Or fifty five KR CD talk station fifty five krsee dot com for podcasts when you can't listen live hour and a half with Congressman Brad Winsterrip now retired, on the whole COVID investigation. Scary scary stuff. Get it at fifty five cars dot com. It's well worth to listen if you didn't listen live, and of course my conversation right now. First of the year, in a very happy new year, it is time for the Daniel Davis Deep
Dive with retired Lieutenant Colonel Daniel Davis. Great to see your face, my friend, and a happy new Year to you.
I'll mean twenty twenty five to you, bron been missing you, man.
I know I listen, man, I read the news, and every time I see a story, most notably about Ukraine and Russia, which were going to talk about it again today, it's like, God, I wish I had Daniel around it just exchange ideas about this, because you know you and I have been back and forth on this, and let's start with the article you afforded me to talk about
as a springboard. Ukraine is bringing war back to Russia, as Lensky says after New kurse offensive, And there was an observation in here because you have pointed out time and time again that you know, Ukraine can't beat Russia. They don't have the equipment, they don't have the guys, they don't have the hardware.
What in the hell are they doing in Russia? Anyway?
And I see this line here the Institute for the Study of War think tank report of the Ukraine intensified its offensive operations in Kursk through Monday. Here's the point, with Russian forces elsewhere in the region launching their own fresh attacks on the Ukrainian salient, So you're not minding your own backyard. You're busy going into Russia for reasons unknown to me, while the Russians are making advances in Ukraine. Does that make any sense from a strategic standpoint? Daniel Kind, That.
Didn't make any sense from any viewpoint. And it's actually worse. I did an update literally just minutes before joining you here right now to get the latest tactical updates all in that situation, and it's gotten really ugly, really fast, because I knew already what was reported was that roughly a company size element and that means maybe twenty five total combat vehicles, tanks, on our personnel carriers, et cetera. Everybody in the West was calling this a big offensive.
Zelensky was talking about it like it was an offensive. This was a small tactical counter attack. Really, all is what you can say that used to be in some circles is considered normal in any kind of a fight where you have one side on the offense and on the defense, but the defensive side will launch local counter attacks to try to reposition the defense or to try to blunt something that the offensive side is doing, et cetera.
The Ukraine hasn't.
Been doing any of those anywhere for most of the year of twenty twenty four, and they tried one here at the last minute. But here's the problem. It made a very small incursion. It was blunted almost immediately overnight. Part of that what they had captured has already been lost.
And then because they had to take forces from one part of the Kerk salients to the other part, Russia immediately recognized it, launched a fresh attack of their own, and last night headache huge swath in the northern part of that to further knock them out of the Kursk saleant. So the net is a loss in Ukraine, in the Kursk, and as you pointed out, it's still continuing to be a loss in the.
Eastern Front and in the meantime in the fog of war. I constantly mention that during our discussions, because honestly, I don't know what to believe anymore. I never have known what to believe. You hear a X number of people die, this number of people died. This one says thirty eight thousand Russian troopsmen killed or wounded fighting in the western curs region. Seriously, I don't know that there doesn't since
a pro Ukraine article I suppose leans that way. Anyway, I don't know how many of the Ukrainians have died in that particular offensive either, But do you think there's any legitimacy to that figure.
It's really impossible to tell, because you have the Russian size, by the ways claiming there's somewhere around pardon me, fifty to sixty thousand Ukrainians who have been killed since saw I guess when they first made this incursion.
And there's no way to independently verify either one of.
Them, except that it makes sense to suggest that the side that is attacking into the other is the attacker almost always has a higher casualty count when you're especially making any incursion, but then once after block the third week of this, so so from late August on it's been kind of a skirmish back and forth, and the side that has the most firepower is going to inflict the most casualties. And so it's entirely possible that it's near equivalent between.
The two sides, but that's just speculation. There's no way to know what it is.
The only thing we can say because it's conclusive, is that we see that the territory is shrinking almost.
By the day.
Yeah, and that's one thing I have observed, which is a reflection of sort of the reality that you've been talking about since we've been discussing this conflict.
Now.
The other thing I observe in correct me if I'm wrong, there's so much of this information comes out. They use again, the were Ukrainians some of those longer range missiles that we supplied them with, and my reading of the information was that the Russians shot them down. And we've talked about this before. What's the point of giving them these longer range missiles. If they have the ability, the demonstrably proven ability to shoot them out of the sky before
they land on anything. We're wasting money and resources giving them a tool of war that isn't effective.
Well, yeah, I mean that's one of the things that I've been lamenting for quite some time now, because there is a disconnect between the heart what Ukrainians want, what Western leaders want, and then what is graphically evident on the battlefield and what is possible And you have to take the emotion out of it and do a cold hearted calculation military power, What is the balance between the two forces, what is the capabilities for offense and defense, et cetera, And then you can say, all what is
possible here? Unfortunately, that calculation is never made in the West. It certainly hasn't been for a long long time, and they keep taking actions that they want to achieve a certain outcome, oblivious to the fact that as is going on right now in the Kerk Salient, the opposite is is being manifest on the battlefield.
And look, they're losing everywhere.
You're talking about Trump coming in here now less than three weeks and everybody's wanting him to have this great negotiation, but right now his hand, when the day he assumes power is going to be, is weaker by the day because of the unreality that's clouding the judgment of the people who are calling the shots in the war.
Well, and not only that, you have I won't call it victories, but you have progress being made on the Russian side. The longer they this battle rages, the more territory they seem to be taking over. So you know, I can imagine Putin just saying, well, wait a second, why would have want to negotiate you with over piece unless you start giving me a giant chunk of Ukraine return for it.
You got it. That's exactly right.
That's the dilemma that's gonna face Trump when he comes in that his emissary for the Rush of Ukraine War, General Kellogg, was supposed to have landed in Kiev today to start setting the stage for that, but he was changed his mind.
And was recalled.
They didn't explain why, but I think it's because they're reevaluating what's going on in the Trump team, because they're saying, hang on, right now, we can't we might not even be able to get what I'm calling the June fourteenth line that Putin laid out this summer, where he said he's gonna have all of those four old blasts, even the parts they don't currently control, or they'll just keep fighting and take it by force.
But here's the problem, Brian, if we go.
Down that path, they won't stop at those four old blasts. So that is the real dilemma for Trump. Either negotiate away something that Ukraine hasn't lost yet but stop there, or try to get a better deal and end up losing even more.
Wow. Well, let's pivot over to Zelensky. The name of the article. It's by Kate Surkhan. Zelenski takes on Putin apologists US skeptics on three hour Lex Friedman podcast. I guess we would follow the category of US skeptics this morning, Daniel.
I mean I would.
Say that we're US realists. But anyway, I like that. I like that a lot better because we are realists. We were only pointing out facts here. It's not that we want We don't want the Russians to win, we want the Ukrainians to lose. This is you're dealing with factual information. How does Zelenski respond to this? Conversation that
you and I are having. I mean, when we point out you can have all the Atkam missiles that you want, but if the Russians can shoot down every damn one of them, how are you going to use it to your advantage? And to what end do you think this is gonna going to serve you? How does he respond to that?
Yeah, listen, I watch good portions of that three hour interview, and it was very illuminating because it just shows that Zelensky is his brain is just and I'm not saying this in any harsh way, only in observation. It is
disconnected from the reality. And I think that the truth is starting to press in on his psyche and he realizes there is no good way out There is none, and instead of acknowledging that in trying to make the best of an ugly situation, he's still clinging to this fiction that there's a good deal to be had out there.
And several times in that interview.
Lex tried to say, and he's very much pro Ukraine, He's ford Zelenski. He tried several times to say, listen, but if you're not even talking to the Russian side, if you're not even giving them a reason to have that negotiation that you're seeking and that outcome. He said that Putin doesn't have to do it, and the guy just wouldn't the Zelensky just wouldn't listen. He would just run back to Oh, Putin is evil, he's vicious. You can't talk to him. And he's like, it doesn't matter
whether you think it is. If you don't talk to him, he'll defeat your country and he just can't get.
There, Okay.
So it basically sounds to me like this boils down to a politician who's been backed into a corner, and it's gonna be known by history as the guy who lost a sizeable chunk of his country fighting a battle against the Russians, along with an almost uncountable number of human human lives.
Or Brian, he'll be the guy that lost the war. If you don't negotiate an end now to that's not good terms, then you're gonna lose the war. That is the horrible situation that they face right.
Now, and that means losing Ukraine completely to Russia.
It's gone far enough, yes, because Russia has the ability and the capacity and definitely the will to do that, but if Trump can come in and make a negotiation short of that, that's still possible. So there is something hope, but only if Zelensky is ready to start.
Dealing with reality. Daniel Davis Deep Dive. I enjoyed every Tuesday. I'm happy for the new calendar year and another opportunity. Need to talk with mister retire Lieutenant Colonel Davis every Tuesday at eight thirty my friend again, a pleasure to see your face. Just a wonderful conversation. It's engaging and quite often frightening. But again, like you said, we're just talking fat.
It's true.
It's true. Yeah, God love you, sir. Look forward to next Tuesday. Take care, see you next week. A forty fifty five care ce DE Talk Stations stick around. We got a little more talk about. Plus my friend Steve from USA Intilation for Ask the Expert. That'll be the tail end of the program. I'll be right back.
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