Patrick Lancaster From the Frontlines of Ukraine/Russia War: Kamikaze Drones & Attacks on Christians

Speaker 1 The holidays mean more travel, more shopping, more time online, and more personal info in more places that could expose you more to identity theft.

Speaker 1 But Life Lock monitors millions of data points per second. If your identity is stolen, our U.S.-based restoration specialists will fix it guaranteed or your money back.

Speaker 1 Don't face drained accounts, fraudulent loans, or financial losses alone. Get more holiday fun and less holiday worry with Life Lock.
Save up to 40% your first year. Visit lifelock.com slash podcast.

Speaker 2 Terms apply.

Speaker 2 Over the past three years, hundreds, maybe thousands of Western journalists have covered the war in Ukraine from Ukraine and effectively been attached to the Ukrainian government and its military and its many propaganda outlets, taking their talking points from Ukrainian government officials, interviewing President Zelensky,

Speaker 2 always in the most phony possible way, and effectively carrying water for both the Ukrainian government and NATO, and above all, for the Biden administration.

Speaker 2 On the other side, in this war that the United States has effectively paid for, there is one Western journalist, one American embedded with Russian troops. His name is Patrick Lancaster.
He's from St.

Speaker 2 Louis, Missouri. He's a U.S.
Navy veteran. And for the past 11 years, he's been reporting from the region.
For the past three years, he's been reporting from the front lines.

Speaker 2 He's been interviewed by precisely no other mainstream Western media organizations.

Speaker 2 And so it raises the question, how can you understand a war you're expected to take sides in and then pay for if you're not hearing the other side? So with that in mind, here's Patrick Lancaster.

Speaker 2 Patrick Lancaster, thank you so much for joining us.

Speaker 2 So you're one of the only, maybe the only American reporter embedded with Russian troops in this war. How long have you been there?

Speaker 3 Hi,

Speaker 3 Tucker.

Speaker 3 It's really an honor to be on here with you to show a little bit to the world about what the mainstream media doesn't want a lot of the people around the world to see.

Speaker 3 So it's really great and I appreciate the invitation.

Speaker 3 I have been covering this conflict, this war,

Speaker 3 for a lot longer than many people understand that it's going on. As you know, this didn't start three years ago.
It started in 2014. Some say even before.

Speaker 3 But for all intents and purposes, we could say 2014 when the war started

Speaker 3 following the events in Crimea where Crimea joins or rejoins Russia because there was a referendum. That's where I first started reporting on the situation between Russia and Ukraine.

Speaker 3 I went to Crimea for the referendum where the Crimean people voted to

Speaker 3 break away from Ukraine and join Russia, rejoin Russia, because before 1956, Crimea was part of Russia.

Speaker 3 So, I mean, if you think about this, the people that were born before that year were born in Russia.

Speaker 3 So, there's people living that were born in Russia that were literally so happy to be joining Russia again, going home, as the people on the streets told me when I was there.

Speaker 3 And I've been there almost every year reporting since then as well. But that's what really triggered my

Speaker 3 interest and intensity in reporting on the situation between Ukraine and Russia. Because when I came from, went from Europe to Crimea and saw the

Speaker 3 huge difference of what was being reported in the Western mainstream media about the real situation in Crimea.

Speaker 3 We were hearing in the West how Russia forces were going to be making people vote to break away from Ukraine and join Russia.

Speaker 3 And I saw just the total opposite: people just crying out of happiness to have the chance to rejoin Russia. And those are the real facts.
And anyone that has been to Crimea knows that.

Speaker 3 And anyone that says something besides that is just not telling the truth and trying to hide the truth.

Speaker 3 And

Speaker 3 unfortunately, after

Speaker 3 the events in Crimea, where they joined, the northern regions of Donetsk and Lugansk ended up becoming part of what you could say a civil war, where they as well had a referendum to break away from Ukraine.

Speaker 3 And that preceded the eight-year war, eight-year civil war,

Speaker 3 where

Speaker 3 after the vote, the

Speaker 3 republics that they called themselves Donetsk People

Speaker 3 Donetsk and Lugansk People's Republics started to make their own governments, make their own militaries, and

Speaker 3 they were attacked after this referendum by Ukraine.

Speaker 3 And I spent eight years covering the situation in the Donetsk and Lugansk areas, just documenting my part of the puzzle or the pie that wasn't being shown in the Western mainstream media.

Speaker 3 Because what I was showing then and now,

Speaker 3 Western mainstream media doesn't, it's not convenient for them to show, it doesn't fit their narrative. So I documented what they weren't, the indiscriminate shelling of residential areas by Ukraine,

Speaker 3 the targeting of

Speaker 3 civilian areas by Ukraine. I mean, my wife is from Donetsk and her childhood home was destroyed by Ukrainian shelling, as well as the majority of her childhood neighborhood.

Speaker 3 So, I mean, these are the facts of the things that happened in the Donetsk and Lugansk territories long before 2022, when Russia came into this war.

Speaker 3 From 2014 till 2022 is when this civil war took place. And of course, Ukraine and the West claimed Russia had invaded all the way back in 2014.
That was

Speaker 3 the narrative then.

Speaker 3 But eventually that kind of slowly went away when they realized that this eight-year war wasn't really,

Speaker 3 there was no regular Russian troops taking part in that. This was

Speaker 3 a civil war that was lightly supported by the West,

Speaker 3 Ukraine supported by the West.

Speaker 2 Wait, may I ask a question

Speaker 2 to clarify something? So you said that

Speaker 2 your wife's childhood home was destroyed by shelling from the Ukrainian government. Why were they shelling your wife's house? Like, what did was she, was her family part of the fighting?

Speaker 2 Why would they do that?

Speaker 3 Well, they pretty much leveled most of her childhood home or childhood neighborhood where her mother's home

Speaker 3 was.

Speaker 3 This neighborhood is just one of the many around Donetsk in the suburbs of Donetsk, and specifically around the Donetsk airport.

Speaker 3 The Donetsk Airport was like a symbol of the war back in 2014, 2015, where there was literally so much fighting.

Speaker 3 There were two terminals. One terminal had the Ukrainian forces in it.

Speaker 3 One had the anti-Ukraine government forces or rebels or pro-Russian forces, whatever you want to call them, the locals that took up arms to fight to try to break away from Ukraine.

Speaker 3 And they were fighting. And basically, Ukraine leveled, not completely leveled, but damaged, if not destroyed, the majority of the homes all around this area, around the airport,

Speaker 3 just

Speaker 3 with indiscriminate shelling

Speaker 3 of

Speaker 3 the areas, the neighborhoods, and just destroying or seriously damaging almost every home. And it just so happened my wife's uh childhood home was one of those.

Speaker 3 Thank God her family and her made it out. out.
Okay. They were living there when the war started.

Speaker 3 And

Speaker 3 they made it out okay, but the house was

Speaker 3 destroyed. And this is just one example of many homes and families that lost everything in the war.

Speaker 2 I don't remember hearing in the United States at the time that there was a war

Speaker 2 in Ukraine. I mean, my sense is this was basically ignored completely and that Ukraine at that time was effectively under the control of

Speaker 2 the Obama administration.

Speaker 2 That was my sense.

Speaker 3 Yeah, a lot of people

Speaker 3 didn't really understand what was really happening on the ground. But

Speaker 3 basically, I mean, it goes... Back to the Maidan Revolution or

Speaker 3 whatever you want to call it. It's all in the eye of the beholder.
The locals in the eastern part of Ukraine at that point looked at the Maidan Revolution as an illegal coup supported by the West,

Speaker 3 where they ended up with their democratically elected president, Yadukovich, removed from office without them having anything to say about it, and which effectively made their Ukraine dead and not in existence anymore after a puppet government was put in

Speaker 3 by the United States in the West. So the people of the Donetsk and Lugansk

Speaker 3 areas just

Speaker 3 said, okay, well, that's not our Ukraine. Ukraine's gone.
Some of them were patriots for Ukraine before. They just said, okay, we don't have anything to do with that.
We're going to have a vote.

Speaker 3 We're going to vote ourselves what to do with the right of self-determination. And Ukraine and the West did not want to respect the right of determination.

Speaker 3 And Ukraine basically, in the words of the locals, punished them for

Speaker 3 them trying to break away from Ukraine. And every

Speaker 3 local family knew someone or had a member of their family injured or killed in the attacks by Ukrainian forces on the civilian areas of these regions, specifically the cities of Donetsk and Lugansk.

Speaker 2 Amazing.

Speaker 2 Data hawks are collecting your information anytime you visit a website, every time you go online, every time you create an account, you make an online purchase, your data is out there and you have no control over who sees it or what they do with it.

Speaker 2 So it's only a matter of time until somebody tries to exploit these facts that you have no privacy at all. Use your information to steal your identity.
It may be bankrupt you. It happens all the time.

Speaker 2 It's happened to friends of ours, kids, and that's why we use Identity Guard. Identity Guard helps by giving you control.

Speaker 2 It monitors your most sensitive information for any signs of suspicious activity.

Speaker 2 If someone's trying to steal your identity, you know right away, often before real damage can be done, before you're on the hook for the money.

Speaker 2 So if in fact your identity is stolen, the expert team will work directly with banks, credit card bureaus, other institutions to fix the problem for you so it's not the disaster you fear it is.

Speaker 2 While they handle the cleanup, you're backed by up to $5 million in identity theft insurance, which is a huge relief.

Speaker 2 Imagine waking up and finding out that someone in a foreign country is using your name and social security number to steal money from you. It happens all the time.

Speaker 2 So the team there is available 24-7 if you ever need help. There are no bots.
There are no call centers offshore. It's based in the United States.
They know exactly what you need.

Speaker 2 Somebody becomes a victim of identity theft about every six seconds, constantly. So don't let the next one be you.

Speaker 2 Visit identityguard.com slash Tucker for 30 days free, plus a special discount if you want more. Sign up before this happens to you.
IdentityGuard.com/slash Tucker.

Speaker 2 Hate to brag, but we're pretty confident this show is the most vehemently pro-dog podcast you're ever going to see. We can take or leave some people, but dogs are non-negotiable.
They are the best.

Speaker 2 They really are our best friends. And so for that reason, we're thrilled to have a new partner called Dutch Pet.
It's the fastest growing pet telehealth service.

Speaker 2 Dutch.com is on a mission to create what you need, what you actually need, affordable quality veterinary care anytime no matter where you are. They will get your dog or cat what you need immediately.

Speaker 2 It's offering an exclusive discount, Dutch is, for our listeners. You get 50 bucks off your vet care per year.
Visit Dutch.com slash Tucker to learn more. Use the code Tucker for $50 off.

Speaker 2 That is an unlimited vet visit, $82 a year, $82 a year. We actually use this.
Dutch has vets who can handle any pet under any circumstance in a 10-minute call. It's pretty amazing, actually.

Speaker 2 You never have to leave your house. You don't have to throw the dog in the truck.
No wasted time waiting for appointments. No wasted money on clinics or visit fees.

Speaker 2 Unlimited visits and follow-ups for no extra cost, plus free shipping on all products for up to five pets. It sounds amazing like it couldn't be real, but it actually is real.

Speaker 2 Visit dutch.com slash Tucker to learn more. Use the code Tucker for 50 bucks off, your veterinary care per year.
Your dogs, your cats, and your wallet will thank you.

Speaker 3 The second half of the basketball season is here and the race to the playoffs continues on Prize Picks, the best daily fantasy sports app to cash in on your favorite sports. The app is simple.

Speaker 3 Pick more or less on at least two players for a shot to win up to a thousand times your cash. Download the Prize Picks app today and use code FIELD and get $50 instantly when you play $5.

Speaker 3 That's code FIELD on PrizePicks. They get $50 instantly when you play $5.
Win or lose, you'll get $50 for just playing. Guaranteed.
Prize picks. Run your game.
Must be present in certain states.

Speaker 3 Visit PrizePicks.com for restrictions and details.

Speaker 2 So you've been there rotating in and out or living there ever since, all these years. How did things change three years ago when the war began?

Speaker 3 Well, it was quite an interesting time, as you can imagine.

Speaker 3 Just days, a couple of days before

Speaker 3 it all started with Russia. Russia officially came in.
Russia officially recognized the Lugansk and Donetsk republics as separate from Ukraine.

Speaker 3 And the people had celebrations on the streets out of just celebrating the fact that Russia recognized them. And they knew that that meant that Russia was going to be helping these republics.

Speaker 3 And then days later, Russia came across the border and

Speaker 3 the war between Ukraine and

Speaker 3 Russia started. You know,

Speaker 3 one way or another, the war between Russia and the West has started,

Speaker 3 Western weapons, at least. And

Speaker 3 as many people around the world thought it was going to go a lot quicker than it has,

Speaker 3 I myself did a

Speaker 3 report in the center of Donetsk where I assumed and thought that Russia was going to be pushing Ukraine back within days from the city of Donetsk.

Speaker 3 Because you have to imagine the front line of Donetsk was just on the outskirts of the city. We're talking from the center of the city to the edge, just about

Speaker 3 to the front line, just about five miles,

Speaker 3 with

Speaker 3 often just straight shelling hitting the center of the city. And as we know, it didn't end in three days like General Miley

Speaker 3 said it would.

Speaker 3 And

Speaker 3 there's been a lot of intense battles around these areas. And in fact, right now, I believe there is eight regions

Speaker 3 between

Speaker 3 what is internationally recognized as Ukraine or Russia recognizes as Russia. But overall, there's eight regions that have active fighting.

Speaker 3 Some are Russian, some are pre-war Russian, after-war Russian, whatever you want to call it. We've got the Zaporozhia region,

Speaker 3 Khersun region, Donetsk region, and Lugansk region, which all four of those

Speaker 3 had referendums in 2022, September, where they, the Russian-backed referendums, unrecognized by the West, where they voted to

Speaker 3 join Russia. And then shortly after, Russia took them in officially.
And then, in addition to those four regions, you've got

Speaker 3 two regions of

Speaker 3 Russia, the Belgrade region of Russia and the Kursk region of Russia, where Ukraine came across the

Speaker 3 border and

Speaker 3 invaded, incurred on

Speaker 3 pre-2022 Russia. And in actually in the area of Kursk, they controlled last August about 1,500 square kilometers.

Speaker 3 Since then, it's been

Speaker 3 really

Speaker 3 reduced by Russian forces. But in addition to those six territories, we've also got the Sumi region of Ukraine, which there's some villages and some territory that Russia controls.

Speaker 3 And there's active, very intense fighting going on there. And now that borders the Kursk region.

Speaker 3 So basically, Russia went past the territory that was controlled by Ukraine in the Kursk region of Russia and took territory in the Sumi region.

Speaker 3 Now, also in the Kharkov region of Ukraine, Russia controls

Speaker 3 some territory as well.

Speaker 3 Again, intense fighting going on there. So we've got eight regions with intense fighting.

Speaker 3 And

Speaker 3 the war keeps changing. So much has changed, of course, in the last 11 years, as far as how the fighting has changed and how it's

Speaker 3 going on now. And even since 2022, when Russia first came in, and now the situation is the air war, the drone war.

Speaker 3 I mean, it's like the war of the future now compared to what it used to be 11 years ago.

Speaker 3 I mean, the most dangerous part of my job is actually getting to the front line to film what's happening on the front line because in the vehicles, getting there is just there's always drones around, and these are kamikaze drones that are the main threat.

Speaker 3 Of course, there's reconnaissance drones as well, but these kamikazes, they will just

Speaker 3 hitch, they're hunting vehicles around and going back and forth from the front line. And they will just hit the vehicle and explode.

Speaker 3 And now they've even gone a step forward where jamming or electronic warfare doesn't affect them because they use fiber optic cables to control these drones, where this little bitty cable goes from behind the drone to the remote control.

Speaker 3 They're cabled drones and they could go up to 30 kilometers. And actually,

Speaker 3 this right here is some of the fiber optic cable that

Speaker 3 is used to control these drones.

Speaker 3 And those are the most deadly on the front line because you can't do anything about it. You can't even detect them with a drone detector.

Speaker 2 So,

Speaker 2 what is that like?

Speaker 2 Have you seen the kamikaze drones hit and explode?

Speaker 3 Well, just I guess just over three weeks ago, I was in the the Kursk

Speaker 3 region of Russia trying to actually get back from the front line. And I was with a team from the Russian forces Ahmad

Speaker 3 brigade, and they were evacuating civilians from the front line.

Speaker 3 We actually got to the point of, as they called it, the point of zero, which at the edge of the village where we were, was the Ukrainian forces.

Speaker 3 And

Speaker 3 as we got there, there were several overhead and they engaged one on the ground and it came down. It wasn't that intense, you could say.
So they

Speaker 3 loaded the civilians in this truck. So in the cab of the truck were these four elderly civilians

Speaker 3 and the soldier that was driving. And then myself and another journalist, a colleague of mine, were in the back of the truck with two soldiers.
And we were trying to evacuate this village and as

Speaker 3 we

Speaker 3 got out of the just just outside the village i happened to be filming one of the uh soldiers as they were scanning this the uh skies and the other soldier actually pointed up and said a drone and a few other curse words and i looked up and there was

Speaker 3 a drone, a kamikaze drone. Right away, I knew what it was and I knew the danger we were in.
And

Speaker 3 the soldiers started firing on it, engaging it, trying to knock it down as it was trying to attack us and kill us. And they signaled to the driver, and the driver just floored it.

Speaker 3 It was just driving as fast as possible. And I'm filming them shooting at the drone.
The drones trying to hit us. I thought that we were going to be, you know, worst, best case scenario, injured

Speaker 3 because, I mean, it got so close to us as we were just driving, just got right up on us. And then

Speaker 3 after about five minutes of it chasing us, well, what felt like five minutes might have been a few minutes less,

Speaker 3 it was knocked down. And

Speaker 2 how do you knock down a drone? How do you knock down a suicide drone over you?

Speaker 3 They were engaging it with a shotgun and machine guns. And

Speaker 3 it was coming at us. And it was in the video, it's a little bit unclear if their bullets actually hit it or it hit a wire that was going over the road.

Speaker 3 But for about five minutes, three minutes, something like that, they were firing at it with a shotgun and a machine gun.

Speaker 3 Now, the shotgun is the most the new weapon of choice on the front line because it's got the buck shot and it spreads. And these,

Speaker 3 the idea is there's more room to hit, just like you're shooting at a bird. That's actually what they call these drones, birds.

Speaker 3 So they go hunting with this shotgun for these drones. And luckily, thank God, God was with us that day, and

Speaker 3 it did not hit its target.

Speaker 3 So we made it

Speaker 3 to report another day.

Speaker 2 Mother's Day is almost here, and you're under a lot of pressure to find something great for the mothers in your life.

Speaker 2 So instead of getting something you hope will check the box and waiting to see if the mom you're giving it to actually likes it, give her something she will genuinely love. Cozy Earth.

Speaker 2 Cozy Earth makes the softest, most breathable bedding and pajamas the women you know have ever experienced. Crafted from temperature regulating bamboo fabric.
Bamboo fabric!

Speaker 2 It sounds weird, but it's awesome. Try it.
When you give it, people will be a little bit confused and then they will fall in love. This is something she will use every single day.

Speaker 2 Unlike other presents, you don't have to worry about this being thrown into the closet, an embarrassing silence when you hand it over. Everybody loves Cozy Earth.

Speaker 2 It's got a hundred-night sleep trial, a 10-year warranty, so it's risk-free. Get it today.
So skip the flowers. Give comfort that lasts.
Cozy Earth. Go to cozyearth.com slash Tucker.

Speaker 2 Use the code Tucker to get up to 40% off sheets, pajamas, towels, everything they make. And if you get a post-purchase survey, make sure to say that you heard about Cozier Earth from us on this show.

Speaker 5 Kay Jeweler's early Black Friday sale is happening now. Get up to 50% off Black Friday deals and up to 40% off everything else.
Don't miss this sale. Start your season with savings.
Only a K.

Speaker 5 Exclusions Apply. ck.com slash exclusions for details.

Speaker 6 At blinds.com, it's not just about window treatments. It's about you, your style, your space, your way.

Speaker 6 Whether you DIY or want the pros to handle it all, you'll have the confidence of knowing it's done right.

Speaker 6 From free expert design help to our 100% satisfaction guarantee, everything we do is made to fit your life and your windows. Because at blinds.com, the only thing we treat better than Windows is you.

Speaker 6 Black Friday deals are going on all month long. Save up to 45% off site-wide, plus an additional 10% off every order right now at blinds.com.

Speaker 2 Rules and restrictions apply.

Speaker 2 So one of the

Speaker 2 most confusing questions

Speaker 2 in the West

Speaker 2 is the most obvious question, which is who's winning? And even now, we're told that Ukraine has a shot to win. Lindsey Graham has been saying this even recently.
If only U.S.

Speaker 2 taxpayers would send Zelensky's government more money.

Speaker 2 What's your perspective as someone who's covering the war from the front lines?

Speaker 3 Well, I think the idea of Ukraine winning the war

Speaker 3 is

Speaker 3 just this dream and narrative that's been put out by the West to

Speaker 3 make it acceptable for so much money to be

Speaker 3 put into Ukraine to extend this war, to bring

Speaker 3 Russian forces down in the country of Russia, just to make them use their

Speaker 3 resources more, including losing more people.

Speaker 3 I mean, if the United States and the West would not have been supplying the weapons and the funding to Ukraine for the last three years, the war would have ended three years ago, if not two and a half years ago,

Speaker 3 and hundreds of thousands of lives would have been saved.

Speaker 3 The funding and the support of the West for Ukraine is directly responsible for hundreds of thousands of these deaths of soldiers

Speaker 3 on both sides and civilians for that matter.

Speaker 2 It's just

Speaker 2 how many have died. The other question that we can never get a straight answer to or any answer to is how many have died on both sides.
Do you have any guess?

Speaker 3 You know, it's hard for me to say.

Speaker 3 You know, my kind of thing in my reports is reporting of what I see, keeping my opinions out of it. So So, what I can tell you is of what I've seen.

Speaker 3 One of the hottest areas that I was banned before Kursk and Belgrade, where I am now,

Speaker 3 was the Mariupol

Speaker 3 front line, where I followed the Russian front line day by day in the heats of the Battle of Mariupol.

Speaker 3 And just that month, I personally

Speaker 3 saw,

Speaker 3 you know, between a thousand and two thousand thousand bodies, and it was soldiers, civilians.

Speaker 3 I mean, the whole city was just covered in bodies.

Speaker 3 In a matter of a 30-minute period, one time I counted 87 bodies just lighting the streets.

Speaker 3 And I mean, it was really a horrible situation.

Speaker 3 And, you know, just seeing so many war crimes involved,

Speaker 3 so many testimonies from locals about Ukrainian forces

Speaker 3 basically literally, these are not my words, these are the words of the locals that everything I say can be seen on my YouTube channel.

Speaker 3 These locals say that Ukrainian forces literally use them as human shields, would set up their tanks

Speaker 3 in between the apartment buildings and fire at Russian forces. And in other cases,

Speaker 3 they would directly fire on the civilian buildings, Ukraine forces directly firing on civilian buildings.

Speaker 3 This is what the locals told me on camera, and it can be seen, not just one-off, a constant daily event.

Speaker 3 And

Speaker 3 unfortunately, there were many instances of Ukrainian forces using schools as bases.

Speaker 3 One of my first days in Mariupol found a school, school number 25 of Mariupol. I'll never forget it.

Speaker 3 Went into the basement and found that Ukrainian forces were using this basement as a position, military position,

Speaker 3 and

Speaker 3 many burned-out rooms and weapons, uniforms, flags, Ukrainian flags. And unfortunately, we found a

Speaker 3 dead

Speaker 3 civilian woman who

Speaker 3 uh she was she was naked and is she had a um a bag over her head and was clearly raped and tortured and uh it was clearly a civilian from the area that ukrainian forces had kidnapped and uh tortured and raped and they carved

Speaker 3 it's actually a little unclear whether it was burned or carved a swastika on her stomach um and it in really in the

Speaker 3 this is the first time that it stood out to me the psychological effect of some of these instances when you see it.

Speaker 3 In my mind, I still remember seeing a bandage over her head, kind of like something like she was injured, and it was bandaged.

Speaker 3 But if you look at the video, you see it was a plastic bag that was used to execute her.

Speaker 3 Now, that's just one of the many examples of executions that I've seen by Ukrainian forces. The most recent were in the Kursk region, just this last

Speaker 3 January,

Speaker 3 where

Speaker 3 I was with Russian regular army forces,

Speaker 3 and they had just days before gotten to this village and basically kicked Ukrainian forces out, and the village was destroyed. And

Speaker 3 there was a

Speaker 3 shelter, a basement, basically, that we went down into and found a group of civilians.

Speaker 3 There were two elderly women and one elderly man that had been

Speaker 3 killed by clearly by Ukrainian forces because as we walked down the steps, the smell was so bad we had to put gas masks on.

Speaker 3 And at the bottom of the steps, were

Speaker 3 couldn't really say how many people

Speaker 3 because it was clear that some sort of explosive, I assume a grenade, was thrown down in the shelter where these people were hiding. And

Speaker 3 the people near the door, actually with a dog that were there, were just

Speaker 3 turned into, you know,

Speaker 3 soup, basically.

Speaker 3 So it wasn't really clear how many were there. But then, as we went farther back into the shelter, found, as I said,

Speaker 3 two elderly women that were killed by the explosion and an elderly man.

Speaker 3 And then back in August, as I said, when Ukraine first came in to Kursk,

Speaker 3 I was also there and met a man who explained how he was trying to evacuate his family from the Suzha region, which was basically the stronghold of Ukrainian forces

Speaker 3 when they came into the Kursk region of Russia. And he explained how

Speaker 3 he was evacuating his wife, pregnant wife, their one-year-old son, and his wife's mother.

Speaker 3 And they had two vehicles, and this is basically they were surprised that war broke out in their village because they weren't part of the war zone before August.

Speaker 3 Um, and so he's decided he was going to drive in the front car and have his family in the back with his wife driving behind just in case something's happened, it would hit him first and they might make it away.

Speaker 3 And they were, he said, they were driving, came across a turn, and came face to face with a Ukraine, a pro-Ukraine soldier.

Speaker 3 He said, just two meters away from him, he said there was no way that the soldier did not see that they were civilians. There was no question they were civilians.
And the soldier opened fire.

Speaker 3 The bullet went through the bill of his cap and a few into his vehicle. And

Speaker 3 they kept on

Speaker 3 driving as they were being fired at and got some distance between and went around another

Speaker 3 corner. And these are his words, not mine.

Speaker 3 And he saw that his wife's vehicle was slowing down and he waited for her to speed up. And

Speaker 3 then when her car hit the back of his car, he knew something was wrong. And he went back to check on his family in the other car.

Speaker 3 And his wife, pregnant wife, was huddled over their one-year-old son with bullet holes in her side of her stomach. And

Speaker 3 he picked her up, took her to the nearest hospital they could find,

Speaker 3 and

Speaker 3 they weren't able to save her. He tried to do CPR and his words massage her heart back to life.
And

Speaker 3 their

Speaker 3 one-year-old son was injured, but thank God he lived. And then, unfortunately, he wasn't able to recover her body for many months afterwards.

Speaker 3 But now things have changed quite considerably in the Kursk region. As I said, it started in August with Ukraine just surprising many coming across,

Speaker 3 taking 1,500 square kilometers.

Speaker 3 And then right when they did that.

Speaker 3 Russia started taking some back. And I was with them.
I went with the assault groups to the Ukrainian lines as the assault groups took territory back.

Speaker 3 And

Speaker 3 Russia started going and going and going and taking these villages back. And it almost slowed down as far as the recovery of the territory by Russian forces until last month when

Speaker 3 an operation of Russian forces literally went into these gas pipes and they tunneled underneath Ukrainian lines. And a reported 600 Russian forces, soldiers, came up behind Ukrainian lines.
And

Speaker 3 that operation with

Speaker 3 an assault from the other side basically collapsed Ukrainian lines. And now there's just a very small amount of Ukrainian forces left in the Kursk region.

Speaker 3 And just yesterday, there were a report from the Russian Ministry of Defense that some territory had had been taken back by Russian forces. Now, unfortunately, this is leaving

Speaker 3 tens of thousands of people homeless. That homes were destroyed in this

Speaker 3 incursion or invasion by Russian force or Ukrainian forces into this

Speaker 3 region of Russia. And basically, the standard

Speaker 3 thing for the Russian government to do is give certificates for new homes to the victims.

Speaker 3 They've actually gotten pretty good at it because there's so many regions of people that have been had their homes lost by Ukrainian shelling.

Speaker 3 But one thing that I noticed that's pretty interesting about what they're doing in the Kursk region and on top of the certificate, it's just been compared to what the United States

Speaker 3 does

Speaker 3 when someone loses their house, say, to a natural disaster. The governor of Kursk, Alexander Kinsting,

Speaker 3 started an initiative to request from

Speaker 3 Moscow a special stipend or payment of a monthly payment of 65,000 rubles for every member of a family whose home was lost monthly. So the

Speaker 3 I mean, that's $65,000, that's about $750. So if it's a family of four, that's about $3,000 a month.

Speaker 3 You know, of course, that's not going to, you know, replace everything in their lives that they've lost, but it's a lot more than I think was the United States giving to some of the natural disasters.

Speaker 3 I think 700 lump sum payments, something like that. So it's interesting to see the comparison.

Speaker 2 So think about how you'll feel when you achieve your biggest goals of all, whether it's starting a business, paying off your mortgage, sending your kids to college, giving the money to pay for it.

Speaker 2 You'll be pretty proud when you've met these essential life goals and you should be proud. All of us are when we do that.
But what do you do next?

Speaker 2 So getting to the goals is one thing, but protecting them is an entirely different thing and maybe a bigger thing. And this is where life insurance from Policy Genius comes in.

Speaker 2 Now, Policy Genius makes finding and buying life insurance really easy. You probably want life insurance, but it's expensive.
And how do you even get it?

Speaker 2 Policy Genius makes it simple and it means that your family has the safety net it needs to cover expenses and to face the future.

Speaker 2 Nearly half of Americans look back and wish they've gotten life insurance earlier. It can change everything if you have it because you don't know what the future holds, honestly.

Speaker 2 So with Policy Genius, you can find policy starting at just 292 bucks per year for a million dollars of coverage.

Speaker 2 And some options are 100% online and that means no unnecessary medical exams for you, which is a win. You compare quotes from top insurers side by side.
You talk to licensed agents.

Speaker 2 You secure your families tomorrow with peace of mind today. And it makes it super easy easy on Policy Genius.
And it's all transparent. You know exactly what you're getting.

Speaker 2 So you head to policygenius.com slash Tucker and click the link in the description to get your free quote. That's policygenius.com slash Tucker.

Speaker 2 You may have noticed that this is a great country with bad food. Our food supply is rotten.
It didn't used to be this way. Take chips, for example.

Speaker 2 You may recall a time when crushing a bag of chips didn't make you feel hungover, like you couldn't get out of bed the next day. And the change, of course, is chemicals.

Speaker 2 There's all kinds of crap they're putting in this food that should not be in your body. Seed oils, for example.

Speaker 2 Now, even one serving of your standard American chip brand can make you feel bloated, fat,

Speaker 2 totally passive and out of it. But there is a better way.
It's called masa chips. They're delicious.
I've got a whole garage full of them.

Speaker 2 They're healthy, they taste great, and they have three simple ingredients: corn, salt, and 100% grass-fed beef tallow. No garbage, no seed oils.
What a relief.

Speaker 2 And you feel the difference when you eat them, as we often do. Snacking on masa chips is not like eating the garbage that you buy at convenience stores.

Speaker 2 You feel satisfied, light, energetic, not sluggish. Tens of thousands of happy people eat masa chips.
It's endorsed by people who understand health. It's well worth a try.

Speaker 2 Go to masa, m-as-achips.com/slash tucker. Use the code Tucker for 25% off your first order.
That's Masachips.com

Speaker 2 Tucker. Code Tucker for 25% off your first order.
Highly recommended.

Speaker 7 It's time your hard-earned money works harder for you. With the Wealthfront Cash Account, your uninvested cash earns a 3.5% APY, which is higher than the average savings rate.

Speaker 7 No account fees, no minimums, and free instant withdrawals to eligible accounts anytime. Join over a million people who trust WealthFront to build wealth at wealthfront.com.

Speaker 7 Cash account offered by Wealthfront Brokerage LLC, member FINRA SIPC, and is not a bank. APY on deposits as of November 7th, 2025 is representative, subject to change, and requires no minimum.

Speaker 7 Funds are swept to program banks where they earn the variable APY.

Speaker 2 Ash Tucker. So

Speaker 2 let me ask you:

Speaker 2 from

Speaker 2 our perspective over here, the Ukrainian government is not just at war with Russia, but also with Christianity.

Speaker 2 The Ukrainian government has banned the largest Christian denomination in Ukraine and has embraced transgenderism and other explicitly anti-Christian forms of expression.

Speaker 2 Are you aware of that? Are the Russians aware of that? Is there a religious component? Just because their hostility to Christianity is so obvious, I wonder if you notice it.

Speaker 3 Well,

Speaker 3 I always ask the soldiers on the front line who document fighting, you know, what they're doing there. Why are they fighting? What are they fighting for? And often an answer that

Speaker 3 they give is

Speaker 3 they're fighting Satan

Speaker 3 because they view the

Speaker 3 religious atmosphere so different, as you point out, in Ukraine than the traditional Russian society.

Speaker 3 So it's quite a

Speaker 3 Religion is very important

Speaker 3 to the Russian soldier.

Speaker 3 And of course, I think it's quite a bit more than, you know, the traditional you say there's no atheists on the front line, but this goes a lot deeper into their cultural heritage.

Speaker 2 Have you seen any North Korean soldiers?

Speaker 3 No, I have not. Not a lack of trying.
I tried to investigate the reports of these North Korean soldiers, and I was not able to locate any of them.

Speaker 3 Of course, there's rumors all over the world of this, but I was not able to locate any of them.

Speaker 2 How many American correspondents are embedded with Russian units that you know of?

Speaker 3 One, me.

Speaker 2 So no one from NBC or CNN or Fox or

Speaker 2 PBS or New York Times, Washington Post, you're not aware of any American correspondence covering the other side in this war?

Speaker 3 No, no.

Speaker 2 So, does it feel to you

Speaker 2 that American reporters have basically

Speaker 2 taken the side of the Biden administration, which told us that Russia is our enemy, and are uncritically repeating U.S. government talking points?

Speaker 3 Yeah, I mean, of course, the Western media has their narrative.

Speaker 3 And,

Speaker 3 you know, unfortunately, they try to hide

Speaker 3 the facts

Speaker 3 that

Speaker 3 most of what I report, they tried to hide and not report on it. And, you know, I tell all my

Speaker 3 viewers.

Speaker 3 Don't just watch my reports because I don't have all the evidence, but I'm showing you what the mainstream media doesn't want you to see.

Speaker 3 I'm just giving you my piece of the puzzle, something that you're not going to see anywhere else, unfortunately.

Speaker 3 But, you know, people need to get as many perspectives as possible and educate themselves, not just be led like sheep by the mainstream media.

Speaker 3 And I'm very glad there's people like you out there as well.

Speaker 3 uh that you know could give someone a little bit something to think about than just the narrative that is trying to be forced down their throat.

Speaker 2 Yeah, I mean, if you're the only American correspondent embedded with Russian units, then I would think you would be in high demand. I'm embarrassed, it's taken me over three years to talk to you.

Speaker 2 That's my fault. But I mean, I assume you're getting calls every week from American news organizations trying to understand what's happening.

Speaker 3 Unfortunately, no, they don't seem too interested in

Speaker 3 discussing things with me or seeing the information that I'm putting out. And in fact, in 2014, 15

Speaker 3 and 16, I was

Speaker 3 what

Speaker 3 I would say is a

Speaker 3 freelance journalist, videographer as well, until

Speaker 3 you know,

Speaker 3 I felt like my work was being betrayed

Speaker 3 because I was

Speaker 3 giving this material. And then once I saw that the material was being lied about,

Speaker 3 I mean, one instance, I was in the Lugansk region in Pervomysk when Ukraine forces launched a rocket attack on this soup kitchen. And

Speaker 3 we happened to be there and I filmed the aftermath and the women saying how Pereshinko was killing them and their families, just really horrible. Just

Speaker 3 targeting civilians by Ukrainian forces with huge rockets. And

Speaker 3 I sold that material as a freelance journalist to Western outlets. And they turned it around and said that it was Lugansk rebels that fired on the soup kitchen, just totally lying about the situation.

Speaker 3 So after that, I decided I'm not going to do that anymore. You know, regardless if I get

Speaker 3 paid for it or not, I'm going to be showing exactly what I see. And that's what I've been doing since then is just on my YouTube channel showing my reports.
I'm only supported by my viewers.

Speaker 3 Of course, I'll do collaborations with other

Speaker 3 channels and things if they're interested.

Speaker 3 I make it a point not to get paid by

Speaker 3 anyone but the donations from my viewers. So the only people that I report to that I need to show what's really happening is my viewers.
I don't have any editor or

Speaker 3 boss that says, oh, we need to show this or show this. No, I show in my reports on YouTube and my Substack blog

Speaker 3 exactly what's happening, exactly what I see with no narrative, just the facts that the Western mainstream media isn't showing.

Speaker 2 There's so much darkness in the world that can feel overwhelming. Wars, political fighting, violence, hatred, the love between people growing cold.

Speaker 2 And you have to ask yourself, where does this all come from? Well, one place it comes from is the refusal of a society to care about people, including babies.

Speaker 2 As you've been listening to this, untold numbers of unborn babies need help.

Speaker 2 There are thousands of pregnant women who are trying to decide, should I keep this child or not, choosing between life and abortion. A child's future hangs in the balance.
Pre-born is ready to help.

Speaker 2 Pre-born has a clinic network on standby to help women make that choice, to make the right choice, to choose life, to affirm the value of people, which in the end are all that matters.

Speaker 2 It helps these mothers choose, not just for the babies, but for themselves. Once introduced to the child growing inside them, women are twice as likely to choose life.

Speaker 2 Once they know this is not just some massive tissue, but a person, they choose life voluntarily.

Speaker 2 Last year alone, Pre-Born rescued over 67,000 babies and are aiming to save another 80,000 this year in 2025. You can support them.
$28 a month can make the difference between life and death.

Speaker 2 And $140 sponsors five ultrasounds. You can donate securely.
Please dial pound250. Say the keyword baby.
That's pound250 baby or visit preborn.com slash tucker. Preborn.com slash tucker.

Speaker 2 We're honored to partner with pre-born. Where do you keep your most valuable possessions? Not your necktie or a pair of socks, but things you wouldn't want to replace or maybe couldn't.

Speaker 2 Heirlooms from your parents, your birth certificate, your firearms, your grandfather's shotgun. Where do you store those? Under the bed? In the back of a closet?

Speaker 2 That's unwise and maybe unsafe. Liberty Safe is the place to store them.
I would know I have a colonial safe from Liberty Safe. It's in my garage.
It's the best. I keep everything in there.

Speaker 2 It's a proflex system. Allows you to design the inside of your safe in a way that works for you.
It's not a fixed setup. Someone else puts the shelves in and you have to deal with it.

Speaker 2 You make it the way you want it. Have a stock of rifles.
You can make room. Need more shelves for handguns, for documents, for valuables, for gold.
You can do whatever you want.

Speaker 2 You can refigure your safe in minutes. Maximum flexibility, maximum convenience.
Liberty Safe is America's number one safe company made in the United States. Great people, I know them.

Speaker 2 Visit libertysafe.com. Use the code Tucker10 at checkout for 10% off Franklin and Colonial Safes featuring the ProFlex interior that you customize.
You're going to dig it. We definitely.

Speaker 2 Plus, they're good looking, I will say.

Speaker 4 Dashing through the store, Dave's looking for a gift. One you can't ignore, but not the socks he picks.
I know, I'm putting them back. Hey, Dave, here's a tip: put scratchers on your list.

Speaker 3 Oh, scratchers, good idea.

Speaker 4 It's an easy shopping trip. We're glad we could assist.

Speaker 3 Thanks, random singing people.

Speaker 4 So be like like Dave this holiday and give the gift of play. Stratchers from the California lottery.
A little play can make your day.

Speaker 6 Please play responsibly.

Speaker 2 Must be 18 years or older to purchase play or claim. So since you've been there all these years and have a

Speaker 2 tactile sense of what's happening, give us a couple examples of stories Americans may have seen or read in our media here that you know firsthand or wrong.

Speaker 3 Well,

Speaker 3 we can,

Speaker 3 off the top of my head, the

Speaker 3 missile attack, Tochka U attack by Ukrainian forces on the center of

Speaker 3 Donetsk in 2022, when Ukraine launched a cluster bomb

Speaker 3 attack on the center of Donetsk, and

Speaker 3 cluster bombs

Speaker 3 came down and actually hit just about 200 yards from my apartment where my family and uh kids and wife were, and my dad was actually in uh the city uh with us uh as well.

Speaker 3 And uh, we had to throw the we thought we were getting hit. We threw the bulletproof vests on the kids and uh threw one of the others under the bed, and I mean, it was it was uh

Speaker 3 not good. And uh, in the western mainstream media,

Speaker 3 they said that it was a Russian attack, which is just idiotic.

Speaker 3 Why would Russia attack Donetsk

Speaker 3 that hasn't been under Ukrainian control for the last eight years before that?

Speaker 3 I mean, just total grabbing of false information to try to portray a narrative that just is not true.

Speaker 3 And

Speaker 3 actually, that was the the last day that my family

Speaker 3 was in Dunettes with me. I had to evacuate them as I stayed to show what was happening on the front line.

Speaker 3 My wife didn't want to leave because, as I said, my wife's from Dunettes, but I said after that, just so close to us, I had to evacuate them.

Speaker 3 And after that, I just, you know, kind of went solo and went back to my family when I could.

Speaker 3 And that's what I do

Speaker 2 even today.

Speaker 2 Where Where are you from in the United States?

Speaker 3 I'm from St. Louis, Missouri.

Speaker 2 Have you been back to the U.S.

Speaker 2 during the last over the last three years?

Speaker 3 In the last three years, no, I have not.

Speaker 2 How is YouTube treating you?

Speaker 3 Well, I haven't been monetized on YouTube basically at all. I started my YouTube channel in 2014, and there's no monetization

Speaker 3 whatsoever.

Speaker 3 Why?

Speaker 2 On what grounds were you demonetized?

Speaker 3 You know, it's been literally over a decade ago, but I believe just the fact of war and

Speaker 3 you know, they're just not interested on putting commercials on my material.

Speaker 3 I guess because it doesn't fit the Western mainstream narrative, but

Speaker 3 you know, it's great that I'm still able to use the platform to show the world some of the things that's happening. But unfortunately, it's not monetized.

Speaker 3 So I'm only supported by, as I said, my viewers

Speaker 3 through

Speaker 3 donations. But, you know, what I do, it's not really because of the money.
Yeah, of course, I've got to support my family.

Speaker 3 But,

Speaker 3 you know, as I said, after I saw how different what was being shown in the West, what was happening,

Speaker 3 I just had to do something about it. And, you know, if you would ask me

Speaker 3 before, 12 years ago, would I be a war correspondent, you know, going to the front lines with, you know, showing the reality of what's happening? And I'd be the only one doing it. It just

Speaker 3 would be

Speaker 3 amazing to me.

Speaker 2 I mean,

Speaker 2 given the atrocities that you've you've seen some incredibly ugly things you described a few of them um but it's been so long i wonder what effect that has on you as a person to see things like that

Speaker 3 well i mean uh

Speaker 3 i would say before this war i wasn't i had mixed thoughts about uh what uh post-traumatic stress really was and how serious it was but i can tell you now and there's no doubt that it's definitely a thing.

Speaker 3 You know,

Speaker 3 I would say

Speaker 3 quite different.

Speaker 3 Of course, everything I've seen here is quite different than when I was in the U.S. military.
I used to be in the

Speaker 3 U.S. Navy from 2001 till 2006, and I was on the USS Kitty Hawk that was involved with Operation Iraqi Freedom.
And,

Speaker 3 never saw anything like that there, like I see here, of course. But

Speaker 3 I always find it

Speaker 3 interesting how

Speaker 3 the U.S.

Speaker 3 calls all of their operations operations, but when Russia says that it's not a war, it's a special military operation, the Western media makes this big thing about it, how, oh, it's legal to call it a war in Russia and all that, which is total bull.

Speaker 3 The war is a war. Operation Iraqi Freedom was a war, and

Speaker 3 Russia's special military operation is a war. And the eight years before it was a civil war.
A war is a war, regardless what you want to

Speaker 3 call it. And I'm in Russia now calling it a war.
Nothing's going to happen

Speaker 3 because of it.

Speaker 3 So that's just another false narrative that the Western media pushed of

Speaker 3 trying to say no freedom of speech in Russia and all that just

Speaker 2 total falsehood. So,

Speaker 2 did you know Gonzalo Lira, who is maybe the only other American who was looking critically at what the Ukrainian government is doing? He was murdered by the Ukrainian government, as you know.

Speaker 2 Did you ever run across him? And are you worried that if you fell into Ukrainian hands, they would murder you too?

Speaker 3 Well, we talked over online a couple of times.

Speaker 3 You know, he was definitely ballsy

Speaker 3 for him to

Speaker 3 go against the Ukrainian government while he was there. And unfortunately, it didn't work so well for him.

Speaker 3 And

Speaker 3 of course, if I was able ever

Speaker 3 If I ever ended up in Ukrainian forces, it would not be in Ukrainian forces' hands. It would not be a very nice time.

Speaker 3 You know, I've been on the

Speaker 3 Ukrainian kill list or whatever you want to enemies of the state list, which I believe you are as well. Meritoritz, I believe

Speaker 3 we're both on there. I've been on that list since 2016,

Speaker 3 the list that's non-governmental list that they put names of people that are an enemy of ukraine and they write because of my work that i'm an assistance to terrorism and they've posted uh photos of my children my wife i they in the past they even posted her um

Speaker 3 personal telephone number

Speaker 3 She had to change your number because of it.

Speaker 3 So,

Speaker 3 yeah, it would not be a good thing if I ended up in the hands of Russian or Ukrainian forces.

Speaker 2 The Ukrainian war effort has been led by the United States. Do you have any, which is a fact most Americans, I think, even now don't understand.

Speaker 2 Do you have any idea how many Americans have been killed fighting for Ukraine?

Speaker 3 Well,

Speaker 3 we know it happens.

Speaker 3 I would say there's probably a lot more that have been killed for Ukraine than is public knowledge.

Speaker 2 Yes.

Speaker 3 I mean,

Speaker 3 you can imagine that there is probably some internal operations on the front line that involve

Speaker 3 Western Special Forces, and not all of them made it out.

Speaker 3 I've talked to

Speaker 3 soldiers.

Speaker 3 on the front, Russian soldiers on the front line about

Speaker 3 foreign mercenaries or foreign soldiers, and they said they encounter them all the time

Speaker 3 from European countries, from the US,

Speaker 3 and more. And it also, as I actually made a video last month, about it seems Russia's not really playing around anymore when it comes to

Speaker 3 foreign fighters or what they consider all the foreign fighters they consider foreign mercenaries.

Speaker 3 And Vladimir Putin says that these foreign mercenaries do not get the projection of the Jiva Convention and are

Speaker 3 there's a possibility of execution.

Speaker 3 So it really seems like now that

Speaker 2 there's

Speaker 3 only two outcomes for these foreigners that come over here to fight if they come into Russian hands. It's jail or death.

Speaker 3 And I say jail because in the beginning of March, there was a British soldier who was taken prisoner by Russian forces.

Speaker 3 I believe he was taken prisoner in November of last year in the Kursk region. And he went through his trial and was convicted

Speaker 3 and received a 19-year sentence.

Speaker 3 So

Speaker 3 seems Russia is going pretty strong on the foreigners here.

Speaker 2 How long do you think this war will go on?

Speaker 3 Well, it's a very difficult question.

Speaker 3 Back in 2022, I tried to make, as I said, the predictions like many people around the world did, and everyone was wrong. I mean,

Speaker 3 of course, the most important thing is people stop dying. And it would be great if today

Speaker 3 there was a ceasefire declared and everyone stopped dying and everything went back to

Speaker 3 peace

Speaker 3 and

Speaker 3 all that. But I don't think it's going to be happening anytime soon, unfortunately,

Speaker 3 because Russia has made it clear that Russian law considers the four regions,

Speaker 3 Zaporozhia, Herson,

Speaker 3 Donetsk Lugansk, part of Russia. Western law, and of course, Crimea.
But even now Trump says he's going to say Crimea is Russia, so that's not even worth discussing anymore.

Speaker 3 But Ukraine law and Western law says that these four regions are part of Ukraine.

Speaker 3 Russia cannot stop until they control what is legally by Russian law considered part of Russia. Regardless, what side of this conflict you favor,

Speaker 3 looking at Russian law, Russian law cannot stop the war until they control part,

Speaker 3 all of what

Speaker 3 Russian law considers part of Russia. And I've been saying this for years.
It was one thing before September of 2022 when Russia could have stopped and

Speaker 3 had a quick

Speaker 3 peace deal. But after September of 2022, these four regions were legally, as far as Russian law considers, part of Russia.
And Russia cannot stop until it controls this.

Speaker 3 And Zlonitsky, Ukraine, and the West has made it clear that Ukrainian forces are not just going to stand up and leave these regions. Now, if we look at Lugansk, there's 99%

Speaker 3 of the area of Lugansk that's controlled by Russia. But if you go south to the Donetsk region,

Speaker 3 there's less controlled by Russia with several important uh key places like Kramatorsk and Slavyansk, which actually

Speaker 3 the water supply

Speaker 3 to Donetsk. Um, and then, of course, in Kherson, you've got the city of Hherson, and Zaporozhye, the city of Zaporozhye, which are cut geographically by a river, is basically the front line now.

Speaker 3 Um, and I mentioned the water supply for Donetsk. Basically, after Russia took control of Mariupol in 2022,

Speaker 3 the first thing Ukraine did was cut the water from the Kromatorsk area going into Donetsk and down to

Speaker 3 Mariupol.

Speaker 3 The reason they didn't cut the water to Donetsk in the previous eight years, like they did with Crimea, because that was the first thing they did with Crimea when Russia took Crimea, and they cut the water supply from Ukraine, literally damned the canal that was feeding water to the people of Ukraine, of Crimea.

Speaker 3 And

Speaker 3 the water supply was going underneath Donetsk and into Mariupol. And Mariupol had to be fed by water when it controlled Mariupol.
But once Russia fully took control,

Speaker 3 Ukraine shut off the water to Donetsk and Mariupol. And for a long time, In Donetsk, you were only getting two hours every three days of water.

Speaker 3 I mean, just horrible living conditions because Ukraine made the decision to shut off the water to these people, the people that they said they wanted, they were trying to stop from leaving the country for eight years.

Speaker 3 And

Speaker 3 Russia made a huge

Speaker 3 project to bring water from the Rostov region into the Donetsk region. And that's still ongoing.
And now there's a couple hours a day of water in Donetsk.

Speaker 2 That's horrifying. Have you

Speaker 2 seen any reports of the Ukrainian military selling NATO arms outside of Ukraine?

Speaker 3 You know,

Speaker 3 there has been some

Speaker 3 reports of Western-supplied weapons showing up in the cartel hands

Speaker 3 in Mexico and

Speaker 3 other

Speaker 3 places.

Speaker 3 But what I can tell you, I have seen with my own eyes, is Russian forces using these weapons back against Ukraine, weapons that Ukraine got from NATO countries, and Russia captured them and turned them back against Ukraine and

Speaker 3 reverse

Speaker 3 is in the process of reverse engineering. I just did a report where I went with

Speaker 3 a soldier group to an undisclosed location where they had

Speaker 3 about 20 military vehicles, NATO military vehicles that were on their way to be getting reverse engineered and basically any type of secret information they could get out of them.

Speaker 3 And that report will be coming out soon. But

Speaker 3 I would say Russia's getting a lot out of these NATO weapons.

Speaker 2 Last question. Thank you, Patrick, for taking all this time.

Speaker 2 Do you think the

Speaker 2 U.S. population, Americans,

Speaker 2 would have supported this war, which they've paid for for over three years, as long as they did if they'd had

Speaker 2 factual, unbiased news coverage of what was actually happening there?

Speaker 3 No,

Speaker 3 definitely not. And

Speaker 3 one reason is to go back to one of your previous questions about what's not being reported in the West that I could bring to light.

Speaker 3 Well, let's talk about the people of these areas, specifically the Donetsk and Lugansk areas, for the last 11 years, just wanting to break away from Ukraine and the right of self-determination.

Speaker 3 They didn't say this in the media, that these people were not being

Speaker 3 held down by these rebels or whatever you want to call them. These people were doing their best to leave Ukraine and Ukraine was punishing them for that.

Speaker 3 They voted to break away

Speaker 3 from Ukraine. So it's,

Speaker 2 I mean,

Speaker 3 definitely, if the Western people would really understand what's really been happening here over the last 11 years, not just the last three years, but

Speaker 3 the overall situation, there's no way they would have wanted their tax money to be supporting this and killing hundreds of thousands of people.

Speaker 2 I believe that.

Speaker 2 Patrick Lancaster, thank you for doing this interview.

Speaker 2 I hope you're safe.

Speaker 2 I appreciate it. I hope you'll come back.

Speaker 3 Thank you very much, Mr. Carlson.
I appreciate you having me, and I definitely am looking forward to the next time, and hopefully one day we meet in person.

Speaker 2 Godspeed. Thanks.

Speaker 2 We want to thank you for watching us on Spotify, a company that we use every day. We know the people who run it, good people.

Speaker 2 While you're here, do us a favor: hit follow and tap the bell so you never miss an episode. We have real conversations, news, things that actually matter, telling the truth always.

Speaker 2 You will not miss it if you follow us on Spotify and hit the bell. We appreciate it.
Thanks for watching.