← Ukraine: The Latest
Ukraine: The Latest
Ukraine liberates 'almost' entire region & Trump to ease Russian sanctions after Putin call
00:43:20
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David Knowles
The telegraph. It's tax season, and at LifeLock we
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Francis Durnley
know you're tired of numbers, but here's
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David Knowles
a big one you need to hear. Billions.
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Adli Potrem Ponte
That's the amount of money in refunds
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Francis Durnley
the IRS has flagged for possible identity fraud. Now here's another big number. 100 million. That's how many data points LifeLock monitors every second.
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Adli Potrem Ponte
If your identity is stolen, we'll fix it.
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David Knowles
Guaranteed.
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Adli Potrem Ponte
One last big number.
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Francis Durnley
Save up to 40% your first year. Visit lifelock.com specialoffer for the threats you can't control.
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David Knowles
Terms apply ACAST powers the World's best podcasts Here's a show that we recommend.
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Francis Durnley
Michael Gargiulo stalked and slaughtered his female neighbors in LA in the 2000s until one survived.
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David Knowles
She painted a picture that you could
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Francis Durnley
never imagine in a first on Mind of a Monster dive into a case that's still active. Did Michael's murderous rampage start in the 1990s when he was just 17?
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David Knowles
His impulsivity and his rage was starting to peak around that age.
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Francis Durnley
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Francis Durnley
I'm Francis Sternley and this is Ukraine. The latest today as President Trump speaks with Vladimir Putin and reportedly offers to ease sanctions on Russian oil amid surging global energy prices linked to the war in Iran, we examine the latest developments on the battlefield as Ukraine claims to have liberated almost all of the Dnipropetrovsk region. Then we bring you the latest from Europe, followed by a dispatch from northern Ukraine, where communities continue to endure repeated Russian strikes on their energy infrastructure.
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David Knowles
Bravery takes you through the most unimaginable hardships to finally reward you with victory.
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Adli Potrem Ponte
Russia does not want fees.
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David Knowles
If I'm president, I will have that war settled in one day. 24 hours. We are with you. Not just today or tomorrow, but for 100 years.
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Francis Durnley
Nobody's going to break us.
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David Knowles
We are strong. We are Ukrainians.
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Francis Durnley
It's Tuesday 10th March, 4 years and 14 days since the full scale invasion began and today I'm joined by my co host and associate editor of Defence here at the Telegraph, Dominic Nicholls and our co host Adli Potrem Ponte in Ichnya, Ukraine. But first, over to DOM for the latest from the battlefront.
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David Knowles
Well thanks Francis. Let's start in the south of the country where General Oleksandr Komorenko is the head of Ukraine's main operational Director of the General Staff. He says Ukrainian forces As you say, have liberated almost all of the territory of Dnipropetrovsk. He says only three small settlements remain to be fully liberated and two more still need to be cleared. Now let's have a look at the south. We've been talking about for, for a little while, these counter attacks, counter offensive, whatever we think is going on there, these local counter attacks that were largely brought on, I think by the Starlink switch off, they are possibly starting to knit together or at the very least separately provide problems for Russian forces in the area across the south. So Ukrainian military analyst Konstantin Mashovets here, he said yesterday that the Russian Dnieper group of forces that are the kind of opposition in the south of the country, they're operating in western Zaporizhzhia, Kherson Oblast, that kind of way. He says they've virtually halted advances near Orikhiv in the area just south of Zaporizhzhia city and a little to the west of Orikhiv as well. So Russian forces are unsuccessfully attempting to advance near Orikhiv, he says, from basically from the west through the south to the east. So it's not encircled, but they're pushing in from all those sectors. But they're having to basically break off to deal with these counter attacks by Ukraine rather than concentrating on advancing in their own right. The enemy always gets a vote, as we say now, the Institute for the Study of War, the US based think tank, says that counterattacks in southern Ukraine are also having strategic effects in other parts of Ukraine. Just briefly, when we talk about tactical, operational and strategic, we're talking about scales, which might be a, a geographic term. So tactical is down to the individual. Strategic is the big picture of the war. This in the Second World War, the whole of Ukraine would have just been one small theater. So when we talk about strategic, you've got to bear in mind it's partly to do with the scale of the area that we're talking about, partly to do with the issues that we are discussing. If you're into the political realm, issues impacting the politics, that's more strategic. So ISW is saying that this effort, these locally knitted together counterattacks, are having a much bigger effect on Russia. They make three points. So they say the Dnieper group of forces may have to pull elements from Herzon Oblast in order to at least deal with these counterattacks and try to go on the offensive themselves. Now they have done that before. They've taken forces from Donetsk. It's not unheard of, but of course it's not ideal. You've got your forces in a certain area because you want them doing stuff there. You don't want to have to then move them out unnecessarily. We also think Russia has deployed some vdv, that's the airborne troops, although given the state of Russian training, they're probably not the elite VDV that we thought they may have been. Perhaps at the start of the full scale invasion, they've moved some of them from Donetsk to the south. That was noticeable after the Starlink switch off. Secondly, a Russian mill blogger said yesterday that the Russian military commanders redeployed elements of the 137th VDV Regiment from Sumy Oblast right up in the northeast down to Kherson. That then apparently led to a critical situation in the regiment's previous area of responsibility up near Sumy, just to the northeast of Sumy City. And that resulted in the Russian military command changing their minds and redeploying the regiment back up there. So, you know, a state of flux, shall we say. It is a long way. Yeah. And thirdly, Russia is thought to have deployed its operational reserve to support the ongoing combat operations in the Donbas, especially in the vicinity of Kupyansk, where again, Ukraine's been conducting a series of local counterattacks. Now that's important because you should always have a reserve. Any level of command, you should always have a reserve, something up your sleeve to deal with the unexpected, either unexpected disaster or unexpected success. So you've always got to have a, have a reserve. But you, you use it after much thought because once it's gone, it's gone. And one of the first things you really need to do is reconstitute that reserve. So you've got, you've got something up your sleeve in case it all goes bendy. Now, if Russia has deployed its operational reserve just for quote, unquote, sort of day to day military activities, that is very significant just to hold the line. If they're using their reserve, it shows that they're unable to anyway and shows that they've now not got a reserve. They've got nothing to react to anything else that might come their way. So these local counterattacks down in the south of the country might be that other thing that's come along and Russia doesn't have an operational reserve to quickly throw 5, 10,000 people down there to try and stop it. So it's all very interesting. Now, having said all that, the lines haven't moved a huge amount as normal. Still very violent. 950 Russian casualties yesterday. But it's interesting to see the concept of what is happening. We were characterizing it as local counter attacks. I honestly don't think it was a thought through counteroffensive. It might have developed into that. Whatever it is, it's causing problems for the Russians. General Oleksandr Syrsky, the head of Ukraine's armed forces, he did call it a counteroffensive yesterday and he said Ukrainian forces are continuing the operation on the southern front lines. He's not faffing about. He said it is a counteroffensive. He said one grouping of air assault forces alone. Ukrainian air assault forces alone regained control of 285.6 square kilometers. Not 285.5, not 285.7. General Syrsky said 285.6 square kilometers. Very, very specific. Now across the country, more broadly yesterday, Kherson, Dnipro and Kharkiv cities were hit quite badly last night. 33 people injured across the country. No deaths as far as I can see, which is amazing and very welcome. 120 of the 137 drones fired by Russia were brought down, either shot down or by electronic warfare or just didn't work, went back home or piled in. Mayor Boris Filatov said that at least eight multi story buildings in Dnipro were hit. Now in Zaporizhzhia Oblast, again just slightly south of Dnipro, Governor Ivan Fedorov said 651 strikes took place yesterday on 36 settlements. He said there were 75 reports of damages to houses and other civilian infrastructure. No casualties reported there as most residents had already been evacuated from the areas that were hit. But just the numbers alone, 651 individual strikes, quite staggering. Now elsewhere, Dennis Gilliman, who's the principal owner and chief engineer of Firepoint, remember Firepoint, the maker of long range missiles, so FP1, the long range drone, as well as the FP5 Flamingo cruise missile. We were sort of more used to talking about the flamingos. FP5, the flamingo 5.5.5. He says his company is trialing a new ballistic weapon that will be able to reach Moscow by the end of this summer. In an interview Yesterday with Army TV, Mr. Stilleman said the FP9 as it's going to be called, will be able to strike targets in Moscow easily because it has a very high speed of impact. For example, he said the Iskander. So the Iskander, Russian Iskander ballistic missile has a speed of about 800 meters per second as will hit at over 1,200 meters a second. So we'll overcome anti air defenses noticeably easier. Yes, something will get in the way, but 25% or something like that will get through and hit the target 1,200 meters a second. By the way, for these ballistic missiles, a tank round travels at about 1, 600 meters a second. To give you an idea of what we're talking so you know, not far off speed of a speeding bullet. Now that was the FP9. He's also talking about this other ballistic missile, the slightly shorter range FP7. He said the FP7 and FP9 short and long range ballistic missiles will be testing them on the neighbours shortly. Which doesn't sound as neighborly as you might, you might think. Now, other developments on the battlefield. Have a look at Dimko Shluptenko's Twitter feed. He's a chap Jack and I met in Dnipro last week. He's a civilian who then joined up and specialized in drone warfare. He's put something out on his Twitter feed. He says, very interesting footage from Russians indicating that Ukrainian forces are using laser light beams to try to fry, sorry, fiber optic cables on the waiter drones. Now what is he talking about here? Drones got the fiber optic cable that is the relatively new, actually it's been going on for about a year now development. So it's a physical link between the pilot and the, and the drone. These things can go for, for tens of kilometers. We saw Jack and I saw them building, saw the Ukrainian armed forces building some of these drones. They have a huge great tube underneath the drone out of which spools the, the fiber optic cable. So there's a physical cable, hence you can't jam it. There's no electronic warfare that can, that can get in there. So like much military development, you have the measure, then you have the countermeasure, then you have a counter countermeasure. Earlier on when people were saying, my God, how are we going to defeat fiber optic controlled drones? Well, a lot of thought has gone into that. And this image that Dimco put out, this, this film that purportedly comes from Russia shows a waiter drone. These things that go and land on the road and like an ambush, they just wait for a vehicle to come by or people on foot and then they fly off and attack them. In the footage you can see a turns out to be a Ukrainian drone. You can see something in the sky and you can see a pulse of light going up and down the road. And then the feed is cut off to the Russian drone. So it's suggesting that this laser has done something to the, to the fiber optic cable. Now I'm right on the edge of my jigsaw here. My physics O level could only take me so far. But I've had a look, look around and what seems to happen is at a certain angle, the laser, which obviously is light, because laser stands for light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation.
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Francis Durnley
You definitely looked that up before. We get it. Yes, you definitely did. I can see your notes.
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David Knowles
It's not. Have a look. It's not there. I know what laser stands for.
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Francis Durnley
All right.
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David Knowles
Anyway, basically it's light. At a certain angle it will go through a fiber optic cable. That's no good. You want to get it inside. So at a certain angle it will stay inside, will refract and inside the cable, basically frying it because it's light amplification. Sorry, I keep bashing the mic so the light is much more powerful and hence you can fry the fiber optic cable. So this is the current, one of the current countermeasures for fiber optic controlled drones. Anyway, have a look, see what you think and anyone with anything more than a physics high level, let me know what you think's going on. And I did know what laser stood for. Okay, the next one. Annual report by sipri. You'll remember sipri, we've, we've talked about them before. The Stockholm International Peace Research Institute. They're an independent, open, open source data and analytics organization. They've got their, their annual report out today about what's happening in the, the global arms trade. I've just pulled out a section that I thought was pertinent. I mean it's quite a short document. It's only 20 odd pages they say in 2021-25. So think about the dates. Ukraine was the largest recipient of major arms in the world with a 9.7% share of total global arms imports. Okay. Since the start of Russia's full scale invasion, at least 36 states have supplied major arms to Ukraine. Top three suppliers over that period, 21 to 25, the USA 41%, Germany 14% and Poland about 9.5%. In 2025, the volume of arms transfers to Ukraine was substantially lower than either 23 or 2024. This they say can be largely explained by the USA reducing its military aid to Ukraine in 2025. At the same time, many European states as well as Australia and Canada together transferred large volumes of major arms to Ukraine during the year and pledged to continue doing so in coming years. They finish off by saying in 2025 at least 25 states agreed to buy major arms from the USA for transfer to Ukraine. This is the Pearl initiative. The transfer of these weapons, including air defense missiles and guided bombs are counted by SIPRI as US Arms exports to Ukraine. So that massive figure of U S arms exports includes the pearl, which you know is not done out of the sort of the goodness of Donald Trump's heart. It's, it's a business, just business.
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Francis Durnley
It lies. Lies and then the statistics.
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David Knowles
Yeah, exactly. Now Russia, because I know you're about to ask. 0.4% of global arms imports 2021-25. They say its imports included one way attack drones and other missiles from Iran and artillery and missiles from North Korea. Right, A couple more for me. Russian hackers. Russian hackers have launched a global Cyber campaign targeting WhatsApp and Signal. This comes from Dutch intelligence agencies speaking yesterday. So the Netherlands General Intelligence and Security Service said in a statement Russian state hackers are engaged in a large scale global cyber campaign to gain access to Signal and WhatsApp accounts belonging to dignitaries, military personnel and civil servants. Now SIGNAL said the attacks relied on, in their words, sophisticated phishing campaigns designed to trick users into sharing information. They say to be clear, signals, encryption and infrastructure have not been compromised and remain robust. We are aware of recent reports regarding targeted phishing attacks that resulted in account takeovers of some Signal users, including government officials and journalists. We take this very seriously. They say. Now Bill Browder, sir, Bill, friend of the pod. He had been one of the victims. He, he fronted up, he said yesterday he put out a message saying to all my followers and friends, I was stupidly duped by this Signal scam a couple of weeks ago. Basically efficient. They sent, sent a link, click on the link and in they go. I thought I'd shut it down almost immediately, but possibly not. If anyone received weird Signal messages for me in the last couple of weeks or any messages, it wasn't me. I haven't used SIGNAL since mid Feb. So you know, someone as security awareness and Russia awares as Bill Browder is able to get duped just shows how, I mean we're all busy. You see something, you click on it and. Yeah. Now then finally from me, Ukraine's defense ministry. I saw this this morning. Interesting stuff. They're introducing a new approach to defense procurement of drones. So from now on demand for drones will be generated automatically based on battlefield data. They say this is going to eliminate human intervention. Subjective Influence and corruption risks. Now the transition from manual demand to automated. This automated model is going to eliminate ineffective solutions that service members are forced to refine themselves. The state will procure only those drones that perform reliably, strike targets and have proven their effectiveness on the front line, they say. So how's it going to work? Military unit requests more stuff, more drones. The General Staff of Ukraine's MOD compile a whole list of drones based on sort of technical specifications. Is it a recce drone, you know, got a warhead, Is it fiber optic controlled, with no brand names or specific manufacturers listed? From now on, 80% of funds will be directed exclusively towards solutions that are proven, their effectiveness based on system data and 20% will be reserved for innovation and to get hold of stuff for testing in combat conditions, you know, make it, break it and that kind of stuff. They say this will enable rapid testing of new technologies without unnecessary bureaucracy. Defense Minister Mykhailo Fedorov said this is the first time procurement decisions are generated automatically based on real combat data. If a drone does not fly or does not strike targets, the system simply will not generate demand for it. What matters is real combat performance. Put a link in the episode notes. I mean, it all sounds very good. It all sounds very efficient. I've just got a note of caution. I've heard many, many times in the military and, and here in journalism how this new wizard piece of technology will solve all the problems. And I just wonder, taking the human out of the loop to the degree that this suggests they might. I wonder if that's, if that's very sensible, just letting the data fly off and, and procure drones. Donkey is a horse designed by committee type thing. I wonder if you just allow your data to say I need more attack drones, you're going to end up with, you know, something that you don't need with no human interaction. But we will see. I mean they are very, very data centric the, the Ukrainian armed forces. So it will be interesting to see if this, if this works. It might bring the efficiencies they are claiming. That's us up to date. Francis.
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Francis Durnley
Well, thanks very much, Tom. It's a drone heavy day because I'm going to be talking about that.
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David Knowles
You're going to be droning on.
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Francis Durnley
You walked into that. I did. I predicted it in advance though, didn't I? I managed to manage to beat you to it anyway, so we spoke at length yesterday about the apparent hesitancy displayed by President Trump Secretary of War Pete Hegseth envoy Steve Witkoff of openly criticizing Moscow, despite reportedly sharing intelligence with Iran about US Sites it should target and condemnation of US Actions in very strong terms. We speculated whether Putin's decision to so openly back the new Supreme Leader, who Trump had said was unacceptable to him as a successor to the Ayatollah killed just over a week ago, might lead to a more critical stance. Well, we have our answer. Yesterday, Trump called Putin for an hour where we understand they discussed the war with Iran and efforts to end the war in Ukraine. The Kremlin said it was frank and businesslike and ended with Trump offering to lift oil related sanctions in an attempt to ease the spike in oil prices following the U. S Israeli operation. Now, Trump hasn't specified which country could receive sanctions relief, but several outlets are reporting that the administration is concerned considering reducing sanctions on Russian oil until this straightens out. That is what Trump said yesterday, though there are questions about whether he's actually able to legally do that without the 30 day congressional notification required by law. Trump said Putin wants to be helpful yesterday, despite all the evidence we've talked about to the contrary. It's worth contrasting Trump's consistent warm words about Putin to his rather schizophrenic approach to US Allies like for instance, British Prime Minister Sakir Starmer, who Trump has applauded in the past. But last week when Starmer just showed hesitancy in supporting the US Operation over Iran, was called no Winston Churchill, among many other insults. It caused rather a diplomatic row here, to be honest with you, and just we never hear that kind of rhetoric from Trump. Regarding Putin. Our friend, historian Sir Timothy Snyder sums it up quite well. He says the American position is that it's fine for Russia to use drones to freeze out the Ukrainian population. And to the Ukrainians, by the way, can you give us your drone defenses? I mean, that is literally what's going on here, frankly. And he's referencing that story we reported last week when the US Joined Russia, China and others in opposing that resolution condemning attacks on Ukraine's energy infrastructure. And the fact that Ukraine has been offering the Pentagon support in terms of anti drone technology in direct terms. So not sold or gifted as we were talking about earlier on. Ukraine has now provided more military aid to the US this year than the US has provided to Ukraine. Zelensky told the New York Times that the US Requested anti drone help last Thursday. The very next day he dispatched interceptor drones and a team of drone experts to help protect US Bases in Jordan. Now, the Times also revealed a source in the Ukrainian government telling them that Washington has only Given over the entire course of the war, 600 Patriot missiles. Now they've apparently, and obviously there's fog of war and all that. We're not 100% certain, but apparently they've used upwards of 800 Patriot interceptors in just the last few days in the Middle East. Now that underscores, if true, just how small those donations were in the timescale concerned essential though they were. Another fact, of course many will find embarrassing is the revelation in Axios that nearly seven months ago Ukrainian officials tried to sell the US their battle proven tech for downing Iranian made attack drones, specifically even making a PowerPoint presentation about how it could protect American forces and their allies in the Middle East. They were rebuffed. And now Iran's inexpensive shahed drones have been linked to the deaths of seven US service members and have cost the US and its friends in the region millions of dollars to intercept. As a US official is quoted in the piece as saying, if there's a tactical error or a mistake we made in leading up to this war in Iran, this was it. Now, in a meeting yesterday with his top staff, Zelenskyy said his primary focus is on the destabilization by the war in Iran and the corresponding risks for global markets, the countries of the region and Ukraine's closest partners who support us in defending against Russian aggression. He went on, we reviewed in detail requests from states for security support from our side encountering shahed drones and other similar challenges. As of now, there are 11 requests from countries neighbouring Iran, European states and the US. Ukraine is ready to respond positively to requests from those who help us protect the lives of Ukrainians and the independence of Ukraine. 11 requests, quite extraordinary. Now it is worth returning to the key question, given all of this of yesterday's episode, why did Putin back Iran's new Supreme Leader so publicly and risk Trump's wrath? Not that it came fundamentally as we speculated. I think it's about them seeking to position themselves as an indispensable power in the region which cannot be ignored if or when the US seeks to mediate peace. Given the apparent U turn of the White House last night, moving away from the war lasting a few weeks to now, according to Trump, it being essentially over, that's what he said. Very complete. That shift in position makes sense. They are offering an off ramp to the Americans, softening the blow on the energy markets and acting potentially as a broker between the US and the new regime in Tehran. Now that is a canny move if that's what unfolds next. But interesting Your thoughts, Tom?
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David Knowles
Yeah, I've got no more insight into why Putin made that statement yesterday or that we spoke about yesterday. It does seem bizarre. I'd be very interested to know at whose instigation that chat last night between Trump and Putin happened, because I wonder if, if the Russians, obviously, they want to make themselves, they want to be seen as indispensable and, and a world player, not just some grubby sort of regional thing, this spat with little old Ukraine, but they're a world player so they can help out in, in Iran and all this kind of stuff. But I just wonder if the Russians initiated it or at least said they were very open to a, to an advance, a telephone call from Trump, having made those comments, because we know Donald Trump doesn't really kind of remember an awful lot, he reacts to the last thing he's heard. So even if he did think, oh, that's a bit rum, why is my mate Vlad saying these nasty things about, about the United States? If he then has an hour and a half long telephone call, he's going to completely forget it. So I just wonder if the, that one of the points last night was to, or maybe they felt emboldened to make the statement criticizing the US because they were fully expecting this, this phone call which they knew would just sort of events will be overtaken. But I, you know, I'm only speculating it.
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Francis Durnley
I mean, allegedly it came the call as a request from the White House, but as you say, there's always more context to this, as we've seen when things have come out since. It's sometimes like that. There's been a, a text from Dmitriev to Witkoff, who then passes that on to Trump, says, yeah, I'll have a call with them, you know, well, maybe,
- [26:46]
David Knowles
but, or maybe it did come from the White House and, and the Russians said, yeah, yeah, yeah, of course, we'll schedule this for tomorrow. And in the meantime they make that statement. I don't, I don't know, I'm just, you know, I'm not trying to be all.
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Francis Durnley
I'm sure conspiracy theory, as we always say, one for future historians right to. It is worth bearing in mind though, how this will all impact particularly the energy policy aspects of this Europe. I mean, unsurprisingly, Hungary's leader, Viktor Orban, has now urged the EU to lift all sanctions on Russian energy, arguing that the conflict has led to an explosive price spike and adding that we must review and suspend all sanctions on Russian energy across Europe. I initiated this today in a letter to President von der Leyen, now Poland's Prime Minister Donald Tusk, has gone in hard. In response, he said Orban no longer hides his fondness for Putin and Russian politics. That is why Europe must effectively enforce its decisions, including on the 90 billion euros loan. Hungary has signed up for this decision. I am convinced that Europe can safely use the 90 billion for Ukraine without waiting for additional approval from Budapest. We do not expect them to keep coming back on this issue just because Orban is currently more favorably disposed towards Russia than Ukraine. Now, if they really are working on a way for that loan to go to Ukraine, if Hungary or Slovakia don't approve it, then that is a big deal and something we will have to look into in much more detail when or if it's ever announced.
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David Knowles
What I don't understand, I can sort of get the EU dancing around about the frozen Russian assets, because they say if you break that, then, then trust is gone on the open market. I mean, I personally think there's smart minds could find a way around that. But I can see, I can sort of see the argument there. This 90 billion euro loan, if they just said, right, okay, Victor, we hear you, we're going to ignore you, we're going to move on, we're going to do it. We're going to give Ukraine the 90 billion euros. What's the downside to that? Because the only person who gets disgruntled by that is Viktor Orban. Or is the EU saying that actually our standing in the world, the world will look at us and go, oh, they'll just change the rules as it suits them. I think that's a much lower risk and it's quite easily explainable because the EU can say, we are staunch supporters of Ukraine. We've made no bones about that. This is why we're taking the action. I don't think it would have potentially the impact on their international standing and their accreditation, if you like, as an honest broker in the way that the frozen assets might. So I don't know why this 90 billion euro loan, it seems mired in the treacle, the same as the frozen assets.
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Francis Durnley
Well, I think the issue is that when we talk about the eu, we're quite often articulating it as being without Hungary there. But of course, because Hungary is a member, the EU can't actually necessarily make statements that it believes that the 90 billion must go to Ukraine when there are countries now, two countries, who are opposed to that. And so this is where you get the tension between Ursula von der Leyen, who can speak from the Commission's perspective, and say certain things. But the EU cannot, when this veto is in place from two countries, say that it is willing to unlock that 90 billion. So, I mean, maybe a solution, and perhaps they're working on this, I don't know, is that the countries in the EU who are in favor of the 90 billion going to Ukraine can just do it themselves outside of the apparatus of the eu. But originally it was sort of brokered within the eu, if you see what I mean.
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David Knowles
I have a whip round.
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Francis Durnley
Exactly. A very expensive whip round. Yeah. So, I don't know. I mean, but it's so complicated, this, because of the power that every single individual state has within the Union. You know, this is something, of course, Joe Barnes has talked about so many times, but they are obviously trying to find solutions. Now, this row, as one expects, could play well into Orban's hands before the election on April 12. As could that extraordinary Hungarian police raid on the convoy of Ukraine's Oshad bank collectors near Budapest that seized $40 million, 35 million euros and 9 kg of gold, which the Hungarians are now saying will remain in Hungary until Ukraine resumes operation of the Druzba oil pipeline. Now, this means that critics are saying that this drops any pretensions of due process or following the rule of law. This is basically political blackmail to show that they're being tough on Kyiv. Now, they've released now a photo of what they've actually seized, which looks like it could fit in a couple of large suitcases. I mean, you were looking at this, Dom, and saying, that doesn't look like 35 million euros to me.
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David Knowles
I mean, I don't know the size of the banknotes, but I thought the gold bars. And basically, all I've got to go on Here is Goldfinger 1964. So I don't know how big a gold bar is. I've never actually. I mean, you know better than me, but I don't know how big a gold bar is. But they look tiny and it's supposedly 9kg. There were nine gold bars. And from what I know, you know, Bond drops the gold bar on the golf course and the golf ball does. Does that. They're quite heavy and yet those things are supposed to be 1kg each. So I don't know if it's a scale thing, and these are actually really small gold bars and the banknotes are normal size. But anyway, it all looked very odd.
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Francis Durnley
We'd have to ask Odd job. Now, I think that's probably it in terms of the Updates today. So now let's go to Adli in Ukraine. She's in Ichnya, a small city in the north of the country, as she continues on her travels, working on several investigations for us, which you'll hear in future episodes. Over to her.
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Adli Potrem Ponte
Hi, London. Today I'm in the little town of Ichnea, which is in Chernihiv Oblast. Chernihiv Oblast is one of the two northernmost areas of Ukraine, just below the Russian and the Belarusian border. It's situated to the west of Sumy Oblast. I'm here to interview a young man and his grandmother. He was in Mariupol and fled occupation a couple of years ago. So we're here to listen to his story. Ichnya is about three hours northeast of Kyiv and the road is very, very straight going through snow covered fields. It was very, very beautiful, dotted with bus stop stops along the road. I'm not really sure how often the bus is there. And some very lovely settlements of traditional houses, you know, low houses painting green, yellow, blue. It was really, really beautiful. Although I thought it was really pretty. My producer Natalia thought it was very basic and she kind of laughed at me for saying that. Another noticeable thing on the way, we came across two checkpoints for mobilization, which is where you'll usually have soldiers and the police stopping cars and verifying men's papers and potentially taking them away for the draft. It's a small countryside town with a lovely little market. And on the way here we saw plenty of ladies with bouquets of flowers and tulips. In particular, on the way here we saw women lining up to pick up parcels of humanitarian aid. And there are a few generators along the street. I don't know if you can hear the one near me that are helping with the energy crisis. In 2022, it was home to a little under a million people. Chernihiv, the main region of city, was the second most important city during the Kievan Rus. It's not the first time the area fights against Russian expansionism. There was a famous battle, the Battle of Kruty in 1918 during the Ukrainian Soviet War. In 1943, Nazi forces and the Hungarian army burned down an entire village where its residents were also burnt alive. In 2022, the oblast was one of the first areas of confrontation and of the invasion. When the tanks were pushing towards Kyiv, the Ukrainian army held the line around here and prevented the main city of Chernihiv from being surrounded. The city, however, was badly hit, including its northern neighborhoods. It's considered one of the hero cities of Ukraine. Alongside Kharkiv, Mariupol and Kyiv. The Russians were pushed out in 2022, but they left a lot of mines in the area. In September, actually a Danish demining main convoy was actually hit by a Russian strike. The border areas continue to be heavily shelled, especially by UAVs. In October 2025 alone, Russia launched 1, 700 drones over over the oblast. The drones usually hover over the oblast for quite a long time before going on to the their destination where they're going to strike, which has become part of like the daily routine of residents around here. A bit of psychological warfare but, but people say they get used to it. As far as I can tell, the closest Russian forces are about 230km to the east, just across the border from Sumy Oblast in a town called Technico. One fun fact, in Chernihiv, the main regional city, in October, they renamed one of their city squares after Donald Trump as a modern political leader in order to draw attention to the reconstruction of Chernihiv. Despite its proximity with Russia, the oblast is a vast majority Ukrainian speaking. There's also a lot of oil and gas extraction in the area, as well as a major tobacco plant. And since October, it has been massively hit by energy strikes, just like across the country. Just three days ago there was a drone strike on an energy infrastructure that also hit a civilian home and killing an elderly woman. But apart from my report on Chernihiv, I also wanted to tell you a little bit about a Ukrainian holiday that I've just discovered in the last couple of days. On March 8th internationally is international Women's Day, but it is a special holiday in Ukraine and it has been since Soviet times. As you can see behind me, it's a way to celebrate the spring, which starts on March 1st in Ukraine. So usually you will see stalls of flowers everywhere and it is really, really celebrated. We're trying to book a hotel room for tonight on our little road trip with Natalia. And several hotels in the area told us they were completely full because people had taken the weekend off in order to celebrate International Women's Day, spend time with their loved ones, go on picnics, etc, as a way to celebrate the spring. So the tradition here, my producer tells me, is that, that you will buy flowers for your loved ones and tell them how beautiful they are. But in recent years it has become slightly more political in some circles and it's considered a bit rude to tell women that they are beautiful and you should focus on the rights of women. Nonetheless, the very, very common way of celebrating this holiday is to buy flowers for your wife, your girlfriend, your daughters, your mother, your grandmother, but also and that's important to note for your co workers. And so this morning in Kyiv, because today is Friday and obviously the last day of the week, you had stalls, big stalls of tulips and men lining up to buy big bouquet of flowers to distribute around their offices to their, to their female co workers. So Dom Francis, I'm expecting tulips on my desk next week when I come back into the office. Foreign.
- [37:50]
Francis Durnley
One of the most effective ad channels out there with ACAS Ads Academy, you can learn everything you need to plan and run podcast advertising campaigns completely free. Whether you're new to audio or ready to sharpen your skills, our self paced courses fit your schedule and finish with an industry recognized certification. So if you want to grow your expertise and stand out in a competitive industry, head to go. Acast.com Academy well thanks very much Adli. Let's go to our final thoughts. Now then, Dom, where do you want to leave listeners today?
- [38:23]
David Knowles
A couple of things if I may. Firstly, I'll put the link in the episode notes. I'll point folks to an article in the Atlantic by our pal Elliot Cohen. It's titled An Air Campaign Primer. So possibly more pertinent right now for Iran, but it's a good ready reckon on how air power is planned and employed in the military context. So do have a look at that. It's a very digestible, it's quite short, very easy to read on how an air campaign is is planned. And for I say put the link in the episode notes. Secondly, I saw an interesting tweet by President Zelensky just before we, before we started recording. He was talking about, amongst other things, how Ukrainian intelligence have found a number of important documents regarding Russia's own assessment of their casualties. President Zelensky says these documents paint a very disturbing picture. They say for every hundred casualties the Russians are taking, according to Russia's own statistics, 68% are killed, 32 injured, which is a very high statistic. You would expect it to be the other way around. More people are injured than killed. So not only is it a very stark statistic, but I wonder if it speaks of the majority of the military casualties right now are taken by drone or made by drone. And as we can see, you know, not many people are injured by drone. It's pretty binary. You know, you survive or you're killed. So I would have thought from what what we've seen anecdotally that those Statistics probably do speak to what's happening, what, what the situation is at the front. But you know, 68 of all casualties killed, that is a, that is a stark number. And he also says, President Zelensky says again, Russian owned statistics says that they've suffered 1,315,000 casualties. Russia casualties killed, wounded, taken prisoner or missing. So, you know, absolutely stark figures. Didn't say where these documents are from. If we're to trust the veracity of them. Those are quite stark statistics.
- [40:14]
Francis Durnley
I would venture only a special military operation. God, if this was a war, imagine how high the casualties would be. Anyway, a couple of quick ones from me as well, Dom. First, thank you to everyone who's written in about the Paralympics and the Venice Biennale. After yesterday's episode, the Pinchuk Art center, the contemporary art center in Kyiv, who we featured in our Christmas episode dedicated to Ukraine. Ukrainian art has since released a statement which I thought I would quote on air today. They write, the center, as a participant in a collateral event at LA Biennale, is appalled by the participation of the Russian Federation. Russia has weaponized art and exhibition making to advance its imperial ambitions and support its military aggression against Ukraine. This position has been openly articulated by leading figures of Russia's cultural establishments. On 25 May 2022, the Director of the State Hermitage Museum. When the cannons speak, the muses do not remain silent. These are not abstract words. They are a deliberate mobilization of culture in support of war. In May 2026, Russia's Muses will again sing in Venice unless the Biennale finds the courage to act. Russian Muses support the cannons aimed at Ukraine. Cannons that continue to kill innocent civilians, women and children. The Biennale has not taken preventative action and has not refused Russia's participation. Inaction does not equal neutrality. We therefore call upon the Biennale Defenezia to take a clear position and refuse the participation of the Russian Federation, thereby condemning the illegal war of aggression it continues to wage against Ukraine. So, as ever, interested in hearing your thoughts at home about that. And lastly, an interesting story in the Guardian about the sheer number of accounts that Elon Musk's social media platform X suspended in a 12 month period. I couldn't believe this. I thought I'd misread it. 800 million. The social media company told British MPs that it was continually fighting state backed attempts to hijack the agenda on its network with Russia, the most prolific state actor, followed by Iran and China. Now X has approximately 300 million monthly users worldwide. So it just gives you a sense of the scale here that we're involved with. What they didn't address, though, is how one can square the acceptance of deliberate foreign interference and disinformation with a philosophy articulated by Musk, which also seemingly advocates for a model that makes the definition between fact and deliberate propaganda much more blurred than in previous incarnations of the platform. So this continues to be a very complicated and controversial area, for all of the obvious reasons whenever we talk about freedom of speech. But nonetheless those numbers are staggering and I think could partially explain why the media landscape has become increasingly toxified in the last few years. 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. You can also sign up to the Ukraine the Latest newsletter. Each week we answer your questions, provide recommended reading and give exclusive analysis and behind the scenes insights, plus diagrams of the front lines and weaponry to complement our reporting. It's free for everyone, including non subscribers. You can find the link to sign up in the episode description. If you appreciate our work, please consider following Ukraine the Latest on your preferred podcast app and leave us a review as it helps others find the show. Please also share it with those who may not be aware we exist. You can also get in touch directly to ask questions or give comments by emailing ukrainepodelegraph.co.uk we continue to read every message. You can also contact us directly on X. You'll find our handles in the description. As ever, we're especially interested to hear where you're listening from around the world. And finally, to support our work and stay on top of all of our Ukraine news, analysis and dispatches from the ground, please subscribe to the Telegraph. You can get one month for free, then two months for just one pound at www.telegraph.co.uk Ukraine the latest Ukraine the Latest was Today, produced by Phil Atkins. Executive producers are Francis Durnley, Louisa Wells and David Knowles.
- [45:10]
David Knowles
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