Zambia gained independence in 1964. That’s two whole generations ago. Why are they still incapable of running a reasonable government?

The reports of the Zambian student's ideological fervour for Russia causing him to volunteer to fight in Ukraine would be more convincing if he hadn't been in a Russian prison for 2 years.

As a South African, what I find ironic about the Zambian student, is that he cited anti colonial sentiments about going to fight for a colonial power in a colonial war. Western journalists and commentators need to make much more of this strained reasoning. See this war for what it is, a colonial war of aggression and conquest. Allied to the Zambian student's sentiments, is the conflation of the Russian Federation with the Soviet Union. One hears many South African commentators, who support Russia, citing as justification, "Russia's" support for the liberation movements. The idea that Ukraine was part of the USSR, seems to be totally lost. The Zambian student could hardly have had any military training. He was clearly just sent to the frontlines as cannon fodder. One's sympathy goes to him and his family. He was clearly just a worthless pawn in the hands of the Kremlin. African people should take note.

The poetic justice of Ukraine beating up Russia . . . sweet!

Good podcast, keep it up. Love from Witten, NRW, Germany

Orysia Lutsevych explained the Ukraine better to me at least than anyone else so far... keep it up Telegraph

To understand the Pope, look at how Argentina has supported Russia and Putin in this war, both explicitly and implicitly. There is an extreme left in Argentina, with strong communist ties to the USSR to this day. As recently as the late 90s, they were flying "communist" in Argentina and Chile to russia to be trained by the KGB, even after the USSR had imploded. Those ties are alive and well in latin america.

Glory to Ukraine! Glory to the heroes!

The real prospect of Ukraine joining NATO is I believe a game changer and well deserved. As a European I’d feel safer with Ukrainians on our side. 🇺🇦

Slava Ukraine 🇺🇦 ♥️! Thay will win!

The problem is that Russian BTG are just too small. They cannot survive in a heavy combat environment, which is what the Russian invasion of Ukraine is. Take casualties and they become 'combat ineffective'. They have no troops spare to maintain rear area security, so artillery get attacked with no one to protect them. Supply convoys get ambushed and destroyed. BTGs were a way for Russia to fight wars on the cheap, against weak enemies. What Russia needs is some divisions. A 1970's Russian tank division had 8,000 men (as opposed to 800 in a BTG), with 325 tanks (more than the entire British army has these days) and 90 infantry combat vehicles. That can dish out and take punishment. But Russia will never get its act together before this war is over.

The longer range missiles are essential to control the invaders supply lines to the front

I love it every time I hear Boris on the intro!

I enjoyed it. Keep up the good work. Thumbs up.

Slava Ukrainii!! 🇺🇦 Heroam Slava!!

I really felt for those who haven't had the knowledge of having multiple streams of income at this century

Great show! I'm listening from Amsterdam!

A must listen to for anyone interested in the broader picture of the Ukranian - Russian issue. Most interesting. Frank C, Adelaide, Australia

I love how Ukrainian women don't mince words, it's refreshing.

I simply love the Telegraph's wide ranging coverage of Ukraine. Not just the comings and goings of the war but culture and so on. It's always so interesting, your Ukraine: the Latest podcasts. Bravi!

Congratulations for the interview

Battle Damage Assessment (BDA) is always problematic. For RussIans, using confirmed equipment “destroyed”, subtracting 1/3RD only as abandoned equipment, then multiplying by crew numbers, I get 56,000 Russian KIAs. This does not count attacks on pure Infantry Units and Depots. It is not in conceivable the total Russian KIAs are closer to 88,000. Remember, Russians do not count Wagner Group and Chechnyans as part of their KIA totals. WIA totals could exceed 200,000.

holy cow some great info in this show today, that whole china thing is very sad as more ukraine die,

I think a big flaw in the BTG concept is that the things are brittle. It doesn't take a lot of equipment loss to render them ineffective. I saw one Stugna-P team take down like 4 T-72s in less than five minutes. That's one platoon.

Incredible zelensky and ukraine!!!!! And Orysia is brilliant no one i have heard yet has explained ukraine and its relation with russia better amazing

Any unit will fail with out competent Leadership, most telling as they have no NCO's

Thanks for another interesting broadcast. That hour went really quickly.

The Pope putting his foot in it? Surely not!!!

More Orysia Lutsevych!!

Ukraine is with us Freedom NATO Must give everything they ask for they are Freedom we are Freedom Democracy.

Klitschko v Putin in a straight fight to decide it

Talk about Norway detroying Russia in 30 minutes with their Nukes.

Re: Pope's comments - if I want moral advice, the very last person I'd go to is a religious leader.

Today in the "David McWilliams Podcast" there is a fascinating interview with Investigative Journalist Christo Grozev of Bellingcat on how he identified Russia's remote killers, the civilian men and women, computer programmers, software engineers and data specialists living normal lives in Russia, who actually push the buttons and program the missiles raining down on Ukraine. To get to the interview, skip through to about half way.

The BTG system was destroyed very quickly. It creamed off the best of a brigade into a battalion to generate a force, which when destroyed left the Brigade without the leadership and support functions to operate.

Please switch to metric for distances, weights, etc.

Slava Ukraine 🇺🇦 🇩🇪

The war is going to end one day. The longer it lasts the worse the outcome for Russia geopolitically, economically, and internally. Why has Russia not understood this? It really is bizarre.

We need to ship diesel generators asap

“2911 tanks have been destroyed” does that mean tanks lost to Russia or are the ones Russia “donated” to Ukraine on top of that nearly 3000 wrecks?

Great commentary !!! I recommend that this format be enhanced by Video to put a face on this phenomenal program.

Very interesting.

Please give us a little more on order-of-battle stuff like the BTG's end.

Russia is proficient at granular abandonment of many things from armor to its own troops. It couldn't be bothered to casevac!

@9:13 let freedom ring... at a cost effective price point!!

More Howitzers are what will make the difference (ukrainians are saying so themselves, Himars help but are slow to reload after 6-12 shots (and by the looks of the antonovskiy bridge they dont do THAT much damage, just precise)... In this kind of war they need more guns and shells to break up defences with no navy in the black sea. Unless someone loans them a small fleet with at least a cruiser that Turkey won't blockade.

As always, a fine podcast - but now interrupted literally every five minutes with advertisements.

Saliva Ukraine

In my opinion, it’s quite baseless to allege that the Zambian students drug conviction, was a result of shady practices of russian police. It’s definitely something they do very often, however there is also a massive problem of drug dealing by African(and other) emigrants in Russia. Without knowing the specifics of the case, I wouldn’t take upon myself to claim in any direction.

All this for one old man's dreams

From California, US

They talk about Russian casualties first. If I were to guess at the feelings and mental attitude of people who do this on air, for the Telegraph, I would say that they are engaging in the following thought process: "Are many Russians dying? I hope there are lots of Russians dying. Then Ukraine will win. Can there be more Russians dying, please? I want Ukraine to win." This isn't news, it's the most pitiful mind-over-matter praying for an end to the war. These broadcasts are pure wind. The war could end quite swiftly, if people got realistic. Journalists have given up on the truth, and honest thinking.

Well why are we skirting around the fact the student was a drug dealer?

The BTG concept is great for an insurgency conflict as it provides a lot of firepower against low armed combatants. Against a well armed combatant it just fails.

Cutting TerrorRussian suplies -> Putins END

The word struggle seems to be a theme for reporters, America struggles to do this and that--no, America struggles with time not timing.

"We...", who love life, responsible liberty, accountability, no borders or boundaries, happiness, living the art of kindness; and, serving our "duty", to set loose, every deadly beast within us, to keep it thus...!...?????? ... (I.e., WW-2, Slavery, Ignorance, Fear...).! "We...", has no borders or boundaries...!...???? ...Semper Fidelis...!!!!....

Can I get a timestamp please

I have heard much about assistance to Ukraine to fight a very very deadly war, that neither side will want to give in. Mr Putin is very stubborn and this is bad. I hope that peace talks will be on going to a definite end of peace like we have never known it before.

I guess anyone naive enough to visit Russia can't complain when they end up in prison for 9 years. Don't nuclear physicists do ANY research before choosing where to study?

Listing empires that stole from people they conquer while leaving out England is peak english tone deafness

Thanks for not showing gratuitous pictures.

Welcome to Geniuses speculates.

Russia has lost between 10 to 12 thousand troops so far"..Ukraine has lost over 100 thousand..

takes many months to train soldiers on weapon platforms.

Do the "military analysts" on this podcast pay any attention to trends within military affairs? Its unfathomable the analyst (around 8:00) fails to notice any of the media created by Western Military Think Tanks regarding "Near Pear Conflict"? Since before the Ukraine Invasion there was a shift in the western militaries away from smaller COIN-focused formations (BCTs) back towards the traditional Division. In short, I wish to observe that the Western Military is way ahead of this podcast's speculative "military analyst". Not to say that the individual battles in Ukraine will not be studied in great detail, they will be, however I must point out that "Big Army" principles, such as those related to task-organizing a Field Army, remain constant through time - despite what many modern civilian "military analysts" often claim. The fact the podcast itself can't seem to connect its own claim of "Russia losing" to Russia's designs of its military formations would be amusing were it not such an egregious, purposeful, oversite in the podcast's own education regarding universal military matters, let alone the military situation in Ukraine!

FYI the bridges in the former Soviet Union support 50 tons and Abraham weights 60 tons. That was very intentional in the USSR and continued to this day only because 50 ton bridges became the standard in the former Soviet republics. Leopard or K1 would bet better choices for Ukraine as they are 50 ton MBTs.

Slava Ukraini ! Heroyam Slava ! 🇺🇦🦖✊

pls ... dont say "aehmm" so often , besides that ... i love your podcast !

The Zambian was just one of many prisoners being misled about his role in the war.They don't know that they are used as cheap cannonfodder. Funny to put out that colonial statement when Wagner is the prime example of colonial agression. But I wouldn't prejudice on his prison sentence. There are definitely drug dealers from Africa and he could have been very well been arrested as a drug dealer.

Uh, the sound of one of the speakers's mobile devices repeatedly vibrating is...unprofessional.

Ukraine needs weapons or we all suffer!! Such senseless act of war,so give them what they need

One reason the US should be trying to avoid sending our planes or tanks, is that any which get destroyed will hurt international sales. Right now, Russian hardware looks weak in comparison. It can only hurt that impression when the inevitable losses occur. Another reason is to avoid our enemies getting copies of our best stuff. Don’t also forget that most bridges and roads in Ukraine are not able to hold the heaviest tank in the world. It isn’t simply just send mechanics.

The USA army calls these "battalion tactical groups" combined arms units. In ww2 these groups were called COMBAT TEAMS, they were highly effective for the USA, in ww2 in the battle of "THE BULGE", a single combat team and the 82 airborne were able to stop an entire german panzer(tank) army(about 500,000 german troops)!!!! THE PROBLEM: RUSSIAN ARMAMENTS ARE SO INFERIOR TO NATO ARMS, A SOVIET EQUIPED ARMY HAS LITTLE CHANCE OF DEFEATING A USA NATO FORCE. Stalin use an unlimied source of manpower to defeat the germans, putjn does not have an ulimited source of manpower!!! THE DRAFT TURNS THE POPULATION AGINST ANY WAR, THE USA CAN FIGHT 10 TO 20 YEAR WARS WITHOUT OPPOSITION FROM CONGRESS OR THE AMERICAN PUBLIC BECAUSE THE USA HAS A PROFESSIONAL ARMY AND DOES NOT DRAFT ANYONE!!! THE MORE PUTIN DRAFTS RUSSIANS THE GREATER THE OPPOSITION WILL BE AGINST HIM: PUTIN IS IN A NO WIN SITUATION HE SHOULD NEGOTIATE A SETTLEMENT GIVE BACK ALL TERITORY AND KEEP THE CRIMERIA.

At the United24 media and fundraising platform we can help inside 🇺🇦 now. Google etc...

Guys, where's the video? All I got is a flag...

Best Sitreps - Denys Davydov - www.youtube.com/@DenysDavydov

Ukraine have been releasing their estimated Russian losses every single day. This isn't news.

Why is Kiev worried about missile strikes? Didn't Russia run out of missiles?

To many adds please cut some out

Shhh - Don't mention the Art looted by the Europeans during the Colonial Wars.

Pope Francis illustrates perfectly what White Privilege is: It's a mindset that whites are better, that whites "don't do things like that," etc., etc. Liberal or conservative doesn't matter; being white means a certain view of the world -- namely, that whites just must be "right" (after all, it rhymes!)....

please put yyyy-mm-dd at the start of the podcast.

I still have this gut feeling that this no limits partnership between Russia and China has to do with probably a threat to give more powerful weapons to Ukraine Russia would share its miniaturized war heads technology the with the Chinese military. China is driving to achieve this breakthrough but so has been unsuccessful.

No mention of the battle for Bakhmut. I wonder why?

This is ridiculous

N W Montana, USA

I think the Catholic Church should just call for peace, not single out groups, this part of the world is the orthodox Christian world not the catholic world other the Ukrainian Catholic Church, I think the pope should call for peace ☮️ stay neutral, not calling out ethic groups , so pope should stay in his lane, call ☎️ for peace ☮️

What also grates on me is, I was in Iraq with a British battlegroup. I know how fragile we were, there. At the time, the US commented that 'the British have a single battlegroup on operations in Basra, and nothing else'. That was true, for a city of 2 million people, and tens of thousands of hostile men against us. So, when the MOD makes calm and insightful comments about Russia, I feel shame for Britain. We are commenting in a bold and confident way, and engaging in wishful thinking here, partly because we know that it is very clear, that if British forces are called on to actually Do anything, we are going to be absolutely crushed by events. It's as if, the only power we have, is to put out extremely prejudiced 'war winning journalism', because we have no other means of getting our way, of beating the Russians in Ukraine.

Very easy NATO shows its balls and

✌️💙💛🇺🇲🇬🇧

Russia invades Ukraine in 2022 and this guy talks about the role of the Pope in WWII ... different popes, different times ... use another forum to criticize the Catholic church ... as for current pope's remarks ... nothing he noted was incorrect ... but we all have an opinion and perhaps this journo would like to sympathize with Lavrov. Each to his own ...

The pope is insignificant.

😘

For honest non partisan reporting on war in Ukraine watch the Duran with Alex and Alexander. And the new atlas channels

Um, um, um, um?

First min proved how Ukrainian biased the content was. Didn’t make it past that.

And nato weapons

invest in ukraine - "the black hole" !

We will know by next summer. By about May, the Russians will have about 600,000 to 1,000,000 troops. I sincerely hope that the Ukrainians will succeed, but history shows that Russia has the numbers and has not worried about losing many many men to win in the end.