You're listening to Comedy Central. Please welcome ambassador sir, heycome and that's what Welcome to the day show. Thank you, thank you for inviting me. You have a really position, a really interesting position, and a difficult undertaking right now because you are representing Ukraine at the u N. And Ukraine is in one of the most precarious positions right now. Before we get into where we are, let's maybe clear up at the beginning, how did this start and what
is the cause of what we're seeing in Ukraine? Well, do you want a long story or you want a short version? I guess we're one three hundred three years. But the long the short one is putting Kim to power and he probably from himself that he would restore the Soviet Empire. And ever since we are um in the state of war and now we are in the state of hot war. I mean actually the war started not on the fourth or February, started back in two
south and fourteen. And you you you're in a position now where as you said, I like that you call it a hot war because it's a war that you know, people can see very clearly that there are many people who are being killed. There are tanks rolling in It's it's a it's a different type of war though, because everybody agrees that Ukraine is on the rights, everybody agrees
that Russia is doing something wrong. And yet because of Russia being Russia, it seems like the United Nations and many other countries are scared to overact for fear of causing a world war. How how do you then ask for help and what do you what do you hope will be achieved if countries, you know, have to balance
this precarious position. Well, I think that as a matter of fact for me, we are already in the Third World War, which may be quine of crazy to say, but the twenty one century is not the twentieth century where we had these standard wars with tanks crossing the borders. We are in the hybrid world, and you don't really need to cross the border to attack the United States. You can do that in the cyberspace, you know, or
you can do like a terrorism or financial terrorism. So basically we are there in the United Nations, and the United Nations is a product of three old gentlemen, among which were Joseph Stalin. So it's not perfect, and we still in the hundreds day of the war. We still have Russia sitting in front of us, and we still pretend that we have to respect it. And the only reason we respect Russian Federation is because well, I do
not respect, but they have to respect. That's a very important correction, because they possessed the nuclear arsenal and they are really paranoid that Russia may use nukes against them. So is your argument then that Russia shouldn't be sitting as one of those permanent members of the you and well, first of all, Russia is not a department re member
if you ask me. I mean, Russia occupied the seat of the Soviet Union back in the same way the Russia occupied Georgia, the same way Russia occupied Transnistra in Moldova, the same way Russia invaded Syria. So, uh, Russia occupies, occupies, occupies, and we are all complacent with that. I mean, we were complacent with that until the night of the twenty three and all of a sudden we were surprised that it happened, I mean, which was imminent for thirty years.
But do you do you think that maybe this has been you know it everything in hindsight, is you know, and and and I've read you know some historians who would argue that, you know, they could have been a way for the world to bring Russia into the fold from the very beginning. Some say the problem was the fact that Russia was pushed out. Russia felt like they were being isolated. It felt like nature was encroaching on
their territory. If Putin was brought into the fault, he would have had a vested interest in being part of the world. Do you do you see any credence in that argument. Well, you know, I saw many criminal knowledgists of Sovietologists they called they are called often, and they are two noted with their vision over the world, the same way like Germany with two note with north Stream. You know, they saw the world through the tunnel of
north Stream. And we were all of us, We were guilty of Latin putting grow as a dictator of unprecedented scale in Europe. Probably Hitler only the one we can compare him with. Uh No, I don't believe in episement. I believe in the need to fight the virus. And Russian Budanism is the same as Carvet, but it's only the international politics. Carbet, you know right, right, and and
and and it is taking its toll as well. You know, your your your country is in a position now where every day we read about how Russia is changing its tactics. You know, it's slowly becoming a war of attrition as opposed to a direct assault. You know, Ukraine has inspired the world and how and how you're fighting back. You know, your your president has been staying in the country, you know,
despite what everyone thought he would do. Um when you get to the point though, where it feels like European nations are almost encouraging Ukraine too in some way, you know, give up a piece of territory. You see many European nations saying, Ukraine, maybe you should just give them the don Bus region, just give them that part that has already expressed some sort of interest in becoming part of Russia.
You have said that that is a complete non start whin Yeah, it's absolutely I mean, unless everybody's an easiac. You know, let me remind it what happened in nineteen thirty eight when Hitler signed a Munich agreement with Chamberlain. The New York Times literally literally ran an article and they can quote from it. The world has never been pregnant with hope as it is now. And then what happened.
Goslovakia lost one fifths of its territory, the Nazi troops moved in, and then in less than twelve months the Second World War started and the whole check asla care what's invaded. So basically, if people are not very cognizant of the history lessons, they have to go back to school sech thing, and it's a duty of all of
us to make them study the history. Are you worried that European countries may at some point say this is too much for us and we don't know if we're gonna back Ukraine through this, because we've seen again through history, Russia is not afraid to fight long, painful wars. You know, it seems like Vladimir Putins don't aflate to send his troops out onto the front lines and and and have them perished because he doesn't have to worry about an election that he's losing. You know, an approval is not
his issue. And so if if you're in that position, you know Ukraine isn't is in a space where you have your your your your people who may get demoralized. You know, you have a nation that is constantly bombarded. You know, obviously the US is helping you, But but what would you hope the next steps would be? Then, where do you see the world moving towards to help Ukraine? Well, traever, you just came from Europe into you, right, yeah, yeah, you see, so it was your own eyes that Europe
is not really homogeneous? Is it's so diverse, It's like a bouquetal nations, right, So it would be kind of over a generalization to say that Europe believes eure obsess. I mean, we have wonderful, wonderful nations like Poland, like the UK like Portugal. I just to talk to the Portuguese abst like Baltic states. They will fight hard until
the very end to defeat the Russian despotism. You know, we have some countries that got used to live in comfort for so long that they are out of context altogether. But the thing is that if we do not defeat Puttanism today, right, if we we will be satisfied with just a military defeat of Russia in Ukraine, and we will let these dictator to regrow his chopped back close, they will hit all of you again, like in five or seven years from now, and then we all paid
triple price for it. So even from the point of view of investing money in the Ukrainian victory, investing money in Ukrainian victory is investing money in your own security. And you should be all grateful that it is the Ukrainian soldiers, not the British soldiers, now the American soldiers who are dying in the front defending the collective democratic world,
you know. So I have to remind about that to all of our viewers and to all people in Europe, in North America, and not only there, I have to bind all Africans who will suffer from the food shortages in two months from now. A lot of people don't know about that, you know. I have so many people complaining about food prices going up, many people in the Middle Eastern Africa struggling with you know, a shortage of wheat and bread is you know, the most important food sources.
Many people don't know how much of that grain is coming from Ukraine. For the entire world. There are countries, there are countries that are se dependent on Ukrainian grain, and those countries are devastatus with civil wars, or with drafts, or with climate calamities, they have no way to go on the market and buy grain from somewhere else, so I mean from for them, it is a matter of
sav survival. And the fact is that we have twenty one million tons of grains sitting to be exported and we can't do that because one crazy little person in in Tremlin does not really allow us to do that, you know. And that's that's amazing. I mean, that's amazing
and one of the jobs we have to do. One of the things we are doing currently in the United Nations, we are desperately seeking the way how to save millions of people who are literally under the threat of dying observation ten thousand miles away from from Ukraine, you know. And that is why this conflict has so many implications that unlike in two thousand and fourteen, where we when we were all happy to have one hundred nations voting in favor of the territorial integrity of Ukraine, we now
have overwhelming majority. We have one hundred forty one nations that voted on the second of March and that identify Russia as an aggressive state. You know, there were only four countries, such wonderful countries as North Korea and Syria who voted in support of Russia, you know, and it's very important. It's very important because the world finally understood that it's not just about Ukraine, it's about the entire collective democratic community of nations. Thank you so much for
joining us. Somebody thank you before vite Appreciate the fun. Hopefully waiting again. What's the Daily Show? Weeknights and even Central on Company Central in stream full episodes anytime on Paramount Plus. This has been a Comedy Central podcast