← Ukraine: The Latest
Ukraine: The Latest
Mobile internet blackouts sweep Moscow & quizzing ‘Trump whisperer’ Finnish President Alexander Stubb
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- [00:04]
Francis Durnley
The telegraph.
- [00:09]
Hayden
When everything is moving all at once your workforce, your tech stack, your business. You don't need more tools. You need one solution. That's why Paylocity built a single platform to connect hr, finance and IT with AI driven insights and automated workflows that simplify the complex and power. What's next? Because when everything comes together in one place, growth comes easy experience. One place for all your HCM needs. Start now@palocity.com 1 Howdy, howdy ho, and welcome to Fantasy Fan Fellas. I'm Hayden, producer of the Fantasy Fangirls podcast and your resident lover of all things Sanderson.
- [00:47]
Stephen
And I'm Stephen, your bookish Internet goofball. But you can call me the Smash Daddy.
- [00:51]
Hayden
And we are currently deep diving Brandon Sanderson's fantasy epic Mistborn by But here's the catch. Steven here has not read Mistborn before.
- [01:00]
Stephen
That's right.
- [01:00]
Hayden
Hei hei.
- [01:01]
Stephen
So each week you'll get my unfiltered raw reactions to every single chapter.
- [01:05]
Hayden
And along the way we'll do character deep dives, magic explainers, and Steven will even try to guess what's next. Spoiler alert. He'll be wrong.
- [01:12]
Stephen
News flash. I'm never wrong. Episodes come out every Wednesday, and you can find Fantasy fanfellas wherever you get your podcasts.
- [01:19]
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- [01:54]
Francis Durnley
I'm Francis Durnley and this is Ukraine. The latest today, as world leaders gather over here in London, including President Zelenskyy, we bring you the latest from Moscow following another major Russian aerial bombardment overnight, and examine how the Russian press is reporting the attacks. We also reflect on questioning Finnish President Alexander Stubb at Chatham House earlier today and what his remarks reveal about Europe's evolving strategy. And later, we share several stories Adaly was working on from Ukraine, offering insight into life on the ground during Russia's ongoing war.
- [02:28]
David Knowles
Bravery takes you through the most unimaginable hardships to finally reward you with victory.
- [02:38]
Adelaide Pojman Ponte
The Russia does not want peace.
- [02:44]
Francis Durnley
Freiheit und unsere Euro.
- [02:48]
David Knowles
If I'm president, I will have that war settled in one day 24 hours we are with you. Not just today or tomorrow, but for 100 years.
- [03:02]
Francis Durnley
Nobody's going to break us.
- [03:04]
David Knowles
We are strong.
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James Kiltner
We are Ukrainians.
- [03:08]
Francis Durnley
It's Tuesday the 17th of March, four years and 21 days since the full scale invasion began. And today I'm joined by my co hosts Dominic Nichols and Adelaide Pojman Ponte, just back from Ukraine. Welcome back, Adelai plus our Russia analyst James Kiltner. But first as ever, over to Dom.
- [03:26]
David Knowles
Well, thanks, Francis. So, yeah, Moscow, as you say, hit last night by another pretty large aerial attack. It's difficult to tell exactly. They don't give a lot of figures. The Russians just give out the kind of numbers of the drones they shot down. But we can probably extrapolate a little bit from that. So drones started hitting the Russian capital about 10pm local time last night. The attack lasted through to just after 6am this morning. Now, Russia says 39 drones were shot down. Quite a large number. But you know, like I say, if you extrapolate out from that, I mean it's literally a guess. But whatever you think the equivalent when Ukraine is shooting these kind of numbers down is, you might imagine a couple of hundred, but we don't know. Moscow Mayor Sergei Serbian said swarms of Ukrainian drones were intercepted. The Russian Defense Ministry said across the whole country they shot down 206 Ukrainian drones. Again, gives you an idea of how many were were fired. 40 heading towards the capital as the mayor had said there. Now that's the fourth consecutive day that Moscow authorities have had to deal with drone attacks on the capital, although they did make clear that there were no casualties or damage. Now also Ukraine hit the Russian occupied city of Melitopol last night. The Telegram news channel, Alexey Nova plus said Russian air defence systems had been targeted there and destroyed. On the ground in Ukraine, again, not a huge amount of movement. A Ukrainian military analyst, the former Colonel Konstantin Mashovets, says that Russian forces operating in the area of Volekt Andrivka, that's in the Dnipropetrovsk area, Zaporizhzhya border area. So we're southwest of the Donbas here. They say Russian forces there have switched to conducting an active defense rather than active offensive operations. This is all to constrain those Ukrainian counterattacks that have been knitting together in that area. That does chime with what we've been seeing recently, which talks of a very little movement on the ground. And what there has been has not been necessarily Russia moving forward. We think Russia has continued to deploy forces from the Donbass into the southwest of the country to try and shore up that series of counterattacks from Ukraine. It's obviously frustrating any plans that Russia may have for this much vaunted or potentially fanciful Russian spring offensive. I mean, springs are just sprung. So, you know, there may be something yet. But I can't see Russia being able to do anything other than they have done for the last couple of years, grind forward. But we shall see. Now, Konstantin Mashvets said that Ukraine is still advancing in that area, so we're sort of northwest of role at the moment. Although he notes that these efforts have not yet sufficiently threatened the rear of Russian forces operating in that sector. That is the logistic nodes, the fuel points, the ammo dumps, such that Russia have been able to. They're being pushed back, basically. So Ukraine are making some advances, but this seems to be a largely tidying up of the area, certainly from what we saw when we were in, in Zaporizhzhia a couple of weeks ago. If you imagine a piece of paper with at the top, number one and number two, and at the bottom number three and number four, well, if these are Russian positions, if they are individual Russian soldiers or small groups of soldiers, now we, because we're trying to try and bring sense to a certain element of chaos, we would see a Russian soldier at number one and Russian soldier at number two. We'd draw a line between them and say that's the line. That's the front line of Russian forces. Well, if they're both killed by drones or what have you, and then the line goes back to where number three, three and four are, that doesn't constitute some massive Ukrainian counter attack. It just means that there's no Russian. They just don't have the depth, they don't have the personnel dotted all over the battle space such that. That doesn't indicate some huge counter strike by Ukraine. That shows how few people there are out there on the ground and the effect that these drones are having. So we've got to be really careful about saying all the lines shifted massively. That indicates a huge breakthrough or a massive defeat for one side or the other. So you. Yeah, we've just got to be a bit careful here. Anyway, Mashovets says that because of the effective Ukrainian defensive west of Uliupol, Russian advances have been slowed to about across the front in the southwest, 1 1/2 kilometers a week. Now, that, like I say, takes into account all these sort of counterattacks that have been going on. But note the metric that it's one and a half kilometers a week, that's the advance of Russia. You'll remember Ukrainian Defence Minister Mykhailo Fedorov said recently, and I'm kind of paraphrasing, but he said that Ukraine's theory of victory is to deny Russia use of the air and to defend against the aerial attacks on Ukrainian cities across the country, deny Russia's freedom of movement in the Black Sea, hold the line as far as possible on land, and degrade Russia's ability to fight, that is take the fight done through the attacks on oil and gas infrastructure. Now overall you could say that that strategy is being successfully enacted. But is it enough to win? If the metric we're using is how slowly the Russian advances or how slowly Russia is capturing more ground, you know, it might be very slow, but we've got to ask, is that good enough? Are the operations in those other domains, the Black Sea in the air, hitting Russian oil and gas infrastructure? Are they enough to overcome this albeit slowed Russian advance on the ground? We don't really know. And of course that's a question that Ukraine have to ask themselves as they go into any so called peace talks. But also Russia have to wonder is the juice worth the squeeze? Is the pain that they're taking in those other sectors and the complete failure of their aerial bombardment. Ukraine survived the winter. It was very, very tough, but they got through it. Is that more than made up for by the slow grinding advance that they're able to eke out on the ground? So questions all over the place, but I think this metric that if Ukraine talk about that the Russian advance is only 1 1/2 kilometers a week, it's like, okay, but it's still largely these counterattacks aside for a moment, largely going in one direction very, very slowly and at high cost. Now across the whole country. Yesterday, 22 of 178 Russian drones got through air defence. 11 people killed, 50 injured across the country. And just the last one for me, if you go down onto the Black Sea, hombre Intelligence, that's the global maritime risk management firm, they say Russian forces conducted a drone attack on the port of Ismail, right down in the southwest of Ukraine. They say air raid sirens for Odessa Oblast were first activated just after midnight last night. Local time remained in place for about two hours. Now, regional authorities confirmed the attack had taken place and said that there had been damage to port infrastructure. No damage reported to any vessels located in the port at the time of the attack. However, it is not known exactly how many vessels are there. A Number of grain ships and what have you turn their AIs, the transponders, the location beacons, basically turn them off when they are in the area, so they're not transmitting where they are. So it's very difficult to know exactly how many vessels there are in port at any one time to get a real feel for any damage that might have occurred. That's us up to date, Francis.
- [10:15]
Francis Durnley
Well, thanks very much, Dom. An eventful day here in London. Opening round of our world Leader Bingo in 2020. Both President Zelensky and President of Finland Alexander Stubb are here, as well as NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte. So we've been dashing all over the place this morning. As we speak, President zelensky is addressing MPs in parliament, having met the King earlier. No questions for the press, sadly. So we went to Chatham House instead to see what President Stubb had to say. We'll come to that in a moment. But first, what brings Zelenskyy to town? Well, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer has said that the war in Iran cannot be be a windfall for Putin and has agreed to a new military partnership and announced an AI center of Excellence in Kyiv. So the two leaders have basically signed an enhanced security and defense industrial declaration capitalizing on Ukraine's expertise and the UK's industrial base to, they say, manufacturer and supply drones and innovative capabilities. The uk, more interestingly, I think, will fund a new AI center of Excellence that will sit within the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense. As I say now, this team of experts, backed by about 500, will ensure that AI is being utilised, said number 10 to its fullest, to deliver a battlefield advantage. The UK then in turn will reap the benefits from learning the lessons from this. Now, I thought that was quite interesting given the priorities of Ukraine's Defence Minister Fedorov when he was speaking about the strategic incentives for Ukraine this year. As Dom just alluded to, AI being one of the big ones and learning from data where to apply pressure and what lessons can be learned for the next stage of battle. Battle. Now, Starmer is also expected to host Mark Rutter at Downing street later to talk about the coalition of the willing, something also presumably going to be attended by Finnish President Alexander Stubb, who Dom and I just saw addressing Chatham House. I mean, he's an impressive figure, I think it's fair to say there was barely a stumble or an urm in any of his speech whatsoever. Clearly a man who knows his own mind and is very, very comfortable in expressing it in a way that is still diplomatic, cautious, but at the same time firmer than one might expect from leaders who are just reading from speeches written by advisers. He was very strong on Ukraine and you're going to hear some quotations on that in a moment. But fundamentally what he was really talking about was the EU and what he called the need for more flexible integration. He said that as part of the lecture he gave. I was one of those who believed in the end of history by Francis Fukuyama, the institutionalization of the liberal world order. But our holiday from history is over. Our age of peace is over. We have a new iron curtain in Europe. And then he went on to talk about how, in his view, the EU has never been more united than it is today. And speaking very much in favour of the enlargement process that took place in the 1990s, but also about the need for further enlargement, particularly including Ukraine. But he again, he underscored flexibility is key. It should be a friend on NATO, EU relations, we should use flexibility to make things work more effectively. Now, on Ukraine specifically, let's hear what he had to say. The first question addressed to him was from the director and chief executive of Chatham House. The second is then from Dom, and the third from friend of the podcast Latika Bourke from the Nightly.
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Alexander Stubb
I'm afraid we're moving closer to a moment, perhaps a potential crunch time on the peace negotiations. And if that moment doesn't deliver, I think we're quite close. I think it's potentially doable because of the three key documents that we have, the 20 point plan, the security guarantees and the Prosperity Plan. I think it will boil down to security guarantees versus land. If we fail on that, you see
- [14:16]
Adelaide Pojman Ponte
them as a trade off.
- [14:20]
Alexander Stubb
Yeah, I see them as a massive point, yes. But of course, let me specify here. Finland or any European country will never, ever accept a de jure land swap. De facto might be a reality, but de jure, it's simply not going to happen. So we could be facing a moment if these negotiations fail in the next few weeks, where Europe needs to take more responsibility and that means that we need to take more responsibility to help Ukraine in terms of intel, we need to take more responsibility, which we already actually do nowadays, in terms of financial and military assistance, and then we end up having to take more responsibility on the security guarantees. This is a bad scenario. I think there are three. One is that the war continues, two is that we get a peace agreement, or three, that a failed peace agreement leads to the withdrawal.
- [15:08]
Francis Durnley
But to be clear, you're seeing this as. But Ukraine ends up as a member of the EU in some form at
- [15:14]
Alexander Stubb
the end of the day. Again, I have to be very careful here because I'm not the one who takes the decision on this. I sign it off, but I don't take the decision. And my take is that there have been ideas floated about a reverse EU membership, which I think are quite innovative and quite flexible, but whether that'll fly at the end of the day, I don't know. And having said all of that, remember that this war has been a strategic failure for Russia. Russia wanted to make Ukraine Russian, but it became European. It wanted to prevent the enlargement of NATO, it got Finland and Sweden and it wanted to keep defense expenditure down. We're moving north of 5%. So in that sense, I think it's a complicated situation, but I'm optimistic that certainly that Ukraine will become European.
- [15:57]
Francis Durnley
You want to put a time on that?
- [15:58]
Alexander Stubb
Nope.
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Francis Durnley
There we go.
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David Knowles
President Stupp, at what point does getting oil through the Strait of Hormuz become a problem that NATO needs to take a view on? And how far do you agree with Bart do wevo that the EU should now start to talk to Russia? Thank you.
- [16:12]
Alexander Stubb
First of all, NATO is a defensive alliance. So basically our job is through collective defence in Article 5 to protect when attacked. That's what we did in 9, 11. And of course now NATO has not been attacked. The Straits of Hormutz situation has been caused by bilateral, not unilateral, action of Israel and the United States attacking Iran and in Iran attacking pretty much 13 states in the region. I think those countries bilaterally that have the capacity or will to help the United States can and should do so. As far as Finland is concerned, we take care of the security in the northeastern corner of Europe. That is our task, protecting the 1,340kilometer border between NATO and Russia. As far as Bart de Weber, I think we've had this conversation for the past two years and I do think that we are approaching the moment when political conversational channels have to be open with Russia, but that has to be done in a very coordinated manner among European allies and friends, not as a solo act, as we have seen with Prime Minister Ficio of Slovakia or Prime Minister Orban of Hungary. So it needs to be very much a unified approach.
- [17:26]
David Knowles
Thank you, President Stubla Tickerbourg from the Nightly Australia.
- [17:28]
Francis Durnley
Just following on from that and your
- [17:30]
Adelaide Pojman Ponte
point about indulging in Realpolitik now, why
- [17:34]
Francis Durnley
doesn't Europe go to Trump and say,
- [17:36]
Adelaide Pojman Ponte
if you want assistance in the Gulf, here's what we want you to do on Ukraine.
- [17:42]
Alexander Stubb
I think it's a really good idea. I might pick you up on that. No, I think it's actually a really good idea.
- [17:55]
David Knowles
So, available for advice.
- [17:58]
Alexander Stubb
Can my team take your phone number? No, but I mean, yeah, I'll think about it. I'll talk about with my colleagues. Some of them are here in London today.
- [18:11]
Francis Durnley
And we said to Latika afterwards that she might have just saved the west with that question bit worrying, though, that Europeans hadn't thought of that already. Dom, did you have any other thoughts that came out from our encounter this morning?
- [18:22]
David Knowles
Now, I thought so. His answer to me about NATO, I said, what point does it become a problem for NATO? The whole getting oil out of the Strait of Hormuz? And he said, no, no, no, no, it's bilateral. There's not nothing to do with NATO. I don't think that answer is going to survive contact for much longer. I think it's going to be overtaken by events. I think there will come a point where those countries that are in NATO feel that something has to happen if it carries on as it is at the moment. And I think they'd rather do something collectively than bilaterally. And I also think that Mark Rutter, NATO Secretary General, I think he will see a political opportunity here for leaning in to the problem that, you know, you could argue Trump has made for himself in the straight of Hormuz. And so I don't think NATO is going to be backward leaning on this, but I think Mark Rutter will, will see an opportunity for advancement for the alliance. And I think the others will be forced into making some kind of statement and they would prefer to do so collectively rather than individually.
- [19:19]
Francis Durnley
My question to him would have been that it's all well and good, him talking about the need for further EU expansion and further integration, but at the same time, he didn't seem to address in his lecture at all the fact that the two countries at the moment that are blocking the 90 billion euro loan to the Ukrainians, which has been signed off by the European Parliament, is two countries that were later editions who clearly have a very different view towards Russia than the rest of Europe does. Slovakia and Hungary. Now, one could argue that the more Europe expands, just like NATO expands, the more risk there is of a lack of agreement and therefore your room for maneuver, strategic maneuver, flexibility diminishes. You are only as strong as your weakest link. And I was quite troubled that he didn't seem to talk about that. He seemed to think that dialogue can always solve every problem, either inside or outside of the institutions of the EU or NATO. But that just isn't what we're seeing. I mean, I feel like one of the lessons that we've taken from the last four years is that, yes, when you, to use your analogy, Dom, when you steer the ship of the EU in a certain direction, it can be immensely powerful and important, but it takes so long, so long for that to take place. And is it always going to turn on every issue, or are there going to be certain issues that are fundamental red lines for Hungary, for Slovakia or maybe another country? And when those red lines come because of the veto, Europe's hands are completely tied. And it's why we've talked so often about Jeff as an alternative or the coalition of the willing, or that too perhaps is too large, because there hasn't been the progression there. So this is, I know it's perhaps broader and a too big a conversation for us to have today, but this to me seems fundamental. One cannot advocate for further expansion of huge international organizations while at the same time being unwilling to acknowledge the fact that as long as you have a veto, like the UN Security Council, it can be a major impediment for action, too. But anyway, that's a discussion for another time, and I'd love to put that question to Mr. Stupp himself at some point, just on Trump. He's continuing to put pressure on Europeans to assist in Iran. Yesterday, he rated the French response at a press conference. You might want to cover your ears, Adelaide.
- [21:49]
David Knowles
On a scale of 0 to 10, I'd say it's been an 8. Not perfect, but it's France.
- [21:58]
Adelaide Pojman Ponte
Are you expect perfect Gaelic SHRUG I
- [22:03]
Francis Durnley
mean, you might well think that Mr. Trump. I couldn't possibly comment anyway. And just one more update from Europe. Considerable anger at the Belgian prime minister's remarks yesterday, with many arguing that his objection to using the frozen Russian assets back in December really had nothing to do with Euroclear and was far more ideological now that he's calling for Russia to become a part of the conversation again about energy on the continent. But in some brighter news, the Ukrainian delegation in Brussels received the EU's accession benchmarks for the final three negotiating clusters. That means you Ukraine now has the full set of requirements to meet for EU membership. Kyiv said that the Ukrainian government will continue to fulfil the accession requirements, implement them and the necessary reforms and measures, and then report to the EU on its progress. So some forward movement on that. But again, this is something that the EU would one day have to actually agree on and because of all the issues we've just been talking about. So huge amount of division on the continent about whether the Ukraine should become a member or not. And Stubbe said that he did believe earlier on that Ukraine would become a member, but he refused to put a timescale on it. But let's turn now then to update from Adli. So Adli, welcome back. As I said earlier on, it feels like it's been a long time since we've been sharing a studio together. You've been working on loads of different stuff for us, much of which will be coming over the subsequent weeks. But perhaps you can just start by telling us about a documentary that gets released today.
- [23:31]
Adelaide Pojman Ponte
Yes, absolutely. It's really good to be back with you too in this new setup. So wonderful to see the podcast going video. While I was in Ukraine today we've got a documentary coming out about the energy crisis in Ukraine. When we arrived a couple of weeks ago, the worst part of the winter was already behind us. Dom, you can testify to that. We were not absolutely freezing. Temperatures had risen slightly around zero. It was not the frigid minus 20 of January and February. And throughout my stay, which was two and a half weeks, the weather has kept improving as the calendar was crawling towards the Ukrainian spring, which is on March 1st. I've actually learned that different countries have different dates for spring. In France it's March 21st with the equinox.
- [24:12]
Francis Durnley
I actually don't know what ours is
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Adelaide Pojman Ponte
and I've noticed since moving to the UK that here no one knows when season starts. Apparently you don't know in school. Yeah, probably, but anyways that doesn't mean the energy crisis however, is entirely behind for Ukrainians and you'll see that in the documentary that we filmed with our producer Jack. It is still affecting people day to day. I've spent time in Odessa and in Kiev as well as in small villages and everywhere you can see generators that have been inst. You can see them dotting the sidewalks and like being connected to every single shop front and shop window alongside the streets. They're actually very noisy, which was my big discovery. Imagine just a line of churning engines in cities alongside sidewalks. There's a constant humming in the background. There was one during my interview with the French ambassador, for example. Now in the day to day in Kyiv, for example, some streets no longer have public lighting, which makes it very eerie at night when it's completely dark and also slightly dangerous because Kyiv is a very steep city and Everything was covered in ice. I've had a few misadventures as I've talked about on this podcast. Some areas of Kyiv have been worst affected, like the Left bank, which has taken the hardest hits. But in other parts of the city, the effects of the crisis can vary immensely from one building to another. It really depends on like, how you're connected to the heating and the electricity system, what sort of infrastructure you've got. In each building there are random power cuts throughout the day, and we've experienced them during our interviews. Suddenly everything goes dark and you need to wait for the gener pick up. But as a general rule, the outages are now scheduled on a day to day basis. So everyone in the morning opens up telegram and checks for their area what are the hours of electricity, and they organize their day to day based on that. Oftentimes there is no electricity during rush hour in the morning and rush hour at night, because that's when there's the highest demand. So at the time when you would technically be home doing your laundry or making dinner or making breakfast, you usually have to work around the fact that you will not have electricity. Some contacts have told me that they've had to wake up in the middle of the night to do their laundry, for example. Others have said that school hours have been staggered during the day, with one kid going to school in the morning and then another kid going to school in the afternoon, which makes childcare a real headache for everyone. And people have also invested in massive power banks that they keep at home so they can charge their devices when there's a cut, making them more flexible, more autonomous on a day to day basis. Some friends of mine have also told me they've had to buy six of them in order to make sure they could keep working throughout the day.
- [26:51]
Francis Durnley
Well, let's have a clip from the documentary now.
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Adelaide Pojman Ponte
I was really struck by how Alena was doing her best to keep up appearances as we arrived. She wiped a few tears off her cheeks. Her last customer had told her a particularly sad story. The ugly toll of war seeps through everywhere, including at home. Alyona lives with her husband and her two year old son in a high rise building. She lives on the 17th floor and there are 18 floors and for the last three weeks the elevator has been completely off because there's no electricity anymore. So I think we're going all the
- [27:33]
Francis Durnley
way up there on foot. So Adlie, what are the mitigation factors here?
- [27:39]
Adelaide Pojman Ponte
Well, there are things that are being discussed, but the timescale varies immensely. Some substations are being protected with concrete. So a substation is basically you've got the big power plants making the electricity and you'll forgive my non expert terms for it. And then it gets to smaller stations that then distribute it to residents in cities. What the Russians have been targeting are the substations. So the middle point between where energy gets created and how it gets to residents. So some of these substations are being protected with concrete. There's also a plan from the Ukrainians to move some of them underground. But that will take a lot of time. We're talking years, not weeks, not months is going to be very, very costly. It requires a huge investment. So you know, that's a long term protective measure. But interestingly, I've had a couple of sources mention to me that there is a huge demand for solar panels and that the war has pushed renewable energy in Ukraine and even more so this winter. So those who can afford it, people are looking into buying solar panels, installing them on their buildings, on their houses and actually there are very few companies in Ukraine who do that and they can't quite keep up with the demand. People want to be as autonomous and people have realized that actually having a more decentralized energy infrastructure makes you more resilient as a country and as a local community. So there's interest at different levels, the individual, but also local communities. So I'm really interested in following up on this. So if you're into the renewable energy industry and in Ukraine, please give me a shout. I'd love to follow up and know what it looks like on the ground. A lot of people are also really worried about what infrastructure Russia is going to target next. They don't think it will stop at electricity and heating because that obviously matters the most during the winter. It's not going to matter as much going forward in the next few months. So what are they going to target next? People are talking about water supplies, they're talking about telecommunications. They seem to think that would be the next phase which would impact the country massively. Obviously already in the last couple of months we've seen the hits on civilian trains and public transport. It's mostly in the east of the country, but if my numbers are still up to date, there have been about 18 strikes since the beginning of the year.
- [29:57]
Francis Durnley
Yeah, it's been something we've been talking about.
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Adelaide Pojman Ponte
Yeah, I'm sure much more. And including on the night train that links Kyiv to Poland, which is the night train that we take when we go in and out the country Just like most people, most journalists, most dignitaries, but mostly every civilian traveling in and out of the country. There have been cases of trains having to evacuate just seconds before a drone attack just because the train driver happened to spot the drones over the train before they hit. And you know, people having to stay outside the tracks for hours waiting for help. I know that some journalists, for example, are trying to find other means of getting into Ukraine, no longer relying on trains because they deem it too unpredictable and potentially too dangerous. And friends had recommended that I pack a grab bag for the train if it came to it, that I could just take with me if we had to evacuate, with everything necessary in there, water, snacks, my precious recorder with all the tape from the trip that just next to for 12 hours.
- [30:55]
David Knowles
Gosh.
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Adelaide Pojman Ponte
And of course passport and the sort.
- [30:57]
Francis Durnley
And just quickly Adli, what else were you working on there? What are we going to be seeing from you over the coming weeks?
- [31:02]
Adelaide Pojman Ponte
Well, I've done some interviews with our friends at the Kyiv Independent like we do every time we go out there. So some really interesting interviews coming about how has the Kyiv Independent evolved as Ukrainian media through these four years of war and what the landscape of Ukrainian media, which I thought was really interesting. Also internal politics in Ukraine. What is it looking like? What is this election chatter pointing to? And who could be running for president? Are there any new figures coming up? Is it still Zelenskyy and Zaluzhny, who are the main two figures that could gather support? And would Zelenskyy still win if there was an election? Would he win during an election, during the war or after the war? That probably would lead to a different type of vote. And then the other thing is that my last two reporting trips, I've actually been working on a long form documentary, the Children. That's going to be just audio because I'm afraid this project was pitched before we moved to video, so you'll have to tune in. But I've been meeting families whose children are still missing. Some of them do not know where their children are. They've not heard from them in years. They do not know whether they're still alive. Also with mothers and grandmothers who have had to go into Russia to get their children back, either for military camp or for orphanages, who have been questioned, interrogated by the FSB for hours on end. Teenagers who have escaped on their own from the occupied territories, sometimes having to set up elaborate plans so their pro Russian parents wouldn't get suspicious, only letting them know that they had gone once they had arrived in Ukraine and crossed the border. And I've also been speaking to organizations who organize those returns and get people out of the occupied territories and out of Russia and those who also are involved in prosecuting the people involved in those deportations. And that's all across the chain of command, from very high up, Putin, Myadva Verbalova, the Russian children commissioner, all the way down to the collaborators in the schools in the occupied territories who are organizing the logistics of deportation. Which kids are going? Where are they going? Is there a bus? All of that. And there are some really interesting cases of prosecution going on in Ukraine right now, which, you know, is doing a massive effort to prosecute people, whether in abstention and in some very few cases in person when they've managed to get them. And so we have a case like that that we're going to explore in the documentary. So that's coming up in a few months. Just give me time to write it.
- [33:27]
Francis Durnley
Well, that's going be a fascinating deep dive. So thank you very much, Adley, for talking us through that.
- [33:47]
Hayden
Howdy, howdy ho, and welcome to Fantasy Fan Fellas. I'm Hayden, producer of the Fantasy Fangirls podcast and your resident lover of all things Sanderson.
- [33:54]
Stephen
And I'm Stephen, your bookish Internet goofball, but you can call me the Smash Daddy.
- [33:59]
Hayden
And we are currently deep div Brandon Sanderson's fantasy epic Mistborn. But here's the catch. Steven here has not read Mistborn before.
- [34:07]
Stephen
That's right.
- [34:08]
David Knowles
Hey.
- [34:08]
Stephen
Hey. So each week, you'll get my unfiltered raw reactions to every single chapter.
- [34:12]
Hayden
And along the way, we'll do character deep dives, magic explainers, and Steven will even try to guess what's next. Spoiler alert. He'll be wrong.
- [34:19]
Stephen
News flash, I'm never wrong. Episodes come out every Wednesday, and you can find Fantasy Fan fellows wherever you get your podcast.
- [34:27]
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David Knowles
Acast powers
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James Kiltner
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Alexander Stubb
Here's a show that we recommend.
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Adelaide Pojman Ponte
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Francis Durnley
Well, now you can. I'm Jameela Jamil, and guests on my
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Adelaide Pojman Ponte
new podcast Wrong Turns, share their most mortifying and hilarious disaster stories.
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Francis Durnley
I'm talking people like May Martin, Bob
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Adelaide Pojman Ponte
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Francis Durnley
So listen wherever you get your podcast. Wrong Terms, where dignity goes to die.
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David Knowles
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- [35:54]
Francis Durnley
Well, let's go now to our man focused on on the Russia sphere. And well, it's, it's all happening at the moment, isn't it, James? Really where to start? I think we'll come to what's going on in Moscow at the moment with regard to Internet blackouts and the sort in a second. But first of all, what's your sense of how the Russian press is now reacting to what's going on in Iran?
- [36:16]
James Kiltner
Iran, my Francis Adelaide, Dom, nice to be back. Well, to sum it up, Francis is more of the same. It's more of the the Kremlin propaganda media is pumping out plenty of coverage saying that the US Israeli war in Iran is very much a positive thing for the Kremlin, for Russia in regards to the war in Ukraine. There's headlines in today's newspapers. Iran has Trump by the throat. You know, alluding to the fact that Iran has been so much more aggressive and more difficult to defeat than the US had expected. Another headline saying Russia and China the anchors of stability in a newly unsettled world. So really playing on the fact that the US has lost its way, basically, the important thing here is the narrative from the Kremlin propaganda has been much more sort of anti Trump has shifted. It's seen a weakness in the pro Trump narrative that it was pumping out. And it's now sort of claiming that Trump is the problem. We had Lavrov a couple of weeks ago saying that the good vibes of the Anchorage meeting had dissipated and he's really set the tone for the media coverage in Russia since then. And that is also coming out in some of the diplomatic lines I've seen out of the Kremlin. We've seen strong, I think, in my view, stronger support from the Kremlin for Cuba, which is under pressure from the US Fuel blockade is forced blackouts and Trump saying that he's now ready to take Cuba at any time. We've had stronger support for Cuba from the Kremlin than I would have expected previously. So I think it is having an impact not only on how the US pro Trump narrative had been relayed in the Russian media, but also in the diplomatic sphere.
- [37:55]
Francis Durnley
Interesting. Well, it is extraordinary, as you say, James, that one minute they were pumping out so much pro Trump material and now having to backpedal in such a sharp way without going too far and risking upsetting him too much. And that's obviously a line that the Kremlin itself is trying to tow at the moment. But let's come to telegram next. This has been an ongoing saga that we've talked about many, many times on the podcast. What's the latest on Russia? Trying to get people off it.
- [38:21]
James Kiltner
So, yeah, this telegram block, it seems to be pretty much happening now. The Reporter says that 80% of Russia Telegram is barely usable. They've slowed it down to the point where it's become currently a material part of the Russian communication ecosystem. Although there's also reports that if you have a VPN on your phone, you can skip around the problems. The reasons why the Kremlin have have played this card. And as I keep explaining to listeners, it's a bit like the UK government turning off WhatsApp over here. It's such a fundamental part of the communication scene in Russia. The reason they've taken such a risk, they've cut families off, they've cut men off on the front line from families, from women and children back home, etc. The news flow has been interrupted is, I think the economic conditions were worsening to point, but people were getting more and more grumpy. They have parliamentary elections coming up in September, which they have to prep up for. And these are much more difficult elections to control than a presidential election. They're much less centralized. So I think there was a decision taken by the Kremlin at some point to cut off telegrams, to slow it down. It's a major risk. It has upset a lot of people and it's also had a lot of strange implications as well. They've been reading about demand for pages rising 73%. Walkie Talkies landline uses is increased. Paper maps have seen a 50% increase in Moscow because you can't rely on Telegram or even on a sort of 5G network have been slowed down, all this sort of stuff. So, yeah, interesting what's going on there, I would say. I was chatting to a friend today in Moscow, in the suburbs of Moscow, on email, and he said there wasn't any problems and we didn't have any problems communicating. So, you know, it's not a completely clear picture of what's going on.
- [40:04]
Francis Durnley
Well, let's focus for a moment on this story about blackouts, James, because this has been a. A lot of people are getting extremely excited what this means. There being blackouts in Moscow for several days, particularly with regards to the Internet, but also other forms of power. We hear as well what's going on, James, how important is this or is this being blown out of all proportion?
- [40:27]
James Kiltner
Well, the reporting on this has been patchy. It's certainly not been reported on by the Russian media very much and Telegram has been slowed down. So the whole thing has been difficult to get on top of. We do know the Moscow Times has done an analysis and said, said that Kremlin spending on Internet restrictions has tripled since the war in Ukraine started. We also know that the Kremlin Internet agency for Internet censorship Agency, for want of a better term, has a white list of websites that allows Russians to browse freely and that other websites are definitely more difficult to get to unless you've got a vpn. We also know there's anecdotal overdose evidence that Russians are having to buy MP3 players and CD players to listen to Western music or whatever. We know that online streaming platforms for music are being watched by the Kremlin. So although we don't have a particularly clear picture of this so called blackout. And blackout can mean many different things, whether it's Internet or browsing on phones or eavesdropping on people's conversations. We do know the absolute direction of travel in Russia is censorship. More and more censorship.
- [41:41]
Francis Durnley
Well, James, one of the stories that you've covered for us in the last few weeks and I thought really opened our eyes to the cost of this war for certain communities in Russia, was that story of a memorial which had far more losses for that community than they'd suffered even, I think, in the Second World War and in the Soviet Afghan War. You've been looking into some other deserted Russian villages as a consequence of this conflict, right?
- [42:06]
James Kiltner
Yeah, that was a story I did four or five weeks ago, wasn't it, in the Urals where the boys were photographed shoveling snow away from the names of their war dead from that one little school in that one small town. And the number of boys from that village killed in the war in Ukraine had outstripped the Great Patriotic War, as the Russians call the Second World War, which is an absolutely staggering visual image. Quite terrifying. So, yeah, so recently the BBC and the Guardian published similar, more in depth stories around this exact issue. The BBC focused on a small fishing village in the Far east in Kamchatka the Guardian picked a little village in the Komi Republic in north central Russia. Both very small settlements, 500 people in one, 700 in the other. And these are really near peasant settlements. You know, indoor loos are very rare, lots of subsistence farming, that sort of thing, very few jobs, etc. Etc. Etc. And they both interviewed women who said that a third to half the male population of these villages, almost the entire working age male population of these villages, had been lured off to the war with these huge bounties which were worth about seven or eight times an annual salary, and that they disappeared, they hadn't come back, they're still fighting there or they've been killed. 25, 30% of those who volunteered have been killed. Another 10, 15% are missing in action and the rest are just stuck on the front line. Find someone. So these very stark quotes from these women saying there's no one to chop woods, there's no one to go in the fields. You know, all this sort of stuff involved in these two excellent reports. I recommend them. And the BBC also published a new map which put the. The proportion of deaths per population on the Russian map. And it clearly shows that most of the recruits in the Russian army are from these outlying impoverished areas. There's no doubt about it. There's. Yeah, very few, very little density around Moscow and Petersburg, etc. Etc. The Carnegie Think Tank has an interesting take on this whole thing. There's been quite a lot of reporting now about how Russia is struggling to recruit people. More men are getting killed than it's been able to recruit. The Carnegie Institute had another sort of view on it. It said the problem the Russian army is having is that the quality of the troops are getting is so low because they're having to recruit from these really impoverished areas. They're saying they're getting people, limited qualifications, poor aptitude for learning, very disadvantaged people. They're so low that there's a tech gap opening up between the drone warfare and the increasingly technological side of the war in Ukraine. I know a lot of it is about mass attacks as well, but there is a technological side and they're struggling to recruit specifically for those more technologically advanced jobs in the Russian army.
- [44:50]
Francis Durnley
Well, thank you very much, James. I'm just aware of the time. So I can't end without asking you for an update on cucumber prices or anything else relating to the economy that's caught your eye this week.
- [45:00]
James Kiltner
Yeah, very quickly, Frances. I think we have a return of the egg inflation in Russia. Rostat. That's the Kremlin statistics agency. So the egg prices have increased by 14% this year, already have increased about 5% in December as well. And if you remember, eggs were eggs are obviously an important part of the diet. There was an egg crisis in Russia, price crisis in Russia in 2023 and that was actually sold. This is why this is interesting, the built in inflation spikes, we know about that in Russia and in food. But the Kremlin solved the 2023 egg inflation crisis, was causing a lot of banks by importing millions of eggs from Azerbaijan. It has since fallen out with Azerbaijan. So if it wants to try and do that again, it's going to have to find another supplier of eggs very quickly. On the economic front, there's been reports from Reuters that Russia is going to have to cut the budget, its federal budget by 10%. That may now change with all this and gold price hike. And we've had a an interesting colorful story that the Kremlin's trying to work out how to save Russia Post. This is the post office in Russia. It's in massive financial debt. It's struggling to recruit men to deliver letters around the country because of the war. But it's come up with an idea that it's going to make Russia Post the only postal service of products which are 18 so alcohol, knives, sex toys and pyrotechnics notes.
- [46:22]
Francis Durnley
Well James, thank you very much. What a list to talk us through there. Much appreciated. That's all we've got time for today everybody. But do go and watch Adley's documentary. There'll be a link in the show notes to that goodbye from all of us for now. Ukraine the Latest is an original podcast from the Telegraph created by David Knowles. Every episode featuring us in the studio maps and battlefield footage is now available to watch on our YouTube channel channel. Subscribe@www.YouTube.com UkraineTheLast. There's a link in the description. You can also sign up to the Ukraine the Latest Newsletter each week we answer your questions, provide recommended reading and give exclusive analysis and behind the scenes insights plus diagrams of the front lines and weaponry to complement our reporting. It's free for everyone including non subscribers. You can find the link to sign up in the episode description. If you appreciate our work, please consider following Ukraine the Latest on your preferred podcast app and leave us a review as it helps others find the show. Please also share it with those who may not be aware we exist. You can also get in touch directly to ask questions or give comments by emailing ukrainepodelegraph.co.uk we continue to read every message message. You can also contact us directly on X. You'll find our handles in the description. As ever, we're especially interested to hear where you're listening from around the world. And finally, to support our work and stay on top of all of our Ukraine news, analysis and dispatches from the ground, please subscribe to the Telegraph. You can get one month for free, then two months for just one pound at www.telegraph.co.uk Ukraine the latest Ukraine the Latest was Today, produced by Rachel Porter. Executive producers are Francis Dernley, Louisa Wells and David Knowles.
- [48:20]
David Knowles
My name is David Knowles. Thank you all for listening. Goodbye,
- [48:31]
Hayden
Howdy, howdy ho, and welcome to Fantasy Fan Fellas. I'm Hayden, producer of the Fantasy Fangirls podcast and your resident lover of all things Sanderson.
- [48:39]
Stephen
And I'm Stephen. Your book? Internet goofball, but you can call me the Smash Daddy.
- [48:43]
Hayden
And we are currently deep diving Brandon Sanderson's fantasy epic Mistborn. But here's the catch. Steven here has not read Mistborn before.
- [48:52]
Stephen
That's right.
- [48:52]
Hayden
Hey.
- [48:53]
Stephen
Hey. So each week you'll get my unfiltered raw reactions to every single chapter.
- [48:57]
Hayden
And along the way, we'll do character deep dives, magic explainers, and Steven will even try to guess what's next. Spoiler alert. He'll be wrong.
- [49:04]
Stephen
News flash. I'm never wrong. Episodes come out every Wednesday, and you can find fantasy fan fellows wherever you get your podcast.
- [49:12]
Redfin Advertiser
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- [49:43]
David Knowles
acast powers
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James Kiltner
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Alexander Stubb
Here's a show that we recommend.
- [49:51]
Hayden
Do you like being educated on things that entertain but don't matter? Well, then you need to be listening to the podcast with Knox and Jamie. Every Wednesday, we put together an episode dedicated to delightful idiocy to give your brain a break from all the serious and important stuff.
- [50:03]
Redfin Advertiser
Whether we're deep diving a classic movie,
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Francis Durnley
dissecting the true meanings behind the newest
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Redfin Advertiser
slang, or dunking on our own listeners
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Francis Durnley
for their bad takes or cringy stories, we always approach our topics with humor
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Alexander Stubb
and just a little bit of side
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Francis Durnley
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Hayden
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Alexander Stubb
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Hayden
the podcast with Knox and Jamie wherever you listen to podcasts and prepare to make Wednesday your new favorite day of the week.
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David Knowles
ACAST helps creators launch, grow and monetize their podcasts everywhere. Acast.com.