← Ukraine: The Latest
Ukraine: The Latest
Russian commander: 'only 5% of our soldiers survive assaults' & Putin's army 'rampages' on home soil
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David Knowles
The telegraph.
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Jameela Jamil
What if you laughed all through your commute? Or if you heard the funniest story while at the gym? Well, now you can I'm Jameela Jamil and guests on my new podcast Wrong Turns share their most mortifying and hilarious hilarious disaster stories. I'm talking people like May Martin, Bob the Drag Queen, Katherine Ryan, Jake Johnson, Margaret Cho, Simon Pegg, Penn Badgley, and so many more. So listen wherever you get your podcast. Wrong Turns where dignity Goes to Die
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Hi, I'm Pace Case.
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Francis Durnley
And I'm Bachelor Clues.
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We break down errors, highlight plays, MVPs, and all the competitive elements that make reality TV a sport. And we interview superstar players like bachelorette
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David Knowles
foreign
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Francis Durnley
I'm Francis Dernley and this is Ukraine. The latest today as President Trump threatens to withdraw from the key US Initiative that enables allies to purchase American weapons For Ukraine, we analyze new footage of emerging drone technologies on the front line before exposing the brutal realities of Russia's battlefield economy and the corruption sustaining Putin's war effort. We also report on record crime rates in Russia since the invasion, as returning soldiers strain the domestic stability there and hear expert analysis on this pivotal moment in Ukrainian politics. Bravery takes you through the most unimaginable
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Podcast Announcer
hardships to finally reward you with victory.
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Jameela Jamil
Russia does not want faith.
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Francis Durnley
In essence, we are for teide o
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Podcast Announcer
kraine auch unsere Freiheit und unsere europeischen Werther. If I'm president, I will have that war settled in one day. 24 hours we are with you.
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Francis Durnley
Not just today or tomorrow, but for 100 years. Nobody's going to break us.
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Podcast Announcer
We are strong. We are Ukrainians.
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Francis Durnley
It's Thursday the 2nd of April, 4 years and 37 days since the full scale invasion began. And today, dialing in from Kyiv, I'm joined by Antonio Langford. And later, you'll hear Adaly's interview with Alexei Sorokin, co founder and deputy chief editor at the Kyiv Independent. But first, the latest updates from the military and political realms. Yesterday we brought you the Telegraph's exclusive interview with President Trump, where he said he was considering withdrawing from NATO to not something he can actually legally do without congressional approval. But as we heard from our Washington correspondent Connor Stringer yesterday, there's still a lot of damage he can do to the alliance without a full withdrawal, such as removing American forces from Europe. We learned today from our friends at the Financial Times that last month Trump threatened to stop supplying weapons for Ukraine via the Pearl Initiative in order to pressure European allies to join a coalition of the willing to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, according to sources. A coalition of the willing actually doing something. Good luck with that one, Donald. Now, he wanted NATO navies to engage Iranian forces in the Gulf, but was rebuffed by European capitals, which said it would be impossible while the conflict was ongoing, with several pointing out that this was not their war. That's why NATO Secretary General Mark Rutter got the other key alliance members, France, Germany, Great Britain, to issue a hastily agreed statement on March 19, which we reported on at the time, which said we express our readiness to contribute appropriate efforts to ensure safe passage through the Strait, but didn't go beyond that. Now, US Allies are still trying to toe the line between not getting directly involved in Iran while not being seen as obstinate either. Earlier this week, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said he would host talks between the 35 signatories on forming a coalition to reopen the strai after the fighting has stopped. Now, Trump gave an update to the American people last night where he claimed Iran's new leader had asked for a ceasefire, something refuted immediately by Tehran. He also posted how NATO countries needed to learn to fight for themselves, saying, the US Won't be there to help you anymore. Just like you weren't there for us. Iran has been essentially decimated. The hard part is done. Go get your own oil now. Meanwhile, US Envoy Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner are still trying to solve both wars at once. President Zelensky tweeted about a positive phone conversation he had with the pair yesterday, joined on the call by Senator Lindsey Graham and NATO Secretary General Mark Rutter, adding, we agreed our teams will remain in close contact to strengthen the security guarantees document between Ukraine and the US Now While we were recording yesterday, daytime aerial bombardments were being endured by central and western Ukraine. We now know the price of that. At least four were killed and nine injured. The dead that we know of were all in Cherkassy Oblast. The victim's relatives were at the scene shortly afterwards. Last night, Kharkiv was also hit, with footage showing large explosions over civilian areas. And this morning there are reports two civilians have been killed in Zaporizhzhia Oblast. The ISW says that Russia's new tactic of coupling large nighttime strikes with equally large daytime strikes will cause increased civilian harm as it allows them to threaten more areas of Ukraine for longer periods of time, thereby, one assumes, reducing the time Ukraine can prepare for the next wave. Now, the Ukrainians have hit another oil refinery, this time in the Russian city of Ufa. In the early hours of this morning, smoke has been recorded from there as well as continuing from Usluga, the export hub, one of those Baltic ones that we reported on last week. Now, on the battlefield, the Russian Ministry of Defence is claiming that Russian forces have seized now the entirety of Luhansk Oblast. That's the third time they've claimed this since the invasion began. Now, it is true that Russia does occupy the majority of that region, with the city of Luhansk and regional government controlled by Kremlin installed proxies. But there is still a small sliver of land on the western border that remains contested. It has been another day of relatively little movement on the front lines. There may have been more by the time Dom is back in the saddle next week, though there are reports that some Russian airborne units are being redeployed from Kherson to Sumy. Now, there are also claims of platoon sized motorised assaults near Slovyansk with 16 motorbikes involved. Ukraine claims to have destroyed all of them and the 32 soldiers riding them. Now, yesterday we also showed you footage of a Russian drone purportedly spearing a Ukrainian one out of the sky, along with other videos suddenly released from the front in one go. We speculated those releases might be part of an information drive by Russian forces. And if so, the fact that we're seeing more footage today, this time of Moscow's first fiber optic naval drone in action would speak to that. In response, perhaps Ukraine has released some remarkable clips of their own. One involves a Ukrainian drone with a shotgun mounted on. Yes, you heard that right, shooting down a kamikaze projectile. But before I go to Antonia in Kyiv, a relevant story from the economists looking into an even darker side of Russia's battlefield. Economy, if such a thing is possible. The piece relays how soldiers speaking to the magazine describe the front lines as a marketplace where everything has a drones, medals, home leave and life itself. One of the soldiers, given a false name, says his commander welcomed new recruits by telling them he'd buried 12 companies and they would be the 13th. He said they were cannon fodder and only 5% of soldiers survive assaults the next day. The piece goes on to relay he explained that survival was not a matter of luck, but of ability to pay. Maxim and Sergei, another soldier, each paid 1 million rubles to be transferred to the rear, plus another 100 to 150,000 rubles a month. Soldiers who refused to pay that may be thrown into dugout pits for torture. One who refused to hand over 2 million rubles was first handcuffed and beaten for several days. Later he was tied to a tree and shot. Soldiers ordered by their commanders to kill their own comrades. Call it zeroing out. Vertska, an independent Russian news site, confirmed the identities of at least 100 commanders who either ordered or carried out such killings. Now, we at the Telegraph have reported numerous instances of Russian soldiers being tied to trees and tortured by their commanders, though it's not clear if they were being punished by for this or for other reasons. Nonetheless, it speaks to a culture in Moscow's forces which is hard for those of us familiar with Western armies to really comprehend. But on that theme, let's go to Antonia Langford, next reporting for us in Kyiv. Antonio, welcome. It's always great to have you on the podcast. Now, you've written a relevant piece to that story for the Telegraph in the last 24 hours, and this is looking at what happens when Russian soldiers return home to Russia. Tell us about your reporting.
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David Knowles
Yeah, thank you for having me on again. So this is data that has been reviewed by a Russian language Warsaw based outlet which has found that Moscow's garrison military courts have seen a massive increase in cases of violent crime to record rates since the start of the full scale invasion of Ukraine. So, for example, when it comes to murder cases, and this is active servicemen, they received 729 such cases between 2022 and 2025 compared to in the four years before the war, aka a more than tenfold increase. When we look at, for example, cases of grievous bodily harm, it's quite similar, rising sevenfold from fewer than 40 to around 278. When we look at sexual violence, for example, it's very similar. There's a really sharp climb committed by active soldiers so between 2022 and 2025, courts reviewed 549 cases of rape and other forms of sexual assault. And very shockingly, at least three 12 of these cases involved minors, and almost 250 involved young children under the age of 14. When it comes to cases of robbery and looting as well, we've seen these really distinct increases. We're looking at 659 cases of robbery and armed robbery involving servicemen filed from 2022 to the end of 2025. So these figures might not seem incredibly high in the context of, obviously, Russia is a huge country. But the authors of the study of the report did caution that we should understand the real figures are likely to be far higher. And that's because of a few reasons. Obviously, court records don't tend to account for active cases. And also former soldiers are not included in the data, although I have seen separate investigations, including one done by Wjurska in December, which found that soldiers who had returned from the war had killed and injured more than 1,000 people. And one thing I found really distinctive about that report as well was that more than half of the murders in that case had been committed by ex convicts who had been recruited into the Army. And I think that is a pattern that we see is that sort of, whether they're active servicemen or return servicemen veterans, it's sort of often these people who've been taught that they can kind of plunder, maim, rape, murder with kind of impunity. And that does seem to be, as you've just pointed out, sort of the culture within the ranks of the Army. Another thing I wanted to note about what I found particularly harrowing about this report is that obviously it only kind of concerns what's happening at home, and these soldiers are sort of purportedly going off into the army to serve their country, and they have this kind of patriotism, and yet they still feel this impunity at home to attack. I will say, in my experience of reading about these cases, it seems to be mostly women. And it kind of does make you reflect on what must be happening in the occupied territories of Ukraine, where obviously they operate with absolute impunity. There's this huge kind of dehumanization of local residents. And, of course, victims would have no legal recourse at all to report anything that did happen to them. So I think that we need to take into account kind of that this culture exists not only at home, but obviously on a much larger scale in the occupied territories, and that it's kind of Ukrainians living in Those territories who are mostly suffering from that. And we probably won't know about the scale of kind of atrocities and crimes there for a very long time.
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Francis Durnley
Yeah, absolutely. And of course we try and bring as many updates as we can from the occupied territories. We have our Fortnightly segment with Dr. Jay McGlynn looking at the circumstances in the occupied territories and particularly the resistance activities. But as you say, we're only scratching the surface of the information of what's happening there. And indeed, the report that you've written for the Telegraph is only scratching the surface of the true n of the statistics of these Russian soldiers coming back and doing this to their own people. The scale of this is extraordinary. And I think you've pulled out many of the things that jumped out of me when I was reading your piece this morning, particularly the number of young people involved. And the other thought that I had in relation to this is, we'll talk about this a couple of days ago. The sheer number of killed prisoners or former prisoners in the death statistics that have been calculated by the BBC and other outlets working on this, showing that these prisoners have been sent in essence to the very, very front lines, many of them killed, treated really with the disdain that we've come to know with the Russian armed forces and which was relayed in that Economist piece that I spoke about earlier. So thanks very much for, for looking into that story and I say we'll link to that Antonia in the show notes. But another story that I thought it was worth us talking about is one in Medusa. Tell us about this.
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David Knowles
Yeah, so this is a slightly more light hearted story, a kind of feature that was in Medusa today which was exploring kind of amid this crackdown on popular messaging app Telegram and also widespread blackouts, which I know you've discussed on the podcast before, the kind of wacky methods Russians are having to come up with to communicate with each other. So for example, we've seen some Russians trying to use public listings on Avito, which is an e commerce website for trading goods, and they will list an advertisement and use the kind of comment section to communicate with friends. We've seen others trying to communicate on the banking, on the spare bank banking app, using these kind of tiny transfers to each other to send these messages that are sort of a few words long. There have also been kind of attempts to use chess apps, chess playing apps for their messaging functions and even duolingo. And there was one video which went very viral which was of a girl using her cat feeder, which has a built in camera to speak to her parents in Russia when other forms of communication went down. A wacky little story, but it obviously does speak to something bigger. And I think when another thing I found interesting that I read about Telegram today, the news that actually propaganda channels have seen their audiences collapsing because of the telegram blocks. So for example, some of the main propagandists have seen kind of 52%, 54% decreases in their active readership. So it's sort of another example of Russia sort of shooting itself in the foot there.
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Francis Durnley
Maybe it's time they resurrected Club Penguin. Anyone remember that? That's a blast from the past, but yeah, wow. I mean, a fascinating story. And it speaks, as you say, to the moment really in Russia as people try and get around this blocking of an app that is, as James Kilner said many times, their equivalent of WhatsApp. I mean, imagine trying to impose that in a very short period of time it would so utter chaos among the Western world. And so this really matter for all the reasons you've talked about. I know time is brief, Antonio, but I have to ask. I know you've just arrived back in Kyiv from London. We actually bumped into each other at Mark Bennett's book launch, who's the Russia correspondent at the Times, a few days ago. And he's going to be on the podcast very soon talking about his work and his time in Russia, reporting on stories there. But just tell us about the journey, Antonio, and your reflections going back there.
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David Knowles
Yeah, so this might go some way to explaining my slight lack of coherence today, but it was a 28 hour journey this time, which might be record for me, though not sure. Obviously I've done the journey a lot of times and you'll often face these really long delays at the Polish border. So I had to this time fly into Warsaw, take around a six hour train from there, wait in the border town for a little while, and then take this monstrously long train from that border town all the way through to Kyiv. And it's always a trial, but I will say it happen. It's the same every time. You know, Ukrainians will always hand out their sort of bits of their picnics to everyone around them and keep morale high even when there are sort of creamy screaming children in the carriages and. And border guards kind of being grumpy with everyone. But yeah, morale managed to remain high and. And here I am and I'm very glad to be back.
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Francis Durnley
Yeah, well, we're glad that you're back there as well and able to carry on reporting for us and of course, stay safe while you're there. Yeah, many memories of that train journey from, from Poland to Ukraine. I mean, I'm not sure which is more stressful really, just the circumstances or Dom's card playing or Jack Leather snoring for that matter. Who 10 with us out there. So it is worth always bearing in mind just the sheer scale of Ukraine, which is why we mention it here. It does take a very, very long time to travel just across half the country in the way that you've just described. But to get to Kharkiv in the east, I think I'm right in saying that from London. Now, what used to take maybe 4 hours with one change by plane will take you 36 hours. It is a very, very serious trudge indeed. And in a sense, this war has given Ukraine back its sense of scale, but in so doing has dragged it, of course, out of the modern world. And as I say, Antonia, thank you very much for squeezing us in today when I know you must be exhausted after that journey. Thank you.
- [20:08]
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Jameela Jamil
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- [20:23]
Jameela Jamil
I'm Jameela Jamil, and guests on my new podcast, Wrong Turns, share their most mortifying and hilarious disaster stories. I'm talking people like Mae Martin, Bob the Drag Queen, Katherine Ryan, Jake Johnson, Margaret Cho, Simon Pegg, Penn Badgley, and so many more. So listen wherever you get your podcast. Wrong Turns, where dignity goes to die.
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- [22:00]
Francis Durnley
now let's stay in Kyiv for an interview Adli recorded with Alexei Sorokin, co founder and deputy chief editor at the Kyiv Independent, for a deeper dive into Ukrainian politics. Will President Zelensky run again? Just how dysfunctional is the parliament? Kyiv politics can at times feel impenetrable, so we're grateful to Alexei for giving us an insider's view.
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Adli
Oleksi, thank you so much for your time. I'm really pleased to be speaking with you today.
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Podcast Announcer
No problem.
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Adli
So we're four years into the war, there has been martial law implemented and Zelenskyy's term is technically over, but he's still president. Can you please give me a sort of landscape of what Ukrainian politics look like at the beginning of 2026?
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Podcast Announcer
Well, the joke last year was that domestic politics is back. We see a lot of political infighting domestically now, something that we didn't have in 2022, 2023, even in 2024. Right. Just recently, Mr. Zaluzhny, who's the ambassador of Ukraine to the UK and formerly the commander in chief of the Ukrainian Armed forces, made a few, I would say, political statements. And obviously everyone in Ukraine feels that he's preparing a run for the presidency if there's going to be an election anytime soon. So there's also quite a few new political figures. Well, Mr. Budanov is not a new figure, but he has a really important role right now, second in command basically in the country. So obviously people are looking, does he have political ambitions? Some people think that maybe Zelensky is picking a successor to run maybe for parliament, and Budanov would be the number one candidate right here. There's also people like Mr. Arachaima, who's the head of the Servant of the People party faction in Parliament, and Mr. Arachaimia has been returned to the negotiations team and he's now all over the news as well. So. So there's a lot of figures that can potentially run for office if there's going to be an election anytime soon.
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Adli
So that election chat, it is maybe happening, maybe not happening. It keeps on being reported. Do you think the Ukrainian people is asking for an election?
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Podcast Announcer
Well, Ukrainian people are not asking for an election. The majority of Ukrainians understand that. Well, it's kind of inconvenient to hold elections when bombs are flying and it's also technically impossible because we have a million people on the front line. We have 6, 7 million people abroad, we have internally displaced people. And plus, the infrastructure for elections is destroyed in many places. Right. Even in the rear. So obviously Ukrainians understand that elections are not happening soon, and there's no demand for elections. Will they happen this year? 50. 50? They either happen or not. Nobody can give you a guarantee. So right now I have an active bet for, I think, six bottles of tequila that elections are not going to happen this year. That's my bet with actually a top manager of British publications. So we'll see. We'll see. I still think that elections are a really long way ahead of us. But we know that the president's office is now looking into holding elections. There is chat in the parliament that they need to have a law potentially allowing to hold elections during martial law. We know that the Americans are insisting for Ukraine to hold elections as soon as a ceasefire happens. So there's definitely chatter about elections in Ukraine.
- [25:46]
Adli
So you said that Zelenskyy was trying to find a successor for the election, and that was potentially why he nominated Budanov in his government. But we also know that his main rival is Zaluzhny, who is really popular when he was still in the military here before he was sent away to London. Would you say that Zelenskyy is trying to find a successor, or is he trying to keep his potential rivals close, his enemies closer than his friends?
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Podcast Announcer
We don't know if Zelenskyy will run again. If I had to bet, I would say he will. There is no way in hell that a person who governed a country through war and has the option to take a second term will forfeit the chance. I think when we're talking about successors, Zelenskyy needs to revamp his party. Right. His party and parliament in general is really unpopular in Ukraine. Right. So Zelenskyy is one of the most popular people in Ukraine, and his party is absolutely unpopular, which is absurd, because obviously that's his project. But the Ukrainian parliament is really unwell, I would say, and we can discuss this a bit later. And I would say that having Mr. Budanov, for example, you can. First of all, you can not have him as your opposition. Right? And secondly, you can also create a new political project, new party around Zelensky, Budanov, maybe some war heroes call it, I don't know, Zelensky, Budanov party, whatever, and have a better shot in the next parliamentary elections.
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Adli
We're at the beginning of 2026. And obviously 2025 was a year that was heavy for internal Ukrainian politics. It even made international headlines with the corruption scandal and also with the dismissal of Andrew Yermak. How is Zelenskyy doing without his right arm? Is he still able to govern without Yermak?
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Podcast Announcer
Well, I think he can govern better without Yermak because oh my God, Mr. Yermak, I have a lot to say about how he was dealing with certain situations. But I would definitely say that that boosted Zelenskyy's support, that Mr. Yermak is no longer working closely with President Zelenskyy. And also it's really convenient having a scapegoat, right? So you can basically now say that it was Mr. Yermak's idea to try to kill the independence of anti corruption institutions. That didn't go really well for, for the President or the President's office. They failed in this. They had to return the independence for those two institutions. And when Mr. Yermak is out, basically they have a fresh start. And it's interesting that for example, Zelensky, what he was doing recently is that he was meeting with all the people, former officials, current officials who had a conflict with Yermak, basically showing that it's that guy who had the problem with you. We can actually work together. So for example, Mr. Fedorov, who's the now defense minister, he was the minister of digital transformation. Really talented guy, really popular as well. He had a conflict with Mr. Yermak. Obviously neither of them said that publicly, but we know that Mr. Fedorov was stripped of several of his project by Yermak. And so obviously now he leads the Defense Ministry and he has all the he can reign free and has the support of the President's office. There is Also, for example Mr. Kubrakov, who had a conflict with Yermak. He's the former infrastructure minister now he advises the President. Also, for example, Zelenskyy met with Kuleba, the former foreign minister who also had a conflict with Yermak. And boy did Mr. Yermak had conflicts with a lot of people. And so yeah, he also met. They had a good chat. I don't know if Mr. Kuleba is going to have a new job title soon, but at least the President shows that he's actually ready to talk to a variety of people.
- [30:14]
Adli
Was Yermak a scapegoat or was he a necessary purge?
- [30:19]
Podcast Announcer
Both, I guess. Definitely. If we're looking at how Mr. Yermak handled his job, well, probably I would not hire him to work with us. He didn't do a really good job, in my personal opinion. But yeah, obviously in that situation, Zelensky needed a scapegoat. Right. And, and obviously it's bad that the President has to ship responsibilities, but that's how politics works, unfortunately. And so obviously I would say that the people who we spoke with, when we covered the whole protests and the Naboo situation, most people directly involved in those discussions, they see Mr. Yermak as kind of the mastermind behind it. So the kind of, the consensus was that Yermak was able to sell it to the President and then he tried to do it, he failed and he lost his job.
- [31:25]
Adli
Earlier in our conversation, you mentioned the state of the Ukrainian parliament. That is something I know nothing about and I will assume.
- [31:32]
Podcast Announcer
And that's good. Yeah, I would probably also, if I had a wish, I would probably didn't want it to do deal with Ukrainian parliament, actually. Not because like they're bad people, but because in the system that was created in 2019 when Zelensky took office then he had the victorious campaign in parliament. He had an absolute majority, something that never happened in Ukraine. The problem here is that first of all, he didn't have a lot of experience and most of the people he brought into parliament didn't actually know what they were going to do. That's number one. And the second reason is that a lot of them expected just to support the President's decisions and they didn't expect to actually do something on their own. And when the full scale war happened and actually parliament had had to pass a bunch of laws that were crucial for the state, they kind of got lost. And there was a major conflict between the president who wanted the parliament to be more active and support a bunch of decisions, while the lawmakers who were really tired of doing their job and they hoped that during the next elections they would be free of this duty, they got lost. And so nobody takes the parliament seriously. Right. And on another, like on a side note, there's, I think there's 47 open criminal cases against lawmakers, like 47 lawmakers. So that's a lot of lawmakers under, like indicted. Right. There's, there's bribing, there is different corruption charges. For example, the recent one is Yulia Timoshenko, an absolutely legendary figure in Ukrainian politics. She is now charged with bribing other lawmakers. So that's, that's, that also there was a recently convicted lawmaker for just corruption and there's also some who were convicted for treason. So there's a lot. And so obviously, because law enforcement agencies are going after lawmakers, they're studying what they're doing, a lot of them feel uncomfortable in the position they are. And so it's really hard right now for the speaker of the parliament to even get a quorum and to even pass any kind of legislation simply because there's not enough people to vote for anything. Right. Even if the next session we would have a law, I don't know, that's about to vote for the greater good of mankind and everybody would support it. The biggest problem would be not that people would debate this law, but just finding the people to actually vote for law.
- [34:38]
Adli
So there are different front lines in this war. There's the military frontline, there's also the informational frontline, the diplomatic one. Is there a political frontline in the Ukrainian parliament? And is Russia still trying to influence internal Ukrainian politics and the Ukrainian parliament?
- [34:55]
Podcast Announcer
Well, right now, obviously no, specifically during the full scale war, obviously I would assume that after the war is over, they would retry to kind of of gain some kind of political leverage. Right now it's actually funny that there was this pro Russian political party called Opposition Platform for Life Party, which is the most stupid name for, for a party. Because if you are called Opposition Platform, then probably anyway. Absolutely, absolutely stupid name for a party. And it was pro Russian. Right. And so what, what happened when the full scale war started? Obviously this party was banned and so the lawmakers, they didn't actually had their seats stripped, they actually kept their seats in parliament, but they renamed the party. So there's two political factions now in parliament that consist mostly of those pro Russian lawmakers and they actually vote in line with the government. Government. And that's done because. Well, I personally think that because there's definitely a treason case that can be opened really fast if they stop supporting the government's decisions. And so basically the governing majority that's technically still in place relies on pro Russian votes to pass laws because they know that those guys have no other choice but to support everything. Just not to get like a treason
- [36:35]
Adli
charge in terms of potential successes to Zelenskyy and people who could be interested in running in elections? You've mentioned a lot of people who are currently in the government. Is there anyone from local governments, other cities in Ukraine, other regions that are also kind of rising to the national level?
- [36:58]
Podcast Announcer
Well, right now, if we're talking specifically for the President's office, then there's only two people that can potentially win an election. That's Zelenskyy and Zaluzhny. If we're talking about specifically parliament, there's going to be a variety of new faces, right? There's definitely war heroes that are really popular. For example, Bilecki, who was a lawmaker, he runs the 3rd Assault Brigade, which is now the 3rd Army Corps. There's also Mr. Prokopenko, who is the youngest general in the history of Ukraine. He runs Azov. So he also might be interested in politics. There's definitely a lot of faces that everyone in Ukraine now knows because of their army record that potentially can become lawmakers or ministers or just take an active role in politics. Also, we know that the old guard, old politicians will definitely use soldiers and military men and women to boost their electoral support. I'm not going to be surprised if, for example, Mr. Poroshenko or Tymoshenko will have have five, seven, 10, 50 soldiers running on their ticket just to get themselves elected. So it's going to be a really, I think, nasty campaign, specifically the parliament one, because there's definitely going to be a bunch of new faces who definitely know how to make this country better, who prove that they are pro Ukrainian. They prove that they will definitely strive to do a really good job and in their new positions. But there's also going to be a lot of the people who will use the war and their political speeches only to get themselves elected, while they probably should not run for office.
- [38:58]
Adli
You're the deputy editor in chief of the Key of Independence, so you oversee a number of other subjects apart from politics. Are there any stories recently that you are particularly proud of or that you'd like to mention to an international audience?
- [39:12]
Podcast Announcer
Right now, everybody's obviously looking into the Middle east and the war in Iran, and obviously we don't cover the Middle east that much. But it's interesting to look at Russia. Is it getting anything out of this war, how its standing is improving or decreasing? I think we at the Kyiv Independent, we did a really good job at showing how Russia is incapable actually of influencing geopolitics. We know that Mr. Trump, for example, he always says that Russia is a big power, that Ukraine is small, that Russia has an influence fear. But if you look at what's happening in the world and how Russia reacts, you definitely see that Russia is much weaker than some people think. And obviously there's a lot of narratives in the west and probably in the UK as well, that Ukraine is losing this war and Ukraine has to sue for peace. But actually, if we look at what's happening with Russia, I would say that in the long run, it's Russian economy, it's Russian politics that are in a worse position than in Ukraine. And I think that if I had to give, I don't know, maybe advice to what to look into for new insights, I would say that reading our coverage about Russia and how Russia is actually weaker than a lot of people think is really important to understand this current war in Ukraine.
- [40:44]
Adli
So there's a path for Ukraine to become very influential in the next few years and the development of new wars around, around the world is what you see.
- [40:51]
Podcast Announcer
Yes. And the main thing here is I hope that Europe and the UK as well listens.
- [40:58]
Adli
Alexie, thank you very much. Is there anything else you'd like to
- [41:00]
Podcast Announcer
talk about or I think we touched everything. Thank you.
- [41:03]
Adli
Thank you.
- [41:05]
Francis Durnley
Well, thanks Adli and Alexei. That's all we've got time for today and it's actually going to be a few days off for us. So we will not be releasing an episode tomorrow, Good Friday or on Easter Monday, but we'll be back on Tuesday with Dom back in in this chair talking you through the military updates, plus extended interviews and clashes that I had with some of the officials in Hungary. You won't want to miss that. But as I say, until then, all the best from us here in London. Goodbye 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. 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 emailing ukrainepodelegraph.co.uk we continue to read every 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.
- [42:43]
Pace Case
Hello? Hello, it's Brooke Devard from Naked Beauty. Join me each week for unfiltered discussion about beauty trends, self care, journeys, wellness tips and the products we absolutely love and cannot get enough of. If you are a skincare obsessive and you spend 20 plus minutes on your skincare routine, this podcast is for you. Or if you're a newbie at the beginning of your skincare journey, you'll love this podcast as well. Because we go so much deeper than beauty. I talk to incredible and inspiring people from across industries about their relationship with beauty. You'll also hear from skincare experts. We break down lots of myths in the beauty industry. If this sounds like your thing, search for naked beauty on your podcast app and listen along. I hope you'll join us.
- [43:25]
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David Knowles
place
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Podcast Announcer
ACAST powers the world's best podcasts. Here's a show that we recommend.
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Pace Case
Chicago 2011. A cop is murdered. Police and prosecutors swear they have the trigger man. He swears he didn't do it. How far will each side go to prove they're right? Like it's just one bombshell after another.
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Francis Durnley
You know, you're like, what? What?
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Pace Case
The story of a PlayStation, a brain eating amoeba, and the relentless pursuit of justice. Off duty out now. Listen wherever you get your podcasts.
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Podcast Announcer
Acast helps creators launch, grow and monetize their podcasts everywhere.
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Francis Durnley
Acast.com 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. Executive producers are Francis Durnley, Louisa Wells and David Knowles.
- [45:02]
Podcast Announcer
My name is David Knowles. Thank you all for listening.
- [45:05]
Francis Durnley
Goodbye.