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April 20, 2022 12 mins

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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Today, the fate of the town of Mariopo rests on
an unknown number of Ukrainian fighters trying to defend the
city's iron and steel factory of four square mile complex.
They have rejected instiple calls from the Russians to surrender,
in part because of the estimated one thousand civilians sheltering
in the factories basement. The ASA Battalion of Ukraine sharing

(00:22):
this video saying that these are the innocent men, women, children,
babies who did nothing to deserve this bombardment and are
now at the mercy of Putin's military and the latest
deadline by the Russian military past a couple of hours
ago of surrender. We're going to kill you all. Uh.
A couple of quick things before I get into this interview.

(00:42):
The breaking news yesterday the Pentagod said that Ukraine has
received additional fighter aircraft from countries other than the United
States and additional aircraft parts that will allow Ukraine to
get more planes in the air. Okay, that's good news. Yeah,
I have a pretty good report on the heavy weaponry
they're getting. Now how that's all worked. In A couple
of comments a little bit the same commander, you're about

(01:04):
to hear from in the Washington Post interview. In a
second a little bit, Ago said he believes they only
have a few hours left in that steel plant right now. Anyway,
yesterday this got a lot of attention. Surrounded by Russians.
Commander describes life inside Mariopole Plant and his most extensive
comments to Western media. Major Volgna of the thirty six

(01:27):
Separate Marine Brigade, whose forces have been holding out in
that iron and steel works against the Russian force that
vastly outnumbers them, told The Washington Post that his soldiers
would continue to conduct combat operations and to complete our
military tasks as long as we received them. We will late.
We will not lay down our weapons. Speaking over a
crackling connection made possible by satellite, he said his forces

(01:49):
would not repeat the mistake made by others of trusting
Russian guarantees of safe passage only to see the Russians
break their word in open fire. No one believes the Russians,
he said. Volume made a impact. Ashuton pleaded world leaders,
especially President Biden, to conduct an extraction in which a
third country would assure security of troops and civilians, leaving
maryopol uh as I mentioned, Russia put a deadline on it,

(02:12):
then extended the deadline until a couple of hours ago,
and uh, Russia said that's their final deadline, so we'll see. Wow,
that's an interesting idea. I'm imagining not a single third country,
but maybe NATO forces donning the you know, the colored
helmets of the peacekeeper and saying, look, the only thing
we're doing, we're building a cordon and the civilians are

(02:35):
gonna walk out of it. Anybody shoots at us, we
shoot back at them. Do you hear me, Russia? Of course,
that's uh. That is absolutely stepping toward the land mine
of a greater war. So I'm not saying I'm against it.
I'm just saying this scamble it certainly seems justifiable in
terms of world opinion or every single strongly worded speed

(03:00):
each about human rights and protecting the innocent never again
for the rest of our lives. I'll roll my eyes
at I still I already do more or less. But
this back to the interview, This commander said the plant
held at least five hundred people who are wounded, including civilians.
It's in the basement where people just rot. There is
no medication. He said, the fighters and civilians inhabitant underground

(03:21):
system of tunnels that allow them to protect injured civilians
and provide minimal medical care. He declined to disclose the
number of fighters in the plant, which also includes members
of the Azov Battalion, as you just heard Jake Tapper
of CNN say, a part of Ukraine's National Guard and
policeman and border guards. He called the situation tragic and critical,
and he appealed very strongly to President Biden to help

(03:41):
save the soldiers and civilians who had fallen into this trap.
He said this could be through a military operation with
all necessary military means, or political agreement with another country
or non military organization guaranteeing the Ukrainian safe passage. Yes,
send send the Red Cross with the message you just said,
you shoot at the Cross, We're gonna obliterate you. Very

(04:03):
he said. We very much hope the President Biden will
hear us and help resolve our situation. We believe that
this is one of the few people who can really
influence and solve this situation in a short time. The
by the way, if you don't aren't fully up to
speed on this iron and steel plant, the Soviet era
iron and steel Plant, one of the largest factories in Europe,
stretches over four square miles along the city's waterfront. That

(04:28):
is a giant complex with deep tunnels designed to sustain bombing.
So they the Russians are going to have to go
in there if they want to kill everybody, or I
suppose you could just wait until they all dive starvation
and dehydration. And now service as a fortless like fortress

(04:50):
like shelter played a dominant role in the city's economy.
Tens of thousands of people in the town worked there
before it became their alamo. With no assistance and cut
off from the out side world, the soldiers and civilians
are relying on each other to survive. Volnia is sleeping
two to three hours a night in a wet basement
alongside his comrades. We save water together, We support each other.

(05:10):
We try to help each other as much as possible.
Everyone is ready to continue as one, he said. Morale
among the soldiers remains high. We are aware of everything,
We understand everything. Calmly, we continue to carry out combat missions.
The shelling is around the clock. Yesterday I've only described
the city is demolished from the face of the earth.
Scores of people lay under the rubble of burned houses
and bombed out buildings. Crosses have sprouted in courtyards and

(05:33):
on walls, and makeshift graves have pocked the city, harrowing
the reminders of the loss of human life. What is
happening here is beyond basic human comprehension, he said, And
he said he believes he and his friends will buy there.
And he just said a little bit ago, he thinks
they only have hours left. I know, we're both willing
to conceive that all of these questions are incredibly difficult. Um.

(05:56):
And and someday, with the benefit of hindsight, are asian
will be on what could have been done or should
have been done, or you know, et cetera. UM. On
the other hand, if something could be done to at
least save all those civilians, I mean, at the very least,
and you know, perhaps even rearm the fighters and and

(06:20):
resupply them with food and medicine, that sort of thing,
it would require bold, courageous, decisive leadership. And and not
to make this about American partisan politics or anything like that,
but name for me, please, any time, any time whatsoever
outside of the incident with corn Pop when Joe Biden

(06:41):
was bold, courageous, and decisive. It's just not his thing.
It is not his thing. It is definitely not his thing.
How would a different president handle it any differently? I
don't know, but you know he was the no vote
on the bin Laden Raid had better not. We know

(07:01):
it might make Pakistan angry and just I don't know,
we better not. Am I correct that he was the
only no vote? I think so? Yeah. Yeah. During the
period of the brave, bold and courageous, decisive Barack Obama
who wanted to lead from behind, so Captain lead from
Behind's team all said yes, Joe Biden thought, oh no,

(07:25):
we gotta lead from further behind, or maybe you're not
lead at all. Oh, what a terrible accident of history
that you know, so many people wanted wanted Trump out
and the Republican I'm sorry the Democratic Party was so
unable to vomit up a candidate worth a damn that
America elected Joe Biden. Now that poor Ukrainian people, to

(07:46):
a large extenter depending on Biden, I will tell I'll
give him this. We are shipping increasingly heavy weapons to them. Uh,
it may well be too little. It's a certainly too lay.
But in contrast to the early days of what everybody
thought would be a short war where the Ukrainians have
put up some cute resistance but really they don't have

(08:09):
a chance, or it'll be encheped in four hours. I
remember that crap. So we were giving up, you know,
bullets and helmets and and we were helping it that direction,
as Joe Biden told Zelinski to leave town right right horrible.
Isn't that unbelievable? How different would this story be if
the president of that country had followed our president's advice?

(08:31):
It would have fallen in hours. Boy, that you're right,
that's exactly from the same file folders. It better not
take out bin Laden. I don't know, it might not
be a good idea. Rather than becoming one of the
most inspiring figures of world history, you should probably leave.
That's my best advice. Just run from my life. If
I were, you go stay in a hotel in some

(08:52):
western city, and uh, you'll have a what do they
call it, a government in exile? Yeah, that would be good.
We'll recognize your title anyway. Uh, getting back to uh,
the weaponry, specifically the West is now focused on sending
longer range weapons like Howitzer's anti aircraft systems, anti ship missiles,

(09:13):
armed drones, armored trucks, personnel carriers, and even tanks. Evidently
we are now better late than never beseeching anybody who
has Soviet era weaponry, including airplanes and tanks given to Ukraine.
Given the Ukraine will sell you super cheap, super advanced
American stuff all right to replace yours, so you're not caught,

(09:36):
you know, without any gear. So that sort of thing, allegedly,
to whatever extent is possible, is flowing into Ukraine as
we speak, and certainly in the next twenty four hours
or so. Yeah, and how much is the right amount,
I don't know, but it's something like four billion dollars
worth since the war began month and a half ago. Uh.

(09:58):
And I always have to point out that we were
pumping in nine billion a month into Iraq when we
thought that was an important war. Yeah, yeah, true. At
and and Germany, which seems to have two speeds megal
megal maniacal genocideeties or cringing pussy Cat, announced that well,

(10:20):
we really can't send you Craney much gear because we
really don't have any. I mean we barely got any
for our armed forces. So because we don't really have
armed forces, because you know, we're afraid that well, I
don't know, go Hitler again and just once again. As
as going through cable news earlier before I went to work,
the most of the voice, not most, all of the

(10:41):
voices that I see on your lefty cable news channels
are why aren't we doing more? When are we going
to do more? What can we do to get those
people out of there? So the the brakes on this
are coming out of the White House, I guess, I guess.
Oh yeah, I'm glad you brought that up, because that
was one of the aspects of this I wanted to
talk about. So um, American officials say, um, oh, I'm sorry.

(11:05):
So Russia sent a formal warning saying that sending the
most sensitive weapons systems could bring unpredictable consequences. Oh no, um,
And American officials say the warning shows weapons are making
a big difference on the battlefield. But this is a
quote from the New York Times. So for Washington, at least,

(11:25):
concerns about supplying arms that Russia might consider escalatory have ebbed,
as the as has the initial worried that Ukraine will
use longer range weapons to attack Moscow itself and set
off a bigger war. Uh. They're talking about how much
intelligence to give um. Uh. Lieutenant General Frederick B. Hodge's
former top US commander in Europe, who we've quoted several times, said, quote,

(11:47):
seven weeks ago, they were arguing about whether to give
sting or missiles. How silly does that seem? Now we
have been deterred out of an exaggerated fear of what
could possibly happen. He's not necessarily right, but I think
he probably is. I think he probably is too an
exaggerated fear of what will happen by an administration headed

(12:09):
by the cringing better not guy flat batticot Ker. That's
a good counterpoint, Sir. I failed to consider that
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