Putin has ‘failed’ as offensives stall short of capturing any major cities | Operator Starsky

Putin has ‘failed’ as offensives stall short of capturing any major cities | Operator Starsky

har offensive uh stalled it it collapsed basically it’s very very hard to take control over major city which Russia uh failed during U these two years um just just to remind our viewers there are 22 major cities in Ukraine under Ukrainian control and it was like that since 2014 um and uh since 2014 despite all their efforts Russians didn’t uh manage to take control over any of the major cities uh hon was taken initially but they lost it and currently they don’t control any of those cities that were under Ukrainian control I’m talking about major cities Regional uh centers uh that were under Ukrainian control in 2014 hello and welcome to Frontline for times radio I’m James Hansen and today we’re talking about the late on the war in Ukraine and I’m delighted to be joined by a regular guest here on Frontline operator stari a YouTuber Ukrainian veteran and co-founder of the propaganda study Institute operator stari always a pleasure welcome back to begin with I wanted to get your reaction to what we’re seeing at the moment of Vladimir Putin visiting North Korea for the first time in 24 years he seems to be bending over backwards pretty much to suck up to Kim Jong ER he’s published an article in a state own North Korean newspaper he gave Kim Jong-un a big be hug when he touched down in pongyang and in return he wants more weapons more North Korean weapons to use in Ukraine what have you made of the spectacle well first of all I think it’s uh a sign of a desperation because um after peace Summit and was even more important after all the uh important agreements that were made with the United States and our European allies he realizes that uh the West uh takes the Russian threat very very seriously that’s why um Ukrainian Army start started to receive um air defense uh and again what is most important we started receiving a lot of shells and missiles for hmer systems uh different long range um Munitions and um judging from the uh har offensive that we can say it collapsed um Putin realizes that first of all he needs more support uh that’s why um he went to the North Korea and first of all it was sign of desperation in in my personal opinion uh another thing is apparently he will uh stick to his promise to um arm the regimes that are hostile to the Western World and this is what we see and there is speculation that there may be some kind of formal security agreement to come out of this meeting between Putin and kimming in in North Korea how worried are you about a formalizing of the relationship between North Korea and Russia um it concerns me in terms of um I would say more global scale because um it’s a known fact that uh North Korea was bringing weapons to Russia they were delivering uh millions of artillery shells also ballistic missiles that were used which was confirmed by the the security service of Ukraine uh but on a larger scale of course um because they were talking about um exchanging their uh military Technologies uh and um Intel data and things like that I think uh this um escalates the threat uh not as much for Ukraine as for South Korea and our Western friends yeah do you think the summit was a success in the end uh it was uh a big success um it was only first successful step because there will be new meetings new agreements with our partners I really hope that the number will grow and uh what was um very very important on this very Summit is the resolution adopted to uh ensure the nuclear security ensure the freedom of navigation and um uh broader access to Food Supplies because Russia is blocking Ukrainian grain and uh it hopefully will be delivered to the countries that uh need this grain um and uh the countries that are refused to sign this agreement um I think it basically damaged is their own International reputation because there was nothing related to uh I don’t know military actions uh military operations it was literally um Summit dedicated to uh resolving humanitarian issues uh so uh basically countries of so-called bricks they refused to sign this resolution um and uh I believe that each shows uh to a lot of people what bricks is really about uh because it’s obviously not about uh improving quality of life right uh in those countries it’s about uh political Terror uh conducted by totalitarian regimes like Russia let’s come on to the situation on the front line in Ukraine at the moment what is your general assessments of it and crucially do you think the Russian offensive in the Northeast is has stalled now uh yes there are evidence confirming this but uh today um our men from the ground reported that Russians started five more uh assaults five more uh offenses um in the area of tetk they had tactical success also they escalate they activiz activate their efforts uh towards kator chivar in those areas I believe that we will see most of the action but again according to our guys uh they have you know this impression that uh Russians B everything on the upcoming two three months and they formed several uh offensive groups and tried to use them to gain um success in dones region uh so apparently we will see a lot a lot of action in those areas it’s chivar it’s tet vchan not so much because um har offensive uh stalled it it collapsed basically it’s very very hard to take control over major city which Russia uh failed during U these two years um just just to remind our viewers there are 22 major cities in Ukraine under ukra Ukrainian control and it was like that since 2014 um and uh since 2014 despite all their efforts Russians didn’t uh manage to take control over any of the major cities uh hon was taken initially but they lost it and currently they don’t control any of those cities that were under Ukrainian control I’m talking about major cities Regional uh centers uh that were under Ukrainian control in 2014 it’s really interesting you mention how you know that the next two or three months you think is going to be crucial and that’s potentially when Russia is going to launch a fresh offensive I suppose that begs the question whether the full effect of the US military aid will have been delivered in time to help defend against that offensive and indeed to launch potential counterattacks and Strikes inside Russian territory how how do you how do you assess that the moment operated stari in terms of the delivery of the US Aid uh I estimate that uh most of the promised Munitions will be delivered very very soon uh in the upcoming months and of course Russians also anticipate arrival of uh F-16 jet fighters uh so they realize that this situation is very very dangerous and uh again they will concentrate majority of their efforts U around dones oblast I I believe that that we will see a lot of cat there very very soon in recent days Ukraine is struck Russian oil depos in rostov oblast and also Kadar cry using domestically produced Neptune missiles now obviously those sites are within the range of us provided attacks but Ukraine isn’t allowed to use the attacks in those territories because of the restrictions that that the US has has has placed on where Ukraine can use its weapons obviously they have moved on that issue and they have now allowed Ukraine to use American supplied weapons to hit targets inside Russia but still with those limitations how frustrating are those limitations still and do you have any optimism that America at some point will make a further concession and allow Ukraine to use us supplied weapons in in more parts of Russia the frustration in is present to some extent of course because uh even considering that uh we are allowed to use Western Munitions to strike Russian military Targets on the Russian territory but again we’re talking about the uh Clos rear so to say uh it’s approximately 40 50 kilometers deep into the Russian territory um unfortunately we uh require much um Munitions with much longer range like aam to strike uh important targets plus we have full inel on those targets at this point uh but unfortunately it’s impossible that’s why we uh keep using Ukrainian produced drones we keep using Ukrainian produced missiles as well as for Neptune this missile has been modified uh again just to remind our viewers Uh Russian Flagship mosa uh two years ago was destroyed using just two of those missiles um we know that they are being MiFi uh we’re talking about increased range increased uh Warhead um but until we are given the green light to strike Russian uh strategic objects uh deep in their uh rear in their operator rear um we will have to deal with u uh increased uh amount of Russian Invaders here on the ground and uh this is very dangerous because um we cannot use those missiles to eliminate Russian Personnel they’re not supposed to be used like that um we are talking about uh destroying Russian uh ammunition uh storages and fuel storages uh currently we don’t have enough potential to do that uh effectively uh but uh I hope that uh things will change because again as we can see the support for Ukraine is only growing uh more and more countries agree to uh support Ukraine in our uh fight against the Russian aggression um so I have hope that this will change as well there there’s no other way and and on the Neptune missiles do we know how many Ukraine has currently uh we cannot uh talk about details unfortunately because this information is is strictly classified uh but um we know that we have potential to produce those missiles again no details on numbers even approximate numbers uh but judging from the fact that uh they can reach targets deep in the enemy territory um we can say that they were m fight and they were tested and they do a good job yeah that point about the modifications they’ve made is really interesting I wanted to ask you operator Stasi about Ukraine’s air defenses at the moment we had the announcement last week that the US has agreed to send another Patriot missile battery that’s obviously welcome but it’s probably not enough I’m sure everyone would like to see more how would you assess the strength of Ukraine’s air defenses currently uh not only theed United States promised to send Patriot systems also uh Germany uh and several other allies were talking about sending additional air defense systems to Ukraine um of course uh unfortunately we need more because uh Russians keep producing their uh ballistic missiles uh and cruise missiles drones in big numbers um even though we don’t use systems like Patriots to intercept drones but uh we need other um measures to be able to eliminate them effectively right um but uh currently speaking about drones we uh saw recent Russian drone strikes uh on Ukrainian infrastructure uh last week for example uh several of their of their drone attacks failed completely uh in one case 100% of those drones were intercepted uh more more than 20 uh in another case there were 10 that were again 100% intercepted um so in in this regard our air defense works well um again drones are even despite the fact that they are uh comparatively cheaper than uh Cru and ballistic missiles produced by Russians of course but they still um Carry enormous danger because uh one drone um carries approximately 35 40 kilograms of explosives uh it’s a it’s a big mass of explosives on board it’s uh it’s very bad um so they can inflict uh and and they did already inflict tremendous damage um according to our energy experts um um currently Ukraine uh produces uh approximately onethird uh of uh capabilities even less than that and we will have uh problems we we will have to struggle with the blackouts uh for the next two years at least uh because of those strikes um so hopefully the air defense will arrive to Ukraine very very soon because uh again recent Russian visit to North Korea only proved that they will bring even more long range weapons to destroy Ukrainian infrastructure and we we need to have something to fight that it’s interesting you mentioned the drones I mean throughout this war Ukraine’s use of drone Warfare has been incredibly Innovative are we still seeing that are we seeing all the time further innovation by Ukraine in terms of how drones are being used uh well yes because Russians uh introduce measures to intercept our drones we have to introduce measures to uh you know evade Russian air defense um and judging from um you know all all those Burning uh o refineries on the Russian territory uh and and not only refineries uh multiple military objects headquarters for the Russian intelligence and things like that uh we can say that uh our drones are being modified as well um and uh another thing I want to mention is that currently uh we can witness increased amount of those drones being launched at Russian military targets uh first of all because of the uh help from our allies we received quite a few supplies from our friends who support us um and also we managed to increase production of longrange drones um and uh it’s only beginning so I believe that we will see even more uh Ukrainian flying objects flying into the Russian territory that’s really interesting um so something else I I wanted to ask you about is the state of morale in the Ukrainian forces there have been an increasing number of stories here in in the UK about for example draft dodging among some ukrainians desertion even now I’m sure that’s a relatively small number but what is the state of morale among Ukrainian troops because you know it’s more than two years now since the fullscale invasion we’re 10 years into the broader conflict what is the state of of morale currently well you see uh Russian Invaders demonstrate uh big desire to kill ukrainians but this desire cannot be bigger than our desire to live that’s why our morale is fine uh of course there are man dodging the service it it’s inevitable there were always such cases throughout history and in other countries uh but currently one thing that um brings uh hope is that um the general staff of Ukraine reported that the mobilization efforts uh brought more men that they even anticipated that’s why um apparently in the for closest Future uh they will consider implementing legislation regarding the demobilization already so uh we will have enough Personnel to uh fight back and we will also have enough Personnel hopefully to um provide our guys with well deserved rest do you think even more can be done when it comes to mobilization I mean there is some suggestion that zelinsky may at some point need to lower the age of conscription again from 25 potentially to to even lower uh well according to Russian propaganda we already mobilized like uh kids in the Middle School uh but um jokes aside I believe of course a lot more can be done but currently there’s no such necessity to implement those changes you mention Russian propaganda you are of course the co-founder of the propaganda study Institute monitoring some of the messaging coming out of the Kremlin what what is the latest you’re hearing there what are the latest propaganda lines that the Russians are trying to push uh that Russ is not our enemy and uh this is something they were they were pushing uh intensively I believe for for the recent two or three months Russia is not our enemy uh Iran Syria North Korea China they’re not our enemies they’re good guys and we are the bad guys uh unfortunately because Russians are so effective in creating propaganda and they exploit freedom of speech on the west instead of uh discussing how to solve the situation we’re discussing uh I mean the general public uh we’re discussing uh whether uh these things are true or not whether the facts are true or not and this is something that Russians uh are very very effective at doing they distort reality so much so people start uh uh like thinking that indeed Ukrainian uh soldiers hit Ukrainian cities kill Ukrainian people uh because this is what we do whenever Russia attacks we always have you know those Suicidal Tendencies uh waking up in inside of our heads for for no reason um this is something very dangerous um and hopefully governments will pay more attention to this threat um there’s already some success regarding uh fighting Russian propaganda among our allies uh Baltic countries Poland they already have um quite some uh quite some results they have different uh TV shows debunking Uh Russian misinformation and um I believe this is one of the best ways to uh destroy Russian propaganda by exposing it and explaining how it works that’s really interesting I was going to ask you that how you think what well maybe what you think is the best way of dealing with Russian propaganda and you think it is taking it head on and addressing the claims because some say ignore it because if you tackle the claims head on you are amplifying it and you’re drawing more attention but do you think you you need to address the claims and debunk them almost to disprove them yes absolutely because uh again there are people in invulnerable to the Russian propaganda of course uh but those people are not their target audience Russian propaganda targets uh specific audience that is uh most um susceptible to the Russian propaganda and we have to work with those people because those people one way or another are decision makers we we live in Democratic uh society and um this is how democracy Works Russians know it perfectly and Russian perfectly know how to exploit it turning back to the situation in the front line when do you think Ukraine may be in a position to launch a fresh counter offensive um it’s very very early to talk about it right now I believe uh currently we what we see on the front line is called active defense um but uh I believe that as soon as we have enough Munitions that will let us uh eliminate Russian Personnel in in the most effective way possible um as soon as we have uh enough measures to suppress Russian Artillery and to demine uh the Mine Fields uh because Ukraine is currently the most mined country in the world uh probably then we will be able to talk about the counter offensive um but uh again uh no matter what happens uh ukrainians will never uh trade their territories we will keep fighting for uh our land for our homes and we will be returning our borders of 1991 even though it’s it uh seems hard to some uh people it may seem impossible but uh Russians lost the war in Afghanistan which is one of the examples and they will lose the war in Ukraine operator Stasi on that note always a pleasure thank you so much for joining us today on Frontline thank you so much for the invitation be safe thank you for watching Frontline for times radio for more on Global Security and the war in Ukraine you can listen to times radio take out a digital subscription to the times and click subscribe on our YouTube channel

“Russians also anticipate the arrival of, F-16 jet fighters. so they realise that the situation is very, very dangerous.”

Putin’s last ditch offensive’s before the arrival of US aid and F-16s have stalled, says @StarskyUA on Frontline.
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