← Ukraine: The Latest
Ukraine: The Latest
Putin challenged to new ceasefire by Zelensky & fears NATO 'disintegrating' as Trump pulls thousands of US troops from Europe
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Foreign.
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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. And I'm Stephen, your bookish Internet goofball, but you can call me the Smash Daddy. And we are currently deep diving Brandon Sanderson's fantasy epic Mistborn. But. But here's the catch. Steven here has not read Mistborn before. That's right. Hei hei. So each week you'll get my unfiltered raw reactions to every single chapter. 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. News flash. I'm never wrong. Episodes come out every Wednesday and you can find Fantasy fanfellas wherever you get your podcasts.
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Acast powers the world's best podcasts.
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Here's a show that we recommend.
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Hi, I'm Xin Yi Pai. Five years ago, I sat down in front of a microphone with a simple goal. To share stories from the Asian American experience and to do that by talking about everyday objects. Now, 10,000 Things is headed into its fifth and final season and we've got a new set of stories about coming fully into oneself, Weird and wild and inspired. Tune in to the final season of 10,000 things from Acast Creative Studios, a podcast about modern day artifacts of Asian American life and the stories they reveal. Listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, or wherever you get your podcasts. ACAST helps creators launch, grow and monetize their podcasts everywhere. Acast.com, down.
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I'm Dom Nichols and this is Ukraine. The latest today, after a weekend during which President Zelensky and more than 30 European leaders, plus the Prime Minister of Canada, met for the European Political Community summit in Armenia, considered by Moscow to be one of its closest allies in the South Caucasus. And Kyiv calls Moscow's bluff over ceasefires. We report on more Shadow fleet sanction activity in terms of both regulations and explosions. And we look ahead to Saturday's Mayday parade in Russia and ask whether a Ukrainian drone penetrating Moscow's layers of air defence on Sunday night suggests the event is destined to go off with a real bang. Bravery takes you through the most unimaginable hardships to finally reward you with victory.
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The Russia does not want Feeschen Werther.
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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. Nobody's going to break us. We are strong. We are Ukrainians.
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We are.
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It's Tuesday the 5th of May, four years and 70 days since the full scale invasion began. And today I'm joined by my co host Francis Darnley and Adlie Pogman Ponte. Now, it's been a very busy weekend. There was attack, counter attack, desperate defense, stunning breakthroughs. And that's just the army Navy rugby that I went to on Saturday. Well done to the navy men, well done to the army women. As for the war in Ukraine, it's difficult to know where to start. For me, probably the most interesting occurrence was the chat about ceasefires. So on Monday, yesterday, as expected, he's done this for the last few years running, Putin declared a unilateral two day ceasefire for May 8th and the 9th to protect victory Day, demanding Ukraine similarly observe it. It was a typically cynical move with the Russians trying to give the impression that they control the pace of things and that the ceasefire they've announced is a humanitarian move from a peace loving Russian regime trying to do whatever they can to find some sort of peace, with any subsequent violation of the ceasefire proving Ukrainian authorities are just bloodthirsty psychopaths interested only in waging war. It's all a sham, of course. Putin is terrified that Ukraine can now get through Moscow's air defenses. More on that in a moment. Now, in a statement on max, the Kremlin's favourite new mouthpiece, Russia's Defense Ministry, said if the Kyiv regime attempts to implement its criminal plans to disrupt the celebration of the 81st anniversary of victory in the Great Patriotic War, the Russian armed forces will launch a retaliatory massive missile strike at the center of Kyiv, as if they haven't been doing that for years anyway. Now, in what I think is a very clever strategic move, President Zelenskyy then said that he's going to bring the deadline forward, saying, we believe that human life is far more valuable than any anniversary celebration. In this regard, we are announcing a ceasefire regime starting at midnight on the night of May 5th to the 6th. We will act reciprocally. Starting from that moment, it is time for Russian leaders to take real steps to end their war. Especially since Russia's Defense Ministry believes it cannot hold a parade in Moscow without Ukraine's goodwill. So basically, if Putin wants a ceasefire over the parade day on Saturday, he will need to halt all military operations from midnight tonight. Of course, he can say that it's not up to Kyiv to just decide whether there will or won't be a ceasefire to which Zelensky can now say, well, it's not up to you either. Good luck defending Moscow skies on Saturday. It's worth noting that on Sunday night, a Ukrainian drone or a missile hit a high rise residential complex in a very wealthy neighborhood of Moscow, just four miles from the Kremlin and less than two miles from Russia's Defense Ministry. Photographs of the building, which houses, among other things, foreign embassies, showed a large hole on the 36th floor of a luxury skyscraper after something got through at least two layers of air defence around Moscow. Now, speaking after that strike at the European Political Community summit in Armenia on Monday, President Zelenskyy said, this shows that Russia is no longer as strong as before. And then, referring to Saturday's jamboree coming up, he said, ukrainian drones can strike this parade. So that for me was the most significant development over the weekend. But there were plenty of other equally newsworthy events which I will now round up for you. Ukrainian strikes on Russian oil and gas infrastructure yes. The Khryshy oil refinery in Leningrad Oblast, also known as the KNEF and one of Russia's three largest oil refineries, was hit again last night. Ukrainian strikes on Russian weapons factories. Yes. This morning, a plant in chukobalsky that's about 500 kilometers east of Moscow in Chuvash Republic that produces components for high precision weapons as well as electronic warfare equipment was hit. Russian airport operations disrupted. Yes. Eighteen Russian airports affected over the weekend as a result of continued Ukrainian drone attacks into Russia, with an air raid alert declared in regions as far away as 2000 km from Ukraine. Ukrainian strikes on major Russian military capabilities yet again. On Sunday, Ukrainian authorities say a coordinated strike hit Russia's Primorsk port, damaging a Russian Karukurt class corvette that's able to carry up to eight Kalibr cruise missiles, along with another patrol boat, an oil tanker and port fuel infrastructure. There was said to be significant damage at the port, with President Zelenskyy saying each such result further limits Russia's war potential, adding, I have also approved additional entirely justified responses by the Security Service of Ukraine to Russian strikes on our cities and villages. Russia can end its war and at any moment prolonging the war will only expand the scale of our defensive operations. And reported only hours earlier. We don't know exactly when the operation took place, but reported slightly earlier. Two of Russia's shadow fleet vessels were hit by maritime drones at the entrance to the port of Novorossiysk. There is very dramatic footage that you'll find online that hopefully we'll be able to show you continuing Russian attacks on Ukrainian energy infrastructure. Yes, that also happened over the weekend. There were attacks last night in Poltava and Kharkiv oblast that included both drones and ballistic missiles. They killed five people and injured 37 others. Naftagaz, that's Ukraine's state owned oil and gas company, said today in what appeared to be a double tap strike, two of those dead were emergency workers responding to an earlier call. Russian attacks on civilians. Yes, as expected, double digits were killed. Well over 100 injured across the country over the weekend. On Saturday alone, Russia launched 268 drones and a ballistic missile overnight at Ukraine. 249 of the drones were brought down. However, eight civilians were killed and 80 more wounded across seven oblasts in the country. Two of the dead and eight injuries were caused when Russian troops launched two separate drone attacks on buses in Kherson. And then on Sunday, another passenger bus was hit in Dnipro. Do you see the pattern here? Euromaidan Press said 40 children were en route to a holiday in Ivano Frankivs Oblast. They'd just got off the bus around 8 o' clock in the morning for a loo break when the drone hit the bus. Six were wounded, including a 10 year old boy and a pregnant 21 year old woman. And then in the last 24 hours, 15 have been killed and 72 injured. 11 Iskander missiles were fired, only one of which was brought down. And 164 drones launched by Russia, 149 brought down by Ukraine. And then finally in this section, Russian Shadow fleet vessels captured. Yes. Also on Sunday, Carl Oskar Bohlin, Sweden's Minister for Civil Defense, said the country's Coast Guard had boarded another vessel suspected of being part of the Russian Shadow fleet. The vessel named Jinhui was boarded just outside Trelleborg about 2pm on Sunday afternoon. It's suspected of sailing under a false flag with maritime traffic data suggesting the Jinhui was, was sailing under a Syrian flag. There are questions regarding deficient seaworthiness and lack of insurance. Authorities said Jinhui is on the EU's and the United Kingdom's and Ukraine's sanction list. Now a couple more from me, both connected to the mayday parade in Russia on Saturday. Russian state media outfit TASS is reporting what they call refugees from Ukraine fleeing the Kyiv authorities were behind the attempted disruption of the annual Immortal Regiment memorial event in Amsterdam. This comes from the Russian Embassy in the Netherlands. Now the Immortal Regiment marches are annual civil events held around May 9th where participants march carrying portraits of relatives who served in the Soviet armed forces or worked on the home front or were veterans During World War II, the Russian embassy in the Netherlands said in a statement. As far as we know, this year's commemorative event was was organized primarily by Dutch citizens through the Platform for Peace and Solidarity. Those who tried to disrupt the gathering were not subjects of the kingdom, but an openly Nazi group of Ukrainian refugees who are themselves hiding from the Zelenskyy regime on Dutch soil. So just to be clear, this is Ukrainian Nazis that have fled Ukraine to get away from the Ukrainian Nazis doing all sorts of Nazi stuff at the bidding of said Ukrainian Nazis back in Nazi ville, all while peace loving Russians march through Amsterdam. I'm glad that is clear now. A slightly clearer signal from the Kremlin about how worried they are about Ukraine disrupting the May 9 parade came over the weekend with a Tweet from the BBC's Russia editor Steven Rosenberg, who said, just got this text from my Moscow mobile operator during preparations for and the holding of holiday events from the 5th to the 9th of May Telegraph. Temporary restrictions to mobile, Internet and text messaging are possible in Moscow and the Moscow region. This may cause difficulties with cashless payments, use of ATMs and GPS services. All going well there then. Now, Francis. French President Emmanuel Macron was seen walking through the streets of Yerevan, the capital of Armenia, over the weekend as the crowd sang the Marseillaise. But there was also Canada, the first time a non European nation has taken part in this summit. President Zelenskyy met Robert Fico, after which he is thought to have said he's not now going to the May 9 parade, although having a drone whack into a skyscraper just a couple of kilometers away might have shifted his mind somewhat as well. Zelenskyy also spoke to Andre Babish, Czech Republic, and the Prime Minister of Georgia. I think, I think that that meeting was. Was cool in diplomatic terminology, but what do you take over the weekend and what did you make of the events in Armenia?
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Well, welcome back first of all.
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Oh, thank you very much to have you back. Notes are gone.
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Oh, yeah. Well, I mean, it felt quieter without you here, let's put it that way.
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Yeah.
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So that's. You see, we're in the diplomatic section. I'm being diplomatic. It was a good day yesterday for French soft power, if by using that term we mean power ballot. I don't know if you've seen this yet, Dom, but there was this state dinner where President Macron was on the mic at the piano singing Laboem. Whilst the. Yeah, whilst the Armenian Prime Minister was on the drums. It's extraordinary. So we. We'll try and play an excerpt from that, because I think it needs. It needs to be seen to be believed. So this is the eighth summit of the European political Community held yesterday in Armenia. As you say, this is the forum for conversations between the sort of major European powers and others who are, as it were, affiliated with Europe, may not necessarily be members of the European Union. It focused on four topics under the umbrella of the future of Europe. So those were strengthening democratic resilience, advancing connectivity, reinforcing economic and energy security, and addressing evolving security dynamics and regional challenges. I think it's another textbook example of the medium being the message. What mattered more than what was discussed was who was actually there and where, as you say. Now, our Armenia has been a country that we've spoken about a lot with our Russia and Central Asia analyst, James Kilner, talking about the skepticism that Armenia now has towards Russia and the fact that this has been hosted. There is clearly a statement of intent about the future direction of travel for them. Another key element of what made this summit unusual, I think, is Canada's involvement, as you say. So Mark Carney, present there, the first non European nation at this summit that there's ever been, so speaks of the direction of travel in terms of other countries from outside getting involved in the eu. In fact, he's actually had to bat off conversations about him applying for EU membership, potentially for Canada. Now, I don't think that's very likely in the short term, not least because of how long it takes to become EU member, as we've touched on many times in Ukraine context. But nonetheless, it speaks to the strength of feeling from the Canadians. He basically said that he wanted to build a new network of trade and diplomatic alliances after the loss of US markets because of. Of President Trump. So interesting to monitor that. Another, I think, interesting aspect of this is British Prime Minister Keir Starmer's presence. Apparently he was very keen to be part of the 90 billion euro loan scheme. So despite the fact that Britain, of course, is no longer a member of the European Union, this is him wanting to find some way of not only being closer to Europe, he's a passionate Europhile. He campaigned to remain in the European Union before he was Prime Minister, but also to be part of this scheme and for that to be the mechanism where Britain funds support for Ukraine. So quite interesting dialogues there. I think it's important, too, to contextualise this with regards to what President Trump is doing at the moment. He's followed through on his threat that I reported last week that 5,000 U.S. troops in Germany would be withdrawn and moved elsewhere. We speculated that this might just be another example of empty words, but it does seem that he's serious on this one. The Pentagon said on Friday that it was intention for this to happen within six to 12 months.
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Months as well as sizable, but about 40,000 US.
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Well, I was going to say so. So I was looking. I've been crunching the numbers. So there are 36,000 active duty US troops in Germany as of December last year, 12,000 in Italy and 3,800 in Spain. So he's also. Trump threatened to potentially withdraw some from Italy and Spain as well because they have been critical about how he's conducted himself in Iran. So basically this. If it's an excuse for something that he's wanted to do by inclination anyway, that excuse is very much correlated with those countries that have been seen as being hyper critical of his approach to Iran, despite the fact, as we talked about before, Germany were the most passionate supporters of what he was doing earlier on, but because of the way it was handled and the mistakes that have been made, they've felt compelled to withdraw on that score.
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Question from the back, the 90 billion and Britain's keenness to tie the colours to that particular mast because of the issues we've spoken about at length about the inability to unfreeze the Russian assets and all that kind of stuff, it turns out that the 90 billion is. Is a loan, a straight loan from European Union members.
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Well, some would argue it's a grant because it's never going to be paid back, some would argue, but it came
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from their coffers that they could have done at any point through all this. So it's utterly separate from the issue of the frozen Russian assets. They could have. Could have come up with this completely. So why does Keir Starmer want to be involved with that? Because if he says, I want to be part of the 90 and let's say Britain stumps up 2 billion, well, that's just 2 billion less that the EU then has to find. So if this is just a loan, literally it's cash that we're going to give to Ukraine, say, off you go, lads, do whatever you like within certain constraints. But why doesn't he say he would do that as well as the EU? So instead of 90 billion, it's 92 billion in this example. I wonder why he's. Unless this is a particular message about getting Close to the eu.
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I think it's exactly that. Domestic. I think it's wanting to be associated with the EU scheme, not adding something on top. It's about being part of that. Perhaps there's some conversations happening behind closed doors that will say, look, if we're involved in paying money into this pot, that maybe will soften some of the issues that there have been around Britain being part of these defence procurement programs.
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Safe.
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Yep. We don't know exactly. We just don't know. But I think we can speculate that there are a lot of conversations happening behind closed doors that are trying to bring Britain more into play in the European fold, not only in the Ukraine context, but more broadly than that. And that is the efficient government policy at the moment.
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Interesting. And interesting, as you say, how Canada is getting involved, but with a distracted, perhaps distant United States. If Canada sees itself as having a greater role in whatever the emerging European security architecture is. Question mark. Australia, Japan, South Korea. Do you want to get. Do you want to get stuck in. You've had observer status at NATO for quite some time now. You know, if NATO's no longer the big kid on the block and there's some new thing, an alliance of the willing.
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Yeah, not another one, another alliance.
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Interesting questions. There was this idea about the D10, wasn't it? The democracy, the 10 democracies, as opposed to, you've got the G7 and all the rest of it. Well, I wonder if this is a mechanism for others around the world, not maybe not geographically inside Europe to get involved. Maybe Canada's showing the way ahead here.
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Well, I think it's important to also understand it in the context of the Europeans at the moment and their fears about this withdrawal of the United States over the medium term. So Donald Tusk of Poland said a couple of days ago, the greatest threats to the transatlantic community are not its external enemies, but the ongoing disintegration of our alliance. We must do all that it takes to reverse this disastrous trend. So he's reading into these actions by President Trump as not just being correlated with Iran and being punishment for that. He is seeing this as a broader trend and he's not alone in that. As we've said before that there are some European countries who think that we need to be thinking far more long term about the threat posed by a United States withdrawal, that this is not just a short term spat, but is the ideological direction of travel and I think even more concerning from the European perspective. I'd be interested in your thoughts on this, Dom. Is the report in the Financial Times that I'm sure you saw over the weekend, that because of the war in Iran, there are now major concerns and expectations coming out of Washington themselves that there are going to be delays for weapons purchased via the Pearl Initiative getting to Europe. We speculated, what, a month and a half ago that this might be where we would end up. That is apparently what is happening. So according to sources, the US Needs time to replenish its stocks of missile systems such as Himars, as well as NASAMs used to eliminate the aerial threats like drones and missiles. So basically they've warned the uk, Estonia and others that there might well be months long delays. I mean, that's flashing red right there. And this, of course, comes before the Ukrainians have their own replacement for some of these weapon systems. We speculated about how the French might be involved in coming up with something. There may well be an in house in Ukraine, only built replacements for this, but we're not there yet. So this predictable outcome does seem to be coming to pass.
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B
Yeah, I mean, the only thing I'll offer there is if the United States backs out of its commitments, business commitments, delays are one thing. If you say we might have to slow things down, but if they then turn around and say, actually, you can have your money back, but we're not going to send you those weapons because we need them ourselves, I mean, what greater shot in the arm for European defense sovereignty of which there's so many problems to discuss? That's where the podcast in its own right. But if the lesson that Europe takes away from this is don't buy American kit, because you, even though the ink is dry and has been dry for years, but at a moment's notice, they might suddenly go, nah, we're not going to send them to you, then what more impetus is there for European defence sovereignty?
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C
Well, exactly. I mean, it's one thing saying it's not personal, it's strictly business, Sonny. And then effectively to say, well, we're not doing the business either, you know, this is potentially pretty disastrous for, as you say, the idea of what this Trump presidency is trying to say to Europe and to the wider world, which is, look, if you want to do deals with us, we'll be reliable only if the money is exchanged, but if they can't even deliver on that aspect of this, then that's arguably even more treacherous.
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B
Yeah, I think it took years for some people to realize that Donald Trump was just very transactional. There's no values there to be defended or uphold. And appealing to those kind of arguments wasn't going to get anywhere. So if it's just transaction, fine, pay my money, I get that. Fine, I can deal with that. I know the beast with which I'm dealing. I know the rules here. But actually, if that transaction isn't going to work anymore, I'm going to pay my money. And then what? It's not going to happen. Yeah, that's pretty fundamental.
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C
Exactly. Now, I think the other aspect of this from the European perspective that will be a concern, as Politico have reported in the last 24 hours or so, is that there are some in Europe, and I emphasize some because not all agree with this analysis, that effectively Russia has a shrinking window of opportunity to cause even greater harm to the European alliance. So the piece quotes a member of the European Parliament's Foreign Affairs Committee who says the US Is withdrawing from Europe, transatlantic relations are in a shambles, and the EU is not yet fully ready to take on the responsibilities by themselves. So you've got this argument that basically this is the peak moment of crisis potentially, if Putin wishes to make some sort of move. And then the piece goes on to talk about the analysis of one senior NATO diplomat and three senior European defense officials who speak to them on the condition of anonymity. They say while defense officials and policymakers don't rule out Putin launching a ground offensive in a NATO country, they say it's unlikely, given how stretched Russia is in fighting Ukraine. Instead, it's far more likely he'll do something more targeted or carry out an incursion designed to create ambiguity, hoping to sow division in NATO over whether the action meets the threshold of Article 5,
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B
time for another round of breach or reach.
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So, you know, we've been predicting this for a long time, but I mention this here because it's really relevant. We see this time and time again in history, which is when powers make calculations about where their strongest moment is the most likely opportunity for them. That is when sometimes risks are taken, calculations made that are unpredictable from the outside because it can seem irrational, but actually are made and, and so discord, of course, you know, the most extreme examples, you've got the First World War, you've got Hitler's calculations about when to begin the Second World War. But it's really relevant here because for some, this next year is the most dangerous moment. It's not coming in the next three to five years, it's coming in the next year. So just something to to bear in mind, not saying I necessarily agree with that, but something to bear in mind and just one Final word on. On this summit. Dom, you mentioned President Zelensky met with the Armenian leadership as well as the Georgians there, and he said this is the first time that President of Ukraine has been to Armenia in the past 24 years. And he said it's important to resume active dialogue between our countries. And then he also, as I spoke to the Georgians now, of course, because of the electoral position in Georgia at the moment, the government's increased affinity with Moscow, there were apparently a little bit more tensions there in the conversation that took place. But nonetheless, they did actually meet. And so interesting also to be thinking about what was happening on the fringes of that conference beyond just those conversations with the Canadians and the Brits and the French.
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B
Yeah, fascinating stuff. Elections in Armenia, I think next month, early next month.
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C
Coming. Coming pretty soon.
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B
Yeah, yeah, it's really interesting what. What came out this weekend. History is coming at us fast right now. But, you know, some. Some weekends are pretty consequential, and this one, with everything that's happening in Armenia and the very clear direction of a. Of a former Soviet republic, coupled with drones getting through into Moscow and all the other stuff, I think the move about. I said at the start, but this. This move about the ceasefire, I think is a very, very clever move. I mean, obviously, Putin wants a ceasefire over, over Mayday. We know that, but this is the first year where Ukraine's been in a position to twist that to its own advantage. They've demonstrated the capability to hit Moscow. And so they're now saying, well, okay, so if you want. You want to cease fire, then let's go. Earlier, Zelenskyy said a ceasefire from midnight tonight, Tuesday. So any violation of Zelenskyy's directed ceasefire, they will say, right, well, it's off then. Ceasefire's off. Everything is fair game. So, you know, if. If Putin can call for a ceasefire, why not? Why not Zelenskyy? I think it's a very, very interesting move. So let's see what happens.
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C
Tonight promises to be an interesting week, doesn't it?
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Another interesting week. May you live in interesting weeks. 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. And I'm Stephen, your bookish Internet goofball, but you can call me the Smash Daddy. And we are currently deep diving Brandon Sanderson's fantasy epic Mistborn. But here's the catch. Steven here has not read Mistborn before. That's right. Hey, hey. So Each week you'll get my unfiltered raw reactions to every single chapter. 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. News flash. I'm never wrong. Episodes come out every Wednesday, and you can find fantasy fan fellas wherever you get your podcasts. Children of Heroes is a Ukrainian charity supporting children orphaned by the war. Some have lost parents on the front line, others in strikes on civilian targets. Some have lost one parent, others both. Adli speaks to Yulia Shotska, head of communications at the charity, about how these children navigate grief, survival, and growing up.
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D
Yulia, thank you so much for coming into the studio today. You've travelled a long way from Kyiv to be here, so really we appreciate that so much.
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A
My pleasure, Adelaide. Thank you so much for having me.
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D
You work for an organization called Children of Heroes. Would you like to introduce the organization for us?
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A
Absolutely. Children of Heroes Fund is a fund that takes care of nearly 16,000 children. They're all children that were impacted by the war, so they lost one or both parents. We handle everything from humanitarian aid to educational support to psychological stabilization. But the fund is basically focused on learned long term support for these kids. What that means we support them up until adulthood. Some of the kids are younger, some of the kids are literally babies. And then majority of the children that we are handling and working with us, they're anywhere between 17 and 15 years of age.
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D
And it's really interesting because I, I don't think we've actually talked about these children on this podcast because we talk a lot about children in the context of occupation. The children that have been deported to Russia in one way or another and that are being put up for adoption over there. We talk a lot about casualties from the frontline. We haven't, I think, as far as I'm aware, really gone deep into the home front and the casualties that are behind the front line, you know, almost by, you know, the secondhand casualties like these children. So what is the scale? How many children today find themselves orphaned by one or two parents?
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A
Well, at the moment, the fund takes care of 16,000, and those are the 16,000 that have applied to be part of the fund. It's probably way more than that. And the reason for that is most of the people that apply to be a part of the fund, they're typically from lower income families. They typically need a little bit more of support. So we understand that the number can be double that when the fund started, we were aiming to take care of about 5,000 kids.
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D
Oh, wow.
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A
So triple the number that we were anticipating. And it's growing constantly. My colleague actually brought up a figure yesterday. She started the foundation a year ago and the number when she started was about 11,000. So today is 16,000. So we've grown. Within a year, it's grown over 5,000 kids.
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D
And it's bound to keep on growing.
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A
It's probably bound to keep on growing. I tend to say that I wish we didn't have to exist. And the reason for that is because behind every single number there is either a death or a missing in action parent. And we understand that is impact on children that probably will need to be studied for years to come because that's a whole generation. When you were talking about 16,000, that's a small town. That literally is a small town. So for us, when we're talking about the kids that are unfortunately semi orphaned or orphaned, that is a case where there hasn't been a lot of attention paid to it as much as to other cases that you mentioned.
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D
There are so many layers of trauma for children all across Ukraine, whether they've lost a parent or not living under bombs. A lot of them have been displaced, which I imagine is also the case for some of these kids that you look after. These children have an extra layer of trauma that adds piles onto that. What does grief look like for these children at different ages? I know for in childhood it can be delayed, it can manifest in other ways. There are very specific circumstances to that grief. So how does it play out?
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A
Yeah, about 27% of our kids have actually had to leave their homes. So they've been displaced. So you add another layer on top of the loss or on top of the trauma. When it comes to grief, it's different for everybody. I always say that. And it's a lot different when it comes to children that are younger. Sometimes they. They don't process it as quickly. They don't really understand it as much. They tend to act out a lot. That's why we have psychologists on hand with the fund. We have about 36 people on staff that work with children of different ages that can work with obviously their legal guardians, mothers mostly, but legal guardians can be aunts, uncles and grandparents as well. Teenagers tend to separate themselves a lot and tend to isolate themselves from sort of their friends, family and sort of shut down within them. And that's another case of trying to work through it. We have art therapy classes, we have psychological support camps, recreational camps. For kids just to be kids. So when they go to these camps, when they actually get to connect with children that went through a similar experience, they open up to each other. It can be a little difficult for children to go back to school after experiencing a loss of a parent because one, you add grief, but two, you add the people that are around you, you add teachers, you add friends, you add classmates that could have been good friends that could have been not so good to you.
- [33:15]
D
And they bring in their own trauma as well.
- [33:17]
A
Exactly, exactly. And you get that sort of sense of, again, isolation from a child and then kids don't want to go to school and then that's where the educational gap keeps growing. So the fund also supports educational initiatives to give the kids opportunities to catch up online when it comes to learning. Get language courses, math courses, anything that will help them with catching up the period that they've missed. So grief can come in all shapes and sizes. And I think for children that are experiencing it, I think it's important for them to know that there is an adult supporting them. If there is a mother that's obviously the surviving parent, it's now a single family home. That is a much more different dynamic than it would be from a two parent family home. When the mother is obviously going through grief, she cannot, probably in many cases cannot take care of her child before she takes care of herself. We always call it, put on the oxygen mask on yourself first before you do that. So we work with mothers as well, we work with guardians as well to go through that sort of process, to stabilize them as much as possible so they can support their children as well.
- [34:31]
D
And so you've mentioned art therapy. I'm very curious about how do the psychologists on your team get these children to open up and how difficult is that? I also imagine there's probably an element of doing family therapy when you have different siblings, when you have the parent that's left.
- [34:51]
A
I mentioned the figure of 16,000 children, but it's about that, 10,000 families. So if you're looking at it now, family dynamic is different. It's a single parent home, but it's still 10,000 families. And there could be siblings involved, there could be cousins involved as well. So not just direct siblings. When it comes to art therapy, when it comes to recreational camps, we have programs that are run in conjunction with our partners that help the foundation run them. The camps are run. We have a beautiful map of Ukraine here. The camps are run all the way out towards the western part of the country in the Carpathian Mountains. Which are relatively safe. And children have that ability to be children again have that ability to experience it. We had an event yesterday where we had an exhibition of our kids drawings before the full scale invasion and after the full scale invasion. So there is a. You can definitely see the dynamic of roses and butterflies beforehand and then obviously the frontline. And one of the psychologists had mentioned that the most important thing is listening and allowing space for the child to open up if they want to. And if they want to have a tragic ending to their story, if they want to paint something that's in the negative light, you're not there to push them towards more positive. You're there to be the supportive person in their life to say, it's okay, I'm here, you have me next to you and I'm gonna help you out no matter what. So I think it's important when it comes to the team that is working with the children is to sort of be that listener more so than the one telling them what to do and how to act and how to respond to their grief. Just being there for them.
- [36:28]
D
It's so important to have that space, isn't it? And to have to allow the space for sadness as well to exist. Because I think a lot of people, when they see people grieving and when they see people who are sad, they want to fix it and they want to keep you on the side of life, is a phrase I've often heard. Or they want to make sure you're happy again. But before being happy again, if possible, that happiness is always going to look like something different. That sadness not going to go away. And you need to allow it to exist alongside the rest.
- [36:56]
A
Absolutely. Loss. We all live with a loss at one point in time. I think all humans have experienced loss at one point in their life. It doesn't go away. You have to live through it and you live with it, so to speak. Our job is not to have the loss of a parent, to be just the only defining moment of that child's life. Our job is to be that adult that can say, we're here to help you with your school. We're here to help you with your camps, your friends, everything else that your hobbies. But we're not there to erase what had happened to you.
- [37:32]
D
It's helping people carrying it. Exactly. And add new things alongside it. I guess I'm very intrigued about. So. So we've talked a little bit about the support you guys bring to these families. I am interested as well in the support that families get from Ukraine As a state. Can you talk us through what happens when someone dies on the front line? What is sort of the mechanism? What are some of the hurdles that families encounter? But also what is the amount of money, the support they receive?
- [38:02]
A
Well, the amount differs depending on whether the person was a civilian or was in the military. That amount differs whether that person died directly on the front lines or within the service.
- [38:17]
D
And you work with all kinds of families?
- [38:18]
A
We work with all kinds of families. About 60% of our families have received help from the government already and about 40% are still waiting for it. And the reason why I say still waiting for it, because there is a process. There is a process. You have to apply, obviously, how to get a death certificate. You have to have a confirmation of the death, you have to have all the paperwork sorted. And sometimes that paperwork takes forever. When the mother or legal guardian of a child goes through a grieving process, getting paperwork sorted, that can be quite difficult.
- [38:46]
D
What does that mean exactly?
- [38:48]
A
So we have case management sort of support. We can help out with the legal aspect as well, of filing and getting everything in order. Because again, paperwork can be quite difficult when you're grieving your husband or your partner. When it comes to military personnel, that's missing in action, that's quite of a controversial issue because there are aspects where you have to wait for the payments. There is part of the payment that's sort of set aside to a separate account until there is a confirmation of death or person living or being held in captivity. And then there is a financial support that's paid out monthly. But that financial support can be divided between the family, direct family, wife and children, but also the parents of the soldier that's missing in action. So that is a bit of a controversial issue because again, if it's divided between five children and then there are two grandparents living, and income wise, it can be quite difficult in many of the cases that we handle. And again, I started this conversation by saying there are families of sort of lower income. I wouldn't call it beyond the poverty line, but they're lower income families. In many instances, the father was the sole breadwinner of the family. And that makes an impact. If the mom was a housewife and she's been taking care of the children, now she's faced with trying to get her life sorted, trying to get a job. And that can also make a huge impact on the kids as well. Right. Because everybody's going through grief differently and each child will go through it differently. Added stress on top of the financial aspect. So when it comes to our job, we don't provide financial assistance, but we have partners that help with medical cases, that can help with anything from getting kids glasses to getting dental care. And if the kids have a disability, we work with children that have disabilities as well. So we can provide support there. We obviously provide. It's on. And it's not a just in case situation. It's a very much case by case assessment of what the family actually needs, what they actually require. So the winter was quite difficult in Ukraine, so a lot of families needed heating and a lot of families were provided with firewood. A lot of families were provided with generators just to obviously live through the winter. And that was very much in a case by case situation. But it was something that the foundation worked with. When it comes to the families that
- [41:25]
D
we are, what are your conversations with Ukraine, the state, the government? What sort of cooperation or maybe elaboration of future programs, future support? What is the conversation between the private and the government sector?
- [41:37]
A
We have a wonderful relationship. We have memorandums signed with pretty much every ministry of Ukraine. So that involves Ministry of Education, that involves Ministry of of Sports. A lot of ministries have signed memorandums with our organization. Ukraine is fighting an existential war, essentially. And we understand that the government cannot cover for everything. And we are a large country and there is a large population of people that have been affected. So we understand that because there is a need and because we're there to help cover that need, I think the relationship is, is quite positive. We have a wonderful relationship with the corporate sector in Ukraine and around the world. We have a lot of sponsors that are interested in not even getting attention in terms of corporate social responsibility. They're actually genuinely interested in helping children and seeing them grow and thrive. And I think that's the key there. We have donations that come in from the private sector as well. When it comes to working with Ukrainian government, I honestly want to see our organization work with multiple governments across the world, precisely Europe and the UK obviously, on exchange programs, on internship programs, on work placements for children that have survived the loss of a parent. And they have, I think, just showing them that there is a world that supports you. I think that's important.
- [43:13]
D
And do you get good responses from other governments, other countries even, I imagine at the scale of local government. You talked about exchanges. I know that was done a lot after Chernobyl, for example. I know it existed in France and I'm curious if that's already in place or if there's a lot of interest.
- [43:31]
A
There is a Lot of interest. It already exists in Canada, but it's existed in Canada for many, many years. There's a Canada Ukraine parliamentary program. We are thinking of expanding that and having those opportunities. We have an exchange program with the private schools in the UK where kids come in for a few weeks and they get to experience sort of life within English speaking environment, getting to see how things run in private schools, getting to see the world and take that with them and hopefully be inspired to obviously proceed with their education and move forward. So. So there is quite a bit of interest. Speaking of memorandums, we signed memorandums with a lot of local administrations in Ukraine as well. So we are working on getting a little bit more attention to that educational track as we sit here today. There are six teenagers right now in the United States touring Ivy League schools. Oh wow, that's great. As an inspirational tour. So we do trips like that too to show the kids that again, we're there as adults to help them as much as possible.
- [44:36]
D
You've just mentioned universities and that's a very good segue into my next question, which is you've talked about getting children all the way to adulthood and obviously one of the big issues in care in this country and also, I mean, in a lot of care systems is children aging out and how. What are they left with in terms of support once they turn 18 and they're legally not children anymore, but still very young and very vulnerable. What is the aging out process for you guys?
- [45:04]
A
We support the kids up until they're 19 years of age. So until adulthood, depending on the country that you're in. For us, we call them our graduates. So we keep in touch with them, we check on them. We have a few cases where our graduates have returned to the fund to work and volunteer with us. I think that's important to highlight, to sort of peer to peer exchange when they can talk about their experience and share that with younger folks. I think that's important. We work with our graduates in terms of supporting them throughout the first year of adulthood. So it doesn't stop on the first date of your birthday.
- [45:47]
D
Happy birthday. You can't talk to us anymore.
- [45:49]
A
But they're essentially adults. And again, because we do have a lot of kids that are of younger age, it's a little bit of a different dynamic starting that when it comes to 19. But that's partially the reason why we're exploring the university option to make sure that they have those opportunities, they have those doors that are open for them.
- [46:09]
D
Yulia, to wrap up this interview, I thought I may ask you a little bit about your personal situation because you're Canadian, but you decided to move to Ukraine where you're also a mother to a five year old child, a five year old son, I believe. What is it like for you as a mother raising a kid in a country at war? And I'm sure your work is very triggering in a way and very hard also because you could see how it could play out in your own family, I imagine.
- [46:35]
A
Well, I grew up within the Ukrainian community in Canada and I went to Saturday school and I spoke Ukrainian on the weekends and I sang in Ukrainian choir. So being Ukrainian was very much a huge part of my identity throughout my whole life. So when the revolution happened in 2014, there was a bunch of Ukrainian Canadian kids like, we're going to Maidan, we're going to protest, we're going to show everybody that we're.
- [46:59]
D
When were you then?
- [47:00]
A
I was in my 20s. So again, you're very proud of your identity. You want the world to know that you're Ukrainian. Oddly enough, while I'm in Ukraine, I very much want everybody to know that I grew up in Canada. So it's a mix of those two identities. So I moved to Ukraine originally. I worked in television and I moved to Ukraine to become an editor in chief of a Ukrainian language, of an English language news channel. And I was in television for a long, long time before switching to communications. And it was supposed to be a year, it was supposed to be a year's worth of contract to be there. And I'm like, why don't I try it? I absolutely adore Ukraine. I loved it. But I knew the country was already at war. Russia had invaded by that time. It was very much on the eastern border at that time. It was very far from Kyiv. It was again felt like the war was far away. It didn't really touch you as much. So obviously everybody discouraged me from doing that. But I did make the decision to try it for a year. And then I met my husband, who by that time was already a veteran. He got wounded on the front line in 2014. He was one of the first brigades that were sent out east. And that sort of flipped my world upside down, understanding that the war is a lot closer than you think. So when February 24 happened, when Russia launched a full scale invasion, not that I was prepared for it, I'll be frank. Nobody was prepared for it mentally. To understand what explosions sound like and to sort of understand that those are ballistic missiles flying, I had no clue what those are. But In a sense, because my husband is a veteran. Because the war was always sort of part of the conversation for us, I think that very much made me feel, I would probably say calmer, in a sense that, okay, we're going to evacuate and then we'll see what comes next. At that time, Mark, my son, he was a year and a half, did a lot of interviews for my Canadian friends at the time, saying, well, I'm gonna choose to stay here. If I feel unsafe, then I'm gonna leave. And at that time, we were out west on the western part of the country and it was relatively safe there. And yeah, we talked about it. We made a decision as a family unit to stay in Ukraine. And for me, being in Ukraine, I. We had sort of this conversation behind the scenes. I honestly feel like I can be a little more useful to the country, to my homeland, to the homeland of my ancestors. I can share my knowledge as a Canadian journalist, as a sort of comms professional, and I can be helpful to the kids of Ukraine, I can be helpful to the army of Ukraine rather than being on the sidelines. It's sort of being part of history where I'm not just a bystander actively involved in it. So that was the decision. My son knows what an air raid alert is. My son knows that Russians are guilty and they're attacking Ukraine and they're bad people. He absolutely is very adamant about it, but he slept through every single massive attack that we've had on Kyiv.
- [50:33]
D
You mentioned that your husband was amongst the first brigades on the front line in 2014 and amongst the first, first amputated veterans. And that was at a time when Ukraine wasn't yet dealing with a full scale invasion and just starting to deal with veterans and amputated. Things have changed massively since then, both in terms of medical care, but also in terms of social awareness. What has that experience been like for him over the last 12 years and how has it changed and how has he found it integrating back into society with that disability?
- [51:03]
A
Well, he lost his leg June 22, 2014. So again, one of the first ones, yeah. And they were sent on the front lines in April, right of that same year. So he again was one of the first soldiers to have an amputation. He lost his right leg and then his left is severely injured. He had about 27 surgeries at the tender age of 21 at that time. So for him it was again, if you were to meet him, one of the most outgoing, positive people that I've known in my lifetime. For him, it was important to raise awareness the moment where he went through rehabilitation and he recovered. He was even on the COVID of a magazine with other soldiers that have amputations to sort of inspire guys and girls that perhaps went through a similar experience. Not to shut down, not to isolate themselves and to be open. Obviously in 2014, 2015, 2016 even, there was not as much awareness when it comes to people living with disabilities in Ukraine. And there were a lot of things that were simply inaccessible. You couldn't even go to the pharmacy because there is no wheelchair accessible ramp. And there are certain things that work still not on people's minds when it comes to having a disability and when it comes to understanding what disability is, when it comes to understanding what living with an amputation is. So obviously we've seen a tremendous change in terms of support for the veterans, in terms of sports activities, in terms of competitions for our veterans, in terms of social engagement as well, when it comes to different programs. But then there are centers like Superhumans and Broken that are helping military personnel with amputations to recover and obviously have state of the art prosthetics. And that's important. Even during COVID when I was giving birth to my son, my husband was with me in hospital and he obviously has to charge his prosthetic leg. Even then it was 2020 and nurses were looking at him sort of like, what's up? What's wrong with him? Obviously you don't get those looks anymore. People are not as interested in what's going on with your leg or what's going on with your arm. So I think the understanding of society is changing when it comes to amputations. When it comes to disabilities, it's still a long way to go. I'll be frank. In Ukraine, people understanding that you can't take up a parking spot because that is a parking spot for somebody who has a disability and they deserve to park there because they need to be closer to the entrance. So there is still a bit of an educational process that is associated with it. For my husband, obviously he's still involved in the veteran community, but he sort of stepped away from the limelight when it to comes comes to being that spokesperson, because there are other, unfortunately, again, unfortunately, there are other men and women that are now living through a very similar experience that are now considered to be the spokespeople for the veterans movement.
- [54:28]
D
Julia, thank you so much for coming here and talking to us today.
- [54:32]
A
My pleasure. Thank you so much for asking me to be here.
- [54:40]
B
Final thoughts, final thoughts. So in the last 24 hours, we've had the biannual display of ankle by Donald Trump when he decides that he has to say something nice about Ukraine in order to fend off accusations from some quarters that he's been the biggest impediment to peace after Vladimir Putin. He said in an interview, I like Zelensky. I've always sort of gotten along with him, other than the one moment in the White House, which I thought was a little aggressive on his behalf. They remember it exactly. The Ukrainians fight because whether the equipment is great or less than great, they are able to fight. They're better than any of our NATO allies. They've held it back for a long time. They're better than anybody in Europe in this fight. Fine market and move on. We don't need to worry too much about that, about any commentators that come out saying, oh, Trump's changed his tune. He's. He's in favor, isn't he? Just forget about it. It's just a bit of froth around the edges. I mean, he did say. Well, two things. He said, they've held it back for a long time. Yes, demonstrably. So they're better than anybody in Europe in this fight. Yeah, I think I'd agree with that. I mean, bear in mind, this fight is really only Ukraine and Russia. Yeah, I think they're better than Russia in it. So I agree with Donald Trump at the end bit, I don't really agree when he says Zelenskyy was a little bit aggressive and that's what led to the. The rumble in the White House.
- [56:01]
C
It's one of my most traumatic memories in this office. I remember watching it unfold on the TV screens just down there that you can see. And everybody was sort of gathered around. And as the chaos unfolded, more and more people were gathering around. I remember we were on the phone. This is unbelievable.
- [56:17]
B
Traumatic for you. I was on the bus on the way to the pub.
- [56:20]
C
I was like, john, you've got to see this. Come back, come back. But we managed to get that bonus episode out in within an hour, I think, of To Blaze.
- [56:28]
B
Yeah. Some of us had more impetus than
- [56:30]
C
others to get on with it, but, yeah, extraordinary, extraordinary.
- [56:34]
B
Where do you want to leave?
- [56:35]
C
Well, just a quickie. So last week, Jonathan, think of the podcast Silicon Curtain. A friend of ours, a friend of the podcast, he kindly came in and interviewed me. It was an opportunity to look back and forward in a more historic and philosophical way for an hour with reflections on sort of European preparedness. The degree to which Trump has a clear ideology versus what you were talking about of it just being sort of sheer chaos. We also had a bit of discussion about Hegel and Marx and even Quentin Crisp was was thrown in there as well. So if you want to have a listen to that interview, I'd recommend it for an opportunity to reflect on some of the issues that we sometimes have to mention fleetingly by the obligation of our format and do something a bit warder as well as just supporting an opportunity to support Jonathan's channel because he does great, great work with some brilliant interviews on there. So do check that out. We'll add a link in the show notes.
- [57:24]
B
Thanks Francis. Right, that's that's it for today. We'll be back tomorrow, same time, same place, when who knows. The ceasefire has held comes in at 9pm London time, 4pm Eastern time. We'll have a lot to talk about tomorrow. I do hope you can join us. Thanks folks.
- [57:42]
C
Thanks everyone. 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. You can subscribe at www.YouTube.com crainethelatest. There's a link in the 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 email. Mailing ukrainepodelegraph.co.uk we continue to read every message even if we can't reply to all of them. You can also contact us 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 Phil Atkins in Audio and Sophie o' Sullivan in Video. The Executive Editor is me, Francis Dernley. The series creator is David Knowles.
- [59:12]
A
My name is David Knowles.
- [59:13]
B
Thank you all for listening.
- [59:15]
A
Goodbye Foreign.
- [59:27]
B
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. And I'm Stephen, your bookish Internet goofball. But you can call me the Smash Daddy. And we are currently deep diving Brandon Sanderson's fantasy episode epic Mistborn. But here's the catch. Steven here has not read Mistborn before. That's right.
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A
Hey.
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B
Hey. So each week you'll get my unfiltered raw reactions to every single chapter. 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. Newsflash. I'm never wrong. Episodes come out every Wednesday, and you can find fantasy fanfellas wherever you get your podcasts.
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ACAST powers the world's best podcasts.
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Here's a show that we recomm right
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I mean, true, but I was going to say that it's a sleepover every single night with your best friend.
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Oh yeah, that part's cute, too. I'm Taryn. She's Cami. We're married.
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A
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