they turned out to be of little value. Jelle speaks to the commander who had to press the ‘red button ’ in the Cold War. He also investigates the Holodomor, an artificial famine in the 1930s that killed millions of Ukrainians. In a suburb of Lviv, Jelle speaks to men who still act out SS soldiers with conviction. It just shows how complex history can be. For them, the Germans were not the occupiers, but the liberators of the Soviets.