Tom Mutch joins me after four or five days in the east, including a training exercise with a Kharkiv brigade and a stop in Poltava. He found Kharkiv's parks and nightlife fuller and calmer than Kyiv, and soldiers telling him the northern front around Kupiansk, Vovchansk and Lyptsi is under control. We talk about what it costs a freelancer to report from the front when units cancel at the last minute, and why helmet, flak jacket and med kit are not optional.
Tom explains who Mykhailo Fedorov is, why his removal and his call for elections are drawing attention, and his view of Oleksandr Syrskyi: good on the offensive in Kharkiv and Kursk, poor at knowing when to defend. He is writing about Kursk two years on as 'Ukraine's most beautiful failure,' and argues North Korea has been a better ally to Russia than the West has been to Ukraine.
We also cover the Israeli security agreement model for Ukraine, Ramstein, shelter fatigue in Kyiv with no air defense for ballistic missiles, and the death of our friend Dutchie, a volunteer who brought vehicles and aid into Ukraine.
Chapters
0:00 Audio troubles and setup
2:29 Tom's trip east: Kharkiv and Poltava
3:56 Breaking news: our friend Dutchie killed in a car crash
5:17 Saltivka, FPVs and the northern front
6:00 Kharkiv, Kyiv and Lviv: three city characters
9:19 Bombed gas stations between Kharkiv and Sumy
11:26 Double tap strikes and dangerous ordinary jobs
13:17 What it costs to report from the front
16:27 Protective gear: helmet, flak jacket, med kit
18:54 Fedorov's call for elections
20:19 Fedorov and digital transformation
23:20 Who is Mykhailo Fedorov?
25:19 'The Reformer They Removed' and front line complaints
27:47 A long front with different realities
29:01 Syrskyi: good on offense, poor at defense
30:45 Kursk, two years on: 'Ukraine's most beautiful failure'
32:52 Attrition and how Russia moves forces
34:17 Russia's army is not a bad army
35:02 What the West has not learned
35:59 New Zealand, Australia and unlikely invasions
37:03 North Korea, Russia's best ally
39:35 Boots on the ground and a no-fly zone
40:56 The Israel model of security agreements
43:41 Is NATO busted?
44:35 Ramstein: what Biden got right and too slow
46:21 Kyiv without air defense
47:48 Shelters, air alerts and Telegram channels
51:27 Mining Telegram data on Russian launches
53:10 Ballistic warning, and remembering Dutchie
Watch on YouTube: Tom Mutch on Kharkiv, Fedorov, Syrskyi and Kursk: The War in Ukraine Flares Up
