Russia’s Black Sea base ‘useless’ I Ukraine: The Latest, Podcast

Russia’s Black Sea base ‘useless’ I Ukraine: The Latest, Podcast

[Music] I’m David noes and this is Ukraine the latest today we bring you news from across Ukraine analyze Victor orban’s visits to keev and Moscow and we talk about the long-term impacts of the war on Ukraine’s animal population bravery takes you through the most unimaginable hardships to finally reward you with Victory labor stands with president zalinski with Ukraine with democracy Slava ukraini ke stand strong nobody’s going to break us we’re strong we’re ukrainians it’s Friday the 5th of July 2 years and 137 days since the fullscale invasion began before we start you may have noticed a change in our intro out goes the clip from former British prime minister RI sunak making way for a line for the new prime minister of the United Kingdom Kia stama of the labor party we’ll bring you our initial reactions to the general election result in today’s podcast today I’m joined by our associate editor Dominick Nichols assistant comment editor Francis sternley forign correspondent James Kilner and our guests are the CEO of uarts foundation yurari and IT project manager Katarina paranova I started by asking Dom for the latest news from Ukraine well good afternoon David and hello folks wherever you are let’s start with chivar so no major updates there we said the other day that that Ukraine had pulled out of the furthest Northeastern bit of chivar in the Eastern donet region well today a military commander Ukrainian military commander there has said that Russian troops have burned every house that hav hasn’t been destroyed by shelling so Ole shv who’s commander of the 255th assault Battalion which has been fighting in the area for 6 months said Russia is deploying scorch Earth tactics in an attempt to destroy anything that could be used as a military position he said I regret that we are gradually losing territory we cannot hold what is ruined so it looks like the grind is continuing in chivar there’s a bit more in Ukraine a bit later but let’s go into Russia and Russia’s defense Ministry said it shot down 14 drones overnight in the kandar region that’s due east of the Sea of azov as well as more than three dozen over both the rosof region that’s just to the North and then the Russian occupied zapara region inside Ukraine moscow’s Kadar Regional Governor said this morning a six-year-old girl had died in hospital and others were injured after a drone strike in his area damaged an apartment building and a local electricity station no claim there from Ukraine no way of verifying that but staying in Ukraine and a Ukrainian drone assault targeted a gunpowder Factory in Western Russia ke security sources revealed this is the latest strike against Russian military logistics so the daylight attack yesterday hit the military facility in the city of kotos that’s in Russia’s tambov region about 400 km Northeast of harke inside Russia unverified footage of that attack we’re carrying it at the moment on our social media channels but it’s unverified footage it shows a drone buzzing towards the factory there’s a very large explosion a rather beautifully perfect inoi mushroom appears which is a very nice sort of mushroom cloud and a long stem Russia’s not commented on the extent of the damage but something big went up and it off this continues the aeral attacks on Military and energy facilities deep inside Russia that we’ve seen in recent months so still inside Russia and moscow’s authorities have detained Colonel Aron gelov he’s a top military commander his troops said they’ve been accused of being responsible for the massacre in bcha and he has been held on charges of large scale fraud now at the start of the war he led the 234th guards Air Assault regiment it was found by the New York Times by an investigation by New York Times to be responsible uh allegedly responsible for the executions and deaths of civilians in the KE suburb of Bo just to the northwest of the main city itself in March 2022 so as they was shoved out you’ll remember in fact our colleague Daniel Sheran was in the first sort of press packet that went into Bucher and it was extremely harrowing I remember her report from the ground now Colonel gordov who had been promoted for his performance in the war in Ukraine he’s just the latest in a series of high ranking military commanders officers and Senior defense officials who’ve been arrested on corruption charges in recent months part of a we think a purge to clear out or we think by the FSB really to assert control over over Russia’s mod that had been the suggestion is the mod was basically protected as long as shu was there Shu was shoved out a few months ago and then the FSB have gone in there in a sort of dose of salt mines to to clear it all out so not seen not heard the last of that I don’t think uh next one Ukraine’s Navy Chief says that the Russian Navy has been forced to rebase nearly all of its combat ready warships out of occupied Crimea to other locations because of the ongoing threat from ke so vice admiral Alex Nish Papa said Ukrainian missile and Naval drone strikes had caused heavy damage to ious Naval bases namely or in particular s a stop hole which was the former home of Russia’s very depleted Black Sea Fleet is now moved to no rois in Russia but he was speaking yesterday he said they were established over many decades possibly centuries and clearly they are now losing this Hub in Crimea he was speaking ahead of Ukraine’s Navy Day on Sunday which I hope they celebrate accordingly then looking a bit wider Hungarian prime minister Victor Orban he’s in Moscow today he’s scheduled we think scheduled to meet Putin why else would he go various reports saying that although I don’t think they’ve met yet when we came on air the last I saw they’ not actually met so Hungary took over the rotating EU presidency on Monday this week we’ve spoken about it earlier in the week Auburn arrived in Russia well just days after he he did a surprise trip to ke his first since the fullscale invasion we think he’s trying to set himself up as the peace broker yeah quite how successful that’ll be we’re not sure I he’s considered Putin’s greatest Ally within the EU so it’s a it’s a very loaded political Dynamic we should say thought to be accompanied by his foreign minister Peter shato this is coming from Radio free Europe citing a Hungarian government Source Kremlin spokesman Demitri pesov didn’t well he was asked about the visit neither confirmed nor denied it but he just said Putin has a busy schedule and more details would be released later today it would be the first time uh since the fullscale invasion that Putin and Orbin have met inside Russia now the financial times here in the UK are reporting that Joseph barell the eu’s top Diplomat uh speaking this morning uh said orban’s visit was an exclusively bilateral one as the Hungarian leader quote has not received any mandate to visit Moscow and was not representing the EU in any form then EU Chief Ur V Deion caution Mr oround against what she says was appeasing Putin warning that it wouldn’t stop him and she said only unity and deter termination will pave the way to a comprehensive just and Lasting peace in Ukraine then EU council president Charles Michelle he waited in as well on Twitter he said the EU rotating presidency has no mandate to engage with Russia on behalf of the EU the European Council is clear Russia is the aggressor Ukraine is the victim no discussions about Ukraine can take place without Ukraine and so Orban has responded to all the criticism this morning he said I do not need a mandate as I do not represent anything all I do is go to places where there is a war or threat of war that threatens the European Union and Hungary right well I mean he might yeah okay fine if if he hadn’t said the European Union bit there he might have got away with it but anyway now Putin says he hopes to exchange views on the Ukrainian crisis his words and his peace Proposal with Orban so they’re obviously going to meet probably later today sticking with Putin he said he believes Donald Trump is sincere about ending the war in Ukraine but doesn’t know what his plan would involve yeah y yep you and 8 billion of us mate so Putin’s comments come in the wake of Donald Trump’s repeated declarations that he would swiftly settle the war if he wins the White House race in November sources close to Mr Trump claim this week that he was considering striking a bargain with Putin to block Ukraine from joining NATO at a news conference in Kazakhstan at the end of uh Regional security conference the the Shanghai cooperation organization Putin said the fact that Mr Trump as a presidential candidate declares that he is ready and wants to stop the war in Ukraine we take this completely seriously I am not of course familiar with possible proposals for how he plans to do this this is the key question but I have no doubt that he means it sincerely and we support it yeah I’m I’ve no doubt that he means it sincerely but quite what it will look like is another question entirely but inching forward there David maybe two steps forward one back well maybe two two in the same direction or or what have you but yeah no no breakthroughs and I need to take a pause there before my brain collapses well thank you very much Dom Nichols for that Francis you used to work in Parliament you were Chief of Staff to an MP for several years you spent the entire night working on the UK’s general election could you give us your thoughts on what we’ve seen as K Arma becomes labor prime minister well thanks very much David wherever one stands politically there is something profoundly moving about the smooth transition of power in Britain they were touch gracious goodbyes from the Prime Minister and Chancellor with sunak welcoming the new labor PM K by calling him a decent man something reciprocated by starma in the first sentences of his speech about 30 minutes later now there are so many things that we could pick a out about the election result indeed are doing so here at Telegraph Towers a landslide victory for labor as was widely expected but I’m only going to focus on the implications for Ukraine today now sunak interesting mentioned one of the conservative proudest achievements in office was its supporting of keev and of course the big question now is whether starma is going to talk about Ukraine at all in his first hours and days as prime minister he met with the King about 45 minutes ago who appointed him as prime minister and then he gave his first remarks outside of the famous black door of number 10 where he focused on the National Domestic picture though he did make a passing note of the volatile world that we now inhabit the strong majority that starma has won is good news in the sense that it will be a strong government LED from the center rather than the bottom what I mean by that is that in minority governments Fringe politicians of parties quite often are able to make strong demands from the party leadership that will not be the case here as it was say in congress with of course Mike Johnson being that key broker around the Ukraine deal as such on defense it will be starma and his cabinet who will dictate policy and as discussed in previous episodes he is strong on his support for Ukraine having met zalinski multiple times including as Dom witnessed in D-Day not long ago and as well before that in ke he has also said that in the long term he has or he wants to see defense spending at 2.5% but he hasn’t said when he wants to achieve that buy something which no doubt will be an issue because usually defense spending as we’ve seen across Europe is never a priority until it needs to be now I should say there are elements in the labor party which he leads that are still of the farle stur is more often defined as being on the center left and like the further right there is a skeptical Wing within the labor party about Western intervention generally and some even sympathetic to Russian narratives as I say just like you hear On The Fringe right as well so that voice will not have disappeared completely with the labor party’s success here now turning to reform that party led by Nigel farage which we talked about before because they have not been as strong on the support of Ukraine they’ve produced an impressive result I think it’s fair to say they’ve received millions of votes but because of our first pass the post system here they’ve only got four seats in Parliament but it’s incredibly difficult to break through through in Britain and so we shouldn’t underestimate the ground swell of popular support that reform has managed to achieve with farage as prime minister go it has been a long night as leader but nonetheless that does not mean that people here in Britain are voting for farage because of his perspective on Ukraine farage is mainly known for his euroskeptic views and for his strong stance on immigration and that of course was a major issue of this election campaign nonetheless yes though I think we can expect in Parliament forage to make critiques of the western foreign policy decisions so expect there to be a vocal voice in Parliament critiquing responses to Ukraine and the idea of Britain sending weapons but as I say he will not be in government he will not have deciding votes Labour will have a strong government and they have been strong on Ukraine so I emphasize that now just before I end here we should reflect on the relationships that have now gone as a result of this vote I think foremost upon them it does need to be reflected on David Cameron the foreign secretary who of course is still a lord he has not lost his seat in the House of Commons he was uh governing as foreign secretary um from the House of Lords it’s all very complicated folks who’ve been doing this for centuries but in essence those relationships that David Cameron has built over several months as foreign secretary strong relationships with Europe a strong global voice on Ukraine and of course giving permissions for Britain British weapons to continue to be used anywhere in Russian territory very important and indeed the relationships that we understand he formed with Trump and his advisers May well have been critical for giving the green light from the Trump Camp to Mike Johnson that then got the $60 billion through Congress that we understand and there’s been several pieces written about this was pivotal with Trump saying to Cameron that the way it was put to him had been put had not been put to him prior to that so Cameron is out he is gone and we’ll have to see whether David Lamy who is the shadow foreign secretary and in theory is lined up to be foreign secretary though that may not happen K has not appointed his cabinet yet has those kind of relationships we know he’s tried to build relationships with the Trump camp but it remains to be seen likewise of course with the Biden Administration as well but all eyes at the moment for obvious reasons are on relationships being built with Trump because of the speculation about where he might be in a few months time so an interesting result one that many will of course be favorable for given the Ukraine context at the moment but it should also be emphasized that Labor’s priority is going to be domestic concerns here this is not a government that has been elected with an international priority list so it will be responsive more than proactive one could argue on paper but let’s see who karmur appoints for foreign secretary and Ministry of Defense because until we know that and it may well be several days or at least hours until we do it’s too early to say exactly what this labor Administration is going to look like but fascinating times and just to conclude David a perspective which I thought was quite nice from the outgoing Chancellor Jeremy Hunt who has held on to his seat however despite the conservatives getting a dring drubbing he said I quote we are lucky to live where decisions like this are not made by bombs or bullets but by thousands of citizens placing crosses in boxes brave ukrainians are dying every day to defend their right to do what we have just done and I think that’s a good place for me to end and dash back to Telegraph Towers to carry on reporting on the election well thank you very much Francis dley for all of that thank you for your work last night and for giving us some time just to talk us through your thoughts Dom before we go to James Dom you were at the former Defense uh secretary’s seat overnight can you just tell us a little bit about what you saw there just to give our listeners especially those from outside the UK just a flavor of what happened last night yeah thanks David so I went up to the wellin Hatfield seat this is about 40 miles directly north of London lovely bit of Countryside in in Harford Shire Grant shaps the former Defense secretary is held that seat since 2005 he is a uh well how is he characterized I mean he’s a politic IAL Survivor and a very political animal he’s held as he was very keen to point out in his leaving speech he’s held quite a number of cabinet posts he’s been 11 months as Minister of Defense he had 7even months as Minister for energy security and net zero three months at business he was home secretary for six crazy days in October he was at transport for three years and he was also conservative party chairman in all that time too so he’s a great political Survivor he was always wheeled out to be on the sofas to defend the government on whatever it was so there were questions about how much attention he was actually given to the brief of Defense secretary at a time of major war in Europe Middle East a lot of other challenges etc etc so I toled up there last night after the exit pole vote at 10 p.m. yesterday got over there for about midnight and then it was classic military hurry up and wait type thing nothing happened for hours and then at about 3:00 the returning officer who was the high Sheriff of Hartford Shar she called everyone together and what happens is there were five candidates they are taken to one side a few minutes before we all get to hear the vot so they are told the result so it doesn’t come as a massive surprise to them but we weren’t able to actually go and walk the floor and see the vote being counted but that bit of it is open to party officials they can actually walk around to make sure that it’s all completely transparent and so I was speaking to a few of those dudes and um and they told me about half an hour before the final Vault that the vote it had gone to the labor Chap and that Grant chaps had lost his seat so when the announcement came out the high Sheriff read out all the numbers F focusing firmly on on Grant chaps he was very gracious in defeat as you would hope and he he made a nice speech um wishing the best to his successor he then stuck in a few kidney punches to the conservative party and how they’ve behaved for the last 14 years but it was all very smooth and we don’t take it for granted as the former Chancellor Jeremy Hunt says you the smooth transition of power is a beautiful thing to watch it’s also a very boring thing to watch because it is so smooth and that’s as it should be so it was very was almost underwhelming as I say except that it’s then whatever time it was halfast 4 in the morning and and that’s obviously when my work starts I got the news desk immediately onto me saying right we need some news and we need some color from what’s what it’s like in the room it was actually in a theme par I was in a kind of Adventure Park it was Roller City in Welling Garden City a town in in hartfordshire there was a big glitter ball in the roof reflecting everything it was all particularly bizarre to see this Changing of the Guard and a and a Tory big beast in the shape of the former Defense secretary losing his seat underneath a lovely sort of glitter ball it was really really quite odd um so that was that we were all kicked out I had to go and sit in the car park and file a story and then uh get back into the office down here to go and speak to you good people um and so uh that was what was happened to me over the last few hours David all rather rushed but a beautiful demonstration of just how deliciously boring democracy should be well thank you very much Dom for all of that but James Kilner great to have you back on the podcast what have you been looking at and why do you think it’s important for our listeners yeah so incredibly busy week seems to be absolutely standard incredibly festic week of Russian diplomacy and diplomatic Russian efforts around the war in Ukraine the big story today as Don was right Oran Victor orban’s visit to Moscow suppos you on a peace Mission he’s doing he’s doing this unilaterally it’s not he hasn’t had permission from the other EU Partners to carry out this So-Cal Peach Mission he has been meeting Putin I’ve been watching listening to videos on telegram the Russian language social media app Putin and Orban greet each other with warm handshakes inside the Kremlin Smiles Etc then sat down and posed for photos with their entourage on either side of them Putin in comments before going behind closed door for torch which is currently going on now actually referenced that Orban had been in Ukraine 3 days earlier on Tuesday to meet with zalinski and Putin also made a very clear reference to discussing with Orban his version of what a peace sessment would look like so I think this is a very very important moment in the process of the war the whole trip has been derived by various other EU officials stepping out of line Etc this is the first visit by an EU leader to Moscow since April 2022 when the Austrian leader jetted in for talks with Putin so it’s going to be very very interesting to see what comes out after this meeting in mosow which is going on right now so just a quick update on that one David the backdrop as you rightly saying for this whole momentous visit by Orban is this what appears to be shifts in certainly zelinsky’s position and possibly even Putin’s position as you said Putin has been in K Stone this week he’s been at a meeting of the Shanghai Corporation organization which is um economic military is Alliance set up by China and Russia in 2001 become a wider anti-west or or sort of Western skeptic Group which is focused Central Asia but also includes now includes Iran India and Pakistan and belus is really a talking shop it’s a chance for leaders like Putin’s posture to meet other leaders as like a speed diplomatic session on Wednesday the day before the main Summit for the FCA as it’s called Putin met six leaders including X president X of China and including president erdogan of Turkey who was there as a guest so a good chance for Putin to sort of posture and and look like the Statesman there there wasn’t much talk actually about the war in Ukraine or not many public comments from any of the leaders about the war in Ukraine um it was more bilateral TS but erdogan did actually offer Putin to be to be an intermediary between him and zalinsky but but this was knocked down by Russian officials later but the point is the chat around having an intermediary between Putin and zalinski has increased in the last few weeks zalinski has constantly said he’s not interested in the ceasefire of Putin he sees it as a trap and he ceas fire here that Putin office he’s very concerned will just be used by the Kremlin to give the forces a break rearm and then attack again so he’s not interested in the ceasefire but he has increasingly made reference to some sort of intermediary between him and Putin he gave a really insightful interview to Bloomberg yesterday I think it was in which he again referenced a possible inter with he didn’t talk about Oran who was in Kev on Tuesday but he did mentioned China and the USA so even talking about it is important and he also importantly spoke about potential Russian delegation turning up with a second peace Summit if you remember that Ukraine organized a first peace Summit in Switzerland last month which was I I think it’s fair to say a bit underwhelming the normal sort of proest pro Ukraine leaders and and countries turned up but n none of the Skeptics because there was a massive Kremlin campaign back by by China its key Ally to pressure and control and charm smaller countries in Asia and Middle East and Africa to boycott it which they did really there has been talking about a second peace process zalinski and and the Ukraine didn’t invite Russia to the first one but in in this Bloomberg interview yesterday zalinski said that Russia should come to a second piece um Summit this is I think the first time I’ve heard zansky say this so I think the positions are changing they are softening slightly we have talk of Russia turning up at a a potential second pce Summit possibly even Putin but but but that is very unlikely and we have real talk about using an intermediary between zalinski and Putin just as urn turns up in Moscow so really interesting times D James thank you so much for all of that in in your view then do you think with these visits to Moscow zalinsky saying Russia should come to the next peace meeting with erdogan offering himself as an intermediary do you think we might be looking at potentially the vague outlines of what early talks could look like is that what we’re seeing here the Diplomatic overtures to something else I think it’s going to take an awful lot to even start real negotiations but but I also think both sides utterly exhausted that there is no doubt about that we we keep writing stories about how Ukraine is running out of Manpower it doesn’t have enough missiles this sort of thing lenu was complaining yesterday again how I think it’s 14 Army brigades he can’t equip them properly because he doesn’t have the right kit from the West F-16 still haven’t arrived etc etc and we also know from the Russian side that although they put on a huge front a huge face on it they’re also completely exhausted and their economy is also being sunk by this whole War project they are also scrambling around for manpow we know they’ve been losing I think in may they lost something like 1300 men soldiers a day on the front lines that’s pushing 40,000 a month which is half the size of the British army so it’s a really unsustainable attrition rate there’s a story floating around this week that they’re now recruiting female prisoners from their massive prison system to to go to the they’re also offering people who get arrested by police in Russia now have the option of signing a contract there and then to go and fight in the war in return for any child who’s been dropped the these are desperate measures by by a regime which is running out of Cannon fod so so Putin himself understands that this war can’t continue forever there’s a poll out today or yesterday by lavard Center and a Russian polling station which is which is relatively has some Independence actually uh we said that 58 % of of the Russians they were in favor of a negotiated peace for Putin’s war in Ukraine this is the highest s since the war started I’m not saying that the kremin elite hold this view I’m I’m sure I’m certain that Putin doesn’t hold this view but there is a ground swell of momentum even inside Russia to finding some sort of solution to this war and I think what we’ve seen this week Oran is going to fall out with all his EU partners and NATO Partners over there and I’m not sure that he’s the intermediary that’s needed but even talk of intermediaries and zin’s app parent softening of his position in in this Bloomberg interview yesterday these are vital small steps to start to find a way out of this terrible War situation thank you so much Dom Francis and James for over two years Ukraine has grappled with the far-reaching impact of Russia’s fullscale War the war truly touches everything all aspects of life and for years now we’ve been catching up with contacts inside the country to understand the plight of Ukraine’s animal population I spoke to Friend of the podcast CEO of the uarts foundation yurari and Katarina paranova an IT project manager at the NGO better regulation delivery office here’s our conversation well Yuri and Katarina thank you so much for your time would you start just by introducing yourselves again to our listeners Yuri why don’t you go first sure hello David and it’s great to be here on this podcast again my name is Yuri takari and I run the uarts foundation which is implementing animal charity projects focusing on rescuing and helping pets and animals suffering from the war in Ukraine hello um my name is Katherina paranova I’m a member of brdo team it’s the better regulation delivery office and NGO that is implementing the development of the state unified register of fets and particularly the project manager of the project well Yuri can I start with you let’s talk about the number the shear number of homeless animals in Ukraine at the moment what are the late what’s the latest estimate what are the numbers and what’s being done to solve this sure David um of course there’s no easy answer for uh this question as data and statistics were not collected for a while but our initiative the safe pets of Ukraine project has been surveying the shelters uh across Ukraine and we have the numbers uh from that survey that suggest that the amount of animals in care of the shelters near the front lines has grown by 100% so it doubled and then in the areas that are adjacent to the front lines this number is 60% of growth but even in the most far away districts from the front line in the west of the country still 30% growth so if we’re looking at couple of thousands of animals I think it’s a ball park figure that demonstrates the scope of the problem Katarina would you like to add anything to that well I would definitely agree that calculating the number of animals right now in the midst the full scale war is a very very tough thing to do so all the numbers might be added a little bit because we do not know the exact situation and what is obvious is that the number of stray animals the number of abanded animals and the animals who lost their owners because they simply died I’m sorry to say that is enormous so even like we we cannot say that this is something we could count to this point probably and when we’re talking about Abandoned and stray animals are we primarily talking about dogs and cats or are there any others we should be aware of yes we are mostly working with dogs and cats usually we are trying also to run projects that are covering wild animals but our main focus is cats and dogs and cat I know you’ve been working on this could you tell our listeners a little bit about what you’ve been doing and the challenges you faced yes of course thank you I would support Yuri in the point that we we’re mainly focused in dogs and cats the register itself as a system also includes ferrets but we have to understand that the number of pet ferrets in Ukraine is way less than the number of cats and dogs and of course this is our main target that we’re facing with the register the challenges we’ve faced and actually the trigger for live stream implementation of the system is the uncontrolled migration of pets within the country The increased numbers of lost animals because of the military actions and all the connected issues therefore we need to react quite fast but at the same time to keep in mind the way of Veterinary that is being processed in Ukraine I mean the way that work the way that they have to take care of their jobs and so all these things have to fit as a puzzle together when you say uncontrolled migration of lost pets what do you mean exactly by that well um I’ll be very open about this when you’re close to the front line and there are explosions all the time uh the pets just run away or during the evacuations they can get lost sometimes as I already mentioned the owner can be injured or even dead and the animal just runs away so this is the first thing we’re facing and secondly people are evacuating from some places where the lived quite fast and sometimes this is not planned way in advance this is why lots of people just grab their pets thank God they do not drop them there and they try to move away as fast as they can sometimes associations and organization like URI are helping them to evacuate so sometimes the owner and the pet go separately to the safe place and yri there are you know huge numbers of health issues that you have to look at I know that you wanted to talk a little bit about rabies in in in Ukraine can you tell us what the latest news is there what are you seeing sure so the growing number of uh animals that are that have lost their families animals who are living on the streets combined with the security challenges in areas close to the front lines all these factors have led to an increase in the animal diseases including uh rabies in Ukraine so if you look at the data the statistics the number of uh cases of babies in Ukraine year toe it increased 100% it’s still in terms of the numbers it’s not um huge number it’s close to 1,00 cases per year but still it’s a cause for alarm for an on organization like ours to do more and step in and try to support the local communities in the areas closer to the front lines in combating this issue because in Ukraine the vaccinations against rabies were usually done at the level of the local governments and sometimes near the front lines there is simply not enough capacity to do that and also security reasons prevent veterinarians from actually going in there and doing this vaccinations so we are trying to tackle this issue while it’s still in the controllable level and we have launched a large project thanks to the support of our partners thanks to which we were able to vaccinate implant microchips and actually input in the state Registry of 7,000 animals this was a large scale project for us and we are very glad that it’s the first step that we are hoping to scale up in Ukraine Katarina you must be really proud of that could you tell us maybe your your side of involvement in this what what have you been working on specifically well first of all we we are very happy and proud of such a partnership with our colleagues With Yuri and his organization because this involves lots of social activities and social activities are never easy to implement especially in times of fulls scale War what we’re doing as an organization and our team particularly we’re developing the the software for the system that makes it possible to actually create the register and to use it for the vets and the owners uh I would also like to emphasize that yri is absolutely correct in the point that the migration of animals and the whole thing that’s going on because of War consequences is highly influential on the level of disease spread in of course and due to register we have the online database of animals that are registered identified with a microchip and also vaccinated this is super important because when people are fleeing the war they can lose the paper documents they can get them destroyed and at least we have the track of vaccinated animals all over Ukraine available to every vet that cooperates with the register I mean it’s an astonishing project highly bureaucratic complex involving different teams all at a time of fullscale War Yuri we we’ve spoken quite a few times over the last few years and it’s been really interesting to track how you’ve been talking about these issues what kind of issues you and your team are finding looking back where are you now do you think the situation is getting worse or better what’s the situation as well for funding for how are you finding that do you have what you need to to do what you want to do well David the situation is evolving I would say uh some aspects are getting better some aspects are getting not so well so in the beginning of the fulls scale invasion we were focusing mostly on the rescue effort supporting people who are evacuating trying to relocate animals place them into shelters and find them the new home now we are more focusing on long-term consequences of the war so we are trying to do more on adoption so we are trying because we believe firmly that the place for an animal is not in the shelter it’s in the family of the pet parents so we are trying to do more on adoption and we are trying to do much more on prevention of diseases so a project such as uh the rabies vacination in terms of the funding we’ve been seeing institutional support coming in so the project on vaccinations against arabes was supported for example by the international fund of Animal Welfare but it’s a large scale project and it can only be implemented with the help of institutional donors we hope to see more of that that will help us scale it up but also in terms of the private donations and I always like to give an example of even the audience of this podcast which has in the past donated and we were able to collect slightly over 15,000 thanks to the listeners of this podcast and this is the amount for instance if we scale it up to the project of the vaccination for instance would allow us to vaccinate implement the microchip and input into the registry of about 3,000 animals so these are the numbers that your listeners have contributed to in the past we are very grateful for that and we of course we hope that the donations keep coming because it’s the source of the funding that allows us to keep functioning and keep helping the pets in the country Karina and Yuri just to finish is there anything we haven’t spoken about that you think our listeners should understand Karina would you like to go first well first of all I would like to say thank you to everyone who’s involved with this process and everyone who donated because this is super important I would like to also point out that the project does not use any governmental money it’s full on donations and like donor support this is again important for us during the war lots of things had to come together for the project to be started but what I would like to finish with probably is that in Ukraine every life counts so you said there about 7,000 animals that have been registered during the test flights of the Reg register but every animal counts every additional registration vaccination or identified animal counts therefore thank you very much for the donations we hope this project is a very long-term issue lots of governmental bodies are supporting us and again the organizations that care about PS so we hope this is just a start for a long-term great process of U further integration with the European organizations like Europe atet and other registers to make Ukraine a full uh participant of this European point of view at the PS and Yuri to finish your final thoughts please thank you I always like to repeat and this is Echo what cine just said we are running a marathon rather than a Sprint so we need to make sure that our work is well spaced out it’s long term because we will be facing the consequences of this war for many years in the future even after it is over and give that animals they don’t know National borders of course this is an issue that’s the primary responsibility of Ukraine to take care about its animal population but it’s also an issue for a wider European community and we are very grateful to see the solidarity the amount of support that is coming from countries like the UK where we work a lot with the domestic pet industry and see how much General’s help they are already they have contributed and they are still committed to contribute to our cost and many other countries who are doing the right thing by investing right now so that we don’t have to deal with the problems related to animal population control or Disease Control in the future Yuri and kerina thank you so much coming up we hear Dom and James’s final thoughts let’s go then to our final thoughts Domin Nichols would you like to go first yeah thanks David I’m going to try and wrap these themes together that we’ve been talking about today just very neatly it’s probably going to be very clunky but I’ll have a go democracy as I was saying earlier on should be fairly dull when you look at it if it’s working properly and to me the basic deal with democracy is that once you lose you leave the stage swiftly and you go graciously right that’s it that’s the deal we’ve seen some egregious examples where that does not happen in recent years and the chaos that partly flows from that and partly fls flows from the the mentality if that’s how you approach it so I’m hoping that with this massive majority that labor party have got today here in the UK it offers some form of stability and the way in which the Tory party have moved off the stage swiftly and with good grace I would suggest and Grant shaps last night I was poking fun at him I wrote a column that’s a little bit tongue and- cheek a little bit you know stiletto in the ribs but he left the stage graciously he spoke well of the person Andrew Leen who took over from him for his seat so I’m hoping that this ush is in a period of stability when you look at what’s happening what’s potentially coming down the lines in the US France elsewhere we need some stability right now there is an opportunity I think here for the UK If it is a a very strong government they’ve made no bones about their policy on Ukraine is going to be no no different from that of the Tory party and as start talking about these negotiations I think it’s human nature from what I’ve seen that people are very open to negotiations because your first thought is yeah great I’ll negotiate because I’m I’m going to get what I want like no no no that that very rarely happens in negotiation so that’s when the real hard work starts with negotiations and I’m just I’m hoping that having a strong partner such as the UK has the potential to be now that if we are entering some phase of very very difficult negotiations having firm views across the EU for example as Don V Deion Kai Callis Mich Charles Michelle Joseph barell then there’s a possibility here of having a firm base from which you can work from and negotiate back accepting where you need to give a little bit of ground so I’m just hoping that we are about to Wier a period of some relative stability I do note though as I’ve said many times before as a former commanding officer once said to me if the word hope enters your plan anywhere then you haven’t planned enough so it’s a very rocky road ahead but there’s great potential I think thank you very much Dom and a huge thank you just before we go to James and to our colleague Francis who took mine and Dom’s ribbing of him adding pictures of Kier starma into his notes for this podcast earlier on today with very good grace and humor he wasn’t annoyed at all was he James would you like the very final words it’s it’s all eyes on um on the Kremlin at the moment David with with oran’s visit it’s going to be incredibly interesting to see what comes out of it I’m just reading on telegram again that the Ukrainian for foreign Ministry has already distanced itself from this visit says it’s outraged that Orban has turned up in Moscow because it wasn’t agreed in KV this comes after speculation from various kemin propagandists that that I follow who said that maybe zilinski had a secret message for Putin that is already been disowned we’re going to get lots of speculation and Analysis on this whole visit and is going to be fool out from it is is already starting is going to be very fascinating to follow David so I’m going to get back to that thank you thank you so much Dom James and Francis for your time today just a reminder you can hear our first bonus episode on Apple two weeks before we release it to everyone you just have to connect your Telegraph subscription to your Apple podcast account and listen there have a great weekend thank you for listening Ukraine the latest is an original podcast from the telegraph to stay on top of all of our Ukraine news analysis and dispatches from the ground subscribe to the telegraph you can get your first three months for just1 at www.telegraph.co.uk Ukraine thelatest or sign up to dispatches our Ukraine newsletter which brings stories from our award-winning foreign correspondents straight to your inbox we also have a Ukraine live block on our website where you can follow updates as they come in throughout the day including insights from regular contributors to this podcast you can listen to this conversation live at 1:00 p.m. London time each weekday on Twitter spaces follow the telegraph on Twitter so you don’t miss it to our listeners on YouTube please note that due to issues 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Day 864.

Today, we bring you news from Ukraine, analyse Victor Orban’s diplomatic visits to Kyiv and Moscow, and we talk about the long term impacts of the war on Ukraine’s animal population. Plus, immediate reaction to the general election result in the UK, which is elected a new Prime Minister.

Contributors:

David Knowles (Journalist). @djknowles22 on X.

Dom Nicholls (Associate Editor, Defence). @DomNicholls on X.

Francis Dearnley (Assistant Comment Editor). @FrancisDearnley on X.

James Kilner (Foreign Correspondent). @jkjourno on X.

With thanks to Yuriy Tokarski (CEO of U-hearts Foundation) and Kateryna Parunova (IT project manager, NGO “Better Regulation Delivery Office”).

Bonus Episodes :

Telegraph subscribers can unlock these bonus episodes of Ukraine: The Latest, and our sister podcast Battle Lines. To do, please follow this link:

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/contact-us/telegraph-subscription-bonus-content-apple-podcasts/

Return to Bucha: how a community rebuilds after a massacre (with David Knowles)

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/return-to-bucha-how-a-community-rebuilds-after-a-massacre/id1612424182?i=1000657018191

How to catch a Russian submarine (with Dominic Nicholls)

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/how-to-catch-a-russian-submarine/id1712903296?i=1000661022413

Charity & Article Referenced:

U-Hearts

Home

‘The Unified State Register of Pets will be launched in Ukraine, which will become the basis for creating digital veterinary passports’

https://thedigital.gov.ua/news/the-unified-state-register-of-pets-will-be-launched-in-ukraine-which-will-become-the-basis-for-creating-digital-veterinary-passports

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