Russian actor Liya Akhedzhakova on images from Kyiv – ‘I’m going to start crying’

Liya Akhedzhakova, one of Russia’s most acclaimed actors, has never been shy of taking on political leaders.

She wrote a letter to Stalin, aged 10, calling for medical help for her mother who had tuberculosis. Now she’s spoken out to condemn Vladimir Putin’s war in Ukraine. For her, it’s personal: she was born in Dnipro, now in Ukraine.

We spoke to her and began by asking for her reaction to the images of the tanks rolling into Kyiv.