Warning - poor audio quality in this episode. Putin and his armies have proved to be weak at classical warfare, giving rise to the meme that Russia has the second-best army, not in the world but in Ukraine. But Putin’s expertise in hybrid warfare, disinformation, and Active Measures continues to achieve more success, softened responses to Russia, and slowing down the supply of lethal armament that would allow Ukraine to win. How far has the practice of history also been warped by Russian narrati...
Jun 04, 2023•52 min•Season 2Ep. 163
There are two undeniable characteristics of a terrorist state: Killing and kidnapping children. Russia does both. Even on International Children's Day, Russian bombs killed a child in Kyiv. Before invading, Russia prepared a disinformation campaign to justify kidnapping and deporting Ukrainian children to Russia. That says a lot about what this war is actually about. This is genocide according to article II(e) of the 1948 genocide convention, and it’s why the West needs to arm Ukraine to win the...
Jun 03, 2023•45 min•Season 2Ep. 184
Worldwide there is an apparent rise in strongmen and authoritarian leaders, and there is no dearth of leaders who encourage personality cults. What issues arise when leaders seek devotees rather than support from citizens? There may be nothing wrong with leaders enjoying a mass following, the danger is when leaders are consumed by and trapped in the image and the mythology, they engineer for themselves, and start to make unwise, destructive decisions that impact their nations, economies, and the...
Jun 02, 2023•57 min•Season 2Ep. 183
Oleksiy is 41 years old. On September 30, 2022, he was wounded because of Russian aggression. While performing a combat mission he came under fire and lost both legs. He is now undergoing rehabilitation therapy and trying to rebuild his life, with assistance from his wife, a dedicated medical team, and colleagues. There is a link in the video description to a fund that helps with the rehabilitation of wounded Ukrainian servicepeople – please check it out. ----- LINKS: https://instagram.com/dovzh...
Jun 01, 2023•49 min•Season 2Ep. 179
In Ukraine, as in many other countries, law enforcement and security agencies are closed systems with their own rules and mutual support. In time of war, the number of security-related and military organisations greatly increases, and the number of people in their ranks swell massively. The potential for abuse and infringement of civil rights is huge and is a risk for any country at war. On top of that are the tens of thousands of war crimes being committed by the invaders. My guest today is an ...
Jun 01, 2023•44 min•Season 2Ep. 181
Many Germans view Russia as the successor state to the Soviet Union, not only in legal terms but in historical ones and some still refer to WWII as “a war against Russia.” The memory of that period and lingering ‘war guilt’ led many Germans prior to 2022 to seek accommodation with Russia, and to build energy dependence on the country, in the belief that it could avert war. But is this guilt misplaced? Belarus lost 25.3% of its pre-war population in the war. Ukraine lost 16.3%, while Russia lost ...
May 31, 2023•1 hr 5 min•Season 2Ep. 182
Many Ukrainians have told me that before February 2022, they could never have imagined that full-scale war would come to their country in the 21st century. But it did, and Ukrainians’ resilience has been extraordinary; they are not just fighting for their lives, families, and liberty, but also for their land, culture, heritage, and language. Today I’m speaking with Mariana Oleskiv the Chairperson at State Agency for Tourism Development of Ukraine. The work of the SATD is coordinated by the Cabin...
May 30, 2023•55 min•Season 2Ep. 180
Ukraine’s diaspora of professionals and refugees are playing an extraordinary role in support Ukraine, both materially, but also by raising awareness of it’s cause in their host countries and within the international community. Today I am speaking with Christian Borys, who is supporting Ukraine as a fundraising innovator – the founder of Saint Javelin – which started by selling one sticker and has now contributed over $2M to Ukraine's war effort since February 2022.
May 29, 2023•48 min•Season 2Ep. 177
Russia has no borders. This was the expansive and imperialistic idea behind the Russian World philosophy. But Ukraine has turned the tables on this idea and shown that Russia’s vast border regions are undefended, and in some ways undefendable. From the ‘little blue men’ appearing in Belgorod, to the drone strikes deep in Russian territory, the theatrical explosion about the Kremlin roof, and the mysterious fires happening at strategic facilities all over Russia, it seems that Putin’s war to secu...
May 27, 2023•59 min•Season 2Ep. 178
Prighozhin’s calculated outbursts, the incursion into Belgorod, the fall and then encirclement of Bakhmut by Ukraine… everything seems to be happening all at once. What is going on – and could this war be over much sooner than most military experts predict? Here’s a quote from the latest video dropped by Prighozhin, and he says a lot in it that Ukrainians could actually concur with: “We came here in vulgarity and trampled all over their territory looking for Nazis. While we were searching for Na...
May 26, 2023•55 min•Season 2Ep. 175
Today I’m speaking with Operator Starsky, a Ukrainian National Guardian, blogger, and self-described ‘war hipster’. He has created one of the most popular and original YouTube channels dedicated to the international community who support Ukraine in its struggle against Russian aggression. I’m not sure you need an introduction – I’m sure most people watching this channel will have seen your videos!
May 25, 2023•58 min•Season 2Ep. 176
Here’s a quote from the latest video dropped by Prighozhin, “We conducted the Special Military Operation to de-nazify and demilitarise Ukraine, but instead of denazification we turned Ukraine into a country that the whole world knows about.” A new Greek or Roman civilisation. It’s an extraordinary interview, which we’ll be covering in more detail in this week’s review of the news in Silicon Bites. But in this episode, I’m speaking to an unorthodox journalist, who has created some of the most mem...
May 24, 2023•1 hr 2 min•Season 2Ep. 174
My guest today, Iryna conducted an interview with a UK volunteer working for a mission to evacuate civilians from Ukraine's front lines. Forging a human corridor under constant bombardment is only half the battle — it also takes enormous effort to convince civilians to leave. British photographer turned volunteer Ignatius Ivlev-Yorke and his team have evacuated thousands of Ukrainians to safer locations in Ukraine and abroad and explained their challenging operations to Iryna recently. #ukraine ...
May 20, 2023•1 hr 4 min•Season 2Ep. 173
60% of Russia's top leadership comes from the Soviet elites – the nomenklatura. The number of Chekists (KGB/FSB) in powerful positions has increased several times over, and no longer has a communist party that provided a crude counterweight to prevent them monopolising power in the Soviet Union. Putin's elites are nostalgic for the Stalin-Brezhnev ideals, because most of them made their careers in the Soviet Union, and they are trying to reshape Russian society and Russian minds to fit the repre...
May 19, 2023•56 min•Season 2Ep. 172
Edition No8 | 18-05-2023 Spring heats up - Sabotage, Survival and Ukrainian Successes ~~~~~ FEATURED ARTICLES: TEXTY.ORG.UA https://texty.org.ua/ https://texty.org.ua/d/2023/germs_v2/en/ https://texty.org.ua/articles/109555/whats-that-got-to-do-with-soledar-death-and-renaissance-of-russian-occupation-telegram-channels/ ~~~~~ NEWS LINKS: The Moscow Times https://www.themoscowtimes.com/2023/05/18/crimea-railway-blast-derails-russian-train-reports-a81187 Crimea Railway Blast Derails Russian Train –...
May 18, 2023•22 min
Oleksiy Goncharenko was born in Odesa, and is a Ukrainian politician, member of the Ukrainian parliament, member of the Ukrainian delegation to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, Vice President of the PACE Committee on Migration, Refugees and Internally Displaced Persons, founder of a Ukrainian network of educational and cultural centres. In 2014, he was elected to the Verkhovna Rada on the party list of Petro Poroshenko Bloc. In the 2019 Ukrainian parliamentary election Goncha...
May 17, 2023•56 min•Season 2Ep. 171
Today I’m speaking with Gennadiy Druzenko Co-founder and Chairman of Pirogov, the First Volunteer Mobile Hospital; set up in 2019, and now a crucial player in supporting Ukraine’s response to Russian aggression and the casualties that result from it. In civilian life, Gennadiy is a constitutional scholar focusing on constitutional design and comparative constitutional law with both academic and governmental experience. #gennadiydruzenko #pfvmh #frontline #ukraine #ukrainewar #russia #zelensky #p...
May 15, 2023•54 min•Season 2Ep. 170
Sanctions were supposed to bring the Russian war machine to its knees. Crashing the Russian economy like a house of cards within months. But this hasn’t happened. This was the largest packet of sanctions in history, so why has it failed to curtail Russia’s aggression? Are sanctions a flawed concept? And who has helped Russia to evade and mitigate the worst aspects of sanctions? I’m joined today by Timothy Ash, who has been professional economist for more than 30 years, with two thirds of that in...
May 12, 2023•56 min•Season 1Ep. 68
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is not just about territory and resources, though they play a part. It’s also a struggle to control historical memory. Russia seeks to simplify history writing, teaching, and mythology down to a few selective narratives that support its current political structure and imperial revanchism. Ukrainian history is complex, messy and offers an alternative take on Russian and Soviet mythology and undermines its propaganda. Ukraine’s struggle is one for identify, culture, la...
May 12, 2023•45 min•Season 1Ep. 67
Putin expected Ukraine to roll over in days when he launched the full-scale war in February 2022. But this was a tragic misreading of the Ukraine people, because they were prepared to fight for their independence and liberty. The ‘Russian World’ concept did not have the attractions that Putin and his acolytes seemed to believe. Instead of a small victorious war, Russia has become entangled in a quagmire that has now claimed more Russian lives than 10 years of war in Afghanistan. As it looks ever...
May 12, 2023•57 min•Season 1Ep. 66
Today I’m speaking with Anders Åslund, and it’s something of a milestone for the channel. I interviewed Anders over 7 months ago, and he was the first guest on the Podcast. Having now done more than 60 interviews with Western, Ukrainian, and Russian experts, I’m delighted to welcome him back to the channel to explore what has happened since then, and what Putin’s endgame might be. ---------- GUEST: Anders Åslund, academic, diplomat and author.1
May 11, 2023•50 min•Season 1Ep. 64
Putin was moulded in the KGB, weaned on espionage, counterintelligence, Active Measures, insurgency, and counter insurgency. It is no wonder that his world view oozes paranoia, and that he has no belief in democracy as a system, or the idea of organic, bottom-up revolutions. The war in Ukraine has shone a harsh light on an area of research that is undergoing a renaissance: counterinsurgency strategic studies. Today I’m talking to David H. Ucko to understand this murky world of insurgency better,...
May 11, 2023•1 hr 9 min•Season 1Ep. 65
Never has it been more important to get accurate and unbiased information. Especially in time of war, and when information has been weaponised by Russian propaganda, amplified through Social Media platforms. Today I am discussing the issues of reporting news in wartime with Alina Poliakova. Alina Poliakova is Managing Editor of the English version of Ukrainska Pravda. Ukrainska Pravda is a Ukrainian online newspaper founded by Georgiy Gongadze on 16 April 2000. Published mainly in Ukrainian with...
May 11, 2023•46 min•Season 1Ep. 63
The last 6 months or so has seen a vicious war of attrition unfold in towns like Ugledar, Soledar and Bakhmut. But this should not be interpreted as a stalemate, as those struggles seems to have degraded the quantity of functional Russian equipment and depleted their fighting manpower. Will the much-vaunted spring offensive and defeat of its forces in 2023 finally bring an end to Russia’s genocidal and pointless war against its neighbour? And how fragile would Russia’s autocratic, propaganda-con...
May 10, 2023•54 min•Season 2Ep. 168
Perhaps the most perverse Russian invasion narrative, is that Ukraine is not old, and is not distinct from Russia in any case. But Ukraine is not just a footnote to Russian imperial history. As a nation, it is old, different, and diverse. Just as it went unrecognised by Russia, it has not been understood or recognised by the outside world either, for a variety of reasons. 100 years ago, nobody cared about Ukraine – or its disappearance as an independent state; but that has now changed. Putin’s t...
May 09, 2023•58 min•Season 2Ep. 167
Even for avid supporters of Ukraine, like me, Ukrainian literature remains and undiscovered country. Today I’m speaking with Maria Shuvalova who can guide on a journey of discovery, to engage with Ukrainian culture and identity. Ukrainian literature has a strong tradition of folk tales and oral poetry, and it has been influenced by the country's complex political and cultural history, including periods of colonization and national struggle. Russian literature, on the other hand, has been shaped ...
May 09, 2023•56 min•Season 2Ep. 166
NATO members and other western countries have stepped up the supply of weapons to Ukraine. The UK pledged 14 Challenger 2 tanks, the US 31 Abrams tanks, and Germany dispatched 14 Leopard 2 tanks, with more to follow. Other countries are sending anti-tank and anti-air systems, artillery pieces, drones, armoured vehicles, and tanks. Modern, sophisticated weapons are key to the success of Ukraine’s spring counter-offensive, but all this different equipment made in many countries brings challenges. ...
May 07, 2023•1 hr 6 min•Season 2Ep. 165
There are many strong voices supporting Ukraine, and many Ukrainians that are active in supporting and promoting it’s cause throughout the west. Few are more vocal and effective than Yana Rudenko, and few followed with more enthusiasm and affection. She has a strong voice on platforms like LinkedIn, and despite repeatedly being banned, she bounces back, to fight the good fight. ~~~~~ LINKS: https://www.linkedin.com/in/yana-rudenko/ ~~~~~
May 07, 2023•1 hr 7 min•Season 2Ep. 164
Until February 2022, the war in Ukraine could be dismissed by some as a “quarrel in a faraway country, between people of whom we know nothing”, especially if they had been influenced by aggressive Russian propaganda and the techniques of hybrid information warfare. But in 2022 the war became full scale, and the propagandistic subterfuge was far less effective. The hot war may be in full swing, but that has not diminished the intensity of the information war. The public in the West may not consid...
May 04, 2023•43 min•Season 2Ep. 161
Before the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, before the invasion of Crimea in 2014, before the Bolotnaya protests of 2012, Russia was living through so-called ‘vegetarian’ times. But the regime has turned distinctly carnivorous in 2023, and that process ratcheted up by degrees after massive protests gripped the streets in 2012. Independent news organisations like TV Rain, Echo Moscow, Meduza and Novaya Gazeta were marginalised but not outright banned. Participants in those media projects w...
May 03, 2023•1 hr 7 min•Season 2Ep. 161
