Over 100 Russian soldiers killed in ATACMS strike, Ukraine: The Latest, Podcast

I'm David nolles and this is Ukraine the latest today we discuss the attack I'm strike in occupied Ukraine that has reportedly killed over 100 Russian soldiers we analyze French president Emanuel macron's take on world affairs and we get the latest from har with the Trident Defense Initiative bravery takes you through the most unimaginable hardships to finally reward you with Victory if we give presid president ziny the tools the ukrainians will finish the job Slava ukraini nobody's going to break us we're strong we're ukrainians every weekday afternoon we sit down with leading journalists from the telegraph's London Newsroom and our teams reporting on the ground to bring you the latest news and analysis on the war in Ukraine it's Thursday the 2nd of May 2 years and 69 days since the fullscale invasion began and today I'm joined by our associate editor Dominic NS assistant comment editor Francis sternley Brussels correspondent Joe Barnes and our guest is Daniel Ridley head of the Trident Defense Initiative I started by asking Dom for the latest news from Ukraine well hi David hi everybody so let's start uh inside uh Ukraine in the east in the occupied region more than a 100 Russian soldiers said to have been killed in an attacks strike one of the highest single losses of Russian lives in many many months Drone footage shared on social media purportedly shows the moment the um the US supplied ballistic missiles smash into a training ground in the Russian held area around mos yifa in luhansk in the east as many as four cluster munition versions of the weapon were used these scatter um shell fragments think chunky ball bearings basically over a very large area one appeared to have been a dud you're going to get these the failure rate I'm not sure what it is for attack I think it's something like 5% or that might I think that's the submunition um rather than the missile itself but you know it's going to happen now at least one of the missiles appear to hit a group of around 100 Russian soldiers according to open source analysis of the video The isw Institute for the study of War us-based Think Tank highlighted the strike in a recent Battlefield report saying ke's forces had hit a Russian training ground about 50 miles behind the front line in luhansk region now Ukraine you'll remember it was given the short range version of attack the Army tactical missile system uh last Autumn U this older version disperses submunitions deadly sort of cluster bomblets as it as it hit hits the target good for killing Personnel in the open and destroying soft skinned Vehicles it's thought to be the only one of well the only weapon in Ukraine's Arsenal that can deliver a cluster strike at ranges over 50 mil then further south in the third missile attack on adessa in as many days Moscow says its forces have attacked the command headquarters of Ukraine's Southern Army grouping uh in adessa as I say moscow's defense Ministry said operational and tactical Aviation missile forces and artillery were used we've no way of no way of knowing what they used or um or necessarily what was hit if they did hit the southern Army grouping headquarters but Ole keeper who's the governor of Odessa region he said 14 people were injured in the strike after civilian infrastructure including a postal Warehouse was damaged pictures and video online posted online show Flames huge clouds of smoke engulfing buildings 18 employees of Nova POA that's a private postal career service were at the site but had made their way safely to a bomb shelter before the Missile hit what they said was a loading section of the depot I'll say it again you used to be a superpower lad now you're targeting postal depos anyway elsewhere Russian attacks in har denet heon molive Sumi zapia and donet oblast killed and injured dozens of civilians yesterday this comes from Regional authorities reporting however in some areas what are they using to do it well last night the US state department said that Russia is using chloropicrin sorry I've been bloody practicing this all morning chloropicrin a chemical first deployed in the in the first world war widely used in well contained within crowd control element ments use of this on the battlefield is banned under the chemical weapons convention which Russia has signed and ratified and ignored sorry I added the last bit but I think we all know what's happening here chloropicrin is a toxic lung damaging agent used in CS gas Russia's use of this weapon was first revealed by us actually Telegraph investigation um a couple of months ago which found that Russia was dropping gas grenades um that had forced Ukrainian soldiers to change tactics now the US state depart said that Russian Russian use of riot control agents as in tear gas as a method of warfare in Ukraine was also a violation of the chemical weapons convention but back in April or last month you know we we were talking about how chemical grenades filled with this well this aent this active agent were Dr had been dropped in trenches the soldiers in those trenches then I guess a natural human response trying to get out if they don't haven't got proper protection and then attacked with other other means by Russia this staff I mean tear gas yes gas and these agents are heavier than air so they will sink into trenches and underground bunkers but we spoke to some Frontline troops back in April about these attacks and um ehor you may we we quoted this at the time but ehor the commander of a Ukrainian reconnaissance team who's deployed near chiv Yar he said that even when not lethal as in the blast from these things not lethal or immediately incapacitating the gas normally causes Panic he said people's first instinct was to get out and they then attacked with more Conventional Weapons and just lastly for me David Russia is said to be using kamikazi drones over the reactors of the occupied zapia nuclear power plant risking what has been described as catastrophic consequences this comes from Ukraine's Military Intelligence Agency the H speaking this morning they published intercepted camera footage of a Russian drone over the plant you'll remember this is the largest nuclear power station in Europe been under Russian occupation since March 22 and Ukraine has repeatedly accused Moscow of using the plant as a launching site for drone attacks U which obviously presents a huge security Hazard there Military Intelligence spokesperson Andre chenak speaking to the Babel news Outlet said that because Russia uses the nuclear power station as a drone launching Point Ukraine can't fire back to within one and a half kilometers around the plant the statement from the h said the occupiers have established drone launch s right next to the sixth reactor of the zarian nuclear power plant the statement also said that since last summer Russia's been using the grounds of the of the plant to train drone Pilots the H said that altogether this new information was yet what they say more evidence of the criminal and irresponsible behavior of the Russian aggressor State at the occupied nuclear facility which could have catastrophic consequences one we'll definitely be keeping an eye on and probably chatting to heish about David and that's us up to date and I'll take a pause well thank you very much Dom let's move then to International diplomacy and politics Francis sternley what have you been looking at well thanks David it only seems right to start once again with Georgia where civil unrest continues to escalate following the Georgian parliament's moving a step closer yesterday to passing that law critics fear will stifle media freedom and indeed endanger the country's European union membership bid police used water cannons tear gas and pepper spray against the tens of thousands of protesters I emphasize that this is not small scale this is huge who throng the surrounding streets the footage is quite extraordinary with entire blocks crammed with protesters this is truly a mass demonstration which will be remembered for a very long time now I won't repeat all of the context to this but just to say that 83 of Georgia's 150 lawmakers approved the bill in it second reading while 23 voted against a third and final vote crucially in the parliament is needed before it can be signed into law that is expected in miday so that means this route is going to drag on for at least a couple more weeks and that of course leaves opportunities for this to only escalate now for our purposes it is Russia's support of this bill and the governing party's tilt towards Moscow that is the cause of so much concern as regular on the podcast James Kilner put it in a tweet yesterday Russian missiles destroy dbass police init beat protesters aliev humiliates pinyan and arrests journalists in Baku the front line between democracy and authoritarianism runs through Ukraine splits Georgia and divides Armenia and aaban so as he emphasizes this shouldn't be seen in isolation this is is connected with a lot of what is going on at the moment many on the ground in Georgia are making comparisons rightly or wrongly with Ukraine's maidan protests in 2013 so of course a hugely significant event in that country just to give you a sense of scale here now for more on the evolving picture I recommend listening to the previous episodes this week especially yesterday's where we spoke to the KE Independence man on the ground but turning westwards now Emanuel macron has given a major new interview with the economist 5 years after he told them famously about the brain death of NATO it is a fascinating long read far too rich to do justice to here so I'll Point listeners to it instead whilst drawing attention to some of the most interesting segments relevant to geopolitics he doubled down on his speech at the sorn in which he first said our Europe can die indeed he speaks with even greater sense of urgency things can fall apart very fast he says and the end can be brutal he identifies Russia as the main threat saying it is systematically using quote aggression in all known domains of conflict and that a victory in Ukraine for Moscow means that mova Romania Poland Lithuania and any neighbor are at risk the key headline though and I imagine listeners are waiting to see what he would say on this is that macron does stand by his refusal to rule out sending Ground Forces to help Ukraine quote if the Russians were to break through the front lines if there were a Ukrainian request we would legitimately have to ask ourselves this question now as listeners will know I don't think he's mad to say that given the nature of the threat posed by Russia I think it is not politically possible to allow Ukraine to fall now so in the very worst case scenario Europe would indeed be compelled to draw red lines in the country now to quote maon in full I'm not ruling anything out he says because we are facing someone who is not ruling anything out we have undoubtedly been too hesitant by defining the limits of our action to someone who no longer has any and who is the aggressor our capacity is to be credible to continue to help to give Ukraine the means to resist but our credibility also depends on a capacity to deter by not giving giv full visibility as to what we will or will not do otherwise we weaken ourselves which is the framework within which we've been operating until now in fact many countries said that in the weeks that followed they understood our approach that they agreed with our position and that this position was a good thing I have a clear strategic objective Russia cannot win in Ukraine if Russia wins in Ukraine there will be no security in Europe who can pretend that Russia will stop there so yes we mustn't rule anything out because our objective is that Russia must never be able to win in Ukraine and then he goes on just to drill this point further if Russia decides to go further we will be in any case all have to ask ourselves urgent questions that's why I wanted this strategic wakeup call for our counterparts but also for all nations France is a country that has carried out Military interventions including in recent times we deployed several thousand troops in the sahal to fight terrorism which would have posed a threat to us we did so at the request of sovereign states if the Russians were to break through the front lines if there were a Ukrainian request we would legitimately have to ask ourselves this question so I think to rule out a priori is not to learn the lessons of the past two years at the NATO Summit in the summer of 2022 we all ruled out the delivery of Tanks deep strike missiles aircraft we are now all in the process of doing this but above all it would be wrong in terms of credibility and deterence Vis the Russians to rule it out I note by the way that the aggressiveness of the Russian response to what I first showed was having the desired effect which was to say don't think we will stop here if you don't stop wow quite a comprehensive analysis which I think would Echo what many have been saying for the past two years now another interesting snippet from the interview related to Russia is where he says that Russia is a threat that we know and have always seen I'm speaking for all Europeans and particularly for Germany and France because we were responsible for saving the Minsk agreements and the Normandy process we were right to take the Diplomatic route and this is the interesting bit I have no regrets about what was done during all those years these steps undoubtedly slowed things down and also enabled us to build joint European demands with regard to Putin now I don't want to be unfair to Mr macron but that does seem to suggest there was a long-term policy of containing Russia a nod to the ideas of the 30s that you would appease short term whilst preparing for the worst longterm whether militarily or otherwise but I think many would question that view of the period it would be one for historians not least with nordstream which made Germany dependent on Russian energy and also of course most obviously the lack of AR but anyway that's a conversation for another time just onto the other subjects covered into the interview he said there is no question of brushing NATO aside Europe in line has to get ready to protect itself in order to hedge against future us disengagement and a way to lighten the American burden Europe is not reduced to the EU quite an interesting remark that I think he also discusses China at length and how he worries Europe will fall behind fatally if it doesn't make the right Investments in clean tech and disruptive innovation now what kills me in France as in Europe is the spirit of defeat politics isn't about reading polls it's a fight it's about ideas it's about convictions now listeners will know my own view but as we always say dramatic pause for those saying it aloud at home Deeds not words montio macron but nonetheless this is a really important long read which I'll put in the show notes for listen because there's so much that I haven't covered here which is also relevant to our stories today just very quickly David I know I've been going on a bit but there's a lot happening quick stories German leftwing extremists have launched an arson attack on the summer home of the chief of rhin metal a major German arms manufacturer in protest at his support for Ukraine in an anonymous post on social media the activist said they targeted his house because he was a profiteer of the so-called ziton vendor referring to Germany's new European security strategy towards Russia of course we placed an incend device on his garden house the group said not identify themselves Rin metal is one of the beneficiaries of this so-called turning point and various old types of tanks that could now be sold to Ukraine with ammunition and at a hefty profit now their remarks about tanks here specifically is because this company has been involved in the refurbishment of the leopard tanks which of course were formerly Gathering dust in a Belgian warehouse but then were sent to the front the arsonists are believed to maybe have links with the German Red Army faction revealing in itself the German police said the arson attack caused limited damage on the property and the blaze was quickly brought under control by firefighter firefighters now a small story in the grand scheme but relevant as evidence of how far some far-left movements in Europe like figures of course on the harder right as well have found themselves in a protin position for an array of ideological reasons in this specific case questions will also be asked about where the money is coming from for outfits like this and whether it may or may not as historically have been funneled from Moscow and just lastly the Swiss government this morning has said that Russia is not invited to talks set to be held mid June aimed at bringing peace between Moscow in Ukraine and Ukraine at this stage quote Switzerland is convinced that Russia must be involved in this process a peace process without Russia is not possible but now is not the time as list will know Switzerland's shown openness to inviting Russia but moscow's repeatedly made it clear itself that it has no interest in participating in this first summit as part of their argument Russia has pointed towards Switzerland's adoption of the EU sanctions against Moscow and argued it therefore lacks credibility as a neutral broker once again it is difficult to see how at this stage of the war with both sides seemingly unflinching in their commitment to their own definitions of Victory or at least not feeling compelled to go to the negotiating table what talks right now will realistically achieve but nonetheless they were at zelinsky's request so evidently they have something in mind the ukrainians if only to keep the urgency of the situation in the headlines so those are the top lines David a lot happening though I know Joe has even more stories of what's going on in Europe at present well thank you very much Francis and Dom Joe Barnes it's great to get you back on I know before you go offer some much needed and much uh deserved rest and recuperation a couple of stories from you then can we start in lvia yeah hi folks so but lvia has urged its citizens to start converting their basements into air raid shelters basically amid fears that the Baltic states could be Vladimir P's next Target if he's allowed to succeed in Ukraine VIIs curses who is the mayor of Ria the capital of lva he said we call on everyone during the big cleanup but also afterwards to ensure that your sellers your base ments can be used as shelters in case of emergencies for a bit of context the big cleanup is a laan initiative where they basically get citizens to clean up Parks museums government buildings just make the place look nicer which is good sense of camaraderie I guess but it then went further s in a private communic to City officials uh the mayor said that government buildings would also have their underground spaces turned into shelter shelters so why is this important laia is a member of NATO and the EU but it also is a former sub Soviet Republic it shares a 132 mile border with Russia and basically is one of those many people many countries warning of an increasing threat from Moscow sort of the baltics are the first in the first in line if you read lots of I guess you call them assessments of how Russia could attack you look at Estonia laa and Lithuania as being the first targets because of their geography and then so the head of Ria's civil defense commission said in an interview with local broadcasters on the day of the big cleanup that aund shelters would be prepared every month until the end of the year so Gins ryson said the basement of public buildings schools retirement homes hospitals Town Halls will be inspected by the authorities who will prepare them to serve as hiding places in the event of an attack um yes that's basically it's just just part of the grand scheme of things of what's happening in that part of the world so it's a nice way of illustrating it it shows that people are taking practical steps to actually prepare for something even if it is actually a distant Pro might never happen people say 20 years people say six years that we could be at war with Russia as NATO rather than just aing Ukraine I'll stop there and go to an interesting which came out via The Insider which is a Russian investigative journalism outfit about a couple who run a hotel on the Greek coast and they were unmasked as Russian spies behind a series of several deadly attacks on ammunition warehouses in the Czech Republic so Nicoli and Elena nikoff they bought the fre story Hillside Villa Elena which sort of grand illustrious it looks beautiful and I believe it's actually available on booking.com and those kind of websites Expedia Etc until 2020 so it features a Lov of outdoor swimming pool a large garden and sits on the coast of the aian peninsula of how Kiki and they so they purchased that in 2009 but before that they have this quite interesting story hotel after they bought it served as a safe house as well as a hotel for members of the gru that's Vladimir Putin's sort of shadowy intelligence agency known for carrying out attacks on foreign soil then back to the context of what's really what they were really basically accused of um so in 2014 Russian military intelligence set off explosions at an armed Depot in a village in the southeast of the Czech Republic basically in a bid to fraud supplies to Ukraine but also to Georgia um at the time you think um the sort of the first war between Russia and governments that were moving Westerly um started happening think dbas crier and then abasia up in Georgia um so the hellers were said to have facilitated access to at least two of these warehouses at the facility for Alexander Michigan and Anatoli Chapa who for Keen Watchers of Russian intelligence agencies would remember those names of people the two men who were charged in abencia by the UK police with poisoning the Russian double agent uh Sergey scripp and his daughter ulia in Salsbury so the two hoteliers um allegedly had Direct contact with a guy called General Andre aranov who is the commander of gu's unit 29155 who he basically was the guy who oversaw the clandestine operations in Salsbury but also in the Czech Republic so the inside it described these two hoteliers the sapen kovs as deep cover spies also known as illegals because they were operating without diplomatic cover you'd think back when countries expell diplomats happen happens quite a lot um to Russian diplomats that's because they're actually intelligence officials on sort of Vienna convention diplomatic passports so and then going back to the hotel at least four members of unit 2915 have known to have stayed at the hotel between 2012 and 2018 data from a bur phone used by General aranov was also found to suggest that he had stayed in the vicinity of villa Elena on several occasions so we can't confirm it completely but it's likely that he stayed there so in 2023 the Czech authorities requested the extradition of the saparate movs from Greece after the investigation into their alleged role in the bombings at these two warehouses the final decision from the Greek authorities is still pending but only for Elena because her husband died in February of a heart attack age 62 so basically a separate investigation by the Czech Security Services found unit 29155 to be behind explosions at these government run weapons and ammunitions depos the probe resulted in the expulsion of and say 18 Russian diplomats actually Intelligence Officers who are operating in the country under the pretense of diplomatic cover the explosive devices were said to were personally being planted by a Michigan and Chapa so those guys from Solsbury the ones who said they loved Church spires so much on on telly that's why they visited and were spotted in the UK before scri was poisoned so basically then the Insider then told this fantastic story of how Mrs kof was directly connected to unit 2915 she's and she was the supervisor of her husband and their sons Pro Kremlin activities so as well as providing logistical support and safe haven for Russian operatives the family said to have gathered intelligence and helped recruit on behalf of Moscow they both met in s Soviet K ke and then eventually moved across sort the Soviet Union found themselves in the Czechoslovakia and then basically stayed there after it dissolved and become CIA rather than the CH Republic so Nikolai was a former Soviet army officer he eventually caught the attention of Czech investigators because of his role at IMAX which is an armed company setups of European military still using Soviet Hardware at the time their son pavl who was once a a member of the Czech pirate party a leftwing movement sort of anarchist mainstream anarchism I guess um also went on to work for that company the Czech Authority started looking into the family um because they lived a lavish lifestyle despite Nikolai only making s of $650 a month from his role Elena also owned companies in the Marshall Islands and had two bank accounts in Switzerland they found uncharacteristic of earning less than $1,000 a month um so but then back to their sort of their main involvement in this the warehouse bombing so it's alleged that General ainov had been tipped off about shipments of weapons intended for Ukraine Georgia and Syria You' remember that the Russians at the time were propping up Assad's government as there was coup going on there and the Western governments were backing the the sort of the Freedom Fighters the coup launching the coup would really call a c a Revolt um um so yeah then the gru agents started moving into the Czech Republic in October 24 2014 where they're basically being granted entry to the warehouses on the pretense that it was organized through IM MX and the sapo giov sapo sapos niov sorry and suddenly on October 16 2014 a massive explosion engulfed the facility's warehouse warehouse 16 destroying aircraft engines and artillery shs owned by MCO which is another company dealing in Soviet era kit two employees were killed at the Depot a month and a half later in in a shock so on December the 3D artillery and mortar rounds as well as assault started exploding in another warehouse at the same facility the sap the savov told police their links to Unit 29155 were personal and they did not know its members were linked to State terrorism uh they accused the authorities of political persecution because of their Russian background and said the 2014 explosions were a result of industrial accidents just a sort of a look a colorful look at um intelligence operations on foreign soil and how the Russians actually carry them out and I will stop there thank you very much Joe for that deep dive there on that fascinating story of Russian spies alleged Russia spies in Greece let's turn to Our Guest then Daniel Ridley head of the Trident Defense Initiative Daniel we've spoken to you quite a few times um could you just very briefly reintroduce yourself to our listeners hi thank you yeah it's great to great to be back on again yeah my name is Daniel Ridley and I'm the founder of trident Defense Initiative we are a military training organization based in Ukraine working officially for the Ukrainian Armed Forces providing training I myself I'm a veteran of the British Army and I also serve three years in the Ukrainian Army prior to the fullscale invasion of Ukraine in 2022 so far we've trained around 14,000 students graduates of the courses well Daniel let's start with um your situation in in hariv can you we've been talking about har a lot over the past well months of course I I spoke to a journalist yesterday been there very recently and spoke about the the terror really that the kab Glide bombs inspired um can you tell us what it's been like living in and around harv and what would you want our listeners to understand about what that's like at the moment so yeah I've been living and working in har upwards of two years now and prior to the counter offensive up here in believe September 2022 the city was under sort of C was effectively a Frontline area it was under a lot of conventional fire from I think artill Rockets even mortars cluster Munitions were more commonly used here than anywhere else in Ukraine at the time post counter offensive once the Russians were pushed further out the region and up to the Border we then moved on to the next phase of Russian bombardment which primarily focused on s300 missiles that the Russians had sort of engineered to be able to be used as uh sort of ground attack missiles wildly inaccurate caus a lot of damage to the city a lot of Civilian casualties uh they used to quite a good terror effect and due to the proximity of harv City itself to the Russian Federation we we have no warning no no able no ability sorry to to counteract these threats that continued ever since the city's been under almost daily bombardment if not weekly bombardment ever since then and then we saw a real upsurge of it in January of this year when there was the new North Korean versions of these missiles I believe it's a copy of the Russian isander missile which was slated to be very inaccurate and a huge failure rate and nothing from North Korea Works which is mostly true unfortunately we saw that wasn't really the case uh with these missiles here uh they turned out to be more accurate they turned out to be more damaging uh and they began to be used in January of of of this year in the last I'd say month increased drastically I'm not sure on what the uh official Ukrainian position is on on these uh cabs but it seems very likely that they're a new form of the glided bomb uh third or even fourth generation if you will uh which now has a jet assisted function so it's able to reach uh further distances it's able to be more accurate we've seen these used daily in harv and harv regions since then the the only I wouldn't say benefit of it but the only difference of it is there's a a lot more of a warning time as opposed to a missile launch the planes have to get in the air they have to get onto what they call the launch lines where they can safely launch these these new Glide bombs or jet assisted Glide bombs and it gives people time to get into cover but unfortunately just yesterday in zotev which is a town just north of harv two civilians were killed as Russia launched two of these into the center of the Town killing civilians and that's a daily occurrence even today we had these across the region and even more recently A lot of them have been hitting the city so it's become more and more difficult ult for people in harv uh but they do continue to live relatively normally a lot of people are in the city and the city's quite vibrant as opposed to how it was a year ago yes I was I mean I was going to ask what's your sense of the morale of the city at the moment um considering these the new Ka beats um do you think it's changed much in the past two years and I'm just curious I mean do you have a sense of anybody moving or most people staying Pur at this point so I I I was uh I was relatively confident that especially um especially in January with this all this I'd say hype or this this new wave of of missiles North Korea and the The increased bombardments back in January as well as uh story which I think the telegraph themselves broke and and other outlets broke of this expected Russian offensive on harv which never materialized as of yet we expected either an exodus of people more say not forced evacuations but mandatory evacuations of people living closer to the border with Russia and contact line that hasn't really been the case even with these new cabs that are being used and targeting this city remains very busy just a couple of days ago the local telegram chats actually warned people they had some sort of Prior warning hey get out of the Central Park something's coming we don't know what we can't say what get out the Central Park something's coming and lo and behold 5 or 10 minutes later two cabs bombed pretty much next to the Central Park something like that and summer here I believe it's something like 24° today is it's almost like Spain and uh people are out they're out in the park there's you know the city's very busy very vibrant so no I don't think it's had a massive impact on on people leaving the city uh I believe as per the mayor of harv well over a million a million and a half people are currently living here Daniel can we talk a little bit about your training how has that changed since we last spoke what kind of improvements have you made what kind of also what kind of lessons have you learned from what you're hearing from the soldiers when they come to you obviously something I think I mentioned last time we were together but obviously the training is are always adapting and always changing and limited in some things that I can say due to obviously operational security and everything like that but the training obviously adapts and it changes from Lessons Learned From the Ukrainian side but also Lessons Learned From the Russian side and also Lessons Learned From the NATO projects that are going on so obviously we're not at a level or able to compete if comp comption could be used as a word for that with the training that's being provided in the west obviously we have a more direct approach we're we're on the ground we're not uh Affiliated to any government or anything but we're learning these lessons every day and we're trying to adapt the training as much as possible to the ukrainians still one of our biggest focuses is medical training and improving that standard of Medical Training uh for the Ukrainian soldiers that's something that's always going to be useful uh just recently we hosted a uh medical training for first year students at a Medical University here uh because it's becoming more and more prevalent for not only soldiers to know basic medicine but also Ukrainian civilians so that's something that we're trying to push out more and more to those people the big things that have change really are the much more widespread use of of Russian armor even with the fpv threat getting the guys up to standard on knowing how to work sorry I have a cat screaming at me at the moment getting the guys more up to stand standed on working together and as a group and obviously the units are expanding and changing and and the direction of things are changing so but I would say at the moment yeah our two biggest focuses are the medical training and also the engineering training which focuses on mine awareness and searching for mines and things Daniel you have thousands of graduates are there any stories or people that stick in your mind that you would like to mention and just talk about a little bit to our listeners from the past few months who who have you seen that we'd really want our listeners to be aware of that you think their stories deserve to be told yeah we we have a good connection with a lot of our students especially our our combat Medics we one of the only providers of a combat medic course in Ukraine and and that's the course that we keep the closest uh connection with our students with uh a lot of these combat Medics really come to us as as with either very low or or or even no medical training and we try to provide them with enough to in in a free week package with enough to to save lives and uh be as effective as possible one story that Springs to mind without names or anything a medic of ours uh passed through our training he was a young sort of artistic guy he was Ukrainian but he'd lived in in Spain uh for a few years uh prior to the war he rushed back to Ukraine at the beginning of the war no military background no military experience and he came back to his hometown of harv joined up was put into the the territorial defense unit of har and fought on the outskirts of the city defending the city very hard for for upwards of 6 months then his unit was continuously deployed to back M the height of the fight in back M and he sent us tons of videos think a lot of them we actually have on our Instagram him actively working treating soldiers and he ended up suffering from really bad show shock after these things and we still have regular communication with him and there one of we're just about to hit 14,000 graduates there's a a ton of different stories some good some bad and and they all contribute to Lessons Learned and things that you know we can do better we're always trying to improve ourselves and and obviously things that the the Ukrainian Army can do better and we're lucky enough to have quite a large influence Brigade and operational command level we can make those changes uh and I believe we've had quite a substantial impact in the last two years just a final question from me Daniel then before we go to our final thoughts uh in your view as as a military trainer what are the the sort of the biggest challenges for the Ukrainian armed forces in the months and the the year ahead how how do you see that I would say one of the biggest challenges will always be Manpower and and and that goes for both sides obviously uh with waves of mobilization which you know inevitably regardless of public opinion both sides will have to conduct at some point the war has been going on for coming up to almost three years now with mobilization comes fresh people comes fresh troops and the standard of it's not something that we uh necessarily provide that sort of day one basic training but definitely improving that sort of level of f First Step training for soldiers uh and also even before you know before you mobilize a man or before a man volunteers to join the military or woman we have a lot of women serving in the Ukrainian military is allowing the population of Ukraine to have access to a lot of resources which allow them to prepare themselves because obviously as we saw at the beginning of the war you may be sitting at home and and walk and arrive on your doorstep or you may be sent to that war so definitely definitely more preparation across the board whether it be for the population or for soldiers uh but that'll be one of the biggest challenges as the war goes on is getting the new manow up to scratch and making sure that the say the older guys but the original guys that have been fighting since the beginning that they get rest that they get rotation and they are able to give their experience to the newer people coming in Daniel is there anything we haven't spoken about that you think is important to mention or important for our listeners to hear I think there's a lot going on in Ukraine at the moment adessa has been subject to some pretty horrific bombardments including the recent cluster munition strike harv is a bit out of the way it's a bit it's in the northeast of Ukraine and feel like sometimes it it gets under represented but it's Ukraine's second largest city as one of Ukraine's largest population centers and it it sits merely 30 km 40 km from the border with Russia and it is subject to daily bombardments of all different types of Munitions missiles Rockets Glide bombs you know name it and that's where a lot of support needs to be going at the moment whether it pertains to air defense or whether it pertains to people wanting to donate to organizations or send equipment I would implore people to focus a little bit more on harv as it's it's had a rough time had a rough time in the last two years dannyel Ridley thank you so much for joining us it's always really good to hear hear from you do stay safe and we'll come back to you of course for your final thoughts coming up we hear Dom Francis Joe and Daniel's thoughts okay Dom Nichols though can I can I come to you first yeah thanks David so we spoke yesterday of the display in Moscow showing captured equipment from Ukraine much of it donated from NATO and other external supporters of Ukraine well unsurprisingly the Russians have flocked to see it State television there proclaimed that the star of the show is an American M1 aams tank said to have been captured in eastern Ukraine clambering over the tank Channel One correspondent told viewers that it it had been build in the United States as an indestructible quote wonder weapon I'm not sure of the provence of that quote but hey when has Russian State TV ever worried about actual facts anyway the the quote unquote journalist said this was all nonsense look at this all of its reputation has been destroyed now dozens of vehicles including others from Britain Germany France made up the exhibit each vehicle in blazing with a flag of the country that supplied it and there were long cues of families forming yesterday even before the it's called the trophies of the Russian army exhibition opened it was a national holiday bank holiday yesterday in Russia now look Ukraine has displayed destroyed Russian vehicles in the centr of ke we've been there I've reported on you'll be able to find that I mean this stuff is that's fine it can be used to raise morale it can take the sting out of the enemy it can show the public that the enemy are not 12T tall after all it is important in war to highlight the um humaness of your enemy now not the human ity necessarily there's a time and a place for that but it's usually in the repair work after a war not during it but it but it is important to highlight the ordinariness of the enemy I used to teach it as a resistance to interrogation technique we' say you know picture your interrogator naked or on the toilet or trying to put together flat packed furniture or anything like that anything to humanize them bring them down to bring them down a size or two so displaying this stuff can work for you but it can cut both ways and I know the utterly powerless Ordinary People in Russian Society been fed a diet of nonsense their whole lives but and it is a big but what happens if enough of them are able to see past the propaganda here that's what I'm interested in so what does this display show well it shows a lot of Nations not just in NATO have donated kit to Ukraine the Kremlin of course has gone into full victim ftiz mode and said that that's because poor old Russia's eternal struggle against the world but some folk may look at this stuff and start to ask why only North Kore Korea and Iran are supplying weapons and all that Putin has really got out of his friends with benefit relationship with China sorry the the No Limits friendship is a bit of technology and the pleasure of turning his country into a cheap filling station for Xi Jinping all that's going to eventually be felt there's another reason as well why this could blow up in the kremlin's face and that is that it's tough to show all this foreign kit thereby biging up the fight that you're in and still claim that it's a special military thre fantasy not an actual War yes these society's growing up understanding the Russian cultural offering of vano where I'm lying you know I'm lying but we just going to carry on as if you don't know and I don't know you know that's all well and good when it's just a little bit of corruption bit of intimidation the odd murder but this level of lying that's been laid out for all to see is Way Beyond that the folks will the you know folks in normal society will be feeling it in the the cost of food in the stories creeping back from the front in the loss of their kids going off to die Putin has been successful and quite lucky that there's been no big societal reaction to this war so far but literally putting it in front of people's faces yes it could bolster support for the war but it could also plant some very unwelcome thoughts and I hope that it does thank you very much Dom Joe Barnes can I come to you next for a brief final thought I thought was really interesting meming around um what an intelligence Source have said to me regarding that basically russer has had to Halt exports of fuel and he's even buying in from Belarus to mitigate the impact of Ukrainian strikes basically Russia is losing its ability through these strikes I think up to 15% of its ability to refine crude oil into Fuel and then interestingly this week uh Politico started reporting that Russian fuel prices have jumped up 10% in the last week um alone and that is 20% since the beginning of the year so you look at the reaction that we get in Britain when or Europe the Western Europe so Belgium has been prevalent as well I'm based but the cost of living crisis Russ was said to been immune to this it's it's own economy would stand on two feet but now actually people driving their laders around Moscow will be paying extra per petrol that means food prices go up that means everything goes up every anything that requires some sort of engine engineering uh capability jump up in price their televisions everything I just think it's interesting that is why Ukraine is doing this yes it has sort of Battlefield effect it will stop Russia getting fuel supplies at the front line but it will also create a bit of May amongst the population and that is why they're ignoring the Americans and carrying on with this capability the long range strike sometimes a thousand kilometers inside ruing territory but I also think that has also settled the minds of the Americans who have been more willing to send the longrange attacks uh into to Ukraine that's probably because they once had this red line which suggested we won't give Ukraine anything that they can do to strip de deep inside Russia but now they know the ukrainians have their own kit that can do that so actually they've been more likely to use uh Western weapons on Targets in their own country and I'll stop there thank you very much Joe do enjoy your time off thank you for all of your work and your reporting Francis dley well thanks David yesterday I spoke that it was the 20-year anniversary of the expansion of the EU which encompassed many Central and Eastern European countries seen as a very significant moment after the end of the Cold War I asked listeners if they could share their memories of that time and reflect on its significance and I just wanted to say thank you to all of those who have we've received many fascinating emails I'm going to read from one today from Andre in Poland he says I'm a regular listener thank you for all of the work you do thank you Andre what inspired me to write this email is the 20th anniversary of the accession of Poland to the EU you mentioned I live in Poland younger Generations will tell you that the EU is just a reality like the air they breathe or like electricity in a socket but I finished my secondary school when the Red Army was just about to leave Poland almost 50 years after after the end of World War II and I remember quite well the discussion in public forums if this does not put Poland in a dangerous position as the future relations with the United Germany was not secured yet I remember the uncertainty of the people living in the western regions that Poland gained and was given after the war 5 years later I finished my studies and completed my military training in a non-nato army but already then NATO and the EU seemed to be in obvious direction we as a nation had chosen we were lucky to have politicians on both sides that didn't play out the debates from the past un and NATO accession was one of the most obvious and most commonly accepted decisions polls ever made today no matter what one can hear from different political and social spectrums the Common Ground the base is the current status your question about significance of that moment 20 years ago from today's perspective is fascinating it's a very hard answer to question as we have gone quite a long way from where we were in the 90s and as I mentioned the before the discussion is whether had we not done that be finding ourselves in the situation where Ukraine mova or bellarus do today it is clear now that there is no Third Way even Finland decided they could no longer stay halfway inside Western Security Systems any longer I I am therefore happy that Poland used a window of opportunity that hardly ever opens for our region I guess once per hundred years maybe and we have made it so thank you to all of those who've reached out it's a really interesting hearing your perspective and of course it's highly relevant to the Ukraine situation and indeed what's happening in Georgia because ukrainians too would argue that this is one of those one in a century moments which is why of course they get so frustrated when people talk about negoti and don't seem to understand the gravity of the situation but thank you thank you Dom Francis and Joe Daniel Ridley would you like the as our guest to the very final words I'll be rather quick because we are very relevant to our subject we actually have cabs flying towards a city as I speak and they're most likely due to land in the next few minutes yeah I I I'll step bit out my Lane but very relevant to what everyone else said and and what Don board up at the beginning something that the ukrainians have been doing since their capabilities got a lot stronger in the last year see these sort of retaliation strikes you'll see the Russians retaliate to to something that's happened in the war situation and it's always very emotional it's a very emotional reaction we're expecting large strikes coming up to May Day the Victory Day as always is with the Russians as it was before when I was on the front line before the full scale but the ukrainians do this this fantastic thing where the Russians will do an atrocious strike and obvious War crime an emotional reaction to something like the isander cluster munition strike on a j Park and the beach in Odessa that killed a bunch of civilians dogs and and injured people um and then you'll see the ukra Ukrainian reaction to that which I would Hazard to guess was the cluster munition strike that Dom spoke about see the Russians will do something emotional commit an obvious War crime and the ukrainians will respond with a incredibly precise strike killing hundreds or tens dozens of Russians or damaging a lot of military equipment and that's something the ukrainians have been doing now for a year and it's great to see the UK Ians aren't reacting with the same emotions that the Russians have they're reacting with Precision military strikes justifiable strikes whatever that be inside of Russia or whether that be inside of the territory of Ukraine Ukraine the latest is an original podcast from the telegraph to stay on top of all of our Ukraine news analysis and dispatches from the ground subscribe to 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Channel: The Telegraph

Views: 41,575

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Id: UD10hPbK4h4

Length: 53min 11sec (3191 seconds)

Published: Fri May 03 2024