← Ukraine: The Latest
Ukraine: The Latest
Zelensky ‘planning election and peace deal referendum’ & Winter Olympics threatens to disqualify Ukrainian athlete over 'remembrance helmet'
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Dom Nicholls
The telegraph.
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Paige Desorbo
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Dom Nicholls
Prices and participation may vary.
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Narrator/Promoter
Taxes, tips and fees extra.
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Dom Nicholls
I'm Dom Nicholls and this is Ukraine. The latest Today we try to work out where we are after M Messaging leaves the world confused over whether or not President Zelensky plans to use the upcoming fourth anniversary of the full scale invasion to announce presidential elections or a referendum on a possible peace deal. Russia continues to rage at the Starlink switch off a comms catastrophe exacerbated by the Kremlin's clampdown on the Telegram messaging app. And the Olympic controversy continues over the Ukrainian helmet of memory. And later we get the latest from our resident Russia watcher, James Kilner. Bravery takes you through the most unimaginable.
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Narrator/Promoter
Hardships to finally reward you with victory.
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Adelaide Pojmo Ponte
Russia does not want peace.
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Dom Nicholls
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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James Kilner
Nobody's going to break us. We are strong. We are Ukrainians.
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Dom Nicholls
It's Wednesday the 11th of February, three years and 354 days since the full scale invasion began. And today I'm joined by my co host Adelaide Pojmo Ponte and Russia expert James Kilner. I started with the latest military updates. So last night Ukrainian drones hit Russia's Volgograd oil refinery. This local media reporting this that's the former stalingrad city about 300ks east of Ukraine. Volgograd Oblast governor Andrei Bosherov said that some damage was reported at the site, adding that an Apartment building and a kindergarten were damaged with no casualties. He said emergency services and municipal authorities are conducting search and rescue operations to locate and dispose of possible drone debris. Now, if confirmed, that's the first time this year that particular oil refinery has been hit. But on January 10, a drone attack did hit an oil facility about 100ks further southwest. Russia's Defence Ministry had earlier claimed this is yesterday as in earlier claimed that it had shot down 48 Ukrainian drones across several regions of the country, but didn't say that any were over Volgograd or oblast itself. Now then into Ukraine. And about an hour and a half before we started recording today, explosions were reported in Ukraine's western city of Lviv amid reports of Russia having launched hypersonic Kinzhal missiles. Now, reporters from the Kyiv Independent on the ground in the city at the Time reported hearing two explosions around 2:50pm local time in Lviv. Ukraine's air force had earlier reported missiles heading towards the city. Lviv Mayor Andrei Saravi said the air defense operations were active at the time of recording. I've not seen any reports of casualties. However, last night four people were killed in Bordakiv, that's about 50 K's northwest of Kharkiv city. Of the four, three were toddlers, two one year old boys and a two year old girl. The fourth victim was a 34 year old man. We're also told that a 35 year old pregnant woman and a 74 year old woman were also injured in the attack. Now I think behind the headlines, behind those numbers, we can conclude that Russia has just ripped apart another young family. Now at least 11,000 people are without electricity in Zaporizhzhia after a drone strike last night. Zaporizhzhia Oblast Governor Ivan Fedorov said that windows were blown out in several residential buildings in the city amid a Russian drone attack that started from around 11 o' clock last night, local time. No injuries were reported. But worth noting, the temperature in Zaporizhzhia last night was minus 9 degrees Celsius. That's 15 degrees Fahrenheit. Across the country, 129 drones fired by Russia, of which 112 were brought down. Now there's some very alarming footage from Ukraine's I Want to Live project that shows Russian soldiers being targeted by their own side as they're trying to surrender. So you may remember the I Want to Live project is run by the Coordination Headquarters on the Treatment of Prisoners of War supported by Ukraine's Ministry of Defence and Defence Intelligence of Ukraine. It's an organization set up to facilitate the safe passage into captivity for Russian soldiers who want to surrender anyway. This footage is supposedly taken in the vicinity of Chasiv Yar. We see two Russians who've laid down their arms and are walking forward to surrender. They're about 20, 20 meters apart as they're walking along. Then on the way, a drone appears from behind them from the direction of Russian forces and and flies into the guy at the back, killing him. The other one starts running and is met by Ukrainians who bring him safely into captivity. Now Russian soldiers and the meal blogging community have continued their collective meltdown over the Starlink switch off. I'd point you to military historian researcher Chris O on X that says there have been further instances of price gouging with the cost of US made ubiquity Wi fi bridges that have been illegally imported into Russia, doubling overnight. One mil blogger called Strongword complains, elon is certainly a real jerk, but we have some real assholes in the rear who decided to ride the wave and make money off their own soldiers. Wi fi bridges instantly doubled in price. It's maddening. Some are spilling blood and others are making a living off it. Now scammers are said to be targeting soldiers with false promises that for a fee they can get Starlink working again. Another mil blogger called Callsign Ozatin warns, I'll write this again, comrades. Remember this, don't trust anyone who offers to restore your Starlinks by any means necessary. Others in the community warn that Ukraine is obtaining positional data from the starlinks in Russian hands, even the ones that have been switched off. One mil blogger says, attention everyone, urgently immediately disconnect all Starlink satellite stations from power and remove them from open skies. Positioning data from inactive devices is being collected. And another says, according to unconfirmed reports, all data from the dishes is now integrated with Ukrainian data systems Delta and Netl. In other words, the enemy is verifying data by position. There is also widespread skepticism that the Russian MOD is going to be able to replicate the Starlink service. One mil blogger saying the 24.7F starring is about to begin the accelerated process of restoring something that never existed. May Vaseline help them. And then just finally on this, the two majors mill blogger that we've spoken of before. He heaps praise on the Russian army's signallers who are working overtime, he says, trying to plug the gap left by Starlink. He says to the signalman, guys, we're sending you words of overwhelming support from our entire two major family. Now that the enemy has shut down the Internet for everyone. And then he puts brackets. Elon Musk is a fascist and a bastard. Close brackets. We know how much you're working in the Cold Unit Command and Combat Command signals depend on you. We bow deeply to you, my dears. Everyone is counting on you, even if they curse you constantly. Comment for me. It's good to see the J6 scaly community are the butt of jokes in Russia too. Another universal constant there. Anyway, we'll put a link to Chris's thread in the episode notes now. I think that's interesting. The whole Starling saga. Interesting as standalone news, but doubly so when taken into the context of Russia's recent clampdown this week of the Telegram messaging app. And more of that. More on that from James shortly. A couple more for me. Earlier today, the European Parliament voted to approve that 90 billion euros loan to Ukraine that will secure two thirds of of the country's budgetary and military needs for the next two years. This is only the penultimate step in the approval process for the loan. The European Council still needs to formally sign off the agreement, but that is expected shortly and that will allow payments to be made to Ukraine from April. You'll remember, of the 90, 30 billion euros is just for general budgetary support and 60 billion for military stuff. Now, Ukraine's finance minister, Serhiy Marchenko, said the loan will help Ukraine strengthen its defence capabilities, ensure the uninterrupted operation of public services and contribute to the country's resilience and closer integration with Europe's defence industrial base. Now, as we've reported before, one of the key aims of this loan is to better integrate the defence industrial bases of Ukraine and the eu. There was no mention in the report today of whether Britain is going to be able to take part in the scheme. You'll remember the idea is for Britain to pay a fee which is thought to be some measure of the interest that the loan is going to accrue. There's been reports that that could be about 2 billion euros. But Britain will pay a fee to join the scheme and thereby allow British defence companies to bid for contracts from Ukraine paid for by this loan. And just a reminder, this loan, this is different from the SAFE scheme, the Security Action for Europe scheme, that 150 billion pot of money that is different from this 90 billion euros scheme, but interesting to see that it's gone through. And I will be very keen to keep an eye on the price tag put on Britain's entry. Now, just finally for me Russia is increasing production of tank and artillery barrels despite sanctions, a new report says. In an article titled behind the Western Tools Russian Firepower, a Ukrainian open source intelligence outlet, Front Intelligence Insight, working with a data analytics company called Dallas, say they've obtained Russian procurement documents relating to a manufacturing plant called, interestingly enough, imaginatively, Manufacturing Plant Number nine, located in the Uralmash industrial zone of Yekaterinburg, that's about 1,000 kilometers east of Moscow. It's a key manufacturer of artillery barrels for the 152mil self propelled howitzers Kolizya and Msta, and also barrels for tanks, the T90 and the T14 Armata, although you can ignore the last one because no one's ever seen a T14 Armata, certainly not in Ukraine, and the modernized T62 and 72 tanks. Now the report says that despite international sanctions imposed by the eu, the United States, Ukraine, Japan, Switzerland, the plant has been undergoing continuous modernization since at least 2016. They concluded that Russia has been expanding production facilities and modernizing equipment at the site, a process that would be impossible, they say, without access to Western originated machinery and technology. They say nearly all critical elements of production and reconstruction rely on modern high precision industrial equipment sourced almost exclusively from Europe and Taiwan. They then go on to list equipment broken down by the nature of the equipment, the country of origin, the manufacturer, and they highlight equipment coming from Taiwan, Italy, Germany and Britain. So at this point, the good little journalist in me sat up and I thought, I'll give the British company a ring. So they say the British company is called Jones and Shipman. They say the equipment, and I had to Google this as well, is a surface grinding machine, Pro Grind 1045 Easy, which I'm told by the company just grinds metal. And that was good enough for me anyway, doing some of that boring due diligence which some people call journalism that the mainstream media gets so hung up about. As I say, I gave the company a bell. Turns out that Jones and Shipman ceased trading in 2020. They've been bought out. They did used to sell equipment to Russia, but stopped manufacturing that item, the pro grind easy, around 2018, if not before. So the company that now owns Jones and Shipman no longer carry on trade with Russia. And they said that whilst this equipment may exist, it's no longer going to be supported with spares. So therefore, not trying to pour cold water on this whole article because I haven't checked out every company from Taiwan, Italy, Germany and elsewhere, I just venture to say that it's not correct to to point out that each and every piece of equipment in the report that Russia is using at this plant has broken sanctions regulations. So it might not be the scoop it appears at first. I apologize if you want to do a hot take and be instantly outraged, but I'm afraid that's the pesky mainstream media for you doing some journalism. Anyway, the report concludes, despite a decade long import substitution strategy, Russia has not achieved independence from foreign machinery imports. Nearly all critical stages of manufacturing at plant number nine, not just auxiliary processes, still rely on high precision industrial equipment from Europe and East Asia. The purchase and export of such large machinery is inherently easier to monitor and control than smaller appliances, which are more difficult to track and enforce, particularly on secondary markets. We'll put the link in the episode notes. Go and have a look. Go and see what a progrind easy is, but just be very careful Googling that term. Now then, Adli Diplomatic front A lot of talk that's been flick flacking through the morning on future elections. No future elections. There's going to be a referendum. No there isn't. Donald Trump may President Zelensky what on earth's going on?
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Adelaide Pojmo Ponte
What on earth indeed? Because it has been a very confusing morning and the picture that is emerging about possible future elections in Ukraine has kept on changing for the last few hours. So. So let's unpack it. In a report earlier this morning, the Financial Times wrote that Ukraine had started planning for presidential elections alongside a referendum on any peace deal with Russia, and that Zelenskyy was going to make an announcement on the anniversary on February 24th. So in two weeks time. The Financial Times described the move as a result of the ongoing pressure that the White House is putting on Kyiv to come to an agreement with Russia before the end of spring, as the Americans are keen to wrap up the conflict in order to focus on the upcoming midterms in the autumn. Now, at the time of publication, President Zelenskyy's office had not responded to the FT's request for comment, but a source told the Kyiv Independent that Zelenskyy wasn't planning to make such an announcement on February 24th. Here's the when there's no security, there's nothing else. If Russians are killing people every day, how can we announce or seriously consider elections in the coming weeks? No one is against elections, but there must be security. Now, the Ukrainian public opinion remains divided on this. There's about 55% of Ukrainians who support holding a referendum on a potential peace deal, 32% of them oppose the idea. That's according to a poll by the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology, which was published last month. Now, let's remind ourselves of the context here and what's at stake when it comes to presidential elections in Ukraine. The last presidential elections were held in 2019. That's when Zelensky came to power and they were scheduled to be held again in March 2024. But as we've covered on this podcast before, as long as martial law continues, the constitution does not allow for presidential elections to take place. Zelenskyy has been steadfast on this point for the last four years, stressing that holding elections would be a major security risk for citizens across the country, let alone in the occupied territories, where obviously you can't hold elections and therefore is any election in Ukraine viable without roughly 20% of its territories being able to vote. Putin, on the other hand, has repeatedly said that he considered Zelenskyy, quote, illegitimate. And he has used this excuse to refuse to engage in peace talks, a line which surely has made its way to the White House. You may remember comments a year ago when Trump called Zelenskyy, I quote, a dictator with again, quote, very low approval ratings, which was untrue. At the time, zelenskyy had almost 60% approval. But this time last year, as you will all remember, relationships with the White House were at an all time low. But this again highlights that there is a new front in the war, the ongoing battle between Ukraine and Russia for Trump's ear. On the diplomatic front throughout the first year of Trump's presidency, Ukraine is also waging a war of influence. But let's go back to potential presidential elections in Ukraine at the end of last year. In December 2025, a poll from the Kyiv International Institute of sociology showed that 60% of Ukrainians currently trust Zelenskyy, while 35% did not, which is still very high approval ratings four years into the war and way more than most Western leaders can boast. Meanwhile, the same survey showed that only 25% of Ukrainians believe Zelenskyy should remain in office at the end of Russia's full scale war against Ukraine. But if history is any indication, we can all remember what happened to Churchill. A trusted wartime leader is not necessarily the face people want to launch the country into a new era. Only time will tell and we'll keep an eye on this.
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Dom Nicholls
It is an interesting one. I look at this stuff and I don't mean to doubt the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology and their methodology, but just doing telephone polling must be blooming hard in the midst of a war with energy shortages and electricity cutouts. Every now and again, numbers are great, and of course, the more they do, the more over time it builds up and you get a body of. A body of evidence upon which you can basin analysis. But I just think it's very. There's got to be a health warning. I'd be interested to know what, what the sample size was of these, these surveys, when they were taken, where they were across the country. It's a big country, as we well know, and with all the electricity issues there have been in the last few weeks because of the attacks on energy infrastructure. It's very, it must be very tricky getting accurate data, polling data like that. I wonder if it's better than just speaking to the local politicians and getting their gut feeling. As a politic politician supposed to be plugged into society, you're supposed to be able to channel the mood of the locality. So I wonder if that's any more accurate than trying to do. I don't know what the methodology was here, but anyway, I have a bit of a healthy skepticism, I think, with any polling data, but especially when you're in the middle of a war and in the grip of winter. But yeah, as you say, we'll continue to keep an eye on that.
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Adelaide Pojmo Ponte
Yeah, I think it's a fair skepticism because polling, as we've seen in like previous elections and other countries, is often wrong, doesn't necessarily show the correct picture. As you say, the energy cris crisis is another level of difficulty. But you know what? Maybe we should talk to the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology about how they conduct research in wartime. And if you are listening from there, please give us a ring or not a ring, an email, because the electricity.
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Dom Nicholls
Might be down now. Elsewhere on the political front, Kyiv Mayor Vitaly Klitschko, he's in a bit of hot water, isn't he?
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Adelaide Pojmo Ponte
Yeah, it's a turbulent time for him. And it's interesting you mentioned an alternative to polling would be talking to mayors who technically should be plugged into their residence and the population, because it doesn't seem like that's what's happen Kyiv at the moment, because there is a whole bunch of civil society activists who are demanding that the Kyiv mayor, Vitaly Klitschko, give a press conference to discuss the ongoing energy crisis and how it's affecting the capital. So 17 organizations have written an open letter as several neighborhoods, as we've reported continuously on this podcast, continue to lack power and heating in the coldest winter since the Beginning of the invasion. Here is a quote from the open letter. Kyiv today is in a state of multi dimensional crisis. Managerial, infrastructural and communicational. The Falskare war, regular strikes on energy infrastructure, economic problems and rising social tension only exacerbate the city's systemic issues. Now, Vitaly Klitschko has been mayor of Kyiv since 2014, so over 10 years. And his last press conference took place. Do you want to take a guess when? Dom, please do not read my script. Take a guess.
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Dom Nicholls
20. 2018. Eight years ago.
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Adelaide Pojmo Ponte
You almost there. 2019. Seven years ago. So I thought you could give me an answer. Like something you told me I wasn't.
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Dom Nicholls
Allowed to read your notes.
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Adelaide Pojmo Ponte
I thought you would take a guess that was more recent. Because it seems bonkers to not give a press conference for seven years as the mayor of a capital city. I don't know, I find that really baffling. But anyway, Vitaly Klitschko, will he. Won't he give a press conference? Certainly. He does not seem very plugged in to his own population. If they're asking for it, we'll have to see. Moving on, but continuing on the energy crisis. Ukraine is moving its power grid underground to shield it from Russian attacks. So far, one substation has currently been moved to an underground bunker and another one is underway. That's according to the CEO of ukrainago, which is, I think, the state's leading energy company. But doing this, it is a really good idea to shield the power grid from Russian attacks. But doing it at a systematic level would take years and millions of dollars. And the project would require external financing and restructuring of the company's debt. Now, the CEO of Ukraine ago added that the company will seek financing from the European Investment bank, which previously provided $100 million for anti drone protection. That was two years ago, in 2024. Since 2023, Ukraine Nago has been building fortifications around its energy facilities, spending about $300 million to cover over half of its transformers with concrete shields. The other half should be completed by the summer. I'd be really curious to have a more precise idea of how many of these have been hit in the recent energy strikes and whether that's been an effective protection of the energy grid. And finally, we reported yesterday on the controversy surrounding Ukrainian skeleton racer Vladislav Herskevich and his helmet of memory. Well, he's vowed to defy the International Olympic Committee's ban and to continue wearing it. Later this week, you'll remember that the 27 year old has used a helmet featuring athletes killed during the war with Russia. During his training runs in Italy, his compatriot Olena Smaha displayed the words remembrance is not a violation on her glove while finishing 20th in the luge yesterday. The IOC is facing a growing backlash. Our colleague Jeremy Wilson, chief sports reporter, says that the Ukrainian team have appealed the Hamlet ban, arguing that it is not a Breach of Article 50 of the Olympic charter, which prohibits political statements in competition. After finishing second in his training run behind British skeleton racer Matt Weston, Harskiewicz insisted he would wear his band helmet in the first qualifying race on Thursday. He I used it in all the trainings. I used it today, I will use it tomorrow and I will use it on race day. I truly believe that we didn't violate any law or any rules. The helmet has the photographs of around 20 Ukrainian athletes who have been killed since Russia's full scale invasion, including alina Peregudova, a 14 year old weightlifting prospect who was killed alongside her mother by Russian shelling in Mariupol in 2022. And as Francis said yesterday, Horuskiewicz has the support of President Zelensky who has also accused the International Olympics Committee of betraying those dead Ukrainian athletes. More on that in the show notes. And that's it for me. Dom.
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Dom Nicholls
Yeah, thanks Adis. I'm going to talk about this a little bit in my final thoughts. It's worth noting that Mr. Karaskevich is next racing, still in the qualifying stages, but next racing at 9:30am local tomorrow, Thursday morning, 9:30 in the morning, Italy time. Now the IOC have said that they're going to kick him out if he wears the helmet of memory again. He's vowed that he will do but if they go through with that threat, if he wears it, and if they do kick him out, it will probably be the biggest story of these Olympics. An extraordinary pickle that the IOC has got themselves in, I think. Anyway, Jeremy Wilson, our chief sports reporter who's on the ground in Italy, he's I've spoken to him. He's going to be coming on tomorrow to tell us what happens. 9:30 is the time of the race, so we will know by then, by the time we we record tomor podcast we will know whether or not the IOC has kicked out Mr. Hareskovich. Anyway, now delighted to once again turn to our colleague James Kilner, Russia watcher. James, welcome back to the pod. Always, always delighted to hear you. A lot going on, but let's start in the south Caucasus because J.D. vance, Vice President, has been there on A rare visit. I believe that's the. I think it's first time, first time he's been to Armenia. Is he also going to Azerbaijan? I'm not entirely sure. But anyway, what's JD Vance up to and what's the significance of his visit? Welcome back, James.
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James Kilner
Hi Dom and Ali. Hi. That's right. For me, this is probably the top story of the week. This is JD Vance has been sent down by Trump as a thank you to Armenia and Azerbaijan. Trump presided over the peace deal between the two neighbors last summer, ending a couple of generations of war and he's made a lot of play out of this. This is the cornerstone of his naval peace. Anyway, he sent Van Sans a thank you. You're absolutely right. This is the first time a US Vice president has visited Armenia. It's actually the second time US Vice president has been to Azerbaijan. The previous visit was by Dick Cheney all the way back in 2008 and that was in the context of the war in Afghanistan. Azerbaijan was used as a launch point for supplies, Western supplies into Afghanistan at that point. That's the context obviously very rare for such a high level visit. They have in the south caucuses. There has been more attention on Georgia by the US previously. We know George W. Bush was obviously there as president of the US in 2005 and they've had a couple of BP visits since. But for Armenia, this is absolutely massive. It's very hard to overstate the importance of this, of this visit, Dom, to Armenia and to Azerbaijan as well. Both countries have fallen out of the Kremlin. So this is the US very much posturing right inside Russia's traditional sphere of influence. Obviously both countries are ex former Soviet states. Putin would have relied on both countries to support his war in Ukraine during the Nashville invasion. But both countries have subsequently, since his February 22nd invasion of Ukraine, fallen out with the Kremlin. Armenia accused the Kremlin of failing to protect it in 2023 around Azerbaijan attacks linked to their fight over speechy region of Nagorno Karabakh. Russia actually has a very large military base in Armenia and the Armenians are terribly upset that despite various security guarantees Russia failed to step in and defend it. More recently, Azerbaijan has fallen out with Russia because air defense systems around Grozny Christmas Day 2024 shot down on Azerbaijani airliner passenger airliner and really mishandled that failed to apologize properly and bilateral relations collapse. Now Azerbaijan particularly has an outsized importance for Russian trade interests. It sits right at a crucial juncture on a north south trade link that the Kremlin has developed to get around Western sanctions. So this trade link goes to India and Azerbaijan sits in the middle of it. And he got the prospects of the US just walking all over making bilateral deals with Bajan president personally signing various bilateral deals etc. In Armenia the day so that happened yesterday in Azerbaijan the day before in Armenia on Monday Vance signed what appears to be it's in tranches so we're not 100% sure but it's a $9 billion investment into Armenian nuclear power. The sub importance of this is that about a third to 40% of Armenia's power is generated by Soviet built nuclear power station that Ross Atom, that's the Russian nuclear power agency services. Not only is US posturing in Armenia and really dragging Armenia into its fear of inference away from Moscow, it's also undermining Russian energy strategies in the region. Ross Atom is often used as a sort of Trojan horse Kremlin to, to bind energy generation in its near abroad in with more political aims as well. We can see here it's a very, it's a very good example, the biggest example for some time of the west really trying to grab Azerbaijan and Armenia away from Russia. It's really interesting.
- [29:58]
Dom Nicholls
Now earlier on I talked about this, the collective meltdown, this psychological meltdown that's happening in Russia over Starlink and I mentioned it's. It comes in the week, probably not connected but it's all in the same, all in the same pool as the Kremlin clamping down on Telegram, trying to get everyone to move over onto to Max. What's going on there? I thought they liked Telegram. I thought they did most of their stuff on Telegram. Surely it's a bit of a backward step, isn't it to suddenly deny, deny Telegram as a means of communication.
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James Kilner
Yes, indeed. I think this is a very important story as well. Telegram as we know is the absolute foremost and most heavily used social messaging app in the Russian language, especially by Russians. And in the last couple of days social media on Telegram and some Western channels, if Russians have VPNs etc have been full of complaints about how slow Telegram's gone. It's basically almost unusable and there's been outrage here and the irony is they've been saying oh we want the free Internet etc. Obviously in Russia it's far from that. This seems like a huge effort by the Kremlin by a state telegram regulator or censor Roscom Nazor to finally push Russians over to like you say, the max app that they developed last summer away from Telegram. The Kremlin has accused Telegram being used for fraud, being used by criminals, been used by terrorist groups, this sort of trophy type stuff we've seen before. And they said it wants to close it down effectively. And it's so to an unusual degree. Pavel Dudov, he's the founder of Telegram, he's a Russian guy, he lives in Dubai, although he's actually stuck in France at the moment where they're investigating him for similar sort of potential crimes. He released a statement accusing the Kremlin of acting or Russia acting similar to Iran, saying Russia is restricting access to Telegram in an attempt to force its citizens to switch to a state controlled app. That's Max, designed for surveillance and political censorship. So he's not holding back. The implications for this slowdown in Telegram are much wider than just socialites in Moscow complaining about the price of foreign handbags or Instagramming or taking photos of their lunches, etc. There's actually very serious implications along the front line where Russian units really rely very heavily on Telegram to coordinate their attacks and supply routes, etc. And this has caused a lot of consternation. And you can see all this playing out on the meal bloggers. We've spoken about Mail bloggers a lot on the podcast and they're very vocal and they've been absolutely outraged. They're like, yeah, you can see them always losing their mind and all this bile and venom pouring onto their keyboard as they're trying to fight back. Picked out a couple of quotes for you. There's a mill blogger called Argangl Spetnas. He said thousands of military personnel will be left without communication, which giving the ongoing offensive will lead to fatal consequences. And he also said there's no workable alternative to Telegram along the front line. Again, we've spoken about this at some length. Russian signals and communication systems have been very poor on the front line and they really have relied on these sort of unofficial systems like Telegram, which is very robust and has strong security apparatus in it. Another Milburger said that the command and capability function of frontline troops, Russian frontline troops, will fail without Telegram. So this is. There is hyperbole, hyperbole. But we're into some of these comments. But I think we can definitely see that if Telegram continues to be undermined and this has been going for a couple of days now, and the Kremlin does seem determined to push people over to Max, that we're going to see some capability drag on the front line. So again, really, all this, the dysfunctionality we see in Russia and the way things happen and the discoordination we can see emanating out of Moscow and impacting.
- [33:50]
Dom Nicholls
The front line, it is amazing. It seems so reliant this the Russian military that said claims to be the second best in the world or whatever they're trying to claim. They're brought down by Starlink, an American company deciding not to and not to give them the signal. And then, and then Telegram, a phone messaging app. That seems to be it. I don't think NATO's got too much to worry about just yet. Now I like to send to you for all my vegetable news. James, we've done potatoes a few months ago. What's the latest that you can tell me on cucumbers in Russia?
- [34:23]
James Kilner
Yeah, that's right. We, this story seems to come round and round again with different vegetables, Don, with different items of food. Anyway, cucumbers are the latest, such as apparently spiraling costs. We've had eggs, we have potatoes, have bread, et cetera. Now it's cucumbers data. And again, this is, this is, this is causing a lot of consternation in Russia with these fashionists saying that cucumbers have become so expensive now they're gonna have to give them up a lot along with facial that they've had to give up as well. Anyway, cucumbers now are about, apparently doubled in price since November. 300 rubles a kilo. So it's about £3 for a kilo. That's in the major cities in the regions in the depth of winter. These cucumbers double that again or even triple. And we've, I've seen reports online that they're now roughly the same price as meat. So cucumbers spiraling, this is a semi seasonal problem for Russians. Obviously they've had a very cold and very snowy winter, which has made transport a lot harder, a lot more expensive and crops etc are down. But there's also sanctions and impacts here. So it's just another example of how the Russian economy is just pinging around. Very volatile, very difficult for anyone to predict.
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Adelaide Pojmo Ponte
I wish it led to some rebellion or riots, revolution. Then we could call it the cucumber revolution. I think that would be really nice in history books.
- [35:46]
Dom Nicholls
Yeah, maybe it will. It's not over yet. These, these arguments are going to go on and like cucumbers, I don't know. Like cucumbers. Now, James, before we go to final thoughts, you got a few other sort of quick roundups of diplomatic pointers that we should be making note of. What have you got for us?
- [36:04]
James Kilner
I'll come to this in a minute, but on the point about revolution disquiet in Russia, I do think the telegram issue that we've just been talking about is really important to monitor. The level of annoyance among all new Russians is very high. With these food price increases. I think there's a general acceptance that this is going to happen and then come off and people will switch from one food to the other side. I think they're less impactful. But the telegram, which is the single most important communication channel for ordinary Russians, not only is the communication is also news and it's relatively unfiltered, is a real short system. So I think if you're looking for angry Russians, that's definitely where to look, rather than the food and economic side of things. Sticking with the economy. Dom, a really nice stat I've seen today is that the proportion of Russia's GDP now linked to trade with the outside world is at its lowest since the ussr, so, to misquote Churchill, the lowest since there was a sort of a rather frayed Iron curtain hanging across Europe. Russia's proportion of GDP linked to outside trade with the outside world is now below 18%, which is its lowest since the 1990s. By comparison, it was roughly about 40% in the early 2000s. So again, the impact of sanctions is very obvious there. One last quick point. On the diplomatic side of things, it's just really Lavrov, he's the Russian foreign Minister, he held a press briefing earlier today, basically reiterating Russia's or the Kremlin's maximalist approach to the peace. What I mean by that is they not seem to be backing down in any way whatsoever on their various demands to take over the whole of the Donbass. So no shifts there to them.
- [37:48]
Dom Nicholls
Yeah, I saw it as in I literally saw it on the sort of news channels, what have you, but I didn't bother reading it. And this is a bit. Probably not the best thing for a journalist to admit, but I just don't really bother reading stuff from Loverov now. I know what he's going to say. I know it's not going to be new. I know it's going to be the old tropes and the narrative and what have you. So I just don't. I just don't bother reading his stuff anymore. Same with Medvedev. I don't. I just don't. I read it because it's funny. I read it because we like making jokes about the occasionally sober Dimitri Medvedev. I don't actually read it to. Oh, my goodness, what's happened? What's the latest? What's going on? What Kaita is the Kremlin flying today? It's just irrelevant. And okay, I'm not totally there yet, but I'm not far away with Donald Trump. Either just ignore it, I'll find out tomorrow when he backtracked, or it's flip flopped three or four times. I'll see what the reaction is to see what actually is going to happen or potentially might happen. The stuff that Donald Trump says, I just go, yeah, all right, whatever. Maybe, who knows?
- [38:40]
Adelaide Pojmo Ponte
At least he's more unpredictable than Lavrov in Medvedev because he keeps on changing, Keeps on changing his mind and coming out with.
- [38:47]
Dom Nicholls
Yeah, but in a way that is predictable.
- [38:49]
Adelaide Pojmo Ponte
No, that is predictable. But you don't know which new, outrageous take he's going to have.
- [38:54]
Dom Nicholls
Yeah, which is why I don't bother paying too much attention to it the first time I see it, because I know it'll be probably revised within a few minutes, hours, couple of days, whatever. Two weeks.
- [39:08]
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- [39:39]
Dom Nicholls
Anyway, let's go to final thoughts now. I will go first, and I want to go back to the Winter Olympics and the International Olympic Committee's decision about the helmet of memory. And I want to talk about how things are commemorated and the political decisions that are being made around here. Yesterday the funny story was Norwegian biathlete Sturlaholm Lagred, who won a bronze in. God, what was it when you walk for miles and then shoot a couple of things? Can't remember what that's called. Anyway, he won bronze. His compatriot Johann Olaf Bolton got gold, and he dedicated his gold medal to their late teammate Siver Guten Bakken, who died in December last year. So you've got someone there commemorating a friend of theirs that died. He also had yesterday US Figure skater Maxim Naumoff, who held a picture of his parents tragically killed last year, I think, in a plane crash. Really loads of people killed on the way to a skating event. I think. But anyway, Mr. Naumoff had a photograph of his parents. He dedicated his performance to. To his parents. So a couple of things here. First, the. This whole spat with the ioc. It's not a question of commemorating people who have died. That doesn't seem to be the thing that the IOC have got upset about. The IOC is saying to competitors that it is the manner of their deaths which dictates whether or not you're allowed to commemorate them, which is crazy. They're saying that. That Johann Olaf Botten can dedicate his gold medal to his teammate that died and Maxim Naumov can remember his parents.
- [41:05]
Adelaide Pojmo Ponte
And.
- [41:05]
Dom Nicholls
And yet you've got Vladislav Kiev, who's not allowed to commemorate murdered dead Ukrainian athletes. So it's the manner of which they've died that dictates, according to the ioc, whether or not they're allowed to be commemorated. Secondly, the IOC says that they don't allow political statements at the Games. Okay, fine. Looking beyond the point that everything is a political statement. Where I buy my lunch is a political statement. But, yeah, just being sensible for a moment in terms of actual political statements. Now, Vladyslav Hreshkiev didn't hold aloft a banner saying, russia, get out of Ukraine. Okay? An overtly political statement. He had pictures of dead Ukrainian athletes on his helmet, inviting us, the viewers, to make the interpretation. He didn't tell us what to think. But beyond that, anyway, the Olympics is not politics free. The Olympic Games are not politics free. The IOC has made a political decision to allow Russian and Belarusian competitors to be at the Games as individual, neutral athletes. So that is a political decision. So there are political decisions all over the place. And I just think trying to say there's no politics in sport, which is what the IOC or saying. The IOC saying we're not going to allow politics in sport is rubbish because it's there whether they like it or not. And they have had to respond to it in the way that they have, allowing individual, neutral athletes, whether you agree with that or not. So to say politics can be taken out of sport, I think is wrong. And then they're saying it's the manner of how someone died as to whether or not you're able to commemorate them or not. I just think they've got this badly wrong. And as I say, this is all going to come to a head tomorrow when Vladislav Hreshkev is next racing 9:30 local time tomorrow, Thursday in Italy. The IFC have said that they are going to stop him. They are going to kick him out of the Olympics, if he wears the helmet with the 20, the picture of the 20 fallen Ukrainian athletes. Again, if they go through with that, I think that's going to be absolutely enormous. We will know by the time of the pod tomorrow and we're going to have our colleague Jeremy Wilson, who's going to come on the pod tomorrow and tell us what happens and what the implications are. So I just think the ISC have got this absolutely around the wrong way and tomorrow is going to be a big day for sport and politics. Now then, Adli, what's your final thoughts?
- [43:20]
Adelaide Pojmo Ponte
Thanks, Dom. So my final thought today, I want to zoom in on an article published by the Kyiv Independent on the Epstein files and Belarus. Because there is one Belarusian woman who appears repeatedly in the Epstein files. Her name is Karina Chauliak. She's 36 years old and she's the last person Epstein talked to outside prison before committing suicide, allegedly. In the latest batch of files she's mentioned 40,000 times. Belarus and Minsk have mentions around like 1,000, 1,500. So what is her link to Epstein? As we can tell from what's in this latest batch of files, for over 10 years, Epstein financed women's studies in the US in dentistry, as well as her travel arrangements for her and for her family. When she immigrated to the U.S. she replied to U.S. immigration questions with Epstein's help in claiming to oppose Belarus dictatorial regime. The Daily Mail alleged that Shauliak was also involved in a sham marriage with Epstein's associate, Jennifer Kalin, a US citizen, to ensure she could remain in the United States. And she was also the main recipient of Epstein's last will, which was signed two days before his death, where she inherits the vast majority of his estate. So what is that you ask? Because I wondered as well, what did she inherit from Epstein? $50 million to start with. Properties on Epstein's little and great St James Islands, the Zorro ranch in New Mexico, his townhouse in New York, an apartment in central Paris, and 48 loose diamonds alongside a near 33 carat diamond ring given to her quote, in contemplation of marriage. That is very interesting indeed. I will link to the article in the show notes.
- [45:13]
Dom Nicholls
And we must say just being in the Epstein files is in no way an indication of wrongdoing.
- [45:20]
Adelaide Pojmo Ponte
Indeed not.
- [45:21]
Dom Nicholls
James, what have you got for us in final thoughts?
- [45:24]
James Kilner
Dom, I have to disagree with you slightly over Lab Rock.
- [45:29]
Dom Nicholls
Go on then.
- [45:29]
James Kilner
I think he does come up with some interesting tidbits occasionally and he came up with a. With a Bit of a gold thanks to the challenge. He came up with some sort of nugget. I thought it was interesting today when he was talking about he basically was urging Russians to, in his words, basically do the right thing and holiday in North Korea. North Korea is a. Has become a very staunch Russia allies. They put in a lot of money building resorts on their Riviera specifically for Russian visitors, but the numbers haven't been there. Apparently six and a half thousand Russians holidayed in North Korea in 2024 and this number rose to only 10,000 last year despite huge political pressure and advertising campaigns, etc. Reopening Air Direct air links between Moscow and between Russia and North Korea, Moscow and Pyongyang and trainings, et cetera. To put it into the context, Kim, the leader of North Korea, opened up a brand new resort for Russia on the east coast of the Korean Peninsula capable of holding 20,000 Russian tourists today. So 10,000 in a year is an absolute drop. Just an interesting little story there from listening to Lavo.
- [46:36]
Dom Nicholls
Isn't North Korea on the same latitude as Northern Canada? I'm trying to work out where the North Korean Riviera is.
- [46:46]
James Kilner
I've not been there, but they developed like a four. No, it was a bit long. It's four kilometer stretch on the east side of North Korea with beaches and hotels and villas and nightclubs.
- [46:57]
Dom Nicholls
Okay, I'll keep an eye out for that. Yeah, the North Korea Riviera, that's a good opportunity.
- [47:02]
James Kilner
Yeah, if you get the chance. Dom. Maybe that's a field trip.
- [47:05]
Dom Nicholls
I'd be up for it. I've got my budgies. Let's go.
- [47:11]
Narrator/Promoter
Ukraine. The latest is an original podcast from the Telegraph created by David Knowles to support our work and stay on top of all of our Ukraine news, analysis.
- [47:20]
Dom Nicholls
And dispatches from the ground.
- [47:21]
Narrator/Promoter
Please subscribe to the Telegraph. You can get one month free, then two months for just one pound at www.telegraph.co.uk the latest deploying cutting edge technology, we also release Ukrainian and Russian versions of this podcast. These translations retain our voices and delivery so that it can reach listeners in every region of Ukraine and those parts of Eastern Europe where Russian is still widely spoken. Links to those can be found in the podcast description to this episode. You can also now sign up to the New Ukraine, the latest weekly newsletter. Each week Francis and I answer your questions, provide recommended reading and give exclusive analysis and behind the scenes insights, plus maps of the front lines and diagrams of weapons to complement our daily reporting. It's free for everyone, including non subscribers. You can find the link to sign up in the descriptions for this episode. We regularly have a Ukraine Life blog on our website where you can follow updates as they come in throughout the day, including insights from regular contributors to this podcast. We also do the same for other breaking international stories. If you appreciate our work, please consider following Ukraine the latest on your preferred podcast app and leave us a review as it really 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 ukrainepod-telegraph.co.uk we continue to read every message. You can also contact us directly on X. You'll find our handles in the description for this episode. As ever, we're especially interested to hear where you're listening from around the world. Executive producers are Francis Dernley, Louisa Wells and David Knowles.
- [49:07]
Dom Nicholls
My name is David Knowles. Thank you all for listening. Goodbye.