November 26, 2025 • 54 mins
📍America hears headlines. He hears explosions. Today, David speaks with Steven Al Ebadi (Alladdin1983) — a former U.S. intelligence officer reporting from inside Ukraine, days away from drone strikes, surrounded by civilians who refuse to surrender.
Stephen shares:
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Why he flew to Ukraine with no job & no safety net
-
The real morale of Ukrainian civilians
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What weapons arrived broken — and what worked
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Why identity, faith, and national pride fuel the resistance
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Russian & North Korean troop presence
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Whether peace is even possible
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The story the mainstream won’t touch — life under daily attack
Support Steven's work: https://www.gofundme.com/f/help-document-ukraines-conflict-support-needed
Steven's Youtube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@StevenAlEbadi
Next Steps:
- 🏫 Get coaching by David Rutherford: https://www.froglogicinstitute.com/
- 📕 Get David's novel, The Poet Warrior: https://www.ballastbooks.com/ballast-bookstore/the-poet-warrior
- 📰 Sign up for David's weekly newsletter for free coaching tips, updates, and more: https://davidrutherfordletter.substack.com/
Timestamps:
00:00 - Intro, Steven
01:55 - Background, why he wanted to go to Ukraine
07:45 - The attitude and culture of the Ukrainian people right now
12:45 - Do Ukrainians feel ties to Russia?
18:10 - The young men of Ukraine and anti-woke attitudes
21:00 - Stories from soldiers and vets in Ukraine
23:30 - What do Ukrainians want in this war?
27:50 - What would it take to push Russia back?
31:10 - The fighting spirit of Ukrainians right now
34:15 - Is there a divide in the Ukrainian Government?
36:10 - Peace process, current negotiations
40:30 - What Steven is focused on learning and reporting on
48:30 - Breaking story
Follow Clay & Buck on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/clayandbuck
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
In the midst of the historic peace process taking place
over in Europe, the United States, and Ukraine. We're bringing
you someone who's live in theater to give you the
ground truth today on the David Rutherford Show. All Right, everybody,
(00:25):
I know, if you're like me, you've absolutely been enthralled
with all the news that's coming out of the European Union,
coming out of the Trump administration, coming out of Ukraine.
In this quest that Trump has been making since day one,
the lead up he said, I'm gonna get in week one,
I'm gonna bring peace to the to the region into
(00:46):
this epic war, this epic battle of attrition that we've
we've been watching play out where these poor young men
are being thrown into the meat grinder day in and
day out. Well, I had this incredible opportunity. I was
contacted online by a gentleman who goes by Aladdin on
X mister Stephen all body, and he reached out and
(01:10):
was like, hey, rot man, I would love to come on,
let's do this and I want to give you some
ground truth. So coming to you live right now where
he just had a drone strike hit about a quarter
mile away from a cafe in Ukraine at nine o'clock
nine thirty at night. Steven Man, thank you so much
(01:30):
for taking time out of your insane schedule getting the
ground truth to share what you've learned with our friends.
Speaker 2 (01:38):
Yeah, thank you, Dave, appreciate it.
Speaker 3 (01:40):
I've been watching you for quite a while right now
and and Shelley, I actually discovered you on Sean Ryan
show That's wild to show you have an incredible life,
very genuine guy, and I thought you were like, very genuine,
So I decided to follow you on x and see
what you're all about. I've been showing like watching your
shows periodically on YouTube. Yeah, let's get into it. How
(02:02):
do you want to get this going? The free flow
ask whatever you Yeah, yeah, yeah, no.
Speaker 1 (02:08):
I think the biggest thing for me is just to
just to give people a little bit of your background
and then why you felt compelled to fly over and
and and start reporting and probably one of the most
dangerous regions in the world. Like, well, how does the
how do those how does your life and that come together?
Speaker 3 (02:28):
So I'm going to make it very quick because we
have a time restrain here because of the curfew and whatnot.
Speaker 2 (02:34):
So we got about like an hour and a half
and whatnot. Hey, ladies and gentlemen.
Speaker 1 (02:37):
He says, what not could be actual drone hitting where
he's broadcasting for right now.
Speaker 2 (02:43):
So man, I just I just yeah, I'd rather go
for it. Yeah, So bar raising Baghdad.
Speaker 3 (02:48):
I started as a linguists back in two thousand and
three and ended up working with the Green Bray guys.
They brought me to the United States under the SIV program.
So I've been a US citizen for quite a while.
So I went back as a contractor. Then I became
a government employee. So I was a GS thirteen intelligence
officer with the Army CI Command, terminated two weeks before
(03:12):
the election. Politics had a lot to do with it,
and it's crazy story. Maybe we can do another show talking.
Speaker 1 (03:20):
Yeah, let's do that when you're not when you got
a little bit more a nonvasive area and we could
just sit back and tell your amazing stories.
Speaker 2 (03:29):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (03:30):
So yeah, I deployed multiple times Iraq, Afghanistan and all
that crazy stuff.
Speaker 2 (03:36):
I was actually involved in the Ukraine situation.
Speaker 1 (03:38):
I was.
Speaker 3 (03:40):
Senior pollad in Germany for SAGU, the Security Assistant Group Ukraine.
It's a NATO mission led by US, and I went
to Germany and good faith. They found out I was
a Republican, they assumption at against the curtailed my TDY
sent me back home. That had a lot to do
(04:01):
with my termination from the government. That was a twenty
twenty three, twenty twenty four. And after I got terminated,
I couldn't get a job, so, like, not even a
contract job. And obviously when the Trump administration came in,
(04:21):
they did the whole high and freeze even for contracts
and all that stuff, and and.
Speaker 2 (04:29):
I couldn't get a job.
Speaker 3 (04:30):
My security cleaners went to log's status a loss of jurisdiction,
and I was just sitting in limbo.
Speaker 2 (04:39):
So and with the whole dose stuff.
Speaker 3 (04:43):
Start popping up in early this year, and I was like, hey,
you know what, let me use some of the skills
the government taught me against some of the contract fraud
and NGOs inside of the United States. So I broke
some stories some funding look and picked it up, and
a few other people picked it up.
Speaker 2 (05:02):
So my account grew.
Speaker 3 (05:04):
And I was like, okay, let me be a journalist
and just to uncover fraud and just pull up USA
funding and from USA DOUG gov, USA spending, DOUG GOV,
and the FPDS database and that's basically what I did.
Then eventually I just couldn't land an actual job, stable job,
(05:26):
and I was like.
Speaker 2 (05:27):
Okay, screw this.
Speaker 3 (05:29):
I initially wanted to come to Ukraine on the ground
a while back to report on what happened, and I
just pulled the plug. And actually I had almost zero
money in my pocket. I did crowdsource funding on GoFundMe,
so I got a few thousand bucks, got a ticket,
(05:51):
and I came here.
Speaker 2 (05:52):
So the go fund me is still live.
Speaker 3 (05:53):
It's pinned on my ex profile if anybody want to
chip in to keep this going, because I'm trying to
stay here for extended period of time to actually get
the entire truth and the actual sentiment of the Ukrainian
people on the ground, not necessarily just targeting one story
on another. It's like I'm trying to go different regions,
(06:13):
different cities, capturing as much information as possible from non
biased perspective.
Speaker 2 (06:21):
So yeah, initially I came to Kiev and Kiev was wild.
Speaker 3 (06:26):
Kiev basically is getting attacked almost daily, and I captured
like literally you'll see the air defense. The other day,
I put out a video and we got attacked in Kiev,
and I was able to capture the air defense anti
aircraft and drone. It was going off and you can
(06:46):
see the bullets. It was like I was going, yeah, yeah,
I was going wow, yeah yeah.
Speaker 2 (06:52):
And now tell me.
Speaker 1 (06:55):
I mean, obviously, you know, exposing government corruption is in
my opinion, probably the greatest story that that exists out
right there. The magnitude of of of what we're looking at.
And I don't know if you just saw, but they
finally they canceled DOGE.
Speaker 2 (07:11):
That came out yesterday.
Speaker 1 (07:13):
Uh, they officially shut DOGE down with eight more months
left on the initiative. Yeah, well, I mean, you knew
it was going to happen. You knew something was going
to go wrong. And I and I think that's what
you know, those types of things are what really make
people question what actually the truth is going on. And
so the fact that you you know, want to have
(07:34):
the courage and then the willpower to want to go
to I think you know, when you look at all
the different places, uh, that the American population is focused
on in terms of corruption, in terms of uh, the
future of our of of peace. Right, you know, we
put him in office because we didn't want any new
(07:56):
New Wars and even said he was going to stop.
Now Ukraine is the center of that whole thing. When
you when you talk about that fair you know that
unbiased reporting. Is it hard going over with that mind
knowing just the intense struggle that the Ukrainian people live
(08:16):
with every day, you know? And also I'm sure because
of your time in Hiraq and Afghanistan you also understand
the the negative influence of Russia and what they do
through proxies in these foreign areas and lands. I mean,
your country, uh certainly has taken heavies from pretty much
(08:37):
all sides. But uh, you know the fact that you're
now an American citizen, It's like, all right, I want
to continue to see and root this out from my
own my own validation, if you will. Was it was
it nerve wracking or did you just know I have
to go do this?
Speaker 3 (08:53):
I had of deep feelings about it, To be honest
with you, I wanted to do it from the bottom
of my heart because I know a lot about Ukraine,
and like from personal reasons. My ex girlfriend was Ukrainian
came into United States back in twenty fourteen, actually, so
(09:13):
I knew a lot about the culture The culture is
extremely conservative. Those people are like very conservative, family oriented,
but coming on the ground, it's a whole different perspective
you see. Especially like these people, they have like in
extreme grit and will power, very proud people.
Speaker 2 (09:32):
They do know they have a lot of corruption.
Speaker 3 (09:36):
With the like the old school oligarch mentality from the
Soviet Union and whatnot, and they're combat in it, like
the actual Ukrainian people on the ground, fighting tooth and
nail combating the corruption here in Ukraine. It may not
get reported on the news, but yeah, people here they're
(10:01):
fed up with the corruption and they're fighting it within
and they're putting a lot of pressure on the government
to do something about it. So that's good to see
and it's kind of refreshing because the Ukrainian people are
tired from all of that crap as well, and they
just want to see They want to live in peace
(10:22):
and they want to see their country prosper. They're extremely
generous people, very nice. The culture is very conservative. I've
attended three consecutively three Sunday church services here and they're
(10:46):
absolutely church god loving people and you see it as
well and on daily life in me you may see
a lot of videos out there, nightclubs and whatnot. Yeah,
they do exist. I'm not gonna lie. But you've seen
it overseas in Iraq in other areas where people are
(11:10):
so tired of conflict, it becomes normal. So they get
desanitized from the everyday horror, so they just go about
their life and try to have a good time without worrying.
It was like, am I gonna die this second or not?
So it became it became a normal thing. Like literally
the drone ecology just hit about thirty minutes ago, about
(11:35):
forty five minutes ago right now. I heard it and
I was like looking around trying to see if anybody
freaking out, and it was like it became normal.
Speaker 2 (11:46):
Wow, yeah, and it's sad. Yeah, that's that's how how
it became here.
Speaker 3 (11:53):
They got used to it because it's daily, every day,
multiple times, and I guess from talking to people, it
was like they were like, we can submit and live
in fear, or we can just live our lives and
if we die, we die.
Speaker 2 (12:10):
This is it.
Speaker 3 (12:13):
That's basically our time has has come. And I was like,
you know what, I respect that because I've seen it
overseas and conflict zone.
Speaker 2 (12:23):
Oh my god, you lived it. You lived it.
Speaker 1 (12:25):
I mean, you lived in the most intense in the
last twenty five years in the heart of Iraq. I mean,
it's just that's That's the thing my buddy's always talked about,
is you know, you you get so caught up in
wage and war that sometimes you negate to look around
you and look at the impact of the people who
(12:46):
are just civilians, just trying to feed their family and
wake up every day and go to work and you know,
provide some kind of stability in a perpetually unstable environment
for sure.
Speaker 2 (13:00):
Just let's let's start at one thing.
Speaker 1 (13:02):
So one of the things that you know, I think
I always get sucked into when I when I try
and do a deep dive on Ukraine is is that
there is a considerable portion of the Ukrainian population that
do have close ties to Russia. Now, it is are
(13:24):
the people that you're engaging with are do they feel like,
you know, the people who are you know, over in
the regions that are are being disputed, the regions that
that Russia has I guess conquered or that are fighting
for right now, is there an idea that those people
(13:45):
they they actually want to be a part of Russia
or they're being held against their will under this tyrant right,
because I mean there's a long, long history of Russia
Ukrainian engagement. I mean I remember Tucker Carlson's interview with Putin.
He starts in the fifteen hundreds, and it's like, all right,
(14:06):
obviously there is a deep, deep connection between Russian people
and Ukrainian people. I mean, hel Zelenski, you know, used
to speak Russian regularly. What are the what are local
people you're talking Do they feel as if those people
who are on the eastern shore, eastern edge of Russia
that they're delusional, they're being held against their will, or
(14:27):
what's their explanation of why those people have the views
they do.
Speaker 3 (14:32):
So there's a mixed view from my understanding so far
on the ground, and the closer to the Eastern Front
you get to the more Russian ties you have because
a lot of those people retired ussr military, and so
far some of them they were still on Russia retirement
(14:56):
paycheck as well. Oh wow, yeah, so like from the
old Soviet Union military. So yeah, there's obviously intertwined, deep connection.
But at the same time, those people they settled, a
lot of them they settled with the Ukrainian identity, so okay, yeah, yeah,
(15:18):
there is a lot of people, from my understanding, are
held against their will. Some are happy to be part
of Russia. So there's a mix. And being on the ground.
The western portion of Ukraine they do not speak Russian,
(15:39):
they speak Ukrainian, and the middle of Ukraine meet they
speak mix between Ukrainian and Russian, and the eastern portion
of Ukraine they speak Russia and some Ukrainian. And but
throughout the years from two thousand and four they did
(15:59):
reference them and they start teaching kids Ukrainian in school
to establish their actual Ukrainian identity. But the older generation,
like the gen X and and even some of the
millennial and and uh, what is it the the older
(16:19):
folks here, the boomers, Yeah, yeah, the boomers, they all
speak Russian, especially on the eastern, mid Middle, Eastern, Middle Ukraine,
Easter Ran and uh. And the younger you get, the
more Ukrainian identity you see. And they're very proud of it.
And even the boomers, they're very proud to be Ukrainians.
Speaker 2 (16:43):
It's just.
Speaker 3 (16:45):
Their entire life. They spoke Russians like I'm in a
desert right now. I'm in a desert right now. A
lot of them they still speak Russian and some like
talking to people. I was like, I say, like vitaio
da q whatever, like basically how you doing, And obviously
those are Ukrainian words, not Russian wars.
Speaker 2 (17:04):
It was like, oh, yeah, you know Ukrainian.
Speaker 3 (17:06):
And I was like, yeah, so don't speak Russian whatever.
But they still speak Russian here even when they communicate
with each other. But they're trying to change that, right, Yeah.
In Kiev they take it as an insult, like if
you say Russian words, because they're really pushing the Ukrainian identity.
(17:30):
But here was like a little bit more relaxed and
a lot of the people that moved to Odessa, they
came from the Nipro and the actual eastern region. They
kind of resettled into the middle south of Ukraine. So
there's a lot of mix in that and Odessa. I
guess previously they all almost spoke Russians. So yeah, so
(17:52):
you still have that, but the younger generation like fight
talk to younger folks here like a hookah bar one
of our restaurants who ant cafes, they refuse to speak Russian.
They just communicate either in English because they want to
prove their English, which is kind of refresher to see ye.
Speaker 2 (18:13):
And uh and uh speak Ukrainians.
Speaker 3 (18:16):
So I think in a generation or whatnot, everybody in
this region they will be speaking Ukrainian after the boomers
and whatever dies off and god yeah they go yeah,
all right.
Speaker 1 (18:30):
Next question. Obviously we were pot we're inundated with the
stories of people getting sucked off the streets, thrown in. Yeah,
I know you haven't. What my question is do you
notice h not absent, but a less than thriving young
(18:53):
male population present. I mean, is it like you walk
into these cities that you're visiting or town and you
notice there's not very.
Speaker 2 (19:03):
Many young men around.
Speaker 1 (19:05):
Is that a viable thing or is that completely inflated
that you know is not true.
Speaker 2 (19:10):
No, it's a bunch of bullshit young kids. Yeah, all
over the place.
Speaker 3 (19:14):
Yeah, there is actually a matter of fact, the Ukrainian
parliament pastor resolution a couple of months ago.
Speaker 2 (19:21):
A few months ago they allowed.
Speaker 3 (19:25):
Young people anywhere from basically being a teenager until the
age of twenty two to leave the country.
Speaker 2 (19:32):
They have an option.
Speaker 3 (19:34):
There was about one hundred thousand they left already, but
the majority they stayed because they love their country and
they want to stay here.
Speaker 2 (19:43):
And I'm talking to people, it was like, have you
thought about leaving?
Speaker 3 (19:48):
And they're like, yeah, but we've been hearing from our
friends like that. They go to Western countries, the United States,
Europe and whatnot, and they're telling us like life is
extremely hot and now again that much support, especially in
the United States, and and so we don't want to
(20:09):
go through that struggle and start from scratch.
Speaker 2 (20:11):
So we are content being here.
Speaker 3 (20:13):
Plus we love our country and we want to stay
and fight, and so that's good to see. And I've
actually met a lot of people they had a chance
to actually leave Ukraine. They left and they came back.
It was like, hey, we don't want to live in
the West. That's not aligned with our values. And they
talked a lot. I spoke to a lot of people,
(20:35):
and they talked a lot about the woke culture in
the West and the lgbtqs. Like I was like, no,
that's not yeah, we're not about that stuff. So they
backed their stuff, came back to Ukraine and restarted their
life again. And and I was like, oh wow, okay,
(20:56):
and I talked fascinating Yeah, I talked to no more
of people. They lived in Germany, Netherlands, England, United States,
you name it, and they came back because they did
not want to deal with the woke culture in the West.
Speaker 2 (21:14):
That makes sense, all right, all right?
Speaker 1 (21:16):
So have you talked to anybody that's been in the
fight so far, guys, any veterans, any injured people. What
what have they shared with you? And what's their interpretation
of the whole thing. It's pretty brutal. I spoke to
people on a train. A lot of them don't speak English,
so I have to use like a deep l translation app.
(21:39):
Did I see people like with the military uniform? So
I asked them, It's like, hey, are your military? And
like yes, And I've seen people miss a limbs.
Speaker 3 (21:48):
You see that everywhere, And yeah, the number is a
staggering and it's it's a very sad. Anywhere you go,
you'll see people like that. And I had a chance
to speak to multiple people, multiple soldiers from anywhere, enlisted
to military officers. Usually the officers a lot of them
(22:12):
speak English. Okay, English, they enlisted, obviously they don't because
they come from a lower class. And it's pretty brutal.
Apparently the front line is ten times worse than what's projected,
but they're.
Speaker 2 (22:29):
Holding their own.
Speaker 3 (22:32):
Yeah, and they are deeply, deeply grateful for the American
people and the American government help, and they openly admit it.
It was like, if it was it for America, we
would have lost our country. But we are doing the fight,
and wow, Yeah, I was happy to hear that at
(22:54):
least they appreciate and acknowledge the help that we have
given them, and they used our weapons to fend off
and basically hold Russia into basic almost like a stall
trench line right now. Yeah, there may be skirmishes here
(23:15):
and there, like Russia may be taking a small territory
few kilaborters here, they lose it back a couple couple
of weeks later, and so it's back and forth, but
it's like it's basically a very steady line at this point.
And I don't want to give the actual Russian rotation
plan and sorry, the Ukrainian rotation plan, because yeah, I
(23:39):
got into a deep discussion with a connection I have
is a high level Cornell UH and the Ukrainian military.
So we got into a pretty detailed conversation on how
they're doing the rotations at the front line and what not.
Speaker 2 (23:57):
I don't want to talk about it online to be
out here.
Speaker 1 (23:59):
Absolutely would never want you to compromise their tactical realities
there underground. All right. So the other question is now
is is really I think that's on everybody's mind, is
what are the Ukrainian or one of the questions, what
do the Ukrainian people want? I mean, obviously they want
(24:23):
to win the war, but I would imagine now this
many years in uh and the support that Russia has
built up from you know, their support from China, their
support from Iran, North Korea's sending troops. You know, They're
like they have a nice little coalition going that you know,
is doing well, you know, and it doesn't seem like
(24:45):
all the sanctions have crippled their economy too badly.
Speaker 2 (24:48):
They're still selling.
Speaker 1 (24:49):
Plenty of oil around the world. What do the Ukrainian
people believe they need in order to kind of begin
to turn the tides in their favor.
Speaker 2 (25:04):
They want proper weapons.
Speaker 3 (25:05):
I can tell you one thing during the Biden admin
when I was a pole ad for the SAGU operation,
actually the Biden administration did not give proper support to
Ukraine as much as money that we sent our weapons
and whatnot. Everything we sent them it was like old broken,
(25:28):
but we sent Bradley's that does not work, like literally wow, yeah,
like literally it went to JOHNIESCA poland Jaytown and that's
basically the main hub of supplies where they loaded up
on the train they send it to Ukraine. We sent
the Ukrainian military from like literally tanks Bradley's and a
(25:53):
bunch of equipments and even houzers like one fifty five,
one twenty that doesn't work. It's yeah, like literally broken.
So they had to take multiple different bradleys. And this
is like a repeated thing. They had to take multiple
different bradleys, like change the turret on this one because
(26:14):
the tourlet on this one works, or the electronic on
this one works but doesn't work on this one, and
the gearbox from this one works and this one doesn't.
So it's like doing a bunch of swaps. Like out
of like maybe five Bradley's, they may get like two
or three workid And same thing with the Abron tanks
(26:36):
and the Abram tanks that we send them a lot
of them. The targeting system is doesn't work or like
broken and whatnot. That they had to figure out how
to fix the targeting system on the on the abron
tanks and whatnot. So they had to do a lot
of leg work to get these equipments to work. But
the Biden had mean Actually, as much as they claimed
(26:59):
they supported, they all what we send them like broken equipments,
and they still managed to get them to work.
Speaker 2 (27:08):
And or at least revive.
Speaker 3 (27:11):
A lot of them or some of them and get
it to the battlefield and use them properly. If we
had given them proper weapons that actually works and proper
proper targeted packages with the intail, I think they would
(27:31):
have pushed Russia back all the way to the uh uh.
They probably would have taken their land back.
Speaker 2 (27:40):
Wow. Yeah, and that's that's that's heavy. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (27:43):
And I still believe if if we send them the
proper equipment and manage it properly, like have people actually
on the ground count it, make sure it's actually going
to the military units that's supposed to be going to,
and I believe they can take their land back and
push Russia all the way back to Russia.
Speaker 2 (28:07):
Oh wow.
Speaker 1 (28:08):
Yeah, And what kind of force do you think they
need to have to be able to do that? Are
we talking three hundred thousand troops in this fight or
is it just just the web Because you're gonna need
You're gonna need mass numbers because that's what Russia has
right now. They have what seems to be just an
endless supply of young men that they can send out
into that meat grinder. And there's like it seems like
(28:31):
I've heard as much as five to one is what
the like?
Speaker 3 (28:36):
What it is like last week, I'm on a bunch
of OCN sail like from different groups here on the ground.
Russia lost twenty plus thousand people. Wow, and just five
days wow. Like literally I was loading up on the
(28:56):
train from Kief to Odessa, uh to nights ago and
I get the notification.
Speaker 2 (29:02):
It was like.
Speaker 3 (29:04):
During these few battles going on at the front, Russia
lost twenty plus thousand people and the Ukrainian lost about
three four thousand. So yeah, they're still heavy casualties. But yeah,
it's yeah, it's about five to one ish ratio. But
Russia has obviously a country of one hundred and fifty
(29:28):
million people plus you get it. You got North Korea
jumped in. Actually I did see North Korean IDs and
uniforms oh wow, Yeah, because I went to the World
War Two Museum and they had dedicated a few sections
(29:50):
one to the US volunteers and they're all a private rangers,
Green Bereys Skills.
Speaker 2 (30:04):
Died over there.
Speaker 3 (30:05):
Actually I cried because I saw my country, my countrymen.
Speaker 1 (30:10):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (30:10):
Yeah. And it's actually.
Speaker 3 (30:13):
Again emotional a bottle right now, viz yeah, man, uh,
I don't care about the politics of it. Those are
US citizens, Those our brothers and sisters, Yeah, died for
what they.
Speaker 2 (30:28):
Believe it's right and yep uh And.
Speaker 1 (30:35):
Well it's funny, man, those are the moments where there's
nobility and death, you know, even in the face of
you know, war. And the older I get, the more
I the more it it it' I'm repulsed at how
whimsical those in power wage war to the detriment of
of us who seem to have to be the ones
(30:57):
who engage in it. But there is some nobility and
volunteering for what you to believe, believe is an existential threat,
right and there, and that is and we've seen that
throughout human history, and those battles and those people who
stand their ground against Goliath, right, those those are there's
a nobility in that and I and I like, do
(31:19):
you do you feel that uh in the people around you,
that they that this is a noble endeavor? And then
and then have you run into people that are like, no,
this is the dumbest thing ever in the world.
Speaker 3 (31:33):
We shouldn't be doing this. And not not even one person. Wow, yeah,
not even one person. I've I've talked to men, women,
young people, old, young, different ages.
Speaker 2 (31:47):
Uh, they are not giving up.
Speaker 3 (31:52):
They every person I spoke to, they were like, they're
indiscriminately targeting civilians, kids, apartment complexes. And it's like if
Russia thinks they're going to break our spirit, matter of fact,
they made it even stronger just because they're daily and
(32:15):
indiscriminately attacking kids, playgrounds, schools, apartment complexes. And like a
few days ago, there's town called Ornople. It's actually on
the Polish border. There's a drone hit and killed. Last
(32:41):
time I checked, I haven't checked the updated story, but
it was thirty two people, six kids died. Yeah, beautiful
and beautiful kids and one a mom with her two childs,
just like they just disintegrated. And and it's and this
(33:03):
is happening daily and show Nihev it's another town east
of northeast of Kiev. They're being getting hit the past
three days hard, and a bunch of people died already.
Having checked, I'm probably gonna go there next after Odessa
because the past few days they got attacked massively. So
(33:26):
hopefully I can get over there and and get some
video from videos of the civilian buildings who got hit.
Speaker 2 (33:32):
Why not.
Speaker 3 (33:34):
Ah, but these people are like the spirit they have
is unbelievable, unbelievable. It's it reminds me by the spirits
of the American people after the nine to eleven attack. Okay, yeah,
how we Americans got unified against oursim and that's where
(33:55):
they at. It's that was their moment, that's their nine
to eleven basically, right, Yeah, So that's the it's basically
the same thing happened back in two thousand and one
two Americans. Everybody unified against terrorism, and that's where the
Ukrainians are right now.
Speaker 2 (34:14):
And that's the best well that can I can describe it.
Speaker 1 (34:17):
That's fantastic to hear, because you know, you you get
fed so many stories of recent stories about there's an
inside schism in you in Zelensky's senior leadership there's people
vying to try and figure out how to get him
out of control or get him out of power. Are
you hearing anything like that from higher ranking sources or
(34:40):
government personnel that you're talking to. Is is there a
divide at the highest level in and around Zelensky right now?
Speaker 3 (34:49):
There are some going on at the parliament level. But
I can tell you what a little nugget people doesn't know.
The military has a lot of influence on what's happening
in politics. So if the military actually wants the len
(35:11):
Ski out, uh, they will get him out. And if
they want him if they want to keep him in,
they will keep him in. And from my understanding is
the military leadership has significant amount of influence on what's
going to happen politically in the country.
Speaker 2 (35:32):
Okay, yeah, so that.
Speaker 1 (35:33):
That's I mean, that's usually the way it works in
these kind of environments. You know, once the military kind
of establishes itself in these these uh, these regional wars,
they they have a tendency. I mean, we saw it
in Egypt after uh, the Arab spring, right, We've seen
it in a bunch of other countries where when that
(35:53):
when the country becomes destabilized usually it's that those internal
militaristic the military comes up in and gains power and
contains that. All right, let's back it out a little
bit for a little bit, just a few more questions
for you. Obviously, the peace process is going on, another
peace process hopefully UH this when we get to some
(36:17):
resolution here soon. But what what I saw just uh
a site released what they said from the telegram released
what they said was the European Union response. They're they're,
they're what they want to see in the peace process,
(36:37):
and in there, I mean, it's pretty pretty pretty. I mean,
it's like Ukraine membership in NATO based on an alliance,
a consensus within the alliance that supports them. Territorial negotiations
start uh from the current line and the control and
(36:57):
then uh, Ukraine will be fully reconstructed and compensated financially
through a Russian sovereign assets. And then you know, I
heard a woman at a representative at the UN basically said,
we're we're not negotiating any any of the territory that
(37:18):
we've lost the Russia.
Speaker 2 (37:19):
That's not even on a play. We're not.
Speaker 1 (37:22):
We're not gonna stop till that's about what we actually
need is just money so we can fight more efficiently,
i e. The weapons systems. And then Zelenski himself said
it's against the law for me to give up that land.
I would be going against my oath as president. So
it seems, you know, and then you look at the
Trump administration. Now Rubio is just banging his fist saying no,
(37:45):
things are progressing nicely. And then Trump, you know, over
the last week or so, you know, one day's all
in for supporting Ukraine. The next minute he's like, you
know what, they can have at it, he and NATO
in European Union. They can go do what they want.
Speaker 2 (38:00):
I'm out.
Speaker 1 (38:01):
And so that's got to be incredibly frustrating, I would
imagine for the Ukrainian people, who kind of feel like
all these external parties are the ones kind of calling
the shots. What do Ukrainians feel the negotiations should be
focused on, and who do they feel should be involved.
Speaker 3 (38:23):
They definitely want to be involved directly into negotiations because
they want to play a key role into what's going
to happen in their own country.
Speaker 2 (38:33):
And I understand that because.
Speaker 3 (38:38):
If I were them, I don't want to be negotiated
on my behalf by somebody else. But at the same time,
obviously they are in the situation they are right now,
So that's why you've got all these external forces. But
at the same time, these people are extremely proud and
dignity is matters to them.
Speaker 1 (38:59):
And.
Speaker 2 (39:01):
If any piece deal happens, or some sort of a.
Speaker 3 (39:07):
Settlement to this war happens, they don't want to feel undignified.
They want to maintain their dignity. And I respect that
and I understand that, and so that's what the sentiment are.
And in the street, everybody you talk to in the
street will be like, I don't want to be disrespected
(39:29):
and I don't want to lose my dignity. Plus, how
do you want us just to give our land? It's like,
that's our land. I was like you, just like no
one on the street, like regular people on the street.
I talked to every single one of them. They don't
(39:50):
want to give their land to Russia. They want their
land back. So I don't know how you settle that,
to be honest with you, I have no idea.
Speaker 1 (40:01):
Wow, Yeah, I think that's got to be the most
challenging thing there is. I mean, obviously, you know Russia
now in its own wisdom. And if you listen into
you know what Pepper peppel Off or whatever. The president
and then the Secretary of State guy, you know, they're
all like, listen, this, this wouldn't happen if we didn't
feel like you were encroaching. So they want this protective
(40:24):
section that you know, it gives them a buffer from
launching attacks into them and all this, you know, and
to concede land that you've already gained. Man, there's not
a lot of examples in history where that took place,
for sure, and it's you know, that's I think the
crux of this whole thing is is that land that's
(40:46):
been captured?
Speaker 2 (40:48):
All right?
Speaker 1 (40:49):
Last question for you, what are you what are you
going to do as you continue to travel around the country.
Is there a particular thing you're going to focus on
trying to learn about the people and about the environment
(41:09):
that's taking place, And can you describe what you're hoping
to accomplish in the next however many weeks you're going
to be there.
Speaker 3 (41:18):
My plan originally to stay six months, and I've been
here for twenty days, so I have a long way
to go, and I'm trying to hit every city I
can to show the actual damages, specifically on civilian infrastructure,
(41:41):
not the creatical infrastructure like apartment complexes, schools, playgrounds and
stuff like that.
Speaker 2 (41:48):
I just wanted to.
Speaker 3 (41:52):
Understand what the Ukrainians suffering every day on the ground
by indiscriminate attacks, because when I came here, I found
out you cannot record and take pictures of military Insecurity
(42:13):
service infrastructure if it got hit or anything like that.
They don't want those footage obs and because they don't
want to show Russia.
Speaker 2 (42:22):
I guess how much damage happened, yeah, BDA right.
Speaker 3 (42:26):
Yeah, your bdas yeah, and so militarily, yeah, I understand that,
and so I shifted focus on I was like, okay,
let me talk to the civilians and if I can
make it to the front line, that'll be cool. So
(42:47):
I'm trying to raise additional funds to get my actual
journalistic credentials.
Speaker 2 (42:54):
Paid and.
Speaker 3 (42:56):
Approved and so I can submit it to the Military
and Security Service, so I can get embedded with a
military unit to go to the front line to show
people what the trunches looks like. And I'll get to
that point when I get to it. And in the meantime,
(43:17):
I'm hitting different towns to show the daily drone attacks
and if they hit civilian buildings, I try to show
people who's like, there's to me, it's like a terroristic
tactics with Russia is doing. It's like if you're discriminately
or deliberately hiding civilians, you're trying to scare people into
(43:41):
submission and they're not.
Speaker 2 (43:44):
And yeah, if they lose, it's sad.
Speaker 3 (43:48):
They do a funeral, everybody come together and whatnot, and
they go about their day next day, just like And
the same thing reminded me about a rock Afghanistan. They
lose people, funeral, you know, three days in Islam whatever
and after that they go about their business and move on.
And so same thing happening here and unbreakable spirit. Today
(44:12):
I was at the Black Sea and I went over
there to actually record a video because what the Russians
they were doing.
Speaker 2 (44:19):
They were using sea mines.
Speaker 3 (44:24):
And unchained so whatever the wave takes them and hoping
they get to the shorelines and hit people who are
swimming at the beaches and whatnot, and a bunch of
people died. And the last incident happened it was a
(44:44):
year ago where the last two women died from these
sea mine basically again sent to the shorelines.
Speaker 2 (44:51):
Two women died. The last two women died.
Speaker 3 (44:54):
It was about a year ago until the Ukrainian navy
started hitting the fleet Sevastopol and the Russian had to
actually move their entire fleet from Sevastopol into a courch,
so basically on the other side of.
Speaker 2 (45:13):
Crimea.
Speaker 3 (45:15):
And so that's the tactics that Russians are using to
just indiscriminately killing, killing civilians.
Speaker 2 (45:25):
And you're hearing the stories from this field.
Speaker 3 (45:29):
It's it's heartbreaking, honestly, and it never gets easy. Like
it doesn't matter how many deployments you do. It doesn't
matter how many people you killed or how many death
you've seen. It's always the same thing. It breaks your heart.
As a matter of fact, the older you get it
kind of like the worse it becomes, and like you
get more emotional about it.
Speaker 2 (45:50):
Yes, yeah, and.
Speaker 3 (45:53):
So yeah, that's what I'm doing right now, and hopefully
I just want to get the truth out.
Speaker 2 (45:58):
I'm not spinning anything. I don't have any agenda.
Speaker 3 (46:01):
I just want to tell people these stories here and
move on my next my next one. I'm actually I'm
trying to go to Gaza and trying to My mission
is trying to expose the.
Speaker 2 (46:15):
Hamas and who evil those people are.
Speaker 3 (46:17):
Because when I when I was grow up, growing up
in Iraq, we used to call those guys like parasites.
Speaker 2 (46:23):
Mm hmmm. Yeah, and so yeah, I.
Speaker 1 (46:27):
Think you're the way you describe it as with age,
you're you know, you become a little bit more empathetic,
even though you're more hardened by what you've seen in war. Right,
Because what I look at is I just see what
I see as a veteran who's lost their limbs, who
lives with that. I'll see a mother who's lost their children,
(46:48):
or a new wife who's got two little children and
then their son's gone, and who live under the perpetual
thread of whatever side they're coming from. And man, it's
just I think those are the biggest news stories. I
think those are the stories that really mean the most
to tell the story of those affected by war at
(47:10):
the highest level. So Steven, I just commend you on
what you're doing. I really appreciate you coming on here
and spending time with me. I'm really looking forward to
a follow up in a month or two.
Speaker 2 (47:25):
If you want to come back home, I'd love to
have you.
Speaker 1 (47:27):
If you find something new, and then when you get
back to the States, I'll have you on and we
can tell your whole story. I think that would be
absolutely phenomenal to here. So I just want to wish
you but all the blessings in the world good luck,
stay safe, And why don't you tell everybody where they
can find you and follow you and pitching to help
(47:48):
with your work.
Speaker 2 (47:48):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (47:49):
Absolutely, it's a L L I D D I N
nineteen eighty three on X and same thing and on
I just started a YouTube channel, so I'm slowly uploading
videos from talking to people or doing basically walking around
(48:12):
here and stuff like that on YouTube. And also my
GoFundMe is spinned on my x and so you can
go over there and chip in if you can. And
also I promised you to break a story on your show.
Speaker 2 (48:29):
You did, you did, I was. That's up to you.
Speaker 1 (48:32):
I mean, I'm not gonna I'm not gonna spoil your
own journalistic If you want to break it on your
own channel, I'm good with that. I just I'm happy
to have you share whatever.
Speaker 2 (48:41):
You want to share it.
Speaker 3 (48:41):
Yeah, I'll upload it or maybe I had it scheduled,
but I don't know if it went out on X
but or not. But actually walking around in Odessa and
I noticed in the Islamic Center and I saw a
building it looks like a mosque, and sure enough, I
went to the front of the building and it says
Islamic Center of Arabic Culture. And I started sniffing around.
(49:04):
I knocked on the door, nobody answered. I guess no
one in there. So I started sniffing around with the
locals who went on and come to find out, Muslim
Brotherhood affiliated through Turkish businessmen and shipping businesses. So there's
a lot of Turkish influence here and they do shipping business,
(49:29):
so they're very embedded with the Muslim Brotherhood.
Speaker 2 (49:34):
So they got a foothold here. So and is that
what do.
Speaker 1 (49:39):
You think that's for potentially established a relationship with the
Russians for inside attacks, for terrorist attacks, or probably or
to move in weapons or drones or.
Speaker 3 (49:54):
I'm pretty sure there's a lot of that going on. Espionage, yep, spying,
stuff like that. Also expansion of Islam, Yeah, yeah, and
we're seeing it for sure.
Speaker 2 (50:10):
Yeah, we're seeing it. They're expanding heavily in the West.
Speaker 1 (50:13):
But it seems like god, yeah, yeah, Trump's getting ready
to declare the Muslim Brotherhood as a terrorists or international
terrorist organization, which is staggering that they haven't been considering
known about them since the seventies, right with the Blind
Shake and and Zar Howie uh in the jails in
Egypt and then in Israel, I mean, blind Shake and
(50:36):
the Twin Towers. I mean, it's just remarkable that they've
been able to kind of weave in between those designations
for as long as they have.
Speaker 3 (50:46):
So yeah, I'm surprised, but like even if he doesn't
the Muslim Brotherhood has a terrorist organization. We got like
gazillion militia groups in Iraq right now, and of the
populace movement, like one of the isis uh almost took
over Iraq and so they established as the populist of
(51:07):
movement front. It was like a lot of those guys
heavily SHIAI obviously Muslim SHIAI, so they're not Sunnis, but
they're deeply embedded with Iran and and they're also deeply
embedded with his Bolla as well, and and and by
(51:31):
default they will operate with Sudnis to basically, an enemy
of my enemy is my friend. Basically, uh yeah, uh
so what are we gonna do about that? And there's
so much to talk about from terrorist aspect of especially
in that region and their yeah and their expansion and
(51:54):
their influence, especially also on their drug business.
Speaker 2 (51:57):
A lot of people have no idea.
Speaker 3 (52:00):
Muslim Shiite from Lebanon and that particular region has a
lot of foothold and operation in South America. And actually
they started back doing the Black Septumber Operations movement organization
back in the sixties and seventies, so it goes all
the way back then. We can talk about that next episode.
Speaker 1 (52:22):
Yeah, I would love to dig into that with you,
because I think that's really fascinating. What people don't understand
is they hear these comments about Hasbler, Hama Hamas or
you know, Isis or al kaiter ttp, whatever it is,
and they think strictly it's regional. They don't understand the
nature of international intelligence, espionage, movement of activities, movement of finance,
(52:45):
building new cells, recruiting all the time. It's just and
I think that's really what one of the next great
I think clashes in the in human the human condition
is going to be is having whatever the next iteration
of those conflicts, whether it's Muslims versus Christians, Christians versus Muslims,
(53:09):
Muslims versus Jews. You know, it's like it's just the
perpetuation of the same old story and it's just evolving
now to where the techniques and the tactics and the
capabilities are so much more severe in threat life threatning
and sophisticated as populos. Yeah, it's very sophisticated now. So
we'll do that next time. So Steven again, man, thank
(53:33):
you so much. God bless you be safe and I'm
looking forward to hearing your next story.
Speaker 2 (53:38):
Yeah, thank you, brother, thank you so much. And it's
been an honor.
Speaker 3 (53:40):
By the way, I'm the first big podcast I think
I've been on it maybe. Yeah, it's yeah, very humbled
and I really appreciate it, David.
Speaker 2 (53:52):
And I look around.
Speaker 1 (53:53):
I saw you pop up, man, and I love the
what you were writ and what you're doing. I know
you're sincere and you have huge, huge courage right now
and for me, like and the fact that you're focused
on the people like for me, that's what hits me
the heaviest, because the people who suffer from these wars,
whatever side you're on, man, that's the story. That's the
(54:16):
amazing story. So I just commend you. God bless you, Steven.
Take care buddy. Yeah, thank you, brother, I appreciate it. Yeah,
until next time. Until next time.
In the midst of the historic peace process taking place
over in Europe, the United States, and Ukraine. We're bringing
you someone who's live in theater to give you the
ground truth today on the David Rutherford Show. All Right, everybody,
(00:25):
I know, if you're like me, you've absolutely been enthralled
with all the news that's coming out of the European Union,
coming out of the Trump administration, coming out of Ukraine.
In this quest that Trump has been making since day one,
the lead up he said, I'm gonna get in week one,
I'm gonna bring peace to the to the region into
(00:46):
this epic war, this epic battle of attrition that we've
we've been watching play out where these poor young men
are being thrown into the meat grinder day in and
day out. Well, I had this incredible opportunity. I was
contacted online by a gentleman who goes by Aladdin on
X mister Stephen all body, and he reached out and
(01:10):
was like, hey, rot man, I would love to come on,
let's do this and I want to give you some
ground truth. So coming to you live right now where
he just had a drone strike hit about a quarter
mile away from a cafe in Ukraine at nine o'clock
nine thirty at night. Steven Man, thank you so much
(01:30):
for taking time out of your insane schedule getting the
ground truth to share what you've learned with our friends.
Speaker 2 (01:38):
Yeah, thank you, Dave, appreciate it.
Speaker 3 (01:40):
I've been watching you for quite a while right now
and and Shelley, I actually discovered you on Sean Ryan
show That's wild to show you have an incredible life,
very genuine guy, and I thought you were like, very genuine,
So I decided to follow you on x and see
what you're all about. I've been showing like watching your
shows periodically on YouTube. Yeah, let's get into it. How
(02:02):
do you want to get this going? The free flow
ask whatever you Yeah, yeah, yeah, no.
Speaker 1 (02:08):
I think the biggest thing for me is just to
just to give people a little bit of your background
and then why you felt compelled to fly over and
and and start reporting and probably one of the most
dangerous regions in the world. Like, well, how does the
how do those how does your life and that come together?
Speaker 3 (02:28):
So I'm going to make it very quick because we
have a time restrain here because of the curfew and whatnot.
Speaker 2 (02:34):
So we got about like an hour and a half
and whatnot. Hey, ladies and gentlemen.
Speaker 1 (02:37):
He says, what not could be actual drone hitting where
he's broadcasting for right now.
Speaker 2 (02:43):
So man, I just I just yeah, I'd rather go
for it. Yeah, So bar raising Baghdad.
Speaker 3 (02:48):
I started as a linguists back in two thousand and
three and ended up working with the Green Bray guys.
They brought me to the United States under the SIV program.
So I've been a US citizen for quite a while.
So I went back as a contractor. Then I became
a government employee. So I was a GS thirteen intelligence
officer with the Army CI Command, terminated two weeks before
(03:12):
the election. Politics had a lot to do with it,
and it's crazy story. Maybe we can do another show talking.
Speaker 1 (03:20):
Yeah, let's do that when you're not when you got
a little bit more a nonvasive area and we could
just sit back and tell your amazing stories.
Speaker 2 (03:29):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (03:30):
So yeah, I deployed multiple times Iraq, Afghanistan and all
that crazy stuff.
Speaker 2 (03:36):
I was actually involved in the Ukraine situation.
Speaker 1 (03:38):
I was.
Speaker 3 (03:40):
Senior pollad in Germany for SAGU, the Security Assistant Group Ukraine.
It's a NATO mission led by US, and I went
to Germany and good faith. They found out I was
a Republican, they assumption at against the curtailed my TDY
sent me back home. That had a lot to do
(04:01):
with my termination from the government. That was a twenty
twenty three, twenty twenty four. And after I got terminated,
I couldn't get a job, so, like, not even a
contract job. And obviously when the Trump administration came in,
(04:21):
they did the whole high and freeze even for contracts
and all that stuff, and and.
Speaker 2 (04:29):
I couldn't get a job.
Speaker 3 (04:30):
My security cleaners went to log's status a loss of jurisdiction,
and I was just sitting in limbo.
Speaker 2 (04:39):
So and with the whole dose stuff.
Speaker 3 (04:43):
Start popping up in early this year, and I was like, hey,
you know what, let me use some of the skills
the government taught me against some of the contract fraud
and NGOs inside of the United States. So I broke
some stories some funding look and picked it up, and
a few other people picked it up.
Speaker 2 (05:02):
So my account grew.
Speaker 3 (05:04):
And I was like, okay, let me be a journalist
and just to uncover fraud and just pull up USA
funding and from USA DOUG gov, USA spending, DOUG GOV,
and the FPDS database and that's basically what I did.
Then eventually I just couldn't land an actual job, stable job,
(05:26):
and I was like.
Speaker 2 (05:27):
Okay, screw this.
Speaker 3 (05:29):
I initially wanted to come to Ukraine on the ground
a while back to report on what happened, and I
just pulled the plug. And actually I had almost zero
money in my pocket. I did crowdsource funding on GoFundMe,
so I got a few thousand bucks, got a ticket,
(05:51):
and I came here.
Speaker 2 (05:52):
So the go fund me is still live.
Speaker 3 (05:53):
It's pinned on my ex profile if anybody want to
chip in to keep this going, because I'm trying to
stay here for extended period of time to actually get
the entire truth and the actual sentiment of the Ukrainian
people on the ground, not necessarily just targeting one story
on another. It's like I'm trying to go different regions,
(06:13):
different cities, capturing as much information as possible from non
biased perspective.
Speaker 2 (06:21):
So yeah, initially I came to Kiev and Kiev was wild.
Speaker 3 (06:26):
Kiev basically is getting attacked almost daily, and I captured
like literally you'll see the air defense. The other day,
I put out a video and we got attacked in Kiev,
and I was able to capture the air defense anti
aircraft and drone. It was going off and you can
(06:46):
see the bullets. It was like I was going, yeah, yeah,
I was going wow, yeah yeah.
Speaker 2 (06:52):
And now tell me.
Speaker 1 (06:55):
I mean, obviously, you know, exposing government corruption is in
my opinion, probably the greatest story that that exists out
right there. The magnitude of of of what we're looking at.
And I don't know if you just saw, but they
finally they canceled DOGE.
Speaker 2 (07:11):
That came out yesterday.
Speaker 1 (07:13):
Uh, they officially shut DOGE down with eight more months
left on the initiative. Yeah, well, I mean, you knew
it was going to happen. You knew something was going
to go wrong. And I and I think that's what
you know, those types of things are what really make
people question what actually the truth is going on. And
so the fact that you you know, want to have
(07:34):
the courage and then the willpower to want to go
to I think you know, when you look at all
the different places, uh, that the American population is focused
on in terms of corruption, in terms of uh, the
future of our of of peace. Right, you know, we
put him in office because we didn't want any new
(07:56):
New Wars and even said he was going to stop.
Now Ukraine is the center of that whole thing. When
you when you talk about that fair you know that
unbiased reporting. Is it hard going over with that mind
knowing just the intense struggle that the Ukrainian people live
(08:16):
with every day, you know? And also I'm sure because
of your time in Hiraq and Afghanistan you also understand
the the negative influence of Russia and what they do
through proxies in these foreign areas and lands. I mean,
your country, uh certainly has taken heavies from pretty much
(08:37):
all sides. But uh, you know the fact that you're
now an American citizen, It's like, all right, I want
to continue to see and root this out from my
own my own validation, if you will. Was it was
it nerve wracking or did you just know I have
to go do this?
Speaker 3 (08:53):
I had of deep feelings about it, To be honest
with you, I wanted to do it from the bottom
of my heart because I know a lot about Ukraine,
and like from personal reasons. My ex girlfriend was Ukrainian
came into United States back in twenty fourteen, actually, so
(09:13):
I knew a lot about the culture The culture is
extremely conservative. Those people are like very conservative, family oriented,
but coming on the ground, it's a whole different perspective
you see. Especially like these people, they have like in
extreme grit and will power, very proud people.
Speaker 2 (09:32):
They do know they have a lot of corruption.
Speaker 3 (09:36):
With the like the old school oligarch mentality from the
Soviet Union and whatnot, and they're combat in it, like
the actual Ukrainian people on the ground, fighting tooth and
nail combating the corruption here in Ukraine. It may not
get reported on the news, but yeah, people here they're
(10:01):
fed up with the corruption and they're fighting it within
and they're putting a lot of pressure on the government
to do something about it. So that's good to see
and it's kind of refreshing because the Ukrainian people are
tired from all of that crap as well, and they
just want to see They want to live in peace
(10:22):
and they want to see their country prosper. They're extremely
generous people, very nice. The culture is very conservative. I've
attended three consecutively three Sunday church services here and they're
(10:46):
absolutely church god loving people and you see it as
well and on daily life in me you may see
a lot of videos out there, nightclubs and whatnot. Yeah,
they do exist. I'm not gonna lie. But you've seen
it overseas in Iraq in other areas where people are
(11:10):
so tired of conflict, it becomes normal. So they get
desanitized from the everyday horror, so they just go about
their life and try to have a good time without worrying.
It was like, am I gonna die this second or not?
So it became it became a normal thing. Like literally
the drone ecology just hit about thirty minutes ago, about
(11:35):
forty five minutes ago right now. I heard it and
I was like looking around trying to see if anybody
freaking out, and it was like it became normal.
Speaker 2 (11:46):
Wow, yeah, and it's sad. Yeah, that's that's how how
it became here.
Speaker 3 (11:53):
They got used to it because it's daily, every day,
multiple times, and I guess from talking to people, it
was like they were like, we can submit and live
in fear, or we can just live our lives and
if we die, we die.
Speaker 2 (12:10):
This is it.
Speaker 3 (12:13):
That's basically our time has has come. And I was like,
you know what, I respect that because I've seen it
overseas and conflict zone.
Speaker 2 (12:23):
Oh my god, you lived it. You lived it.
Speaker 1 (12:25):
I mean, you lived in the most intense in the
last twenty five years in the heart of Iraq. I mean,
it's just that's That's the thing my buddy's always talked about,
is you know, you you get so caught up in
wage and war that sometimes you negate to look around
you and look at the impact of the people who
(12:46):
are just civilians, just trying to feed their family and
wake up every day and go to work and you know,
provide some kind of stability in a perpetually unstable environment
for sure.
Speaker 2 (13:00):
Just let's let's start at one thing.
Speaker 1 (13:02):
So one of the things that you know, I think
I always get sucked into when I when I try
and do a deep dive on Ukraine is is that
there is a considerable portion of the Ukrainian population that
do have close ties to Russia. Now, it is are
(13:24):
the people that you're engaging with are do they feel like,
you know, the people who are you know, over in
the regions that are are being disputed, the regions that
that Russia has I guess conquered or that are fighting
for right now, is there an idea that those people
(13:45):
they they actually want to be a part of Russia
or they're being held against their will under this tyrant right,
because I mean there's a long, long history of Russia
Ukrainian engagement. I mean I remember Tucker Carlson's interview with Putin.
He starts in the fifteen hundreds, and it's like, all right,
(14:06):
obviously there is a deep, deep connection between Russian people
and Ukrainian people. I mean, hel Zelenski, you know, used
to speak Russian regularly. What are the what are local
people you're talking Do they feel as if those people
who are on the eastern shore, eastern edge of Russia
that they're delusional, they're being held against their will, or
(14:27):
what's their explanation of why those people have the views
they do.
Speaker 3 (14:32):
So there's a mixed view from my understanding so far
on the ground, and the closer to the Eastern Front
you get to the more Russian ties you have because
a lot of those people retired ussr military, and so
far some of them they were still on Russia retirement
(14:56):
paycheck as well. Oh wow, yeah, so like from the
old Soviet Union military. So yeah, there's obviously intertwined, deep connection.
But at the same time, those people they settled, a
lot of them they settled with the Ukrainian identity, so okay, yeah, yeah,
(15:18):
there is a lot of people, from my understanding, are
held against their will. Some are happy to be part
of Russia. So there's a mix. And being on the ground.
The western portion of Ukraine they do not speak Russian,
(15:39):
they speak Ukrainian, and the middle of Ukraine meet they
speak mix between Ukrainian and Russian, and the eastern portion
of Ukraine they speak Russia and some Ukrainian. And but
throughout the years from two thousand and four they did
(15:59):
reference them and they start teaching kids Ukrainian in school
to establish their actual Ukrainian identity. But the older generation,
like the gen X and and even some of the
millennial and and uh, what is it the the older
(16:19):
folks here, the boomers, Yeah, yeah, the boomers, they all
speak Russian, especially on the eastern, mid Middle, Eastern, Middle Ukraine,
Easter Ran and uh. And the younger you get, the
more Ukrainian identity you see. And they're very proud of it.
And even the boomers, they're very proud to be Ukrainians.
Speaker 2 (16:43):
It's just.
Speaker 3 (16:45):
Their entire life. They spoke Russians like I'm in a
desert right now. I'm in a desert right now. A
lot of them they still speak Russian and some like
talking to people. I was like, I say, like vitaio
da q whatever, like basically how you doing, And obviously
those are Ukrainian words, not Russian wars.
Speaker 2 (17:04):
It was like, oh, yeah, you know Ukrainian.
Speaker 3 (17:06):
And I was like, yeah, so don't speak Russian whatever.
But they still speak Russian here even when they communicate
with each other. But they're trying to change that, right, Yeah.
In Kiev they take it as an insult, like if
you say Russian words, because they're really pushing the Ukrainian identity.
(17:30):
But here was like a little bit more relaxed and
a lot of the people that moved to Odessa, they
came from the Nipro and the actual eastern region. They
kind of resettled into the middle south of Ukraine. So
there's a lot of mix in that and Odessa. I
guess previously they all almost spoke Russians. So yeah, so
(17:52):
you still have that, but the younger generation like fight
talk to younger folks here like a hookah bar one
of our restaurants who ant cafes, they refuse to speak Russian.
They just communicate either in English because they want to
prove their English, which is kind of refresher to see ye.
Speaker 2 (18:13):
And uh and uh speak Ukrainians.
Speaker 3 (18:16):
So I think in a generation or whatnot, everybody in
this region they will be speaking Ukrainian after the boomers
and whatever dies off and god yeah they go yeah,
all right.
Speaker 1 (18:30):
Next question. Obviously we were pot we're inundated with the
stories of people getting sucked off the streets, thrown in. Yeah,
I know you haven't. What my question is do you
notice h not absent, but a less than thriving young
(18:53):
male population present. I mean, is it like you walk
into these cities that you're visiting or town and you
notice there's not very.
Speaker 2 (19:03):
Many young men around.
Speaker 1 (19:05):
Is that a viable thing or is that completely inflated
that you know is not true.
Speaker 2 (19:10):
No, it's a bunch of bullshit young kids. Yeah, all
over the place.
Speaker 3 (19:14):
Yeah, there is actually a matter of fact, the Ukrainian
parliament pastor resolution a couple of months ago.
Speaker 2 (19:21):
A few months ago they allowed.
Speaker 3 (19:25):
Young people anywhere from basically being a teenager until the
age of twenty two to leave the country.
Speaker 2 (19:32):
They have an option.
Speaker 3 (19:34):
There was about one hundred thousand they left already, but
the majority they stayed because they love their country and
they want to stay here.
Speaker 2 (19:43):
And I'm talking to people, it was like, have you
thought about leaving?
Speaker 3 (19:48):
And they're like, yeah, but we've been hearing from our
friends like that. They go to Western countries, the United States,
Europe and whatnot, and they're telling us like life is
extremely hot and now again that much support, especially in
the United States, and and so we don't want to
(20:09):
go through that struggle and start from scratch.
Speaker 2 (20:11):
So we are content being here.
Speaker 3 (20:13):
Plus we love our country and we want to stay
and fight, and so that's good to see. And I've
actually met a lot of people they had a chance
to actually leave Ukraine. They left and they came back.
It was like, hey, we don't want to live in
the West. That's not aligned with our values. And they
talked a lot. I spoke to a lot of people,
(20:35):
and they talked a lot about the woke culture in
the West and the lgbtqs. Like I was like, no,
that's not yeah, we're not about that stuff. So they
backed their stuff, came back to Ukraine and restarted their
life again. And and I was like, oh wow, okay,
(20:56):
and I talked fascinating Yeah, I talked to no more
of people. They lived in Germany, Netherlands, England, United States,
you name it, and they came back because they did
not want to deal with the woke culture in the West.
Speaker 2 (21:14):
That makes sense, all right, all right?
Speaker 1 (21:16):
So have you talked to anybody that's been in the
fight so far, guys, any veterans, any injured people. What
what have they shared with you? And what's their interpretation
of the whole thing. It's pretty brutal. I spoke to
people on a train. A lot of them don't speak English,
so I have to use like a deep l translation app.
(21:39):
Did I see people like with the military uniform? So
I asked them, It's like, hey, are your military? And
like yes, And I've seen people miss a limbs.
Speaker 3 (21:48):
You see that everywhere, And yeah, the number is a
staggering and it's it's a very sad. Anywhere you go,
you'll see people like that. And I had a chance
to speak to multiple people, multiple soldiers from anywhere, enlisted
to military officers. Usually the officers a lot of them
(22:12):
speak English. Okay, English, they enlisted, obviously they don't because
they come from a lower class. And it's pretty brutal.
Apparently the front line is ten times worse than what's projected,
but they're.
Speaker 2 (22:29):
Holding their own.
Speaker 3 (22:32):
Yeah, and they are deeply, deeply grateful for the American
people and the American government help, and they openly admit it.
It was like, if it was it for America, we
would have lost our country. But we are doing the fight,
and wow, Yeah, I was happy to hear that at
(22:54):
least they appreciate and acknowledge the help that we have
given them, and they used our weapons to fend off
and basically hold Russia into basic almost like a stall
trench line right now. Yeah, there may be skirmishes here
(23:15):
and there, like Russia may be taking a small territory
few kilaborters here, they lose it back a couple couple
of weeks later, and so it's back and forth, but
it's like it's basically a very steady line at this point.
And I don't want to give the actual Russian rotation
plan and sorry, the Ukrainian rotation plan, because yeah, I
(23:39):
got into a deep discussion with a connection I have
is a high level Cornell UH and the Ukrainian military.
So we got into a pretty detailed conversation on how
they're doing the rotations at the front line and what not.
Speaker 2 (23:57):
I don't want to talk about it online to be
out here.
Speaker 1 (23:59):
Absolutely would never want you to compromise their tactical realities
there underground. All right. So the other question is now
is is really I think that's on everybody's mind, is
what are the Ukrainian or one of the questions, what
do the Ukrainian people want? I mean, obviously they want
(24:23):
to win the war, but I would imagine now this
many years in uh and the support that Russia has
built up from you know, their support from China, their
support from Iran, North Korea's sending troops. You know, They're
like they have a nice little coalition going that you know,
is doing well, you know, and it doesn't seem like
(24:45):
all the sanctions have crippled their economy too badly.
Speaker 2 (24:48):
They're still selling.
Speaker 1 (24:49):
Plenty of oil around the world. What do the Ukrainian
people believe they need in order to kind of begin
to turn the tides in their favor.
Speaker 2 (25:04):
They want proper weapons.
Speaker 3 (25:05):
I can tell you one thing during the Biden admin
when I was a pole ad for the SAGU operation,
actually the Biden administration did not give proper support to
Ukraine as much as money that we sent our weapons
and whatnot. Everything we sent them it was like old broken,
(25:28):
but we sent Bradley's that does not work, like literally wow, yeah,
like literally it went to JOHNIESCA poland Jaytown and that's
basically the main hub of supplies where they loaded up
on the train they send it to Ukraine. We sent
the Ukrainian military from like literally tanks Bradley's and a
(25:53):
bunch of equipments and even houzers like one fifty five,
one twenty that doesn't work. It's yeah, like literally broken.
So they had to take multiple different bradleys. And this
is like a repeated thing. They had to take multiple
different bradleys, like change the turret on this one because
(26:14):
the tourlet on this one works, or the electronic on
this one works but doesn't work on this one, and
the gearbox from this one works and this one doesn't.
So it's like doing a bunch of swaps. Like out
of like maybe five Bradley's, they may get like two
or three workid And same thing with the Abron tanks
(26:36):
and the Abram tanks that we send them a lot
of them. The targeting system is doesn't work or like
broken and whatnot. That they had to figure out how
to fix the targeting system on the on the abron
tanks and whatnot. So they had to do a lot
of leg work to get these equipments to work. But
the Biden had mean Actually, as much as they claimed
(26:59):
they supported, they all what we send them like broken equipments,
and they still managed to get them to work.
Speaker 2 (27:08):
And or at least revive.
Speaker 3 (27:11):
A lot of them or some of them and get
it to the battlefield and use them properly. If we
had given them proper weapons that actually works and proper
proper targeted packages with the intail, I think they would
(27:31):
have pushed Russia back all the way to the uh uh.
They probably would have taken their land back.
Speaker 2 (27:40):
Wow. Yeah, and that's that's that's heavy. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (27:43):
And I still believe if if we send them the
proper equipment and manage it properly, like have people actually
on the ground count it, make sure it's actually going
to the military units that's supposed to be going to,
and I believe they can take their land back and
push Russia all the way back to Russia.
Speaker 2 (28:07):
Oh wow.
Speaker 1 (28:08):
Yeah, And what kind of force do you think they
need to have to be able to do that? Are
we talking three hundred thousand troops in this fight or
is it just just the web Because you're gonna need
You're gonna need mass numbers because that's what Russia has
right now. They have what seems to be just an
endless supply of young men that they can send out
into that meat grinder. And there's like it seems like
(28:31):
I've heard as much as five to one is what
the like?
Speaker 3 (28:36):
What it is like last week, I'm on a bunch
of OCN sail like from different groups here on the ground.
Russia lost twenty plus thousand people. Wow, and just five
days wow. Like literally I was loading up on the
(28:56):
train from Kief to Odessa, uh to nights ago and
I get the notification.
Speaker 2 (29:02):
It was like.
Speaker 3 (29:04):
During these few battles going on at the front, Russia
lost twenty plus thousand people and the Ukrainian lost about
three four thousand. So yeah, they're still heavy casualties. But yeah,
it's yeah, it's about five to one ish ratio. But
Russia has obviously a country of one hundred and fifty
(29:28):
million people plus you get it. You got North Korea
jumped in. Actually I did see North Korean IDs and
uniforms oh wow, Yeah, because I went to the World
War Two Museum and they had dedicated a few sections
(29:50):
one to the US volunteers and they're all a private rangers,
Green Bereys Skills.
Speaker 2 (30:04):
Died over there.
Speaker 3 (30:05):
Actually I cried because I saw my country, my countrymen.
Speaker 1 (30:10):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (30:10):
Yeah. And it's actually.
Speaker 3 (30:13):
Again emotional a bottle right now, viz yeah, man, uh,
I don't care about the politics of it. Those are
US citizens, Those our brothers and sisters, Yeah, died for
what they.
Speaker 2 (30:28):
Believe it's right and yep uh And.
Speaker 1 (30:35):
Well it's funny, man, those are the moments where there's
nobility and death, you know, even in the face of
you know, war. And the older I get, the more
I the more it it it' I'm repulsed at how
whimsical those in power wage war to the detriment of
of us who seem to have to be the ones
(30:57):
who engage in it. But there is some nobility and
volunteering for what you to believe, believe is an existential threat,
right and there, and that is and we've seen that
throughout human history, and those battles and those people who
stand their ground against Goliath, right, those those are there's
a nobility in that and I and I like, do
(31:19):
you do you feel that uh in the people around you,
that they that this is a noble endeavor? And then
and then have you run into people that are like, no,
this is the dumbest thing ever in the world.
Speaker 3 (31:33):
We shouldn't be doing this. And not not even one person. Wow, yeah,
not even one person. I've I've talked to men, women,
young people, old, young, different ages.
Speaker 2 (31:47):
Uh, they are not giving up.
Speaker 3 (31:52):
They every person I spoke to, they were like, they're
indiscriminately targeting civilians, kids, apartment complexes. And it's like if
Russia thinks they're going to break our spirit, matter of fact,
they made it even stronger just because they're daily and
(32:15):
indiscriminately attacking kids, playgrounds, schools, apartment complexes. And like a
few days ago, there's town called Ornople. It's actually on
the Polish border. There's a drone hit and killed. Last
(32:41):
time I checked, I haven't checked the updated story, but
it was thirty two people, six kids died. Yeah, beautiful
and beautiful kids and one a mom with her two childs,
just like they just disintegrated. And and it's and this
(33:03):
is happening daily and show Nihev it's another town east
of northeast of Kiev. They're being getting hit the past
three days hard, and a bunch of people died already.
Having checked, I'm probably gonna go there next after Odessa
because the past few days they got attacked massively. So
(33:26):
hopefully I can get over there and and get some
video from videos of the civilian buildings who got hit.
Speaker 2 (33:32):
Why not.
Speaker 3 (33:34):
Ah, but these people are like the spirit they have
is unbelievable, unbelievable. It's it reminds me by the spirits
of the American people after the nine to eleven attack. Okay, yeah,
how we Americans got unified against oursim and that's where
(33:55):
they at. It's that was their moment, that's their nine
to eleven basically, right, Yeah, So that's the it's basically
the same thing happened back in two thousand and one
two Americans. Everybody unified against terrorism, and that's where the
Ukrainians are right now.
Speaker 2 (34:14):
And that's the best well that can I can describe it.
Speaker 1 (34:17):
That's fantastic to hear, because you know, you you get
fed so many stories of recent stories about there's an
inside schism in you in Zelensky's senior leadership there's people
vying to try and figure out how to get him
out of control or get him out of power. Are
you hearing anything like that from higher ranking sources or
(34:40):
government personnel that you're talking to. Is is there a
divide at the highest level in and around Zelensky right now?
Speaker 3 (34:49):
There are some going on at the parliament level. But
I can tell you what a little nugget people doesn't know.
The military has a lot of influence on what's happening
in politics. So if the military actually wants the len
(35:11):
Ski out, uh, they will get him out. And if
they want him if they want to keep him in,
they will keep him in. And from my understanding is
the military leadership has significant amount of influence on what's
going to happen politically in the country.
Speaker 2 (35:32):
Okay, yeah, so that.
Speaker 1 (35:33):
That's I mean, that's usually the way it works in
these kind of environments. You know, once the military kind
of establishes itself in these these uh, these regional wars,
they they have a tendency. I mean, we saw it
in Egypt after uh, the Arab spring, right, We've seen
it in a bunch of other countries where when that
(35:53):
when the country becomes destabilized usually it's that those internal
militaristic the military comes up in and gains power and
contains that. All right, let's back it out a little
bit for a little bit, just a few more questions
for you. Obviously, the peace process is going on, another
peace process hopefully UH this when we get to some
(36:17):
resolution here soon. But what what I saw just uh
a site released what they said from the telegram released
what they said was the European Union response. They're they're,
they're what they want to see in the peace process,
(36:37):
and in there, I mean, it's pretty pretty pretty. I mean,
it's like Ukraine membership in NATO based on an alliance,
a consensus within the alliance that supports them. Territorial negotiations
start uh from the current line and the control and
(36:57):
then uh, Ukraine will be fully reconstructed and compensated financially
through a Russian sovereign assets. And then you know, I
heard a woman at a representative at the UN basically said,
we're we're not negotiating any any of the territory that
(37:18):
we've lost the Russia.
Speaker 2 (37:19):
That's not even on a play. We're not.
Speaker 1 (37:22):
We're not gonna stop till that's about what we actually
need is just money so we can fight more efficiently,
i e. The weapons systems. And then Zelenski himself said
it's against the law for me to give up that land.
I would be going against my oath as president. So
it seems, you know, and then you look at the
Trump administration. Now Rubio is just banging his fist saying no,
(37:45):
things are progressing nicely. And then Trump, you know, over
the last week or so, you know, one day's all
in for supporting Ukraine. The next minute he's like, you
know what, they can have at it, he and NATO
in European Union. They can go do what they want.
Speaker 2 (38:00):
I'm out.
Speaker 1 (38:01):
And so that's got to be incredibly frustrating, I would
imagine for the Ukrainian people, who kind of feel like
all these external parties are the ones kind of calling
the shots. What do Ukrainians feel the negotiations should be
focused on, and who do they feel should be involved.
Speaker 3 (38:23):
They definitely want to be involved directly into negotiations because
they want to play a key role into what's going
to happen in their own country.
Speaker 2 (38:33):
And I understand that because.
Speaker 3 (38:38):
If I were them, I don't want to be negotiated
on my behalf by somebody else. But at the same time,
obviously they are in the situation they are right now,
So that's why you've got all these external forces. But
at the same time, these people are extremely proud and
dignity is matters to them.
Speaker 1 (38:59):
And.
Speaker 2 (39:01):
If any piece deal happens, or some sort of a.
Speaker 3 (39:07):
Settlement to this war happens, they don't want to feel undignified.
They want to maintain their dignity. And I respect that
and I understand that, and so that's what the sentiment are.
And in the street, everybody you talk to in the
street will be like, I don't want to be disrespected
(39:29):
and I don't want to lose my dignity. Plus, how
do you want us just to give our land? It's like,
that's our land. I was like you, just like no
one on the street, like regular people on the street.
I talked to every single one of them. They don't
(39:50):
want to give their land to Russia. They want their
land back. So I don't know how you settle that,
to be honest with you, I have no idea.
Speaker 1 (40:01):
Wow, Yeah, I think that's got to be the most
challenging thing there is. I mean, obviously, you know Russia
now in its own wisdom. And if you listen into
you know what Pepper peppel Off or whatever. The president
and then the Secretary of State guy, you know, they're
all like, listen, this, this wouldn't happen if we didn't
feel like you were encroaching. So they want this protective
(40:24):
section that you know, it gives them a buffer from
launching attacks into them and all this, you know, and
to concede land that you've already gained. Man, there's not
a lot of examples in history where that took place,
for sure, and it's you know, that's I think the
crux of this whole thing is is that land that's
(40:46):
been captured?
Speaker 2 (40:48):
All right?
Speaker 1 (40:49):
Last question for you, what are you what are you
going to do as you continue to travel around the country.
Is there a particular thing you're going to focus on
trying to learn about the people and about the environment
(41:09):
that's taking place, And can you describe what you're hoping
to accomplish in the next however many weeks you're going
to be there.
Speaker 3 (41:18):
My plan originally to stay six months, and I've been
here for twenty days, so I have a long way
to go, and I'm trying to hit every city I
can to show the actual damages, specifically on civilian infrastructure,
(41:41):
not the creatical infrastructure like apartment complexes, schools, playgrounds and
stuff like that.
Speaker 2 (41:48):
I just wanted to.
Speaker 3 (41:52):
Understand what the Ukrainians suffering every day on the ground
by indiscriminate attacks, because when I came here, I found
out you cannot record and take pictures of military Insecurity
(42:13):
service infrastructure if it got hit or anything like that.
They don't want those footage obs and because they don't
want to show Russia.
Speaker 2 (42:22):
I guess how much damage happened, yeah, BDA right.
Speaker 3 (42:26):
Yeah, your bdas yeah, and so militarily, yeah, I understand that,
and so I shifted focus on I was like, okay,
let me talk to the civilians and if I can
make it to the front line, that'll be cool. So
(42:47):
I'm trying to raise additional funds to get my actual
journalistic credentials.
Speaker 2 (42:54):
Paid and.
Speaker 3 (42:56):
Approved and so I can submit it to the Military
and Security Service, so I can get embedded with a
military unit to go to the front line to show
people what the trunches looks like. And I'll get to
that point when I get to it. And in the meantime,
(43:17):
I'm hitting different towns to show the daily drone attacks
and if they hit civilian buildings, I try to show
people who's like, there's to me, it's like a terroristic
tactics with Russia is doing. It's like if you're discriminately
or deliberately hiding civilians, you're trying to scare people into
(43:41):
submission and they're not.
Speaker 2 (43:44):
And yeah, if they lose, it's sad.
Speaker 3 (43:48):
They do a funeral, everybody come together and whatnot, and
they go about their day next day, just like And
the same thing reminded me about a rock Afghanistan. They
lose people, funeral, you know, three days in Islam whatever
and after that they go about their business and move on.
And so same thing happening here and unbreakable spirit. Today
(44:12):
I was at the Black Sea and I went over
there to actually record a video because what the Russians
they were doing.
Speaker 2 (44:19):
They were using sea mines.
Speaker 3 (44:24):
And unchained so whatever the wave takes them and hoping
they get to the shorelines and hit people who are
swimming at the beaches and whatnot, and a bunch of
people died. And the last incident happened it was a
(44:44):
year ago where the last two women died from these
sea mine basically again sent to the shorelines.
Speaker 2 (44:51):
Two women died. The last two women died.
Speaker 3 (44:54):
It was about a year ago until the Ukrainian navy
started hitting the fleet Sevastopol and the Russian had to
actually move their entire fleet from Sevastopol into a courch,
so basically on the other side of.
Speaker 2 (45:13):
Crimea.
Speaker 3 (45:15):
And so that's the tactics that Russians are using to
just indiscriminately killing, killing civilians.
Speaker 2 (45:25):
And you're hearing the stories from this field.
Speaker 3 (45:29):
It's it's heartbreaking, honestly, and it never gets easy. Like
it doesn't matter how many deployments you do. It doesn't
matter how many people you killed or how many death
you've seen. It's always the same thing. It breaks your heart.
As a matter of fact, the older you get it
kind of like the worse it becomes, and like you
get more emotional about it.
Speaker 2 (45:50):
Yes, yeah, and.
Speaker 3 (45:53):
So yeah, that's what I'm doing right now, and hopefully
I just want to get the truth out.
Speaker 2 (45:58):
I'm not spinning anything. I don't have any agenda.
Speaker 3 (46:01):
I just want to tell people these stories here and
move on my next my next one. I'm actually I'm
trying to go to Gaza and trying to My mission
is trying to expose the.
Speaker 2 (46:15):
Hamas and who evil those people are.
Speaker 3 (46:17):
Because when I when I was grow up, growing up
in Iraq, we used to call those guys like parasites.
Speaker 2 (46:23):
Mm hmmm. Yeah, and so yeah, I.
Speaker 1 (46:27):
Think you're the way you describe it as with age,
you're you know, you become a little bit more empathetic,
even though you're more hardened by what you've seen in war. Right,
Because what I look at is I just see what
I see as a veteran who's lost their limbs, who
lives with that. I'll see a mother who's lost their children,
(46:48):
or a new wife who's got two little children and
then their son's gone, and who live under the perpetual
thread of whatever side they're coming from. And man, it's
just I think those are the biggest news stories. I
think those are the stories that really mean the most
to tell the story of those affected by war at
(47:10):
the highest level. So Steven, I just commend you on
what you're doing. I really appreciate you coming on here
and spending time with me. I'm really looking forward to
a follow up in a month or two.
Speaker 2 (47:25):
If you want to come back home, I'd love to
have you.
Speaker 1 (47:27):
If you find something new, and then when you get
back to the States, I'll have you on and we
can tell your whole story. I think that would be
absolutely phenomenal to here. So I just want to wish
you but all the blessings in the world good luck,
stay safe, And why don't you tell everybody where they
can find you and follow you and pitching to help
(47:48):
with your work.
Speaker 2 (47:48):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (47:49):
Absolutely, it's a L L I D D I N
nineteen eighty three on X and same thing and on
I just started a YouTube channel, so I'm slowly uploading
videos from talking to people or doing basically walking around
(48:12):
here and stuff like that on YouTube. And also my
GoFundMe is spinned on my x and so you can
go over there and chip in if you can. And
also I promised you to break a story on your show.
Speaker 2 (48:29):
You did, you did, I was. That's up to you.
Speaker 1 (48:32):
I mean, I'm not gonna I'm not gonna spoil your
own journalistic If you want to break it on your
own channel, I'm good with that. I just I'm happy
to have you share whatever.
Speaker 2 (48:41):
You want to share it.
Speaker 3 (48:41):
Yeah, I'll upload it or maybe I had it scheduled,
but I don't know if it went out on X
but or not. But actually walking around in Odessa and
I noticed in the Islamic Center and I saw a
building it looks like a mosque, and sure enough, I
went to the front of the building and it says
Islamic Center of Arabic Culture. And I started sniffing around.
(49:04):
I knocked on the door, nobody answered. I guess no
one in there. So I started sniffing around with the
locals who went on and come to find out, Muslim
Brotherhood affiliated through Turkish businessmen and shipping businesses. So there's
a lot of Turkish influence here and they do shipping business,
(49:29):
so they're very embedded with the Muslim Brotherhood.
Speaker 2 (49:34):
So they got a foothold here. So and is that
what do.
Speaker 1 (49:39):
You think that's for potentially established a relationship with the
Russians for inside attacks, for terrorist attacks, or probably or
to move in weapons or drones or.
Speaker 3 (49:54):
I'm pretty sure there's a lot of that going on. Espionage, yep, spying,
stuff like that. Also expansion of Islam, Yeah, yeah, and
we're seeing it for sure.
Speaker 2 (50:10):
Yeah, we're seeing it. They're expanding heavily in the West.
Speaker 1 (50:13):
But it seems like god, yeah, yeah, Trump's getting ready
to declare the Muslim Brotherhood as a terrorists or international
terrorist organization, which is staggering that they haven't been considering
known about them since the seventies, right with the Blind
Shake and and Zar Howie uh in the jails in
Egypt and then in Israel, I mean, blind Shake and
(50:36):
the Twin Towers. I mean, it's just remarkable that they've
been able to kind of weave in between those designations
for as long as they have.
Speaker 3 (50:46):
So yeah, I'm surprised, but like even if he doesn't
the Muslim Brotherhood has a terrorist organization. We got like
gazillion militia groups in Iraq right now, and of the
populace movement, like one of the isis uh almost took
over Iraq and so they established as the populist of
(51:07):
movement front. It was like a lot of those guys
heavily SHIAI obviously Muslim SHIAI, so they're not Sunnis, but
they're deeply embedded with Iran and and they're also deeply
embedded with his Bolla as well, and and and by
(51:31):
default they will operate with Sudnis to basically, an enemy
of my enemy is my friend. Basically, uh yeah, uh
so what are we gonna do about that? And there's
so much to talk about from terrorist aspect of especially
in that region and their yeah and their expansion and
(51:54):
their influence, especially also on their drug business.
Speaker 2 (51:57):
A lot of people have no idea.
Speaker 3 (52:00):
Muslim Shiite from Lebanon and that particular region has a
lot of foothold and operation in South America. And actually
they started back doing the Black Septumber Operations movement organization
back in the sixties and seventies, so it goes all
the way back then. We can talk about that next episode.
Speaker 1 (52:22):
Yeah, I would love to dig into that with you,
because I think that's really fascinating. What people don't understand
is they hear these comments about Hasbler, Hama Hamas or
you know, Isis or al kaiter ttp, whatever it is,
and they think strictly it's regional. They don't understand the
nature of international intelligence, espionage, movement of activities, movement of finance,
(52:45):
building new cells, recruiting all the time. It's just and
I think that's really what one of the next great
I think clashes in the in human the human condition
is going to be is having whatever the next iteration
of those conflicts, whether it's Muslims versus Christians, Christians versus Muslims,
(53:09):
Muslims versus Jews. You know, it's like it's just the
perpetuation of the same old story and it's just evolving
now to where the techniques and the tactics and the
capabilities are so much more severe in threat life threatning
and sophisticated as populos. Yeah, it's very sophisticated now. So
we'll do that next time. So Steven again, man, thank
(53:33):
you so much. God bless you be safe and I'm
looking forward to hearing your next story.
Speaker 2 (53:38):
Yeah, thank you, brother, thank you so much. And it's
been an honor.
Speaker 3 (53:40):
By the way, I'm the first big podcast I think
I've been on it maybe. Yeah, it's yeah, very humbled
and I really appreciate it, David.
Speaker 2 (53:52):
And I look around.
Speaker 1 (53:53):
I saw you pop up, man, and I love the
what you were writ and what you're doing. I know
you're sincere and you have huge, huge courage right now
and for me, like and the fact that you're focused
on the people like for me, that's what hits me
the heaviest, because the people who suffer from these wars,
whatever side you're on, man, that's the story. That's the
(54:16):
amazing story. So I just commend you. God bless you, Steven.
Take care buddy. Yeah, thank you, brother, I appreciate it. Yeah,
until next time. Until next time.
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