Breakthrough in Washington as vote beckons on Ukraine aid package I Ukraine: The Latest, Podcast

I'm David Nolles and this is Ukraine. Today we bring you the

latest

news from across Ukraine and discuss the news that the US House of Representatives will soon

vote

on the Israel and Ukraine aid bills. Ry takes him through the most unimaginable. the difficulties you will encounter will ultimately reward you with victory if we give president zalinski the tools the ukrainians will finish the job ukrainian slave no one is going to break us we are strong we are

ukraine

is every weekday afternoon we sit down with the leading journalists of the London Telegraph Newsroom and our teams report from the ground to bring you the

latest

news and analysis on the war in Ukraine.

It's Tuesday, April 16. It's 2 years and 52 days since the full-scale invasion began and today I'm joined by our Associate Editor Dominick Nichols and Assistant Comments Editor Francis Sternley I started by asking Dom for the latest news from Ukraine, well hello David, hello everyone , in the last 24 hours Russia has targeted a total of 13 Ukrainian provinces. I was going to list them all by area, but it's basically easier to say the regions that were not affected and they are essentially just those in the far west, to the northwest, on the border with Poland and further south, on the border with Romania.

There is widespread destruction in the rest of the country, but civilian deaths and injuries appear to be minimal, fortunately. reported only in the oblasts of heon h kariva and donet Ukrainian air defense units say they intercepted the nine Russian drones that were fired overnight towards heon mikf kitki pava chakarian dit per petk no casualties were reported due to those drones, however However, Russian forces appear to have made recently confirmed advances near cque which is northeast of um around Adiva and west generally into western Don City. There is now no doubt that Russian forces are exploiting the munitions-depleted situation in Ukraine, even President Zalinski said in an interview with PBS NewsHour that was published.

He today said that Russia destroyed the Trilia thermal power plant near Keev a few days ago because Ukraine had run out of missiles to defend the plant. He said that Russia launched 11 missiles against the thermal power plant and, although Ukraine was able to shoot down the first seven, another four managed to get through and destroyed the trilia. Why did Zalinsky ask, because there were no missiles, we have run out of all the missiles that protected the TPP trilia. power PL but as an indication of how chaotic the front is at the moment and to underline the idea that Russia is advancing mainly due to the weight of numbers and a very low moral bar for how they use them, plus the shortage of ammunition in Ukraine.

The geolocated images published on Sunday that I have just consulted indicate that Ukrainian forces have regained positions in the southwest. Novo Mika, which is the southwest. Additionally, geolocated images of Donet city released in recent days show that Russian forces have advanced southeast of Kariva, which is west of Donet, and into northwest POA, which is close to the south, just southwest from Donet City, so you know it's still going. heading towards Russia, but minimal and largely because it depends on where the statistics are formed at the moment, it is reported that there is a 5,6 or 7 to one advantage in the amount of artillery being fired.

Rush versus Ukraine is now connected to all this, the head of Ukraine Military Intelligence Directorate Mr. Chuckles leftenant General Car Banov said that Ukrainian forces are preparing to repel a future major Russian offensive which is expected, he says, by the end of May or early June, but he noted that this will be, quote, catastrophically difficult, without Western military help and then help from Ukraine. Defense Minister Rust Mov, speaking on Sunday, said the current situation in eastern Ukraine is tense uh and that and said that Russian forces are focusing their efforts in the West to support chv yah.

He said Ukrainian forces are successfully using modern technology against larger numbers of Russian personnel. Which is better, I think, because the spokesman for Ukraine's Kitzia force group, Colonel Nazar Volosin, speaking yesterday, said that Ukrainian forces in the rear and in the Diva areas can only use one to five shells of artillery for every 10 shells fired by Russian forces. However, he is saying that Ukrainian artillery is much more accurate now. Defense Minister Umov may be touting Ukraine's superior modern technology, but some of its drone operators, speaking to the Washington Post in an article published over the weekend, said a good number of drones that both Russia and the Ukrainian forces have made the battlefield almost transparent they say that the Russian forces have significantly increased electronic warfare jamming since last year this idea of ​​it being almost transparent resonated with me because when I interviewed Roman Costeño, former commander from the spu, which I was talking about. how fpv drones first person view drones basically produced a gap of about 4 kilometers between the warring forces or were unable to mount any kind of coherent mechanized salt, um other than just some kind of Dashing, he said that anything that move within a kind of 4k of the Enemy Lines was simply attacked by fpv and fpv.

He said it is practically not possible. Virtually no armored assault was possible because of drones. Now these Ukrainian drone operators were talking to the Washington Post in terms of density. I thought this is an interesting statistic, they said there would normally be about 100 drones from both sides within a 10km radius, so you know a pretty busy piece of real estate and think about what it is or the airspace, rather than think about what it is doing to the electromagnetic spectrum and Russia targets operators like in the pil Pilots, if we do, we call them that Pilots or operators of drones with glide bombs and multiple attacks with mlrs rocket launch systems specifically because they are very effective.

A Ukrainian drone instructor and brigade commander said Russia is rapidly developing drones that operate over a wider range of frequencies to make it more difficult for Ukrainian electronic warfare systems to shoot them down, and the same individual said his brigade detects between 70 and 90 fpv drones per day but you can't shoot them all down. I do not have the means to do so and that Russian forces sometimes equip drones with munitions that can detonate after Ukrainian forces shoot them down. The other day I zoomed in with Jack Watling from Russia. He was in the United States, but he did something, he was talking about drones and saying that the kind of gold casing for a drone these days has to be out of small arms fire from the ground, but it can still carry out its surveillance reconnaissance task. or drop munitions or be a kamikazi drone one-way attack drone he said that kind of thing like a Russian allil 10 antenna fits on this mount he says it's optimal for these drones to be like this You have to use a larger missile, of which you know, we've talked at length about how there are few of those around right now to take them down if you can't hit them from the ground if you can't see them. or hear them or even if you can but you can't hit them and if you try, I'm going to back off a little bit now, but it's probably a shoulder to you, a rifle, a soldier trying to shoot, you have to be 500 feet away if you're above 500 certainly if you're above 1000 feet you're pretty safe I think um and so that type of drone is a little bit larger so you're talking tens of thousands compared to the $345,000 type for unit.

It's a little more expensive, but Russia seems to be having the advantage in that group now. I mentioned Roman Costeno a moment ago, uh, David, the mobilization bill that he sponsored through the Parliament of Ukraine was approved by the president of the country, the speaker of the parliamentary parliament this morning. Stefan chuk is now on president zalinsky's desk awaiting his signature this bill allows military recruiting officers to sue people who evade the draft allows harsher punishments for anyone who ignores their draft summons and requires that men to call all men of fighting age which was Recently calls were reduced from 27 to 25 for all men in that group to submit to medical examinations and renew their details at local recruiting offices.

Ukrainian men living abroad also have to update their contact number and address online, so drastic measures must be taken here about who it is. available for draft now very controversially, the Ukrainian Parliament chose not to include in the bill a clause allowing soldiers to return home after 3 years of service, which had been the standard policy before the invasion of large scale, now that decision has generated a lot of controversy as you I can imagine soldiers on the front line whose service basically has no end, with somewhat ad hoc leave periods and certainly nothing particularly well established that hasn't worked out very good; in fact, it gives you an idea of ​​the very difficult choices Ukraine is having to make right now to mobilize its citizenry and then, a couple more, the drone attacks on the Zarian nuclear power plant on the 7th and April 9 were part of what has been described as a well-planned false flag operation by the Russian Federation.

This comes from Ukraine's permanent representative to the UN Sergey Kit Kleta. He was speaking yesterday at the UN Security Council meeting. You will remember the nuclear power plant that has been occupied by Russia since March 22. I believe he suffered at least three direct attacks on April 7th. and another drone attack a couple of days later hit plants near the Training Center the iaea the international atomic energy agency called the attacks a major escalation so the security council met yesterday to discuss security in the plant this is the largest nuclear facility in Europe um and During that meeting here Kizlet, Mr.

Kizlet said that the blame for the attacks and the increased risks at the facilities lies firmly with the Russian invasion and occupation. He said that what happened at the zmpp on April 7, 9 and afterwards was a well-planned lie. flag operation by the Russian Federation, accused Russia of launching a disinformation and propaganda campaign aimed at justifying Moscow's illegal occupation of the plant, now responding to Russian claims that Ukrainian drones carried out the attacks of April. Mr K Kia said that we categorically reject the insane accusations that Ukraine can cause a nuclear disaster now, while the IAA announced on April 13 that the plant's six reactors had been placed in a cold shutdown state, the head of agency, Rapael Gry, said he warned the Security Council that the potential because the disaster remains high, said that we are getting dangerously close to a nuclear accident, that is, words that should not be taken lightly.

He did not assign blame for the attacks and continued to call for him, as he has done in the past, for an immediate end. to reckless attacks, but he did say that we cannot sit back and watch the final weight tip the scales finally balanced. I mean quite dramatic things at that time and finally, David, the chief of the Estonian General Staff, Major General Eno MZ, says that Russia is pushing hard. exploit the current material shortage of the Ukrainian army not only to achieve tactical success but also to drive a wedge into Western support or drive a wedge into the idea of ​​Western support.

So in an interview published on Sunday, General MZ emphasized that Russ does not care about human resources or material losses and said that Russia's attempts to exploit vulnerabilities on the front line, which in a somewhat curious but colorful way described how amoeba tactics, along with Russia's escalation of deep strikes across Ukraine, aim to exploit current supply shortages. The isw Institute for the Study of the Uses of War A group of experts suggests that the United States' failure to provide timely and consistent military aid to Ukraine, which they say only the United States can provide on its scale, could have an effect negative domino on Ukraine's international partners globally, which, combined with persistent Russian information operations, aims to convince Western policymakers. and I would add to society at large that Russia can and will survive Western military assistance to Ukraine, so it's all a bit bleak David, but I'm afraid that's it and we're up to date for today.

Well, thank you very much Dom for all that. updates Francis with the report from him, let's go to the United States first Francis sternley thanks David good progress in Washington with the speaker of the United States House of Representatives, MikeJohnson, announcing that he will finally hold a

vote

on aid to Ukraine and Israel this week in a Move that Could you emphasize that word again to resolve the month-long Log Jam in Congress? Yesterday we speculated that events in Israel could provoke this and in the end it has shown that the White House's decision to combine support for Israel and Ukraine in the same military aid

package

has borne fruit, as it has now forced to confront the problem.

However, Johnson said the

package

would differ from the $95 billion supplemental package proposed by Joe Biden, which was already agreed upon by the Senate as it emerged from a closed-door meeting of Republicans. On Capitol Hill last night, Johnson said he would hold four separate votes in the chamber, allowing members of Congress to vote to support some countries and not others. A vote would focus on US aid to Ukraine which, of course, has been stockpiled in recent months after Congress refused to renew Biden's term. send U.S. munitions to maintain a second will address support for Israel, which has now been linked to Ukraine funding in the White House's own package, a third could authorize support for Taiwan, where the Biden Administration has said it was concerned about the military buildup of China and other allies and a fourth will address other measures that are popular with Republicans and that have been muted as a way to sweeten the package for critics who spoke out after that meeting.

Johnson said the general concept of his plan was the Like the Biden package quote, those are the same places the funds would be sent and you'll see the House's take on that as listeners will know that some Republicans have noted that they will not vote for a compromise package between the GOP-controlled House and Whites. The Johnson House has already faced a rebellion from some hardliners led by vocalist Marjorie Taylor Green. Some have called for him to be removed from the president's chair just months after Kevin McCarthy was removed for a similar rebellion in October, obviously that news is the most important thing of the day in the political sphere that we will be watching very closely. over the next few days, although it is crucial that Ukraine receives that help when we recorded the special at the US Embassy here in London a few weeks ago, just before our trip to Ukraine.

It was noteworthy. I think the atmosphere at that time was quite optimistic and that when this bill was presented to the House of Representatives it would pass, but I don't know if the atmosphere is the same now, although this, of course, is promising because "Finally We are going to make some decision, some break from that Log Jam at the same time. I don't think we can say that this is an absolute guarantee that Ukraine is going to get an aid package approved, so we have to monitor it very, very closely. close. As I say, I know that at the Ukraine Action Summit, a coalition of American pro-Ukraine groups organized yesterday and today, for about 400 voters to meet with their state representatives in the capital to present a petition on behalf of Ukraine, We should not underestimate the importance of such measures, as I can attest during my time working in Parliament here in London, sometimes listening to a passionate electorate can make a big difference to the way that MP approaches an issue;

We will all be watching the result with bated breath. That is to say, although as we discussed earlier, the bill in Congress for Ukraine, if passed, is not a magic bullet, at best it will sustain Ukraine for a time, but it will not be decisive in changing the strategic trajectory , but we must not forget the talismanic quality. The bill has assumed is a symbol now, as Democratic House Minority Leader Hakeim Jeffrey put it this week, it's a Churchill or Chamberlain moment, so stick with Ukraine at the last minute, which will follow. Thank you very much, Francis, for letting us know that we will certainly have Tony Dver and hopefully Rosina Sabour in Washington over the next few days to talk to us about progress on the US aid bill as it moves forward in Congress, but Francis, there are other updates outside the US that you want to talk to us about.

Also, Francis, aren't you sure I'll be as brief as possible, but there's a lot going on, so yesterday we talked at length about the implications of many Western and non-Western nations coming to Israel's aid over the weekend to destroy the incoming drones? and missiles fired from Iran and why it was done for that country and not another, namely Ukraine, especially when, of course, you hear Western countries constantly saying that Ukraine is a vital ally for global security; Well, this has now been raised with the British Foreign Secretary, Lord Cameron. who said, quite predictably, that he would lead to do you want to guess the term he used?

Dangerous escalation speaking live on LBC Radio Cameron said the Royal Air Force could not defend Ukrainian airspace in the same way the only thing to be avoided Are NATO troops interacting directly with Russian troops? Ukraine should be supported in terms of money and, crucially, in terms of weapons, he said, but in reality putting NATO forces directly into conflict with Russian forces I think would be a dangerous escalation when asked why the West . could not give Ukraine more direct help to shoot down drones Cameron responded that what Ukraine needs now is not western plains above its skies, what they desperately want and what we must give them is more air defense systems that are more effective in some way .

I don't think Ukraine would reject the offer of Western pilots defending its airspace, especially if they were just shooting down drones and missiles, but I still think it's a pretty telling idea from Lord Cameron, drawing on other news. German Chancellor Olaf Schultz has met with the president. China's sheikh in Beijing today and said that before that meeting he was planning to discuss how we can contribute more to a just peace in Ukraine. He said the invasion was one of many topics to be discussed at the meeting as part of their three-day meeting. On her visit to China, China's state news agency said she and Schultz had an in-depth exchange of views and that she proposed four principles to resolve the war, including refraining from selfish gains, working to cool the situation and not adding more. fuel to the fire. create conditions for the restoration of peace and reduce the negative impact on the world economy according to the deut chel plan Schultz described the talks as good but did not provide further details yesterday we talked a lot about the evolving role of China, so if you are interested On this topic, I recommend listening to that episode, whatever China says publicly, we know that its peace proposals are very far from what Ukraine would want.

The Chinese Communist Party is committed to peace only to the extent that it continues to advance its own objectives that. Of course, it includes their own long-term expansion, as he himself has said, but in the short term they do not want to see an economic decoupling from the West and neither does the West, given our own dependencies, whether this is mistaken or enlightened. for historians to judge, but returning to the energy front, as we have recently reported, there are real concerns about certain Ukrainian cities being left without electricity as a result of Russia's attacks on infrastructure.

Today we learned that the EU Energy Commission, Cadri Simpson, supports Ukraine's proposal to increase its capacity to import electricity from the EU, specifically from there, it is a bit complicated, so bear with the European network of electricity operators electricity transmission systems. The Russians want to achieve a complete blackout of Ukraine. The Ukrainian representative told the EU ministers. Therefore, it is very important. To consolidate our efforts to resist Russian aggression next winter we will have to look at the implications of this. It is worth remembering that Moscow has not been successful in its goal of destroying Nationwide Energy's infrastructure in part thanks to improvements in defense systems. given away by Western nations compared to the first year of the war, if that hadn't happened who knows where we would be now and lastly, it has been a while since we discussed everyone's favorite topic: the Sea Grain Agreement Black.

Reuters has published a really fascinating exclusive report on the latest news on this which says that Russia and Ukraine negotiated for two months this year with Turkey on an agreement to ensure the safety of shipping in the Black Sea and actually reached an agreement About a text that would be announced by Anchor before Keev suddenly withdrew This comes from four people familiar with the matter The negotiations were mediated by Turkey after a push from the UN and an agreement was reached that was supposed to guarantee the safety of navigation merchant in the Black Sea close appointment with keev giving his The rise of Turkish President Erdogan to announce it on March 30, a day before critical regional elections, then, at the last minute, Ukraine suddenly withdrew and the deal collapsed.

It is not immediately clear why, says Reuters speaking to these sources, one possible reason we were discussing the morning is that Keev has had several highly successful operations in the Black Sea in recent weeks, perhaps they felt they no longer needed That deal, perhaps they felt it would look like a concession to Moscow in one of the few areas where we have had operational success, we just don't know, it's just speculation on our part, but nonetheless it's a very interesting development and one to watch. I think there's a lot going on, David, but like I say, Washington is the Key Arena.

I think now, this week. I'll be watching very closely, so stick with Ukraine for the latest. Dom and Francis share their final thoughts. Well, thank you very much Francis sterley, let's move on to our final thoughts. Dom Nichols, would you like to go first? Yes, of course, so I have been. Looking at an interesting article that appeared online last night in The Economist, they had an interview with the new secretary of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine, Alexander Lineno, the chat who before this was in charge of the foreign intelligence service of Ukraine, the type of earthquake. 6 CIA equivalent um, he was talking, he said that Putin is addicted to the idea of ​​conquering Ukraine and will not give up his goals of completely taking over the country and destroying the state. um, I mean he's online now, he despises those who say Ukraine should sow territory for Russia in exchange for peace, saying that would be a cruel betrayal of Ukrainians left under violent occupation.

He said Putin has lied, is lying and will continue to lie. It is crucial to understand that he is the one speaking. It is crucial to understand that. Putinism has not yet completed its evolution, it could get even worse if the West does not stop it, they will end up paying more later and with their own lives helping Ukraine it is not about charity, next time they will talk about whether there was a ceasefire and I know that people denied that there would be a ceasefire. Mr. Livenko said that no, no way, Putin will return later and said that next time he will not make mistakes, but that he will prepare his operation much more carefully in accordance with all the laws of military art.

He met briefly with Mr. Lipenko in February, before he was named secretary of the National Security and Defense Council to his Cent post, and said that Mr. Putin's motivation is not money, nor power, but greatness, that's what he told me, but then he went on to Let's say the problem Putin has is that Russia is not big enough to destroy Ukraine and that's why we are where we are, but there is an interesting article, the first article with the first interview With the new guy, we hope to talk to him too. again, but yeah, it's worth a look, David, thank you so much, Dom Francis Sternley, for finishing this episode.

Well, thanks David for those who need a laugh. The other day I walked into the studio, I just need to face Dom and you wearing the exact same thing. brought a sign that we spend too much time together I think it was what was a blue shirt Natty blue shirt Natty blue shirt Natty blue dark yellow shirt Dark blue shirt Francis I whatever it was, I'd say it was a satorial monstrosity and I posted this picture on my Twitter account and now there's a poll on who used it best. I think half an hour ago Dom or should I say the onion team is at 62% 68 now 6 68% and the scruffy beard team Mr. nolles is at 30 well do the SC for God's sake there's smoke coming out oh damn lus 68 no I won't Dom because you'll catch me for 1% and then it will be a humiliation forever so look Your answers are on the back of a postcard.

If you want to vote then it's on my Twitter and we can announce the Winner later in the week just to be clearWhile these surveys are of course inherently biased, we should take nothing for granted. they uh run as they are on Dom's account so you know all the listeners. You just know we've talked a lot about elections and democratic integrity on this

podcast

, so I just want to point out that you know from the beginning, like I say, I wasn't. particularly impressed by either outfit, so I actually think the question who wore it best is itself false, but anyway, I think we could all use a little Light Relief right now, so throw it in A look. put a link in the description Ukraine, the latest is an original Telegraph

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