Morning Show Host Extends Hiatus for Important Assignment

By Michael Hein

British broadcast journalist Susannah Reid extended her break from Good Morning Britain earlier this month to continue reporting from Ukraine. Her co-hosts took some time to remark on her work there before Reid finally returned on Monday, Feb. 27.

Reid has been absent from the new GMB news desk for several weeks pursuing international stories including the earthquake in Turkey and the war in Ukraine. She brought back segments filmed in Kyiv, though they focused more on the people themselves than on the warfare. She interviewed survivors and families and showed how they are making the best of their time under siege by Russian forces. Reid did not post about her experiences on social media, so this will be the first time many fans are seeing what she has been up to.

So far, viewers saw one heartbreaking interview Reid conducted with a young girl whose parents were killed during an attack on their shelter. Reid explained: "A number of the adults taking shelter there were killed, luckily the children were in a separate part of the shelter, so she's lost her parents and is being looked after by her grandparents. I asked her, 'Do you remember that night?' and she said 'No I don't remember.'"

She said, 'I don't have a memory'. It's almost like she doesn't have any feeling about what happened because she's so traumatised by it, but everybody is absolutely determined not to give quarter to Russia," she went on.

At the same time, Reid's reports have shown how the Ukrainian people are living their lives to the best of their abilities under the circumstances. Last week her co-host Ed Balls revealed that the Ukrainian family staying with him is taking online dance lessons via video chat with one of Reid's interview subjects in Kyiv.

"Susanna is in Kyiv. Susanna's going to be with lots of different guests, but specifically, she's going to be with a dance teacher who is the teacher of the two under-12 dance champions. They have been living with us... since last April. There're two families," he explained. "They partly do their dance lessons on Zoom back to Kyiv from our kitchen but Katya has also helped connect them to dance teachers in Manchester. She's seen them dance, given them tips and encouragement."

An estimated 8 million people have now fled Ukraine due to the fighting in the area, which is still ongoing. Russia's actions have been widely condemned by other world leaders, but so far the country's leaders have not complied with demands to cease the invasion.

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