Ukraine: 'Surreal experience to be in Zelensky's war room'

David McIlveen filmed Clive Myrie's (left) interview with President Zelensky earlier this week

A news cameraman can end up all over the world, filming the most extraordinary scenes.

But even for a BBC picture correspondent, meeting a leader in his secret wartime headquarters was a "weird and surreal experience".

David McIlveen, from County Down, has spent much of the Ukraine conflict in the capital, Kyiv.

This week he joined presenter Clive Myrie to interview President Volodymyr Zelensky at his heavily fortified base.

Mr McIlveen said the president had a real presence and an aura.

"To actually be there in the room with the man is pretty weird," he told BBC News NI's Evening Extra programme on Friday.

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He described a warren of corridors at the secret location, filled with guards and sandbags.

After introductions, the crew was taken to the government's situation room, where Mr McIlveen saw maps all over the walls.

During the interview, President Zelensky repeated calls for more weapons to be sent to help Ukraine in its war with Russia.

He also said European countries were "earning their money in other people's blood" by buying oil from Russia.

David McIlveen (second from right) has been part of the BBC's team in Ukraine

The war is not the first time Mr McIlveen has worked alongside presenter Clive Myrie.

Mr McIlveen, who has worked for BBC Northern Ireland, won Camera Operator of the Year at the 2021 RTS Journalism Awards for the pair's reporting on coronavirus wards in London.

In the meeting with President Zelensky, he said he noticed how the war had taken a toll on the leader and his staff, with fear and pressure "etched in the faces".

"When you compare a photograph of what Zelensky looked like at the beginning of the war to now, you can very much see it in his face. It's written all over it, frankly."

'Aware of the risk'

Kyiv continues to be a target for Russian attacks despite the withdrawal of troops from much of the territory it held north of the city.

"The battle has moved slightly further away from Kyiv now, where we are currently, and it's moved more into the east, but don't be under an impression that there isn't still a threat here in the city," Mr McIlveen added.

David McIlveen has filmed from the BBC's bunker in Kyiv

"Even today (Friday) we have had two or three air raid sirens go off and, after what happened to the Russian flagship being sunk, there have been very overt threats from Russia that they're going to carry out air strikes at the heart of government here in the centre of Kyiv.

"That would very much include the locations where they presume Zelensky to be, so everyone in that building is well aware of the risk of even being there - and that's before they worry about the pressure of doing their job."

There was, however, a lighter moment during the meeting when the president received a text from France's leader Emmanuel Macron.

France's President Emmanuel Macron texted President Zelensky while he was with the BBC team

No state secrets were revealed, Mr McIlveen joked, but "even that he took in his stride and it was all good fun".

Asked about the president's confidence that Ukraine could win the conflict, Mr McIlveen said he got the sense that the staff remained positive.

"I genuinely believe that certainly the inner staff who were in that room, they think they can win this thing, if they're provided with the weaponry."