Latest / International Flavor: Where the Truth Tastes Better / War on Everything: Wildberries, Rostov, Iran and the Collapse of Red Lines

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War on Everything: Wildberries, Rostov, Iran and the Collapse of Red Lines · International Flavor: Where the Truth Tastes Better

• 0:00
  Hello, good morning.
• 0:01
  Welcome.
• 0:03
  I'm Samuel Trapp.
• 0:04
  This is International Flavor.
• 0:05
  It is Monday here at the Lake Ozark
• 0:08
  Real Estate of the Art Studio and we're
• 0:11
  coming to you live from damradio.com forward
• 0:14
  slash live.
• 0:16
  You can listen to the shows later at
• 0:18
  internationalflavor.com.
• 0:19
  You can even go out to damradio.com
• 0:21
  forward slash podcast and listen to my shows
• 0:25
  and every other guys and girls show that
• 0:31
  broadcasts on dam radio.
• 0:37
  A lot of stuff going on.
• 0:38
  A lot of stuff that generally pisses a
• 0:41
  person off.
• 0:46
  I don't know.
• 0:49
  We've got CENTCOM telling us, I love this
• 0:53
  fact that it's Admiral Brad Cooper.
• 0:55
  They used to call him Bradley Cooper, but
• 0:57
  that turned out to be a bad plan.
• 1:00
  And you would think that by the time
• 1:02
  you become an admiral, that you're the one
• 1:04
  who's famous.
• 1:06
  And instead it's Bradley Cooper.
• 1:08
  I didn't know he was an admiral.
• 1:10
  Maybe it's a movie.
• 1:11
  No, we don't want to talk about that.
• 1:13
  So you bust your whole life, your butt,
• 1:17
  the whole time to become Bradley Cooper, Admiral,
• 1:21
  and you get upstaged by Bradley Cooper from
• 1:26
  the movie.
• 1:27
  What's the one with Lady Gaga?
• 1:34
  That was actually a reasonably good remake of
• 1:36
  that old show.
• 1:37
  Wasn't that Chris Christopherson?
• 1:39
  That was pretty cool.
• 1:40
  Anyway, let's talk about Admiral Bradley Cooper and
• 1:43
  see what he has to say over this
• 1:46
  past weekend.
• 1:48
  Admiral Bradley Cooper reportedly told President Trump that
• 1:53
  most designated bombing targets in southern Iran have
• 1:57
  already been struck.
• 1:59
  So what are you going to do?
• 2:01
  Hit him again?
• 2:03
  The top U.S. commander in the Middle
• 2:05
  East advised Trump that striking Iranian targets around
• 2:11
  the Strait of Hormuz was no longer effective,
• 2:15
  according to Axios yesterday.
• 2:18
  Cooper, who leads U.S. Central Command, reportedly
• 2:27
  told the old Trumpster that the designated bombing
• 2:30
  targets in the area have largely been exhausted.
• 2:35
  And he said there's no point in continuing
• 2:37
  the strikes unless the U.S. returns to
• 2:40
  major combat operations.
• 2:43
  Trump paused strikes on Friday, abruptly ending a
• 2:48
  13-day bombing campaign amid reports that regional
• 2:55
  mediators are trying to broker a new ceasefire.
• 3:00
  Yeah, ceasefires work very well, don't they?
• 3:03
  They give you time to reorganize and attack
• 3:07
  some more.
• 3:08
  That's it.
• 3:10
  That's it.
• 3:11
  While you sit down and negotiate real peace,
• 3:14
  you bunch of a-holes.
• 3:15
  And this is the same thing going on
• 3:17
  in Ukraine, unfortunately.
• 3:18
  I've been saying this forever, and Russia keeps
• 3:20
  going, nah, we're not taking this crap ceasefire.
• 3:23
  We've watched you guys for decades to do
• 3:27
  this, and we're not going to do it.
• 3:31
  You cease fire, you break it yourselves, blame
• 3:34
  the other guy, and then the whole time
• 3:36
  all you've done is regroup.
• 3:38
  And don't tell us that's what we're going
• 3:40
  to allow you to do in Ukraine.
• 3:42
  Now, if it was just Ukraine, the Russians
• 3:45
  would probably allow it.
• 3:47
  But it's not just Ukraine.
• 3:48
  They're fighting all of NATO.
• 3:51
  They're not fighting just Ukraine.
• 3:54
  And Ukraine, without how many billions now has
• 4:00
  it been?
• 4:02
  So we're in the same old thing.
• 4:04
  And they gave a figure of some 35
• 4:08
  billion or something like that is what it's
• 4:10
  cost us so far in Iran.
• 4:14
  But it's probably triple that with all the
• 4:18
  back-end stuff.
• 4:20
  You take your straight costs, maybe.
• 4:23
  But what about all the loss of everything?
• 4:25
  That doesn't even talk about the loss of
• 4:27
  economic power, economic impact, anything like that.
• 4:32
  So several American outlets reported that Trump was
• 4:36
  concerned about dwindling stocks of interceptors used to
• 4:41
  counter Iran's retaliatory missions and drone attacks on
• 4:45
  bases across the Middle East.
• 4:48
  There was a large, the largest strike on
• 4:55
  Saudi Arabia's—man, I wish you could remember that.
• 5:00
  It's right on the tip of my tongue—their
• 5:03
  largest refinery.
• 5:05
  That's not good, because that was a retaliatory
• 5:10
  strike.
• 5:11
  And so the Strait of Hormuz, though vital
• 5:16
  maritime choke point, remains closed to regular commercial
• 5:21
  shipping, despite American strikes on Iran's port infrastructure
• 5:26
  and military sites in the south.
• 5:29
  The U.S. resumed its blockade of Iran
• 5:32
  earlier this month, following attacks on tankers attempting
• 5:36
  to transit.
• 5:38
  On June 26, Iran said that transit through
• 5:41
  Hormuz is going to be permitted only through
• 5:45
  routes designated by Tehran.
• 5:47
  So local media reported on Sunday that an
• 5:50
  oil tanker exploded in the Strait of Hormuz
• 5:52
  after striking a naval mine when it deviated
• 5:56
  from the designated navigation lane.
• 6:00
  Iranian authorities didn't immediately comment on the reported
• 6:03
  incident.
• 6:04
  So you have those little mini-subs over
• 6:06
  there, right?
• 6:06
  Remember me telling you about those?
• 6:08
  And so they're taking these mini-subs and
• 6:10
  putting them— they're placing mines all over the
• 6:14
  place and saying, okay, don't deviate from our
• 6:18
  route, and we're going to tell you that
• 6:21
  you can go through our route, and then
• 6:23
  that way you have to pay us.
• 6:25
  And if you don't, hell, your ship could
• 6:27
  blow up.
• 6:31
  Wow.
• 6:32
  Both sides signaled that a truce, which was
• 6:35
  first reached in April and later expanded in
• 6:37
  May through the Memorandum of Understanding, signed on
• 6:40
  my birthday, June 17th, is over.
• 6:44
  No doubt.
• 6:45
  The latest round of hostilities erupted over differing
• 6:49
  interpretations of the MOU.
• 6:52
  Yeah, MOU said you have to do it.
• 6:53
  No, it didn't.
• 6:55
  Well, no, it did too.
• 6:56
  And then you fight over that.
• 6:58
  Which is intended to provide more time for
• 7:00
  negotiations over Iran's nuclear program.
• 7:03
  Tehran insisted it has the right to control
• 7:05
  all traffic through Hormuz and has labeled routes
• 7:09
  designated by the U.S. Navy as illegal.
• 7:12
  Now, why do they get to say it's
• 7:14
  illegal?
• 7:17
  Now, I'm curious, because I really don't know
• 7:21
  this, but I'm really curious, because remember, the
• 7:24
  Strait of Hormuz is like 23 miles across,
• 7:26
  and each country gets 12 miles of their
• 7:29
  own.
• 7:29
  So there's no international waters in there.
• 7:33
  But I wonder if the interpretation goes that
• 7:36
  outside of your 12 miles, it's international waters
• 7:41
  or it's not international waters because nobody's outside
• 7:48
  of the 12 miles.
• 7:50
  Does that make sense?
• 7:51
  And so you don't have 12 miles out
• 7:54
  there.
• 7:54
  So you wonder if they have to have
• 7:57
  permission, if you will, from the
• 8:07
  other side of the Strait or not.
• 8:11
  You know, do they have to?
• 8:12
  I don't know.
• 8:14
  And what are they going to do if
• 8:17
  they have to have it?
• 8:18
  Or if the U.S. has made a
• 8:19
  deal with Oman, who knows?
• 8:23
  And so the latest round on this interpretation,
• 8:29
  I don't believe it's going to go anywhere.
• 8:33
  I tell you what, part of the reason
• 8:37
  I told you that story is because of
• 8:40
  the attacks.
• 8:44
  I heard something over the weekend, and it's
• 8:48
  basically anything goes anymore.
• 8:51
  There are no red lines.
• 8:54
  They don't exist.
• 8:55
  It's all escalation all the time.
• 8:58
  There's nothing that is sacred, untouchable.
• 9:02
  You know, you can blow up churches now.
• 9:04
  It's acceptable.
• 9:05
  You know, you don't have to worry about
• 9:06
  that.
• 9:07
  You can blow up a resort community.
• 9:09
  That's a big deal that happened over the
• 9:11
  weekend.
• 9:11
  A resort in Russia got attacked.
• 9:16
  And, you know, swimming pools, kids swimming, stuff
• 9:19
  like that at a resort.
• 9:22
  So now you're droning resorts while people are
• 9:24
  having fun or trying to, you know, enjoy
• 9:30
  summer before school starts or whatever.
• 9:33
  But now that's no longer sacred.
• 9:38
  You know, people are over there, you know,
• 9:40
  schools aren't sacred anymore.
• 9:43
  Oh, no.
• 9:44
  And all you got to do, all you
• 9:45
  got to do is just say, well, we
• 9:48
  believe, we believe that they were, I don't
• 9:53
  know, housing drone parts.
• 9:55
  We believe that there was a command group
• 9:57
  from somebody else hiding in there.
• 10:00
  Oh, geez, they're hiding military behind these peaceful,
• 10:03
  you know, they're creating a defense shield of
• 10:06
  civilians.
• 10:07
  And all you can do is allege it.
• 10:09
  You don't got to prove it.
• 10:10
  You just got to say it.
• 10:12
  And suddenly it, oh, well, that makes sense.
• 10:15
  You do it.
• 10:15
  So this leads to the war on everything.
• 10:20
  So you can attack a rescue boat if
• 10:23
  it is coming to rescue somebody you already
• 10:28
  shot.
• 10:31
  So Iran accused the U.S. of striking
• 10:35
  two of its search and rescue vehicles in
• 10:37
  the Persian Gulf and calls the attack a
• 10:39
  war crime.
• 10:41
  And nobody prosecutes war crimes anyway.
• 10:43
  The U.S. over the weekend pushed out
• 10:45
  the guy, I forget his name, the guy
• 10:48
  who runs the ICC, International Criminal Court, because
• 10:53
  of what he did.
• 10:53
  He filed charges against Netanyahu.
• 10:56
  And there's a warrant for Netanyahu.
• 10:59
  And so he's gone.
• 11:01
  So Iran accused the U.S. of this.
• 11:04
  And the U.S. is maintaining a blockade
• 11:07
  of Iranian ports and has attacked the Iranian
• 11:11
  Navy.
• 11:12
  Charges are public in a letter on Friday
• 11:14
  sent by Gholam Hussein Darsi, Iran's deputy envoy
• 11:19
  to the U.N. U.N. doesn't mean
• 11:21
  anything anymore.
• 11:22
  U.N. is just a limp, a limp
• 11:25
  group of of, you know, those guys that
• 11:30
  shake your hand and it's like a cold,
• 11:33
  clammy handshake and they don't grab your hand.
• 11:35
  And, you know, it's like, you know, that's
• 11:37
  that's the U.N. OK.
• 11:41
  Darcy said that Najee 15 and Najee 16
• 11:44
  were struck in the early hours of Thursday
• 11:47
  off the coast of Hormuzgan province while they
• 11:50
  were engaged in search and rescue duties and
• 11:53
  got significant damage.
• 11:55
  But they didn't mention any casualties.
• 11:59
  The deliberate targeting of vessels exclusively assigned to
• 12:03
  maritime search and rescue operations constitutes a flagrant
• 12:07
  violation of international humanitarian law and international law
• 12:11
  of the sea.
• 12:13
  Nobody pays attention.
• 12:14
  I mean, the U.S. for sure doesn't
• 12:16
  pay attention to the international law of the
• 12:20
  sea.
• 12:20
  We saw that.
• 12:22
  We see it in Cuba.
• 12:24
  We saw it around Venezuela.
• 12:25
  You know, you just blow people up.
• 12:28
  There's no there's no jury, no trial, no
• 12:31
  war, no nothing.
• 12:32
  Wow.
• 12:33
  Narco terrorism.
• 12:34
  Oh, where'd all that go?
• 12:36
  You know, they'll now what's his name's trial
• 12:42
  is set.
• 12:44
  The Venezuelan president is trial is set for
• 12:46
  a year from now.
• 12:48
  So he gets to hang out in jail
• 12:50
  while that happens.
• 12:52
  So we just you you can do anything
• 12:56
  anymore.
• 12:57
  There are no limits.
• 13:00
  It's.
• 13:04
  No limits at all.
• 13:06
  The the Ukrainians attacking Russia's Amazon, that was
• 13:12
  called a war crime.
• 13:13
  So let's let's talk about that for a
• 13:15
  minute.
• 13:16
  So Russia's Amazon is called Wildberries.
• 13:18
  I told you about it last week and
• 13:20
  how it works.
• 13:21
  And it's it's pretty cool.
• 13:22
  I've actually ordered stuff on Wildberries and you
• 13:25
  go pick it up at the at the
• 13:27
  Wildberry store over there when you're over there.
• 13:30
  And they have these Wildberry stores are all
• 13:32
  over the place.
• 13:33
  And so, you know, every three, four blocks,
• 13:36
  there's Wildberries location.
• 13:38
  And so you don't have to walk too
• 13:40
  far to go pick up your packages and
• 13:42
  you go.
• 13:43
  But they don't deliver door to door, you
• 13:45
  know, in these enormous.
• 13:47
  It'd probably be a good idea for for
• 13:49
  what they would do in New York or
• 13:50
  something.
• 13:51
  You know, I doubt they go up to
• 13:52
  your apartment every time, you know.
• 13:54
  But anyway, Kiv argues that attacks on Wildberries
• 13:57
  undermines Army drone deliveries, but they've only killed
• 14:02
  civilians and ruined small businesses.
• 14:04
  So Ukraine escalated drone strikes inside of Russia
• 14:08
  and Kiv's military strategists are taking aim at
• 14:12
  Wildberries, the largest online real retailer.
• 14:17
  And as Russia's answer to Amazon and several
• 14:19
  ways of strikes, nine people have been killed.
• 14:23
  More than 100 injured and losses are more
• 14:28
  than one billion dollars.
• 14:32
  The deadliest strike was the warehouse in Tambov
• 14:34
  region on July 18th, and it killed seven
• 14:37
  night shift workers.
• 14:39
  Dozens more were hospitalized with shrapnel wounds as
• 14:41
  the facilities burned.
• 14:43
  Russian entrepreneurs lost millions in merchandise and many
• 14:47
  left in debt.
• 14:48
  No way to recover.
• 14:50
  Ukraine's Zelensky confirmed that Kiv had been deliberately
• 14:53
  targeting these warehouses, and he claimed that the
• 14:57
  facilities were being used to supply sanctioned components
• 15:01
  for drone production and navigation equipment, said Dmitry
• 15:06
  Peskov.
• 15:07
  He denied that Wildberries where warehouses were used
• 15:11
  to support the Russian military.
• 15:13
  And frankly, if they are, it's minuscule compared
• 15:18
  to, you know, the peaceful purposes, because everybody
• 15:23
  goes there.
• 15:24
  These are, these are, I don't know, people
• 15:28
  buy everything through Wildberries, just like they do
• 15:32
  through Amazon.
• 15:33
  In addition, the Ukrainian leader didn't provide any
• 15:36
  proof of the claim.
• 15:37
  He won't do it.
• 15:38
  And he won't say whether this assertion could
• 15:41
  have justified numerous civilian deaths.
• 15:43
  Wildberries has no links to the Russian military
• 15:46
  and used daily by millions of ordinary Russians.
• 15:52
  And here is why Kiv's arguments and its
• 15:56
  attempts to portray Wildberries as a legitimate target
• 16:00
  make no sense.
• 16:03
  Wildberries is not a defense contractor and it
• 16:06
  never has been.
• 16:08
  It's Russia's largest e-commerce platform, a private
• 16:12
  company never listed on any stock exchange.
• 16:15
  Last year's turnover was 6 trillion rubles, 77
• 16:20
  billion, and net profit of 175 billion rubles
• 16:26
  or $2.2 billion.
• 16:29
  The scale of the business automatically makes Wildberries
• 16:34
  a major employer and taxpayer in Russia.
• 16:37
  And according to the data, Wildberries employs 150
• 16:41
  ,000 people directly, with over double that figure
• 16:45
  once franchisees are included.
• 16:47
  And indirectly, the company is estimated to support
• 16:50
  more than 2 million jobs, including those of
• 16:53
  tens of thousands of independent sellers.
• 16:56
  The infrastructure is also used by entrepreneurs in
• 17:00
  nearby countries.
• 17:01
  And so Ukrainian attacks are hitting their economies
• 17:05
  as well.
• 17:07
  The catalog is entirely civilian.
• 17:11
  Clothing, cosmetics, groceries, electronics, toys, furniture, somewhere inside
• 17:18
  it, unsurprisingly, sits body armor, camouflage gear, first
• 17:23
  aid kits, drone accessories, such as FPV goggles,
• 17:27
  stuff like that.
• 17:28
  All these items are permitted for domestic sale
• 17:31
  in both Russia and Ukraine and traded not
• 17:35
  only on Wildberries, but on other platforms across
• 17:38
  the globe, including Amazon and AliExpress.
• 17:42
  Kiev has tried to make the case that
• 17:44
  the company trades in dual use merchandise, but
• 17:47
  the argument is flawed.
• 17:49
  Almost anything sold at scale in a marketplace
• 17:52
  this size, batteries, radios, thermal cameras, tourniquets, could
• 17:57
  end up theoretically in a soldier's bag.
• 18:02
  By that metric, virtually every major warehouse, mall,
• 18:08
  trade center, and retailer on earth becomes a
• 18:11
  legitimate target.
• 18:13
  So are Ukrainian marketplaces any different?
• 18:17
  Nope.
• 18:19
  Ukraine's own big online retailers are called Rosetka,
• 18:23
  prom.ua.olx. They sell the same mix
• 18:27
  of electronics, drone, payload drop attachments, outdoor gear
• 18:31
  that Wildberries does.
• 18:32
  But nobody in Kiev or Brussels suggests that
• 18:35
  Russia would be in its own right to
• 18:37
  target Rosetka's warehouses with missiles because they sell
• 18:41
  camouflage hunting gear alongside of toasters.
• 18:47
  Why is Ukraine really hitting Wildberries?
• 18:54
  Why Zelensky claimed the facilities were used to
• 18:59
  support the Russian military?
• 19:01
  Ukrainian officials make a different argument.
• 19:04
  They portray the drone raids as an attack
• 19:08
  on a highly profitable tax generating institution and
• 19:13
  is meant to destabilize Russian society.
• 19:18
  Zelensky's top advisor, Mikhail Podolyak, justified the strikes
• 19:22
  over the weekend on TV by saying that
• 19:25
  any defensive war allows for the destruction of
• 19:29
  the aggressor's infrastructure used in one way or
• 19:32
  another as part of support measures.
• 19:34
  A definition that technically gives carte blanche to
• 19:38
  pummel hospitals, schools, shopping malls.
• 19:42
  He also pointed to the company's scale, arguing
• 19:45
  that this large financial pie funds the Russian
• 19:49
  military through taxes.
• 19:51
  So anything goes is what I'm saying.
• 19:55
  It is anything goes.
• 19:58
  And I'll tell you what Russia has done
• 20:00
  in response here in a little bit.
• 20:02
  According to Podolyak, if Ukraine were to destroy
• 20:05
  30 percent of Wildberries logistics capacity, the psychological
• 20:10
  sense of war would sweep over large segments
• 20:14
  of Russian society.
• 20:16
  Meanwhile, war correspondent Thomas Roper said that Kiev's
• 20:21
  European backers who are ultimately to blame for
• 20:24
  the attacks, the drones which are hitting Russia
• 20:27
  are produced in Europe, he said, and suggested
• 20:30
  that Brussels wants to provoke Russia to whatever
• 20:34
  harder steps come up.
• 20:38
  Is it a war crime to hit Wildberries?
• 20:41
  It looks like one.
• 20:42
  It's been called one.
• 20:43
  International humanitarian law does not recognize a dual
• 20:48
  use category as justification for attacking any facility.
• 20:54
  According to existing guideline, an object becomes a
• 20:57
  legitimate military objective only if it makes an
• 21:02
  effective contribution to military action and if its
• 21:06
  destruction offers a definite military advantage.
• 21:11
  They also state that possible incidental civilian destruction
• 21:17
  must remain proportionate to the military advantage obtained
• 21:22
  by the attack.
• 21:24
  If doubt arises whether an ordinary civilian object
• 21:27
  is being used for military purposes, it shall
• 21:30
  be presumed to remain civilian and protected.
• 21:35
  And Kiev has offered no hard evidence that
• 21:38
  Wildberries was indeed such a military related case.
• 21:43
  Nor has Ukraine said anything about efforts to
• 21:46
  minimize civilian casualties in the strike.
• 21:49
  That's what they did.
• 21:51
  You know, they attacked this place on a
• 21:53
  night shift.
• 21:54
  So arguably they reduced civilian casualty, but they
• 21:58
  intended to kill civilians because they decimated that
• 22:03
  that warehouse.
• 22:05
  It was.
• 22:05
  It's on video.
• 22:07
  You can check it out on Telegram.
• 22:09
  And they've done it to two huge regional
• 22:13
  warehouses and they destroyed them and the people
• 22:18
  inside.
• 22:20
  So the Russian military now has hit logistics
• 22:26
  terminals operated by Novopochta.
• 22:29
  It's Ukraine's largest private courier, saying that they
• 22:34
  were used to store and transport military equipment.
• 22:39
  So former SBU officer Vasily Prozorov told TASS
• 22:45
  that a Novopochta terminal in Kiev was a
• 22:47
  primary hub for military drones supplied by Ukraine's
• 22:51
  European backers.
• 22:52
  Now, why would you tell anybody that?
• 22:53
  But he did several times.
• 22:55
  And he said it since at least June.
• 22:59
  Novopochta's ties to the Ukrainian military aren't just
• 23:01
  a Russian claim, their public record openly advertised
• 23:05
  by the company as well.
• 23:06
  Novopochta says it has helped deliver anti-drone
• 23:09
  ammunition to the military, is fundraised for drones
• 23:13
  and electronic warfare equipment, and has supported Ukraine's
• 23:16
  Army of Drones project, letting citizens donate hobby
• 23:20
  or commercial drones for use on the battlefield.
• 23:26
  In addition, the company has enrolled in the
• 23:30
  government's Army Plus loyalty scheme, offering soldiers in
• 23:35
  frontline regions partial shipping for a cost of
• 23:40
  two cents.
• 23:41
  That's one hryvnia, their currency.
• 23:45
  Moscow maintains that it doesn't target civilians it
• 23:48
  striked or aimed at defense-linked facilities.
• 23:51
  How have attacks on wild berries hurt ordinary
• 23:53
  people?
• 23:54
  Beyond the civilian casualties and the warehouses, countless
• 23:58
  small sellers and entrepreneurs have watched their money
• 24:01
  and inventory go up in smoke.
• 24:04
  Clothing designer Yelena Nikonorova estimates she lost about
• 24:09
  $166,000 worth of merchandise across all four
• 24:14
  warehouses.
• 24:16
  And now I am finished, she told the
• 24:19
  local media.
• 24:19
  Lingerie brand owner Tatyana Molchanova said her biggest
• 24:24
  warehouse, an electric stall, had 6,500 items
• 24:29
  in them and called the damage several million
• 24:32
  rubles in losses.
• 24:34
  A seller who would only give her first
• 24:36
  name, Yulia, said after the strikes there had
• 24:40
  been three days without a single sale with
• 24:43
  the fuller financial hit still to come and
• 24:46
  recovery likely to take more than a month.
• 24:50
  Electronics retailer Alexei said his electric stall stock
• 24:54
  included 210 playstations, five consoles, putting his losses
• 24:58
  at roughly 10 to 12 million rubles at
• 25:00
  retail value.
• 25:01
  Days before these strikes and amid escalating Ukrainian
• 25:05
  drones, wild berries amended its seller agreement so
• 25:10
  the marketplace isn't liable for goods damaged by
• 25:14
  force majeure, a category that covers UAV attacks.
• 25:20
  Founder Tatyana Kim has announced a package of
• 25:24
  support measures, including deferred loans, preferential credit, higher
• 25:30
  credit limit against remaining stock.
• 25:33
  Many entrepreneurs feel the measures will not be
• 25:36
  enough to blunt the impact.
• 25:38
  So Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that the
• 25:41
  situation is indeed difficult and given the loss
• 25:44
  to both the company and its small and
• 25:46
  medium-sized seller, adding that only that the
• 25:50
  government was in contact with wild berries.
• 25:52
  So what's the bottom line?
• 25:55
  Wild berries is tied to Russia's military the
• 25:58
  same way that Amazon is tied to the
• 26:00
  Pentagon.
• 26:01
  A handful of dual-use items, useful on
• 26:04
  the front line, lost in an ocean of
• 26:06
  clothing, cosmetics, and household goods, sold and bought
• 26:11
  by millions of civilians who have never worn
• 26:14
  a uniform.
• 26:15
  By Kiev's own admission, the real goal is
• 26:18
  not to cut off the Russian army supplies.
• 26:21
  It's to hit a tax-generating powerhouse and
• 26:24
  make ordinary Russians feel enough pain to stir
• 26:28
  dissent through a bombing campaign that shows no
• 26:31
  regard for civilians and that is arguably a
• 26:36
  war crime.
• 26:38
  I say it's been claimed to be, and
• 26:41
  they have talked about it as a war
• 26:49
  crime in the UN, and we shall see.
• 26:54
  I don't know.
• 26:56
  I'm against all this war anyway.
• 26:59
  Remember we were talking about the ICC guy?
• 27:04
  So I'm going to share that story with
• 27:06
  you.
• 27:06
  His name is Karim Khan, who brought cases
• 27:10
  against Israel and Russia.
• 27:13
  He has been ousted after a former staffer
• 27:17
  accused him of coercing her into a sexual
• 27:20
  relationship.
• 27:21
  She's been coerced.
• 27:23
  So she has sex and now he's coerced
• 27:26
  her and he's got to go.
• 27:29
  Well, never screw around at work is the
• 27:31
  important safety tip there.
• 27:33
  And that's something you should not engage in.
• 27:38
  And apparently he did.
• 27:41
  But my first thought process on that is
• 27:44
  not always, you know, oh gee, he's the
• 27:49
  bad guy.
• 27:50
  It's just as likely that somebody put her
• 27:54
  up to it.
• 27:56
  Wouldn't surprise me.
• 27:58
  They find out you're having sex with somebody,
• 28:00
  you're vulnerable, and they'll get them to twist.
• 28:03
  Or those type of relationships usually go bad
• 28:06
  anyway.
• 28:07
  And so sooner or later, they're going to
• 28:09
  twist on you and start, you know, claiming
• 28:12
  that you did something improper.
• 28:14
  Where before it was all true love and,
• 28:18
  you know, an office romance.
• 28:22
  The Hague-based ICC, International Criminal Court, dismissed
• 28:29
  Karim Khan over such allegations.
• 28:32
  The prosecutor, who's the chief prosecutor, was ousted
• 28:35
  by the Assembly of States parties on Friday,
• 28:40
  more than two years after the allegations surfaced.
• 28:45
  The move was backed by an overwhelming majority
• 28:48
  of the court's 125 members, 82 voting in
• 28:53
  favor of Khan's removal, 18 voting against, and
• 28:58
  15 abstaining.
• 29:01
  Where's the other 10, is my question.
• 29:05
  82 and 18 is 100 plus 15 abstaining.
• 29:08
  Still only 115.
• 29:09
  There's 125.
• 29:11
  What happened to the other 10?
• 29:12
  The ICC issued a brief statement on the
• 29:14
  Assembly's decision, saying the now former chief prosecutor
• 29:18
  committed serious misconduct and serious breach of duty.
• 29:24
  The court didn't provide any further detail, but
• 29:26
  did cite the need to respect the privacy
• 29:29
  and rights of all those involved in the
• 29:31
  process.
• 29:32
  What's the process?
• 29:33
  He's gone.
• 29:34
  What else you got to do?
• 29:36
  He's finished.
• 29:38
  Khan's legal team condemned his removal, criticized the
• 29:43
  process, and the fact that he was not
• 29:46
  allowed to address the Assembly ahead of the
• 29:49
  vote.
• 29:50
  That's curious, isn't it?
• 29:51
  That decision was determined by a process in
• 29:54
  which he was never given an opportunity to
• 29:56
  be heard, in defiance of the conclusions of
• 29:59
  the independent judges who examined the full evidentiary
• 30:04
  record.
• 30:08
  Yeah, they say they're going to challenge it
• 30:11
  through all available legal mechanisms.
• 30:15
  Khan also argued that the allegations were part
• 30:17
  of a smear campaign aimed at undermining the
• 30:20
  ICC's investigation into war crimes in Gaza.
• 30:23
  The accusations first emerged in 2024, when Khan
• 30:27
  was reportedly accused of coercing a female aide
• 30:31
  into a sexual relationship.
• 30:34
  Khan denied any wrongdoing and has not faced
• 30:36
  criminal charges.
• 30:37
  He remained on administrative leave from May 25
• 30:40
  until May of 2025, not May 25, May
• 30:45
  of 2025 until June of this year, when
• 30:47
  he was formally suspended, pending dismissal.
• 30:52
  So he hasn't worked for a year anyway.
• 30:55
  During Khan's tenure, the ICC issued arrest warrants
• 30:58
  for the leader of Russia and Israel, and
• 31:00
  neither country recognizes that court's jurisdiction.
• 31:04
  Russian President Putin and Child Rights Commissioner Maria
• 31:08
  Ovova-Belova were targeted March 23 over the
• 31:14
  alleged unlawful transfer of Ukrainian children, which they've
• 31:18
  never provided any evidence of.
• 31:20
  It's crazy.
• 31:22
  Moscow rejects the allegations, saying it evacuated unaccompanied
• 31:26
  children from a war zone and will return
• 31:28
  them to their legal guardians upon request.
• 31:31
  They were from, they left, Ukrainians left these
• 31:36
  orphanages with nobody there.
• 31:40
  Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu and former Defense Minister
• 31:44
  Yov Galant similarly denounced their arrest warrants, which
• 31:48
  were issued over their alleged war crimes in
• 31:50
  Gaza last year.
• 31:52
  Trump imposed sanctions on Khan, for Netanyahu, of
• 31:55
  course, citing the warrants against Israel and the
• 31:59
  ICC's attempts to prosecute U.S. troops for
• 32:02
  the same thing.
• 32:04
  Yeah, but mainly Israel.
• 32:07
  Yeah, yeah.
• 32:09
  I wonder, so there was another story about
• 32:14
  the collapse of the Ukrainian military system.
• 32:23
  Can changing generals save it?
• 32:26
  In the evening of July 21, in Kyiv,
• 32:32
  for the fifth day in a row, protests
• 32:34
  continued in the capital of Ukraine and in
• 32:38
  several regional centers.
• 32:41
  Protesters were gathering outside the presidential offices in
• 32:45
  the square outside of Ivan Franka Theater, as
• 32:49
  well as in Kharkov, Lvov, Odessa, Dnepr, Nikolayev.
• 32:53
  Since July 16, they demanded two things.
• 32:57
  They want to reinstate Mikhail Fyodorov as Minister
• 33:02
  of Defense, and the dismissal of the commander
• 33:05
  -in-chief, Sirsky.
• 33:07
  They portrayed Fyodorov as an advocate of modernization,
• 33:11
  and Sirsky a representative of the old Soviet
• 33:14
  military governance model.
• 33:17
  That evening, during his address, Zelensky said, I've
• 33:22
  decided that Mikhail Drapady will become the new
• 33:25
  commander-in-chief.
• 33:27
  Together with Mikhail Yevgeny Hamara and Pavel Polisa,
• 33:30
  we've determined how the configuration of the general
• 33:34
  staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine should
• 33:36
  be updated.
• 33:38
  The protests that began after Fyodorov's dismissal on
• 33:43
  July 15 were a rare example of open
• 33:45
  public discontent with the government's personnel policies during
• 33:50
  wartime.
• 33:50
  They revealed lingering contradiction within the Ukrainian military
• 33:54
  political leadership and resulted in personnel changes at
• 33:58
  the highest military level.
• 34:02
  When Sirsky assumed the post of commander-in
• 34:04
  -chief in February of 2024, he had experienced
• 34:08
  the several key episodes of the war.
• 34:11
  Even at the start of the war, the
• 34:13
  downside of his approach was apparent.
• 34:15
  The ultimately unsuccessful defense of Bakhmut, which Sirsky
• 34:20
  oversaw as ground force commander from 2022 to
• 34:23
  the spring of 23, came at an extremely
• 34:26
  high price.
• 34:28
  The Armed Forces of Ukraine held the city
• 34:30
  for months in conditions of encirclement.
• 34:34
  Ukrainian units suffered heavy losses.
• 34:37
  Critics in the army and among experts were
• 34:40
  already pointing out that holding the position at
• 34:42
  any cost depleted reserves faster than yielding strategic
• 34:47
  benefits.
• 34:48
  In May 2023, Russian forces captured Bakhmut anyway.
• 34:54
  So after he became the commander-in-chief,
• 34:57
  he made some difficult decisions and in February
• 34:59
  2024, he ordered the withdrawal from Avdeevka in
• 35:04
  order to avoid the same encirclement.
• 35:06
  The city was abandoned.
• 35:07
  This was Russia's first major territorial success.
• 35:11
  After Bakhmut and was, you know, followed by
• 35:15
  a wave of criticism against Sirsky.
• 35:18
  Some saw that it is a pragmatic decision,
• 35:21
  but others saw that the old defense strategy
• 35:23
  no longer worked.
• 35:25
  The most notable campaign commanded by Sirsky was
• 35:28
  in Kursk.
• 35:30
  The joke of the Kursk campaign.
• 35:32
  That was ridiculous.
• 35:35
  But everybody says this was pushed by the
• 35:38
  Green Goblin, by the Z-Man.
• 35:41
  In August 2024, Ukrainian forces crossed the Russian
• 35:44
  border, captured territory in Russia's Kursk.
• 35:48
  And then according to Ukrainian reports, the AFU
• 35:52
  controlled a thousand kilometers of Russian territory.
• 35:55
  The stated goal was to divert Russian reserves
• 35:58
  from the eastern axis.
• 36:01
  But they also said that it was to
• 36:04
  take the Kursk nuclear power plant, which they
• 36:07
  never even got close to.
• 36:09
  So the operation forced Moscow to adjust its
• 36:13
  plans.
• 36:13
  But by the end of April 2025, Russian
• 36:16
  troops had retaken the area.
• 36:19
  And the cost of Kursk in terms of
• 36:21
  personnel, equipment and political cost was high for
• 36:25
  Ukraine.
• 36:27
  And the strategic impact was quite limited and
• 36:30
  very temporary.
• 36:32
  So the months and years after this, almost
• 36:35
  two, have been marked by high intensity trench
• 36:39
  warfare.
• 36:40
  Russian forces advance in certain sectors of the
• 36:43
  Donetsk front in the area of Pokrovsk enabling
• 36:46
  settlements.
• 36:47
  And the pace of the advance is limited
• 36:49
  but steady.
• 36:50
  The Ukrainian side reports localized progress and then
• 36:57
  a little bit of a counter.
• 37:00
  But the gap between Ukraine's stated goals and
• 37:03
  the reality on the battlefield has widened dramatically.
• 37:07
  Officials spoke of strong positions, offensive potential and
• 37:11
  pressure on the enemy.
• 37:13
  But in practice, there's a chronic shortage of
• 37:15
  personnel, no personnel rotation, mobilization problems and the
• 37:20
  need to hold the front in the face
• 37:22
  of Russia's firepower advantage and numerical superiority.
• 37:26
  War of attrition, in other words.
• 37:29
  Ukrainian operations that were supposed to change the
• 37:32
  dynamic of the war have increasingly ended in
• 37:34
  tactical defeat.
• 37:36
  So, and then there was the break with
• 37:38
  Fyodorov.
• 37:39
  Fyodorov, uh, that and that has been brewing
• 37:45
  for a while.
• 37:46
  Uh, he, the Fyodorov is associated with a
• 37:48
  new approach focused on technological modernization, the massive
• 37:54
  use of drones and asymmetrical action.
• 37:59
  Siersky, like, like attacking wild bears.
• 38:03
  Siersky embodies a more traditional centralized command, a
• 38:07
  frontline mode that is developed in the Ukrainian
• 38:10
  army over the years of war.
• 38:13
  So these disagreements were not only methods of
• 38:15
  warfare, but priority.
• 38:18
  Fyodorov insists on reforms that would reduce loss
• 38:20
  and increase efficiency.
• 38:23
  Siersky believed that some of the initiatives would
• 38:25
  disrupt the existing system and efforts.
• 38:30
  Fyodorov said he proposed personnel changes to Zelensky,
• 38:33
  including replacing Siersky, but Zelensky refused.
• 38:38
  So after this, Siersky delivered an ultimatum.
• 38:42
  Zelensky was faced with a choice.
• 38:44
  On June, July 15, Fyodorov was dismissed.
• 38:48
  The next day he held a press conference
• 38:49
  during which he openly talked about the conflict,
• 38:52
  accused Siersky of blocking reform and devising ways
• 38:56
  to divide the country instead of seeking ways
• 38:58
  to confront Russia asymmetrically, which means drone warfare
• 39:04
  deep inside of Russia.
• 39:05
  So everybody's for this.
• 39:07
  And the main reason they're for it is
• 39:09
  because it means their kids can fight in
• 39:13
  the basement drone supply facility instead of going
• 39:18
  to front lines.
• 39:20
  You don't send people to front lines anymore.
• 39:22
  You only send drones.
• 39:23
  And so but then in Ukraine, they don't
• 39:29
  send drones to the front line.
• 39:37
  They send them deep inside of Russia, which
• 39:39
  I think is, it's weird.
• 39:42
  It makes no sense to me.
• 39:44
  Strategically, it doesn't make any sense.
• 39:47
  So there were some expert assessments on this.
• 39:50
  And in Russia, the experts saying that the
• 39:53
  Kiev regime is shaking from the inside.
• 39:56
  Personnel reshuffles have been perceived in Russia as
• 40:00
  a sign of internal crisis with the Ukrainian
• 40:03
  leadership.
• 40:04
  And you know, I think it is too.
• 40:06
  But when reactions in Ukraine are quite divided,
• 40:13
  Fyodorov congratulated Drapady and called his appointment a
• 40:16
  breath of fresh air and new hope.
• 40:18
  But he spoke with Siersky and thanked him
• 40:20
  for his military operation.
• 40:22
  But some of the public perceived the shuffle
• 40:24
  as a response to the street pressure.
• 40:28
  Meanwhile, the protests demanding Fyodorov's return have continued.
• 40:34
  So they're still, you know, where's Fyodorov?
• 40:37
  Bring him back.
• 40:38
  And so the sympathy of a part of
• 40:42
  Ukrainian society toward Fyodorov is understandable.
• 40:45
  He was associated with a new thought process,
• 40:49
  advanced technology.
• 40:50
  But there are questions as to whether his
• 40:53
  so-called achievements match what he's claimed in
• 40:58
  the media.
• 40:59
  Here's how a political expert and director of
• 41:02
  the Institute for the Development of Parliamentarianism, a
• 41:05
  guy named Alexei Chudaev, assessed it.
• 41:09
  Siersky is a far more competent military leader
• 41:13
  than Fyodorov, who sincerely believed that conventional warfare
• 41:17
  could be replaced by drone warfare.
• 41:20
  I don't believe that, by the way.
• 41:22
  Siersky, on the other hand, understood both types
• 41:25
  of warfare quite well, including at the strategic
• 41:29
  level.
• 41:30
  A similar opinion was formed of Drapady, who
• 41:33
  is commonly portrayed as a figure of a
• 41:35
  new generation, a young general who supposedly brought
• 41:39
  with him a more modern and flexible approach
• 41:41
  to warfare.
• 41:43
  Chudaev said the same thing about him.
• 41:45
  Drapady is not a strategist.
• 41:48
  He's an operational level commander, not a bad
• 41:51
  one, but hardly more than that, who had
• 41:53
  already exceeded the threshold of his competence in
• 41:56
  his previous position.
• 41:58
  Now, that's pretty punch in the face, isn't
• 42:02
  it?
• 42:03
  Artemanov said, regarding the current commander-in-chief,
• 42:06
  although he certainly has a professional military education,
• 42:10
  he essentially carries out punitive tasks.
• 42:13
  He's the one who commanded the Kursk operation.
• 42:17
  Drapady came to public attention in May 2014
• 42:20
  when a column under his command rammed a
• 42:23
  rebel barricade in Mariupol, as I told you
• 42:26
  about before.
• 42:30
  Yeah.
• 42:32
  Crazy, crazy.
• 42:39
  Where are we?
• 42:40
  Hang on.
• 42:40
  I got to go back up to the
• 42:42
  page here.
• 42:43
  You know what I think I'm going to
• 42:44
  do?
• 42:45
  I think I'm going to give you a
• 42:48
  tune whilst I regroup.
• 42:52
  How about Them Apples?
• 42:57
  What are we going to play for you
• 42:59
  today?
• 43:01
  Let's pick a very nice song.
• 43:06
  We won't play Solovyov.
• 43:08
  We'll leave him off, but we're going to
• 43:11
  play one of my favorites here.
• 43:20
  Let's see how I...
• 43:22
  Let's see.
• 43:22
  I've got it.
• 43:23
  We need to make sure we begin at
• 43:25
  the beginning.
• 43:25
  Somebody keeps messing with the sound on here
• 43:28
  though, which I do not appreciate.
• 43:32
  Let's see how it comes up.
• 50:01
  Very nice.
• 50:02
  Gave me just enough time to go and
• 50:05
  get some coffee.
• 50:08
  Yes, that's what we like.
• 50:11
  So everything goes anymore, right?
• 50:15
  Let's pause and consider.
• 50:21
  Let's make sure I've messed this up.
• 50:24
  Let's consider what's going on now.
• 50:28
  The videos are atrocious.
• 50:31
  Let us begin at the beginning.
• 50:35
  Here we go.
• 50:38
  Ukraine has launched a massive drone attack on
• 50:40
  Russia overnight, striking residential areas in several regions.
• 50:44
  A total of 276 Ukrainian UAVs were intercepted
• 50:48
  by air defenses, with 13 people wounded in
• 50:51
  Belgorod, including two children.
• 50:54
  This footage, published by the city's mayor, shows
• 50:56
  a residential building attacked by Kiev's drones.
• 50:59
  A number of apartments caught fire, but the
• 51:01
  flames were later put out by emergency crews,
• 51:04
  while residents of the building have been put
• 51:06
  in temporary accommodations.
• 51:09
  And in the Rostov region, five civilians, including
• 51:12
  a child, were killed during an overnight drone
• 51:15
  attack.
• 51:15
  Eight other people were wounded, and the region's
• 51:17
  governor says that drones fell on private businesses,
• 51:21
  warehouses, as well as residential buildings.
• 51:25
  Yeah, and there's a lot of that going
• 51:27
  on.
• 51:28
  I played that because it was in English,
• 51:29
  most of them are not.
• 51:32
  I wanted to, let's see, let's talk about
• 51:37
  this ice breaking, right?
• 51:43
  Let's see, listen to this quote, because this
• 51:48
  is from, there's been so many different things
• 51:51
  going on.
• 51:52
  I have so many topics that are clicked
• 51:54
  across the top of my screen here that
• 51:56
  I want to get to, so it is
• 51:57
  going to sound a bit disjointed, but let's
• 51:59
  listen to this one.
• 52:02
  But I think this is, I wonder if
• 52:04
  this is Russian or if this is translated.
• 52:06
  I think this was the translated one.
• 52:07
  Let me play it for you.
• 52:09
  The conflict in Ukraine will eventually end, but
• 52:12
  the unity it's brought to the Russian nation
• 52:14
  will not diminish.
• 52:15
  That's according to Vladimir Putin, who's been meeting
• 52:17
  with top officers and decorated sailors to mark
• 52:20
  the country's annual Navy Day.
• 52:22
  He also added that Kiev faces losing more
• 52:25
  territory in the coming years.
• 52:29
  After all, we didn't start any war.
• 52:31
  We only began to respond to the hostilities,
• 52:34
  to the war that the current Kiev regime
• 52:36
  unleashed with the support of the West against
• 52:38
  the Southeast, the then southeast of Ukraine, which
• 52:41
  had always been oriented toward Russia.
• 52:44
  Now you and I have to bring everything
• 52:46
  back to its historical course.
• 52:48
  Look at what is happening in the neighboring
• 52:49
  country.
• 52:50
  They are all at each other's throats, fighting
• 52:52
  like spiders in a jar.
• 52:54
  They are dividing the money they stole from
• 52:56
  the Ukrainian people or stealing from their Western
• 52:58
  sponsors.
• 52:59
  They are dividing it up among themselves and
• 53:01
  destroying one another.
• 53:03
  They flee abroad, hide, come back again, and
• 53:05
  so on.
• 53:06
  What kind of unity is there?
• 53:08
  On top of that, in the Western part
• 53:09
  of Ukraine, it's a gift from Joseph Stalin
• 53:12
  after the war to Ukraine.
• 53:13
  Stalin gave these lands to Ukraine, but gave
• 53:16
  them as part of a single state.
• 53:18
  Evidently, it never occurred to him that such
• 53:19
  a situation as today could arise.
• 53:21
  I'm confident that sooner or later Ukraine will
• 53:24
  lose these Western lands.
• 53:25
  And what belonged to Poland, what belonged to
• 53:27
  Hungary, what belonged to Romania sooner or later,
• 53:29
  not tomorrow, maybe not the day after, in
• 53:32
  a year, two, ten, fifteen, but everything will
• 53:34
  historically fall back into place.
• 53:36
  There was only one guarantor of Ukraine's territorial
• 53:38
  integrity, Russia.
• 53:39
  But they saw fit, saw it as possible,
• 53:42
  and as a blessing for themselves to declare
• 53:44
  Russia their enemy, and to declare Russians in
• 53:46
  Ukraine a non-titular nation, which is utter
• 53:49
  nonsense, complete madness.
• 53:52
  Vladimir Putin also drew attention to the issue
• 53:54
  of piracy, accusing Russia's adversaries of interfering with
• 53:58
  the country's trade fleet.
• 53:59
  The president pointed out that Moscow's naval forces
• 54:02
  will act carefully, but decisively, in response to
• 54:05
  attempts to seize them.
• 54:07
  International law attorney Klein Preston said that Western
• 54:10
  countries have long switched to a so-called
• 54:13
  rules-based order, with military strength the only
• 54:16
  way to stand against it.
• 54:18
  If you listen to the language of the
• 54:22
  Western countries today, they don't speak of international
• 54:25
  law any longer, they speak of the rules
• 54:27
  -based order.
• 54:29
  Well, what is the rules-based order?
• 54:30
  Well, it's whoever has power, whatever they dictate
• 54:35
  and want, that's the new law.
• 54:37
  And so that's no law at all.
• 54:40
  And so that, unfortunately, the idea, and it's
• 54:44
  already happened, you know, the seizure of Russian
• 54:47
  assets beyond Russia's borders has been totally illegal
• 54:51
  throughout this conflict, and continues to be.
• 54:55
  I mean, you've got the money that's being
• 54:56
  held by the Western countries, billions of dollars
• 55:01
  that are Russian assets.
• 55:04
  Under what guise?
• 55:05
  I mean, what international law permits that?
• 55:08
  The whole thing is really simple now.
• 55:11
  You know, Mao said that power comes from
• 55:15
  the end of a gun.
• 55:17
  And so, in effect, international law today is
• 55:21
  simply fulfillment of what Chairman Mao said.
• 55:26
  So, you know, if you're a powerful nation,
• 55:29
  then you can do what you want, and
• 55:30
  you call it a rules-based order.
• 55:32
  Who in the West is observing international treaties
• 55:34
  right now?
• 55:35
  I don't see, I don't see that.
• 55:37
  And so without that, what's your game plan?
• 55:40
  I mean, you just have to do it,
• 55:43
  you have to fulfill your security and your
• 55:46
  rights, and you have to do it through
• 55:48
  military means.
• 55:52
  The Russian President also mentioned that Moscow does
• 55:55
  not seek confrontation in the Arctic, and is
• 55:57
  open to cooperation.
• 55:59
  But he also stressed that it will defend
• 56:01
  its interests in the region.
• 56:06
  We've never sought any kind of confrontation in
• 56:08
  this region of the world.
• 56:09
  On the contrary, we've always invited everyone to
• 56:12
  work in solidarity, to work within the framework
• 56:15
  of international law.
• 56:16
  We're ready to do this with everyone.
• 56:18
  But of course, on the understanding that these
• 56:20
  routes undoubtedly belong to the Russian Federation, we
• 56:24
  have the technical capabilities for this.
• 56:26
  As is well known, no other country in
• 56:28
  the world has such an icebreaker fleet.
• 56:30
  I don't think anyone else has nuclear icebreakers,
• 56:33
  but we do, starting with the icebreaker Lenin.
• 56:36
  And now we're building the so-called leader,
• 56:38
  which will break through unprecedentedly thick ice.
• 56:41
  No one else in the world has such
• 56:43
  a fleet.
• 56:43
  And if someone says they're going to build
• 56:45
  one somewhere, high-tech countries could probably do
• 56:48
  it, but it will take years, maybe even
• 56:50
  decades.
• 56:51
  May God bless everyone and let them work
• 56:53
  on it.
• 56:56
  We have nothing against it.
• 56:57
  We are open to cooperation in this area,
• 56:59
  but we will certainly protect our interests in
• 57:01
  the same way as the Northern Sea Route,
• 57:03
  because the most effective, economically feasible route, the
• 57:07
  Northern Sea Route, largely lies either in our
• 57:09
  territorial waters or in the special economic zone
• 57:12
  of the Russian Federation.
• 57:14
  That is, it is practically entirely under our
• 57:16
  control.
• 57:17
  Not practically, but entirely.
• 57:19
  On the Northern Sea Route that Vladimir Putin
• 57:22
  mentioned there is a shipping lane that spans
• 57:24
  the north coast of Russia, providing a key
• 57:27
  trade link between Europe and East Asia.
• 57:30
  Travel time along this route is up to
• 57:32
  40 percent faster, which could cut shipping times
• 57:35
  by 15 to 20 days, making it a
• 57:38
  lucrative option for business.
• 57:40
  In addition, Russia has the largest fleet of
• 57:42
  icebreakers in the world on hand to assist
• 57:44
  container ships in their navigation of the Northern
• 57:47
  Route.
• 57:48
  The Russian president also noted that the Navy
• 57:51
  is key to Russia's nuclear triad, with 60
• 57:54
  percent of the nation's borders being maritime.
• 57:57
  Also mentioned was Russia's Poseidon unmanned underwater vehicle,
• 58:01
  which is nearly ready for service.
• 58:03
  Its Zircon hypersonic missile was also mentioned, which
• 58:06
  is becoming more accurate amid testing.
• 58:10
  US-based military analyst Andrei Martyanov even broke
• 58:12
  down NATO's capabilities to operate in the Arctic.
• 58:17
  Icebreaking capabilities, which are utterly required to operate
• 58:21
  in the Arctic, are of NATO apathetic, really.
• 58:25
  They are practically non-existent.
• 58:27
  Finland built and Norway built a couple of
• 58:30
  their icebreaking class patrol vessels.
• 58:33
  Finland, for example, built some diesel electric icebreakers,
• 58:38
  but they are nowhere near in their capability
• 58:41
  for their constant continuous operation in the Arctic
• 58:45
  year around, which, for example, Russian Navy, in
• 58:49
  this particular case, Russian Northern Fleet, do all
• 58:52
  the time.
• 58:53
  And again, there is another, it has to
• 58:56
  be understood that, for example, the submarine component
• 59:00
  of Northern Fleet, Northern Fleet alone, we're talking
• 59:05
  about multi-purpose submarine component, not strategic missile
• 59:09
  submarines.
• 59:10
  Multi-purpose means there are cruise missile submarines,
• 59:13
  fast attack submarines, as they are known in
• 59:16
  NATO parlance.
• 59:17
  It alone dwarfs capability of all European NATO
• 59:21
  states combined.
• 59:23
  So it cannot be taken seriously because Russia
• 59:25
  already has in place their immense military potential
• 59:30
  and, well, the development of Arctic in Russia
• 59:34
  in its scale actually dwarfs anything what any
• 59:37
  of them can show.
• 59:40
  I shared that because it was Navy day
• 59:44
  over there and Putin was speaking with all
• 59:47
  those guys and I wanted to get to
• 59:48
  the icebreaker fleet and see what all is
• 59:52
  available, you know, the significant change in the
• 59:59
  way of warfare and the way of thinking
• 1:00:01
  on how this is, on how the war
• 1:00:04
  is being conducted, I mean.
• 1:00:06
  And when you pay attention to these things,
• 1:00:10
  you know, expanding to these commercial lanes, you
• 1:00:14
  wonder what they're going to do up in
• 1:00:15
  the North.
• 1:00:16
  Russia again says, we're open to working together
• 1:00:21
  on this front.
• 1:00:22
  We're open to developing the northern shipping routes
• 1:00:27
  together.
• 1:00:28
  We're open to icebreaking capabilities and, you know,
• 1:00:33
  working on commercial things together.
• 1:00:37
  The whole point of this war is what
• 1:00:41
  we were talking about in the first place,
• 1:00:43
  is that nothing is off limits anymore.
• 1:00:51
  And so what's going to happen, you know,
• 1:00:53
  Russia has these nuclear fleets in the Northern
• 1:00:56
  Sea, they've reduced the shipping times from the
• 1:01:01
  east to the west, like from Vladivostok, from
• 1:01:05
  China, from wherever, over on that side to
• 1:01:09
  the other side.
• 1:01:09
  If you have to go around the south
• 1:01:13
  of India and into the Suez Canal and
• 1:01:15
  all those places to take the south route
• 1:01:18
  and then go through the Mediterranean and into
• 1:01:21
  the North Sea or over across the Atlantic,
• 1:01:25
  the way is 40% longer than it
• 1:01:31
  is taking the northern shipping route.
• 1:01:33
  And Russia has been working on that forever.
• 1:01:36
  Trump is talking about it.
• 1:01:38
  But like Martynov pointed out, by the way,
• 1:01:41
  I like listening to that guy.
• 1:01:42
  I love his accent.
• 1:01:43
  And he's been in the U.S. some
• 1:01:45
  25 years or so.
• 1:01:47
  And he still has that very heavy accent.
• 1:01:50
  And I love it.
• 1:01:51
  Which means he speaks Russian at home far
• 1:01:55
  more often than he speaks English.
• 1:01:57
  And that's pretty cool.
• 1:01:59
  So the ice breaking capabilities, which are required
• 1:02:03
  to operate in the Arctic, NATO, Martynov said
• 1:02:07
  they are pathetic.
• 1:02:09
  And he says that Canada, Finland, Norway, Sweden,
• 1:02:12
  lack vessels that could mean any persistent presence
• 1:02:17
  in the region.
• 1:02:18
  Putin said it would take decades for them
• 1:02:21
  to catch up or to even have anything
• 1:02:24
  viable in that area.
• 1:02:26
  And Russia really wanted to and still wants
• 1:02:30
  to develop the North Sea route.
• 1:02:32
  And it is the shortest maritime passage between
• 1:02:35
  Asia and Asia Pacific and northern Europe.
• 1:02:39
  And most of the waters are under control
• 1:02:42
  of Russia, especially since they can't get through
• 1:02:44
  without Russia's icebreaker fleet anyway.
• 1:02:47
  Who needs a Strait of Hormuz on that?
• 1:02:49
  And I found an interesting article on breaking
• 1:02:51
  the ice.
• 1:02:52
  I wonder if it's how long it is.
• 1:02:54
  I think we can we can listen to
• 1:02:57
  it here because I don't I don't think
• 1:02:59
  it's too long.
• 1:03:01
  Let's see.
• 1:03:11
  Hundreds of miles from the nearest civilization in
• 1:03:14
  the middle of the Arctic.
• 1:03:20
  Endless ice, freezing winds and beneath it all,
• 1:03:24
  an enormous strategic importance.
• 1:03:30
  Have you ever wondered what life is like
• 1:03:33
  aboard a nuclear icebreaker hundreds of miles from
• 1:03:37
  the nearest civilization in the middle of the
• 1:03:40
  Arctic with literally zero signal?
• 1:03:43
  Well, here's your chance to get on board
• 1:03:45
  and find out.
• 1:04:07
  This isn't just a ship.
• 1:04:09
  It's a self-contained world.
• 1:04:12
  Nuclear-powered, ice-crushing, designed to keep its
• 1:04:15
  crew alive, healthy and even entertained.
• 1:04:18
  Hundreds of miles from home.
• 1:04:20
  First stop, the canteen, because even in the
• 1:04:24
  middle of the Arctic, life aboard this ship
• 1:04:26
  runs on one universal fuel.
• 1:04:29
  Good food.
• 1:04:31
  They're showing the the nuclear icebreaker's mess hall
• 1:04:37
  and kitchen.
• 1:04:38
  It is nice.
• 1:04:41
  You're looking at it.
• 1:04:42
  I mean, do I want to live there?
• 1:04:44
  Probably not.
• 1:04:45
  But this is not your typical military style
• 1:04:49
  breakfast place.
• 1:04:50
  It's actually pretty cool.
• 1:05:02
  This canteen keeps the whole ship running.
• 1:05:05
  Every meal is cooked right here on board,
• 1:05:07
  feeding a crew that can spend weeks navigating
• 1:05:11
  a frozen world with nothing but ice on
• 1:05:14
  the horizon.
• 1:05:17
  We have four meals a day.
• 1:05:18
  Breakfast, lunch, afternoon tea, dinner.
• 1:05:21
  We work in shifts every day for eight
• 1:05:23
  hours.
• 1:05:24
  We have four chefs.
• 1:05:25
  We import products from Murmansk when we're docked
• 1:05:28
  there at the base port for repairs.
• 1:05:30
  When there is an opportunity, certain products are
• 1:05:32
  delivered to us on request.
• 1:05:34
  These are mainly perishables, milk, fruits and vegetables.
• 1:05:37
  The products are stored in specially designated ship
• 1:05:39
  rooms.
• 1:05:40
  These are freezers and refrigerators of different temperatures
• 1:05:43
  and capacities for dairy products, vegetables, fruits, meat,
• 1:05:47
  fish, all on their own.
• 1:05:48
  We have quite a wide range of meals,
• 1:05:50
  around 20 different main courses and over 15
• 1:05:53
  different soups, as well as all kinds of
• 1:05:55
  porridges and salads.
• 1:05:57
  Safe to say no one goes hungry here.
• 1:06:00
  Breakfast, lunch, snacks and dinner.
• 1:06:03
  So after all the eating, a bit of
• 1:06:05
  exercise becomes less of an option and more
• 1:06:08
  of a necessity.
• 1:06:10
  Luckily, this ship has its own gym.
• 1:06:18
  The gym has it all.
• 1:06:20
  Cardio machines, free weights, everything you'd find back
• 1:06:23
  on land.
• 1:06:24
  And if you think life aboard this ship
• 1:06:26
  is all solo activities, think again.
• 1:06:30
  There's even a small sports court for team
• 1:06:32
  competitions.
• 1:06:33
  Volleyball, basketball, badminton, you name it.
• 1:06:37
  Crew members have formed their own teams and
• 1:06:39
  have been playing in them for years, always
• 1:06:42
  ready to challenge one another, especially in volleyball.
• 1:06:46
  And that's not all.
• 1:06:47
  This ship even has a swimming pool.
• 1:06:51
  Sounds impossible, right?
• 1:06:53
  Yet, here it is.
• 1:06:55
  A liquid escape from the frozen world outside.
• 1:06:58
  And it's not just for fun.
• 1:07:00
  It's a place to exercise, unwind and even
• 1:07:03
  get some physiotherapy.
• 1:07:05
  The pool is filled with water taken straight
• 1:07:08
  from the seas the icebreaker sails through, giving
• 1:07:11
  the experience an extra connection to the Arctic
• 1:07:14
  itself.
• 1:07:15
  After a few laps in the pool, a
• 1:07:17
  rare break from the frozen world outside, it's
• 1:07:20
  straight to the sauna.
• 1:07:21
  Yes, there's one on board to giving everyone
• 1:07:24
  a place to stay warm and unwind after
• 1:07:27
  a long day.
• 1:07:29
  Yeah, I couldn't imagine you wouldn't want to
• 1:07:31
  have a sauna up there, especially a nuclear
• 1:07:34
  powered one.
• 1:07:35
  That's kind of cool.
• 1:07:36
  And everything they've been showing so far, the
• 1:07:39
  swimming pool is not Olympic size, not by
• 1:07:42
  any stretch, but it's, you know, you can
• 1:07:45
  certainly swim laps back and forth.
• 1:07:47
  And the size of these things is interesting.
• 1:07:53
  I found the basketball court, the volleyball court
• 1:07:57
  and things like that.
• 1:07:59
  They're not full size, but it's pretty cool.
• 1:08:02
  And the volleyball court in particular, the walls
• 1:08:06
  are like, the ball's not going out of
• 1:08:09
  bounds.
• 1:08:10
  Let's put it that way.
• 1:08:11
  It's kind of cool.
• 1:08:13
  But I assume you're on a ship.
• 1:08:15
  I mean, I imagine on a submarine, this
• 1:08:17
  stuff isn't happening, but this is a pretty
• 1:08:19
  large icebreaker.
• 1:08:20
  It's nowhere close to a cruise ship or
• 1:08:22
  anything like that.
• 1:08:23
  But it's a it's a it's a pretty
• 1:08:26
  cool, a pretty cool process for a nuclear
• 1:08:31
  icebreaker and nuclear reactor down below.
• 1:08:36
  Well, we have the most diverse leisure time
• 1:08:41
  here.
• 1:08:41
  We can get together in this break room
• 1:08:43
  in this recreation room.
• 1:08:44
  We have board games, table football and hockey.
• 1:08:48
  There are also board games like Monopoly.
• 1:08:50
  There's also the game Mafia here and some
• 1:08:52
  other different games were bought.
• 1:08:53
  We also have a PlayStation five console with
• 1:08:56
  different games for those who want, for example,
• 1:08:58
  physical activity.
• 1:08:59
  There is a gym where you can stretch
• 1:09:01
  different limbs, build up your physical strength.
• 1:09:04
  There's a gym where we can play volleyball,
• 1:09:06
  football and basketball.
• 1:09:08
  Everything is mini, of course.
• 1:09:09
  But also you can relax in a sauna
• 1:09:12
  and there's also a pool below.
• 1:09:14
  You can quickly go down and cool off
• 1:09:16
  for those who prefer more intellectual leisure.
• 1:09:18
  They can go to the library and pick
• 1:09:20
  up a book.
• 1:09:22
  And just one last stop before the day
• 1:09:24
  wraps up the library.
• 1:09:26
  This historic treasure trove is packed with books
• 1:09:29
  collected over the years waiting to be discovered.
• 1:09:32
  So it's time for me to pick a
• 1:09:34
  favorite and get lost in a good read.
• 1:09:38
  Aboard this icebreaker, the library holds a huge
• 1:09:41
  collection of books, some dating all the way
• 1:09:44
  back to the Soviet era.
• 1:09:46
  Back in the day, crew members would exchange
• 1:09:49
  books with colleagues from other ships during docking,
• 1:09:51
  and some would even bring their own copies
• 1:09:54
  and leave them behind for others to enjoy.
• 1:09:58
  Today, the library still carries that spirit.
• 1:10:02
  From sauna sessions to delving into literature, all
• 1:10:05
  in the middle of the Arctic.
• 1:10:07
  Every corner of the ship is designed to
• 1:10:09
  keep you sharp, fit and sane.
• 1:10:12
  Isolation is inevitable here, but boredom absolutely impossible.
• 1:10:17
  Anastasia Volodina, RT, reporting from the Arctic.
• 1:10:22
  Pretty cool, huh?
• 1:10:23
  It's an interesting story and getting on a
• 1:10:27
  ship like that would be pretty cool.
• 1:10:32
  So right now a speech is, well, Putin
• 1:10:35
  met at the State Duma with lawmakers and
• 1:10:39
  he has been reviewing the legislator's record over
• 1:10:42
  the last five years.
• 1:10:44
  It's a meeting that takes place, you know,
• 1:10:50
  the eighth session is completed in the lower
• 1:10:52
  house of parliament and they review the results.
• 1:10:56
  And so the Kremlin press service said on
• 1:10:58
  Sunday that Putin would summarize the results of
• 1:11:02
  the elected representatives' large-scale legislative work during
• 1:11:07
  this term.
• 1:11:08
  And the Duma chairman Vyacheslav Volodin said earlier
• 1:11:12
  that members had adopted 1,147 laws, accounting
• 1:11:19
  for 38.5% of those passed were
• 1:11:22
  at protecting the people of Russia.
• 1:11:26
  According to him, they were about health care,
• 1:11:29
  tracking cyber fraud, protecting spiritual and family values
• 1:11:34
  and other socially significant matters.
• 1:11:38
  He said that every third law was socially
• 1:11:41
  oriented and the legislature had passed 61 laws
• 1:11:45
  supporting families protecting children, 71 concerning public health,
• 1:11:50
  and 80 pertaining to education.
• 1:11:52
  So the eighth term began its work on
• 1:11:54
  October 12, 2021 and consisted of 450 lawmakers
• 1:11:58
  from five parties.
• 1:12:02
  Putin's United Russia has 310 seats, the Communist
• 1:12:06
  Party, the New People Party, a Just Russia
• 1:12:09
  Party, and the Liberal Democratic Party of Russia.
• 1:12:13
  The eighth term is scheduled to conclude its
• 1:12:15
  work Monday, according to information released.
• 1:12:18
  And so the new, the elections are coming
• 1:12:21
  up.
• 1:12:21
  They're going to be pretty important.
• 1:12:24
  Let's see.
• 1:12:25
  I want to go back and see some
• 1:12:29
  of these.
• 1:12:32
  Let's see.
• 1:12:33
  Elections are scheduled to take place in September
• 1:12:35
  18 to the 20th and 450 MPs will
• 1:12:40
  be chosen under Russia's electoral system, 225 seats
• 1:12:45
  filled through single-member constituencies, and 225 through
• 1:12:49
  party lists.
• 1:12:50
  No more than 11 political parties are able
• 1:12:53
  to participate.
• 1:12:55
  Bulayev said documents have been submitted by all
• 1:12:58
  parliamentary parties, United Russia, the Communist Party, Liberal
• 1:13:02
  Democratic Party of Russia, the New People, and
• 1:13:04
  a Just Russia, as well as six non
• 1:13:07
  -party, non-parliamentary parties, Yabloko, the Russian Party
• 1:13:11
  of Pensioners for Social Justice, the Communists of
• 1:13:16
  Russia, Rodina, and the Party of Direct Democracy,
• 1:13:21
  and the Greens Party.
• 1:13:24
  So Putin stated that the last few years
• 1:13:26
  have been a defining set of years for
• 1:13:29
  the country, and said Russia continues to defend
• 1:13:32
  its security, its interests, its truth, and justice.
• 1:13:35
  The president added that its servicemen serving on
• 1:13:38
  the front line are fighting to protect Russia,
• 1:13:41
  that they are supported by the whole country.
• 1:13:43
  We will achieve our goals, and together we'll
• 1:13:46
  do everything for our victory, for Russia, said
• 1:13:49
  Putin.
• 1:13:51
  Putin said that the lawmakers had lived up
• 1:13:54
  to their responsibilities during a period of historic
• 1:13:57
  challenges.
• 1:13:59
  He said the Russophobia machine has gone into
• 1:14:03
  full force, especially after 2022, and resulted in
• 1:14:08
  an unprecedented number of sanctions against Russia.
• 1:14:10
  He argues that the restrictions had failed to
• 1:14:13
  damage Russia, and had instead inflicted the greatest
• 1:14:17
  harm on Europe and other states that introduced
• 1:14:19
  them.
• 1:14:21
  Attempts to weaken the Russian economy, the financial
• 1:14:23
  system, science, and education have also failed.
• 1:14:27
  And he accused Western countries of rejecting the
• 1:14:30
  right of a nation to choose its own
• 1:14:33
  independent path, and selectively invoke the UN Charter,
• 1:14:38
  I agree with this completely, only when it
• 1:14:41
  serves their interests.
• 1:14:42
  They want obedient vassals, he said, adding that
• 1:14:46
  the use of double standards is obvious to
• 1:14:49
  the entire world, and it is, if you're
• 1:14:52
  looking.
• 1:14:53
  He said Russia's opponents have failed on the
• 1:14:56
  battlefield, and are now resorting to terror attack.
• 1:15:00
  The people of Russia will never be broken.
• 1:15:03
  This has not happened, and will not happen
• 1:15:05
  in the future, he said, adding that the
• 1:15:08
  country's political system and power institutions are prepared
• 1:15:11
  to repel any hostile action.
• 1:15:16
  He presented some awards to several lawmakers, and
• 1:15:20
  after handing them out, he gave a closing
• 1:15:22
  speech, and he said Russia has retained its
• 1:15:25
  position as the world's fourth largest economy, according
• 1:15:29
  to purchase power parity, and is now ahead
• 1:15:32
  of the EU by that measure.
• 1:15:35
  He acknowledged that inflation and other risks remain,
• 1:15:39
  but argued that the economy is more stable,
• 1:15:41
  allowing the country to expand industry, strengthen the
• 1:15:45
  defense sector, and address social needs.
• 1:15:48
  Putin said Russia is going to continue pursuing
• 1:15:51
  military objectives with caution and determination, and warned
• 1:15:56
  that reckless acts will risk setbacks on the
• 1:15:59
  battlefield.
• 1:16:00
  We will act carefully and persistently to achieve
• 1:16:03
  the goals that have been set.
• 1:16:09
  He concluded his speech by describing the current
• 1:16:12
  period as difficult and truly deciding.
• 1:16:15
  We are going through a time of battles,
• 1:16:18
  he said, adding that this is understood not
• 1:16:20
  only by the authorities, but by the entire
• 1:16:22
  country.
• 1:16:23
  And according to, or addressing the lawmakers, he
• 1:16:26
  said they represented the Russian people, and had
• 1:16:30
  acted as soldiers fighting for the country's interests,
• 1:16:33
  adding that their constituents had reason to be
• 1:16:37
  very proud of them.
• 1:16:38
  And so it's still going on where they
• 1:16:44
  had spoken about it, and those elections are
• 1:16:46
  going to be pretty important, just as they
• 1:16:50
  are here.
• 1:16:52
  He talked as well about, you know, you
• 1:16:54
  attack anything anymore.
• 1:16:56
  And there was a video that I was
• 1:17:00
  gonna share with you.
• 1:17:02
  Let's see, the one where I was telling
• 1:17:04
  you in Zaporizhia, they bombed the resort, the
• 1:17:11
  tourist report.
• 1:17:13
  Here you go, Russian tourist attraction.
• 1:17:15
  Let's see here.
• 1:17:17
  I'm gonna share that with you.
• 1:17:22
  Now what?
• 1:17:25
  Let's try this.
• 1:17:27
  Here we go.
• 1:17:28
  This is what Ukrainian state terrorism looks like.
• 1:17:32
  We are at one of vacation resorts in
• 1:17:35
  Zaporizhia region, in the town of Kirilovka.
• 1:17:38
  12 people were killed on Saturday morning, when
• 1:17:42
  at least six Ukrainian drones deliberately struck this
• 1:17:47
  hotel.
• 1:17:48
  This is a piece of one of the
• 1:17:51
  drones.
• 1:17:51
  This is a wing with clear markings in
• 1:17:55
  Ukrainian.
• 1:17:56
  Now, according to investigators who are working here
• 1:17:59
  on the scene, this is a drone made
• 1:18:02
  by a company called Firepoint.
• 1:18:04
  This is a so-called FP2 medium range,
• 1:18:07
  very heavy drone that killed several people here
• 1:18:10
  instantly.
• 1:18:11
  And as you can see, the amount of
• 1:18:14
  damage is absolutely horrifying.
• 1:18:18
  Right now, we'll walk through this destroyed hotel
• 1:18:21
  and show you the consequences.
• 1:18:24
  Ukrainian drones struck this seaside hotel at around
• 1:18:29
  1.30 a.m., when the vacationers here
• 1:18:32
  were already sleeping in bed with their children.
• 1:18:38
  Now the rescue operations began almost immediately.
• 1:18:44
  And they lasted throughout the whole day on
• 1:18:47
  Saturday and finished at around 5 p.m.
• 1:18:54
  The rescue workers from Russian Emergencies Ministry would
• 1:18:57
  still pull people out of the rubble throughout
• 1:19:00
  the day and were able to save some
• 1:19:03
  of the victims here.
• 1:19:05
  Canine teams were here as well.
• 1:19:07
  And one of the dogs discovered the body
• 1:19:11
  of a six-year-old girl with her
• 1:19:14
  head torn off that lay about 60 meters
• 1:19:18
  away from her little body.
• 1:19:20
  And also, just to give you the cynicism
• 1:19:24
  of the Ukrainian terrorists, well, they packed their
• 1:19:28
  drones with party decorations as they struck the
• 1:19:37
  people here in Kirilovka.
• 1:19:40
  At the moment of the strike, there were
• 1:19:43
  at least 53 people at this hotel.
• 1:19:47
  And of course, there is damage to nearby
• 1:19:49
  hotels as well.
• 1:19:51
  But thankfully, there were not as many residents
• 1:19:54
  there during these Ukrainian strikes.
• 1:19:57
  We were waiting for the main wave of
• 1:20:00
  strikes to end so we could move in
• 1:20:02
  and provide assistance.
• 1:20:03
  We saw that there were ordinary civilians here.
• 1:20:05
  It was a shocking sight because people were
• 1:20:07
  running out and there was fire everywhere.
• 1:20:09
  We immediately rushed towards the epicenter of the
• 1:20:11
  blaze.
• 1:20:12
  We heard cries for help.
• 1:20:14
  A woman was pinned under a slab in
• 1:20:15
  a burning building, with the roof engulfed in
• 1:20:17
  flames.
• 1:20:18
  The hardest moment for me through it all
• 1:20:20
  was when we were clearing the rubble.
• 1:20:21
  There was a child's severed head and an
• 1:20:23
  arm in another place.
• 1:20:24
  What was most unbearable was that when they
• 1:20:26
  lifted a slab, there on the sofa, just
• 1:20:28
  as they had been sleeping, lay a father
• 1:20:30
  with his son.
• 1:20:31
  And when I went out, walked to the
• 1:20:32
  car for water, I saw that there were
• 1:20:34
  still other civilians just standing around waiting for
• 1:20:37
  something.
• 1:20:37
  And one woman needed help.
• 1:20:39
  I went over to her, examined her.
• 1:20:41
  She kept asking about her son, her child.
• 1:20:43
  But I already knew that they would never
• 1:20:45
  see each other again.
• 1:20:46
  This is an attack against civilians.
• 1:20:48
  It's pure fascism.
• 1:20:49
  Children are guilty of nothing.
• 1:20:51
  They were just here on vacation.
• 1:20:52
  They weren't thinking of anything bad.
• 1:20:54
  They were just with their families, wanting to
• 1:20:55
  spend the weekend by the seaside.
• 1:20:57
  They could not have known that something like
• 1:20:59
  this could happen.
• 1:21:00
  They were simply asleep.
• 1:21:01
  Our doctors worked as competently, quickly and correctly
• 1:21:05
  as possible.
• 1:21:06
  And it must be noted that recently, of
• 1:21:08
  course, the strain on them has been colossal.
• 1:21:11
  But even so, we are managing.
• 1:21:13
  Today is a day of mourning for us.
• 1:21:15
  Everyone is in shock, including the medical staff,
• 1:21:17
  as well as ordinary residents of the city.
• 1:21:20
  This is a situation that has truly shaken
• 1:21:22
  everyone.
• 1:21:24
  The night was hard.
• 1:21:25
  Some patients are in critical condition.
• 1:21:27
  We examined about 10 people.
• 1:21:29
  Among the injured, two patients required emergency neurosurgical
• 1:21:33
  care and underwent operations.
• 1:21:35
  I want to acknowledge everyone who took part
• 1:21:37
  in helping these victims.
• 1:21:38
  This is a huge tragedy, a catastrophe, an
• 1:21:42
  enormous loss for the victims and their loved
• 1:21:44
  ones.
• 1:21:44
  It's terrible.
• 1:21:46
  At this point, we know for a fact
• 1:21:48
  that this was indeed a deliberate Ukrainian terrorist
• 1:21:52
  attack against civilians.
• 1:21:54
  How do we know that?
• 1:21:55
  Well, I spoke with the investigators, and they
• 1:21:58
  discovered data controllers from those heavy drones that
• 1:22:03
  struck this area.
• 1:22:04
  And drones sighted the location of this particular
• 1:22:08
  hotel as their target.
• 1:22:11
  There are absolutely no military sites close by.
• 1:22:16
  The front line is at least 100 kilometers
• 1:22:19
  away from this area.
• 1:22:22
  And there are absolutely no military facilities here
• 1:22:26
  either.
• 1:22:26
  All around us are just hotels with vacationers
• 1:22:31
  and those people who came here with their
• 1:22:33
  children for the weekend.
• 1:22:34
  The explosives that the Ukrainian drones were filled
• 1:22:38
  with were so powerful that they instantly destroyed
• 1:22:41
  the buildings where people were sleeping and even
• 1:22:44
  melted some of the metal accessories here within
• 1:22:51
  the room.
• 1:22:52
  You can see the wall here was completely
• 1:22:54
  destroyed.
• 1:22:55
  And now I'm entering another room.
• 1:22:57
  Now, there was a couple sleeping here.
• 1:22:59
  And the girl, she was basically buried under
• 1:23:03
  the rubble.
• 1:23:04
  Her boyfriend quickly ran out and asked for
• 1:23:08
  help.
• 1:23:08
  And people who came to rescue those in
• 1:23:12
  need here, they came to help them.
• 1:23:15
  And fortunately, that girl was unscathed.
• 1:23:19
  We came on vacation with my girlfriend, had
• 1:23:22
  a great day.
• 1:23:23
  Then we were falling asleep when around half
• 1:23:25
  past one in the morning, there was a
• 1:23:26
  blast.
• 1:23:27
  And we were both buried under a concrete
• 1:23:29
  slab.
• 1:23:30
  For about 30 seconds, I was in shock.
• 1:23:32
  Then I started moving.
• 1:23:34
  I pulled my legs out from under the
• 1:23:35
  rubble, from under that slab, just breaking free
• 1:23:38
  and kicking through the wall.
• 1:23:40
  The fire was already behind me.
• 1:23:42
  I started calling for help, throwing aside all
• 1:23:45
  those slabs, all those tables that were on
• 1:23:47
  that huge slab to free my girlfriend.
• 1:23:50
  Some guys rushed over and started working quickly
• 1:23:53
  to pull her out.
• 1:23:54
  The only thing that worried me was that
• 1:23:56
  she would survive.
• 1:23:57
  Yeah, it was scary.
• 1:23:58
  Of course, everything was a blaze.
• 1:24:00
  The main question for me is why this
• 1:24:02
  happened just like that.
• 1:24:04
  Such an ordinary day, nothing foreshadowed trouble.
• 1:24:07
  And then this happened.
• 1:24:09
  Honestly, I didn't even think it was real.
• 1:24:11
  This crater was formed after the very first
• 1:24:15
  strike of Ukrainian drones against the resort city
• 1:24:18
  of Kirilovka.
• 1:24:21
  The strike took place once again around 1
• 1:24:24
  .30 in the morning.
• 1:24:25
  It was a deliberate strike against civilians who
• 1:24:29
  were vacationing here with their children.
• 1:24:31
  The owner of this hotel, which is right
• 1:24:35
  next to Alion, the one that we were
• 1:24:36
  talking about today, said that, thankfully, he's yet
• 1:24:40
  to open.
• 1:24:41
  If he was open, there are several houses
• 1:24:44
  here as well.
• 1:24:45
  The number of casualties could have been much
• 1:24:47
  higher.
• 1:24:48
  Roman Kosarev, RT, Kirilovka, Zaporozhye region.
• 1:24:54
  Crazy sauce.
• 1:24:56
  So the videos are pretty terrible on that
• 1:25:00
  and they show quite a bit of destruction
• 1:25:03
  in there.
• 1:25:04
  And, you know, I realize it's war and
• 1:25:06
  I realize what's going on, but these attacks
• 1:25:10
  on civilian targets, you know, just like it
• 1:25:16
  was in Crimea when they did the fragmentation
• 1:25:23
  rounds on the beach.
• 1:25:26
  You know, 160 people targeted several drones full
• 1:25:29
  of frag grenades and fragmentation devices.
• 1:25:35
  This isn't warfare.
• 1:25:43
  I don't know.
• 1:25:44
  And trust me, if I was ever called
• 1:25:47
  upon to go to war when I served
• 1:25:49
  in the army, I always took the point
• 1:25:51
  of view that I had signed a contract
• 1:25:52
  and I was, you know, that's what I
• 1:25:56
  intended to do, you know.
• 1:25:58
  And you sign up for that.
• 1:26:00
  You are trained for that.
• 1:26:02
  You are prepared for that.
• 1:26:05
  And they do the same thing in Ukraine.
• 1:26:08
  But targeting intentionally places like wild berries, places
• 1:26:14
  like the Crimean beaches, places like Kirilovka that
• 1:26:20
  they were just talking about in little resort
• 1:26:22
  communities, school buses, all of the things that
• 1:26:26
  there is just overwhelming evidence of.
• 1:26:31
  It's just unfortunate that that's what they do.
• 1:26:36
  50 Ukrainian drones, you know, targeting residential buildings,
• 1:26:43
  private businesses, killing children.
• 1:26:47
  You know, the young guy talking about his
• 1:26:49
  girlfriend in there, he's probably in his early
• 1:26:51
  20s, you know, and gone to Kirilovka.
• 1:26:55
  It's a, you know, well-known place to
• 1:26:58
  go in vacation and certainly in Zaporizhia.
• 1:27:02
  And there's just zero respect for that.
• 1:27:06
  Ukrainian rhetoric talks about it all the time.
• 1:27:09
  Zelensky warned that Moscow would burn if Ukraine
• 1:27:13
  continued to be attacked.
• 1:27:16
  The campaign is intended to hurt Russia's economy
• 1:27:19
  and make Russians personally feel the conflict.
• 1:27:23
  It's not your typical wartime efforts to attack
• 1:27:31
  civilians.
• 1:27:32
  So, I don't know.
• 1:27:33
  It doesn't prove that every attack is unlawful.
• 1:27:37
  But boy, there's so many of them, it's
• 1:27:39
  hard to think anything else.
• 1:27:42
  If wild berries was attacked solely because a
• 1:27:46
  particular warehouse contained identifiable military cargo, maybe Kiev
• 1:27:54
  could defend the strike as an attack on
• 1:27:56
  the military objective.
• 1:27:57
  But if it was attacked because wild berries
• 1:28:00
  is central to Russian consumer life, like their
• 1:28:04
  minister said, because hundreds of thousands of small
• 1:28:08
  businesses depend upon it and because its destruction
• 1:28:12
  would make ordinary Russians suffer, then the stated
• 1:28:16
  purpose sounds less like a military campaign and
• 1:28:21
  more like a civilian attack mode and attack
• 1:28:24
  module.
• 1:28:26
  The more Ukrainian officials celebrate the economic and
• 1:28:30
  psychological effect on Russians, the more difficult it
• 1:28:33
  becomes to maintain that civilian suffering isn't just
• 1:28:37
  incidental.
• 1:28:39
  And I think that's it for today.
• 1:28:43
  We're going to wrap it up.
• 1:28:44
  I'm not going to be doing a show
• 1:28:46
  tomorrow or Thursday or Wednesday, I mean.
• 1:28:49
  I will be traveling.
• 1:28:50
  If I do, it'll be pre-recorded.
• 1:28:52
  But I really don't think I'm going to
• 1:28:54
  be able to.
• 1:28:55
  I have a pretty tight schedule.
• 1:28:57
  And it doesn't appear that I'm going to
• 1:29:00
  be able to do a show tomorrow or
• 1:29:02
  Wednesday, but I will return on Thursday for
• 1:29:05
  sure.
• 1:29:06
  And if there's a recorded program in between
• 1:29:08
  there, I will let you know.
• 1:29:11
  And because it will be on the air.
• 1:29:14
  And that's how you will find out.
• 1:29:16
  I very much appreciate you being a listener
• 1:29:19
  here at International Flavor and at DAM Radio.
• 1:29:24
  You can go to damradio.com forward slash
• 1:29:26
  schedule and keep track of the schedule of
• 1:29:29
  where the shows go from here and coming
• 1:29:34
  up after us as Shield Maidens of Missouri.
• 1:29:37
  So get prepared.
• 1:29:38
  It's coming your way.
• 1:29:41
  Have a very good mid-Missouri day.
• 1:29:43
  I'll see you live come Thursday.