This is Matt Rogers from Los Culturistas with Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang.
This is Bowen Yang from Los Culturistas with Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang.
You know when people try a new food and suddenly it's like, "Okay, hold on. I got a new favorite food!"
That's the reaction a lot of people are having when they first try Kupy Mayo.
Yeah, it's the one with the red cap and the little baby on the bottle.
You've probably seen it at the grocery store and this mayo is different.
Most mayonnaise uses whole eggs.
Kupy only uses egg yolks which gives it this rich umami flavor.
It's smoother, deeper, almost buttery.
Once people try it, they start putting it on everything.
Egg sandwiches, fries, burgers, chefs use it, restaurants use it, people who really care about flavor use it.
Put it on just about anything.
Then you'll understand.
Kupy, the original Japanese mayonnaise.
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I'm Dom Nichols and this is Ukraine the latest.
Today, as Russians start to vote in parliamentary elections, for which the only thing transparent is the voting booth,
could Canada be marching to the barricades with talk of the country joining the North European beer drinking club of nations that turn up on day one of a fight?
And possibly taking associate membership of the EU.
Although as anyone with the word associate in their title will tell you, it means absolutely nothing,
but is apparently a promotion or bit without pay rise.
50,000 North Korean soldiers could be training in Russia and Ukraine gets bored of finding new targets,
so hits the same Russian airbase for the second night running.
And later, we get our regular update on resistance activity in the occupied areas.
Bravery takes you through the most unimaginable hardships to finally reward you with victory.
The Russia does not want peace.
First of all, we share our help with Ukraine and our freedom and our European values.
If I'm president, I will have that war settled in one day, 24 hours.
Russia cannot win this war.
No one is going to break us. We are strong. We are Ukrainians.
It's Friday, the 18th of September, four years and 206 days,
since the full scale invasion began.
And today I'm joined by my co-host Adely Potemont-Ponte and Dr. Jade McLean of King's College London.
Russians have started three days of voting in parliamentary elections today choosing
from Kremlin-approved parties whose only point of difference is
how much love they have for Vladimir Putin or how strongly they endorse the current war
in the words of Evgeny Russian of the Centre for European Policy Analysis in Washington.
He was speaking to our colleague, Adrian Blumfield, for an article which we will link to in the episode notes.
Now, we'll unpack the elections in detail on Monday with James Kilner, but I reckon
it's worth sticking a fiver on Putin's party to win.
Anyway, more on Monday, but earlier Adely interviewed Dr. Jade McLean, research fellow at King's College London
for our regular update on resistance activity in the occupied territories.
Stay to the end of the episode for more on that, but here's some of what Jade had to say about the Russian elections.
Not that much is at stake really, because they aren't elections.
I would suggest in the sense that you or I might be familiar with
how you vote and how others vote has an impact on who is in power
or where you don't necessarily know who's going to win.
There's none of that.
It's much more soviet, over say, in style or perhaps war sort packed
if we're going to be more historically accurate in the sense that although there are other parties
beyond United Russia, they are only the systemic oppositions.
That means they're the opposition that's part of the system that's allowed to exist.
So although Russian authorities are presenting the election as if it's a chance
for voters to have their say, there's no genuine opposition on the ballot
and the result is settled in advance, where it does have some importance,
I suppose, and it's unlikely that we will see this except through probably leaks
that will emerge in the Russian opposition media in exile,
where it does have some importance is if the Kremlin is able to achieve the vote share for United Russia
and the turnout that it wants and often a lot of pressure is applied on, for example,
at Niki, so people who work for the state, the civil servant and broader teachers.
These roles to come out and to vote in a certain way.
United Russia has been deeply on popular, it's often a kind of metric that people will disapprove
of United Russia because that's safer than disapproving of Vladimir Putin.
Originally in the run-up to the elections, it came out that the Kremlin wanted United Russia
to be getting around 55%, I think these are the real figures, but then they put down their targets to 45%.
So they were aware of it, of course, and the final point is that people are worried
that after the elections happen, there's a risk that Putin might call another round
of even formal partial mobilization, like in September 2020 or there will be a step up
in the forms of crypto mobilization that we've been seeing this entire time.
Now European leaders took turns yesterday sounding the alarm over Russia's recent
and potentially future activity.
In a stronger intervention than we have heard from him recently,
Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said yesterday Russia is planning strikes with drones
or rockets on European countries supporting Ukraine.
In a largely evidence-free speech to the Polish parliament,
he warned Russia would likely test European states with accidental incidents
designed to paralyze or at least weaken the motivation of NATO countries.
He said there is a real risk that drones or other types of projectiles will enter the territory
of one or several countries on the eastern flank and even cause destruction.
The official narration will be that it's an accident,
and there is no reason for NATO to think about a response.
Now that all follows a brief public spat between Mr. Tusk and the Polish President.
The two aren't the closest of political buddies at the best of times
and these aren't the best of times.
But after Polish President Karol Novrotski tweeted,
"We are a nation that may lose territory, but we will never lose our soul.
We may surrender territory, but we will never surrender our homeland."
Donald Tusk replied, "Mr. President, I suggest deleting this post
we do not intend to give up even a scrap of our territory."
All that happened on a day when a Russian drone reportedly fell
or was destroyed several kilometers from Poland,
prompting Warsaw to scramble aircraft, prepare air defenses,
and close two airports and, in perhaps an echo of the past,
when there was a co-here response to naked totalitarian aggression,
Captain Yebyejez, near Yeelski, the last living soldier
of the first Polish armoured division, turned 103.
He received nearly 3,000 birthday wishes from readers
of the British Poles Portal and thanked everyone.
Anyway, Mr. Tusk is in Ukraine today for the inaugural Carpathian 8 summit.
convened by President Zelenski is a new forum of eight countries
across the Carpathian region.
In his opening remarks, President Zelenski underscored critical energy
and trade links connecting the nations of the Carpathian area.
The group comprises Ukraine, Poland, Czechia, Hungary, Austria, Serbia,
Romania, and Slovakia.
Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fito was also expected to visit
but cancelled his trip at the last minute due to sickness,
just before he was due to leave and possibly showing signs
of being a bit under the weather.
Kremlin friendly Mr. Fito earlier cast down on whether or not
his honour, his country's NATO article five commitments.
Here's what he had to say.
I don't want Slovakia to be part of an armed conflict
because of some article five.
Yes, we are in NATO.
We value that and cooperation and commitments matter to us.
But as head of the government, I will do everything I can
to prevent Slovakia from being dragged into an armed conflict.
Mr. Fito, you've lost your pal Victor Orbán
and you're feeling the pressure now you've got
to do all the Kremlin stuff on your own.
But this snippy, anti-NATO, anti-EU rhetoric is just getting boring.
If you don't like it, leave.
If you prefer working with Russia, leave and feel all the Putin love you want.
But please just stop whining and make a decision.
Sh*t or get off the pot as our American cousins say.
Next to urge greater action was EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen.
She had a phone call with President Zelenskiy assay
after which in a communique she said,
"Tomorrow, aye today, we will disperse 3.3 billion."
billion euros for missiles and drones in Ukraine.
Now that follows EU approval last week for funding to supply Ukraine Patriot systems
through the EU's Ukraine support loan.
Ms. Vunderlyan said, "We have already mobilised nearly 15 billion euro for Ukraine this year.
More is coming.
We discussed the reforms needed in the radar to unlock further funding and to keep Ukraine
moving forward on its path to our union.
Next week, I will be at the UN General Assembly in New York.
My message to Ukraine's friends around the world will be simple, Europe is stepping
up.
Now others must step up their support too."
She also used her state of the Union speech in Strasbourg to propose Canada becomes the
EU's first associate member.
In this new world, we must urgently reimagine our partnerships and build global coalitions
for our resilience and democracies, and here too, only Europe with its size and power
can take the lead.
And this is why I have invited Prime Minister Mark Carney of Canada.
Now, nobody really knows what this means, it's somewhere between form membership and candidate
status we presume.
And the idea has drawn mixed reactions.
One EU envoy told the telegraph associate member is an empty phrase and member states will
put substance into it, but it won't be groundbreaking.
It also seemed to wrong foot Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, who stopped short of endorsing
the plan when he addressed the European Parliament shortly afterwards.
He preferred to talk in terms of an alliance for the future.
Mr. Carney said President von der Leyen used both terms, alliance for the future and associate
membership.
The nomenclature is a question for Europe, what terms they use, what matters is the substance
what we are actually building together.
And then later in a swiper, well, who knows?
He said this.
I also want to be precise about what I am not proposing.
I'm not proposing a third block in order to become a great power rival only with better
manners.
But later, after Donald Trump threatened the EU with serious tariffs and a halt to
trade if Canada was given associate member status, an idea he derided as laughable, Mr.
Carney said nobody will tell us who he must make deals with.
Now, it's not the first time we've heard the phrase or the idea of associate membership
earlier this year, Friedrich Merz proposed associate EU membership for Ukraine.
The European Council on Foreign Relations says it raises problems elsewhere.
Turkey, for example, is still formally only an EU candidate, yet sends weapons to Ukraine,
maintains extensive ties to Moscow and retains a close relationship with Donald Trump, despite
transatlantic strains.
So is close European integration on the cards for Canada, and what does it mean for the
changing Western security architecture?
Well, this week, Canada formally applied to join Jeff, the Ten Nation Joint Expeditionary
Force, in a move that got enthusiastic support from Andy Burnham, Britain's Prime Minister,
when the two men met on Wednesday.
Canada was asked by the UK to join Jeff over a decade ago, and the idea was discussed
at the 2014 NATO leaders summit in Wales.
It was given particular focus back then by Russia's invasion of Crimea, but drifted in the
years after that and went nowhere.
However, Canada is a major actor in the Jeff core regions of the Northern Atlantic, high
North and Baltic Sea region.
Canada also leads NATO's multinational brigade in Latvia, so is no stranger to European
maps.
And remember, Jeff came out of the close friendships and doctrinal practices formed through
the long campaigning years in Afghanistan.
It's seen as potentially a more nimble expression of Western power and can assemble forces
for a particular emergency without requiring consensus among all NATO members.
So far, it's not deployed operationally, and crucially has no equivalent of NATO's Article
5 collective defence clause, but Jeff is basically the dictionary definition of a coalition
of willing states.
In Wallace, Britain's former defence secretary in a slightly testy jab at southern European
wine drinking nations, who may be have not been forward leaning in meeting their NATO commitments,
called Jeff the Northern European beer drinkers who will turn up on day one of a fight.
And finally, in this section, a somewhat unusual development in Paris today.
President Macron has summoned France's political leaders and presidential candidates to
at least say in light of what he calls a rapid deterioration of the international situation.
Unusually, they'll be addressed by France's foreign, homeland and military intelligence
services, national security officials, and the country's energy leadership.
Turning to the military realm now, and Russia's Rostov military airfield was attacked again
last night for the second time in two days.
Regional Governor Yuri Schlussar said more than 50 drones were shot down, although residents
of Rostov posted videos showing the result of the attacks and Ukrainian monitoring channels,
so one of the targets hit was, once again, the Rostov central military airfield.
The Yaroslavl or refinery nearly 700 kilometres east of Ukraine was also hit again last night.
Now these strikes come just a day after the SBU, Ukraine's security service, said they
destroyed an AN-12 and two AN-26 planes and three helicopters at the airbase.
Next to North Korea has sent between 30,000 and 50,000 soldiers to Russia to receive military
training and work with Russian drone operators, so says President Zelensky.
He said North Korea has decided not to deploy soldiers to Ukraine in order to avoid taking
on a large number of casualties, similar to those they suffered during Ukraine's operations
in Kursk Oblast in 2024.
The Institute for the Study of War, say the multilateral sanctions monitoring team, an independent
coalition formed to monitor and report on violations and evasions of UN sanctions against
North Korea, reckon that between 15,000 and 30,000 North Koreans worked drone factories
in Russia.
The MSMT report that the Russian government has created a special student visa scheme
that camouflages North Korean workers as students.
Into Ukraine there's been no significant move on the ground and no change in the vicinity
of Leman in the Donbass following that recent Ukrainian counterattack there.
However, Ukraine's MOD today say they have destroyed the 3,000th UGV, unattended ground
vehicle or land drone this year alone.
During the first half of September, they say Ukrainian defenders also struck nearly 200
Russian ground drones using air drones.
I wonder is this a revolution or an evolution in military affairs?
But don't think it is not still a lethal environment for humans.
There were over 1,400 Russian casualties yesterday according to Ukraine's general staff, taking
to 9,530, the number of Russian casualties since this time last week.
Ukraine's 30th mechanized brigade said they killed 8 Russians last night with thermal
FPVs.
Now, I mentioned the SPU earlier, the Security Service of Ukraine, today they've said
they've neutralized a Russian FSB agent network that was directing the shelling of Kramatorsk.
Two people have been detained, they said.
In a statement, the SPU said the perpetrators are being held without bail and face life
in prison with confiscation of property.
Still in Ukraine, and an explosion yesterday near a military recruitment centre in the
city of Mika live injured a serviceman, the Lviv Oblast Military Recruitment Social Support
Centre said.
The explosion occurred after a device was allegedly thrown from the street.
The serviceman was hospitalized with moderate injuries.
Two people have been subsequently detained.
A little to the east of there and a shopping centre in Zapparizia came under attack last
night, no further details known about any casualties.
Now, just to finish off the newly appointed Commander-in-Chief of Ukraine's Armed Forces,
Mihailov Drapati, is continuing his reshuffle of top leadership appointments.
Yesterday, Major General Viktor Nikoliyuk said he is leaving his post as Commander of
Ukraine's Eastern Operational Commander, post he's held since April this year.
That's not very long.
His command included units in Donetsk, Luhansk, Dnipro, Petrov, Zapparizia and Harkiv oblasts.
Now, General Nikoliyuk said, "I can say with confidence that I'm handing over to my successor
a fully combat-ready force capable of steadfastly conducting active defensive operations."
Through our joint efforts, we prevented the enemy from capturing Constantinivka, where
enemy forces were blocked.
In the Slavic and Kramatol sectors, we managed to establish a robust echelon's defence
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I'm Venetia Rainey.
And I'm Rowland Oluphant.
As hosts of the Telegraph's podcast Iran the latest, it's our job to keep you up to speed
on what's going on in the Middle East.
Join us every day as we ask, can the U.S. put an end to Iran's nuclear ambitions once
and for all?
Who will come out on top in the peace talks?
this world.
or damaged America's ability to take on China.
- And what are the long-term implications for the wider world?
- Search Iran the latest and listen wherever you get your podcasts.
- We're also now on video.
Watch us on YouTube and on the Telegraph's website.
- Now let's turn back to the occupied territories now
and get more on the Russian elections
from our recent expert, Dr. J. McLean,
research fellow at King's College London.
Earlier, we heard Jade mention that another way
for mobilization could follow the elections
happening this weekend.
Adely asked Jade what that might look like
and if it could mean closing the Russian border.
- I think that that's very unlikely
because from the very start,
we often talk about the fact that Russia calls the war
a special military operation
as if it were just a euphemism
and there's some sense in that argument.
But actually, there is a reason
that it's called a special military operation
and that's because it isn't defined technically.
As a war, which means that there is not a prescription
and that things like the borders therefore aren't closed.
I mean, the borders are close to certain types of people
but it's still in this sort of grey zone
and even though it was pretty clear
that the so-called special military operation
was not going to achieve its aims
pretty early on after the full scale invasion
and no point has it been changed
even if in practice, Russian military planners
do understand that this is what they would call a regional war.
Legally, certain things don't follow
and if you read Russian officers writing in various journals
so that they tend to write into discuss the war,
sometimes relatively frankly,
it is a constant point of tension
that they are essentially fighting a war
without certain things such as access to conscripted
or mass mobilized numbers
and that causes various tensions and frustrations
within the Russian military.
I want to turn to the occupied territories
because the elections are relevant there too
and it's my understanding that they actually have been voting
since the end of August, voting started on the 28th.
Russia has also divided the occupied territories
in 11 constituencies
and there's been mobile units going around villages.
We've seen these old ladies putting a bulletin inside boxes
held by tall men with their faces hidden,
holding a Kalashnikov.
So not exactly the way we think of elections, obviously.
So I just wondered if you could take us
into what's been going on in the occupied territories.
- Yeah, in a way, you shouldn't laugh
because it's so horrific but the point that you made
on just comparing it to the local primary school
that you go to to vote in England
and the lovely old ladies who doing their democratic duty
and you're quite right,
it couldn't be further from that.
I mean, looking at the broader sort of campaign
and the run-ups of the elections
is quite clear the Moscows.
Using the process of performance of elections
in the occupied territories,
both as a sort of formal political instrument
of further integration
but also to interfere further in,
I suppose, the selection of officials,
of various kind of cadres of local collaborators
and to make more direct Moscow's control
or federal control over their work.
And you can see that, I think, in particular,
in terms of the United Russia candidates
and how that's functioned.
I mean, although you do have these different constituencies
that you're speaking about,
the way that United Russia has approached it
has been to see Donetsk, Luhansk, Sapirija and Hassan
or the occupied parts thereof as like a block,
one regional group in their federal list.
And when you look at who is at the top of these lists,
it's not the people who are currently managing
the occupation administrations,
it's not the local collaborators,
it's federal, Russian politicians and military men
because one of the elements that we've seen
also inside Russia itself has been part of this effort
to promote what Putin calls the new elite.
So these are people who served in the war against Ukraine
and to try to put them into positions of power
and you have programs like the time of heroes,
there's been some really good research on that.
And for the first few years,
there was a lot of skepticism about how successful it would be
because quite clearly, these broadly very corrupt elites
in Russia who understand that their access to wealth
is directly tied to their proximity to power.
We're not especially keen to make a way
for the so-called new elites,
but over time they have started to gather pace and momentum
and certain people are coming into the system
and making their way.
So there's an element of that,
but there are also differences in United Russia's approach
in the occupied territories
because generally like in Russia itself,
you would have governors or well-known representatives
of regional kind of power structures in place.
They would be on high on the list,
so it shows that Russia is using the elections
as a chance to further impose more direct control,
which would track with some of the changes
we've been seeing in doctrine centrally
and worries about what they call extremism and terrorism
in the occupied territories
and what you and I would call being Ukrainian essentially.
It's also interesting because I believe
Luhansk and Denetsk had already voted
in the context of Russian elections in 2024,
but that's the first time the rest of the occupied territories
with a newly occupied territory since 2022 are actually voting.
And I guess that contributes to Russia showing
its own citizens, but also the world.
Look, this is part of Russia now.
This is the Novorociers, they say.
We've implemented a state elections,
administrative constituencies.
So it's part of the building of the occupation,
but it's also a new step in that direction.
- Yes, I think in general most of what is shown
about the occupied territories fits that argument as well
in the sense that it's often this idea
that these are people who have been liberated
and they're just really happy to be part of Russia
and here they are just doing normal Russian things.
And there's a very colonial attitude.
You know, we're going to drag them up to the right standards,
whether that's speaking economically
or in terms of education and culture.
So you have certain things like,
we're not able to see Tetskis smearly,
where the university shifts, I suppose,
where university teachers, professors, students
are allowed to come to the Russian federation,
so they can aspire to the higher standards
supposedly there.
So I think Erin Gisei is correct in its about the legitimation,
but I do also think there is a deeply colonial attitude
towards the occupied territories as well
in the sense of, look, we are teaching them how to do things
that we in civilized Russia know how to do.
That feels rather absurd,
given Ukraine has a far more developed and successful repertoire
of democratic institutions and practice,
but that is very much how it is presented,
including to the people of the occupied territories themselves,
though sometimes in a less hand-fisted way.
I did wonder whether these elections
in the newly occupied territories could be used
as a propaganda tool by Russia,
saying, look, we're conducting elections in wartime
why isn't Ukraine.
I think that it will almost certainly use that line.
I could imagine that that line is going to have
its audience in the West.
I think that if it is a line that's used in the occupied territories,
it will just be a line that's given out in methodically so he's almost
like curricular lines that the media have to share.
I would suggest that, for obvious reasons,
across the Russian media and across the media in the occupied territories,
the question of elections and democracy is not normally
used as a stick to beat people with,
just because it's not as relevant,
it's much more prominent I find in arguments in the West,
where, of course, democracy is of our use to us.
So I imagine that that will be used,
I imagine it will be used by people like Yudia Mendel,
who we've seen has been on a remarkable PR blitz tour recently
in the past few days,
and probably by other people, you know,
the sorts of individuals who are funded by the Russian oligarch,
though he did become briefly Ukrainian oligarch
and Yundian Ković, who's took Ukrainian citizenship,
but a gentleman named Novinski,
who funds many of those sorts of actors to promote certain areas,
often rather openly, for example, hiring lawyers,
and everyone can use Google to examine
which lawyers have published contracts with him.
So last question about the so-called elections in the occupied territories.
I know you've been conducting a lot of research on it.
I was reading in Le Monde and I'll post to that in the show notes.
They reference a Ukrainian media griffner
that reports the story of a woman
who refused to vote in her village of Kharovka.
She said, "A car arrived in the village.
They were carrying polling stations,
and other people were armed.
They have gone around the houses,
knocked on the doors, asked people to take the boxes
on the voting bulletin."
And she said that her friends and her kept the door locked
and refused to go out and refused to participate
in these pretend elections.
So I was wondering in your research,
what sort of stories have come across from the population?
I think that those sorts of stories are more prominent
in some of the really destroyed areas.
For example, places like Lisi Chantsk
or places like Left Bank Hurston
but further away from Crimea.
because those areas are actually quite abandoned, you don't really see that much.
You know, we know about the horrors that are happening in the Leshky,
where around 2,000 people are essentially stuck their mind, they can't leave.
It's very difficult for vehicles to get through for a combination of reasons,
and so there isn't a very over-present of occupation officials in those areas,
and so I think there's an added annoyance that people are coming through
to make them vote when they can't come through to get them water,
they can't get people out, they can't provide even basic humanitarian services.
I mean, there's a wonderful piece.
It wasn't from ages ago about listed chance and volunteers who come from Russia
or from elsewhere in the occupied territories to help bedridden people,
people who are unable to leave, and it's a really interesting contrast
and a useful reminder that some of what we see in, I suppose,
are the show cities of Mariupol or even Melatopoul or Donetsk.
In other parts of the occupied territories, they're essentially just living
in an abandoned or damaged wreck.
But my understanding is that the overly enthusiastic electioneers
have managed to get to those places as well.
Of course, in the larger settlements, I think people just see it as another boxetic,
another important part of just surviving that has no real relevance
or impact on anything, and so they just do it to stop the headache
that would come from not having done it.
But yes, people under a lot of pressure to vote.
Of course, it's not a free and fair vote, and of course,
the risk of not voting is much higher just because you share a amount of attention
that organisations like the Centre for Country, Extremism,
also in Centre E, that's part of the Ministry of Internal Affairs,
and much very closely with the FSB, they do apply a lot of,
attention, a lot of resource to online discussions, to statements.
So any sort of visible or coordinated or overt in these kind of more populated areas,
say online calls of boycotting elections, it's fine,
but realistically, if you were making them from inside the occupied territories,
you're drawing attention to yourself in a way that's very risky,
and it's not entirely clear what the strategic impact would be.
Of course, if people want to do that, they completely have their own personal agency
and are welcome to, but this is so performative and so coerced,
you're sort of damned if you do and damned if you don't really.
Thank you.
What are the regular updates from partisan groups, from the occupied territories?
Sure, so we spoke on the 20th of August,
and we spoke up to, I think, the 13th of August,
because we're seeing that there is increasingly,
another very positive advance, actually,
in terms of operational security, we're seeing there's often a bit of a lag
between events, so we're trying to give ourselves a bit of a lag as well.
So I think that went up to around the 12th of August,
so I'll talk about some of the more serious incidents that we've seen.
So on the 13th of August, in occupied Crimea,
there was the killing of Robert Chagyev, in Sela Stoppel,
and so he was the former commander connected to the Ukrainian submarine,
Zaporizha, but he changed sides following the Russian occupation of Crimea.
I think that was covered pretty widely in the media,
and of course, the involvement of a Russian,
who everybody then described as an escort,
even though, to my understanding, that seemed to be coming from the FSB.
The explanation, and of course, the FSB would describe her as an escort.
They just annoyed me in the coverage.
And then also on the 13th of August,
Atej reported the destruction of communication tower,
Nepelna in the small part of Harkiv region that's still occupied.
Going up towards the border, and of course, the small part is also still occupied,
close to Lehanc region,
so it's a tower for communication and data exchange between Russian military units.
On the 16th of August, there was a targeted attack in occupied Vasilievka,
and Zaporizha region, which is coming closer to the frontline.
It's odd, when I was in Zaporizha last month,
you do just look at the map and you realize that it's so close these areas.
Because sometimes you're speaking about them,
and you're researching them, and it can make them feel quite abstract.
But you're looking at where the road should go,
and often when I'm driving around eastern Ukraine, you do see signs often vandalized,
but they will say two denets,
and you think back to a time when it would have been possible,
to just carry on driving down from Harkiv to denetsk.
Of course, now that would not be advisable.
But yes, so on the 16th of August,
an occupied Vasilievka, even my Mula,
who's the head of a department within the Russian occupation administration there,
was killed, and he had previously served in Ukrainian law enforcement
before joining the occupation authorities,
so there's quite like a focus on collaborators of that level.
And then there was a more technologically advanced attack
in occupied Melitopoul on the 25th of August,
where resistance forces used an FPV drone
to strike the regional office of the United Russia party,
just as elections were starting to gear up.
And this is interesting because the fact that they had access to a drone
and that they were striking us from a selected target from a distance,
I think the political symbolism and importance of the target is obvious,
but a reminder of earlier,
this year around the start of the year when there were several drone attacks
within occupied Crimea on a restaurant where occupation officials were celebrating.
It was reported by the occupation media that there were lots of children there,
and for some reason the BBC at the time covered it,
as if there were lots of children there,
that no children were ever found to be there in any of the subsequent elements.
But this is an interesting aspect of how people are still getting the components
and the parts for FPV drones into the occupied territories,
and again speaks to the point around the FSB.
They have incredible powers, some of the FSB are unfortunately very professional
in the sense they're very good at doing their job,
but there's also a lot of corruption and a lot of incompetence.
I know you've spoken on the podcast to Sean Visvese about his book,
but I think that does such a wonderful job of just reminding the reader
how deeply corrupt the FSB and the Russian intelligence services really are,
and it's quite shocking.
Then on the 26th of August in Sevastopol,
an explosive device was placed under a car that was being used to ferry Russian servicemen,
and then on the 7th of September in occupied Donetsk,
Oleg Shudov, who's a member of something called the Special Operations Center
in the Ministry of State Security of the DPR,
which is a phrase that always, I think, brings a chill down the spine.
I was targeted, and of course,
and linked directly to targeting the security structure of the Occupation Administration.
There was an interesting nonviolent resistance case as well.
On the 24th of August, which is Ukraine's Independence Day,
the SBU, Security Service of Ukraine,
managed to replace QR code that go out in the Occupation newspaper,
Nadya Nipranska Pravda,
or must be Nadya Niprovska Pravda in the Russian,
but it is a newspaper that the Russians took over,
and then renamed it exists before then.
And instead of directing redist occupation resources,
the coslet for Ukrainian Independence Day message.
So, quite an interesting stuff.
I don't know if I'm getting that through.
Yeah, yeah, it's interesting. It's a nice case.
So that's a sort of broad overview.
So it continues interesting cases.
Maybe a slight expansion from the general kind of blowing up trucks,
blowing up railway release stations,
but still many of those examples as well.
Okay, thanks, Jade.
Well, thanks, Adders. Thank you, Jade.
And thank you for listening and sticking with us.
With us, please do, if you're not done so already,
subscribe to our YouTube channel.
Don't let the word subscribe fill you with horror.
It's free. It's just a click of a button
and then you get to see us every day, I suppose.
So yeah, that might fill you with horror.
Anyway, thanks for sticking with us.
We'll be back on Monday. We'll be digesting the Russian elections
with James Kilner.
He might have found one of the coms that you keep sending us
for him in that time, although, you know,
Plottspurla, no, he won't.
But thanks for sticking with us.
We do wish you, if you're able to,
and we will see you on Monday from the Telegraph Newsroom here in London,
I wish you all a very good afternoon.
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