"Surrender or Die"

A Russian Message to Ukrainian troops is "surrender or die." Fox News Radio's Jonathan Savage joins us with the latest on the Russia and Ukraine conflict. 

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
It wasn't long ago that we were talking about maybe
Trump broken peace between Russia and Ukraine. This is West
Michigan's Morning News on the liveline with us SEE in
London Fox News Radio. Is Jonathan Savage good morning or
whatever it is there?

Speaker 2 (00:13):
Jonathan, Yes, it is morning, so good morning.

Speaker 1 (00:18):
Surrender or die. The message to Ukrainian troops from Russia.
What is the latest in What city are we battling
over today?

Speaker 2 (00:27):
Yeah? Russia says it's encircled Ukrainian troops and a city
crust that's in the east of Ukraine. It's really important
because it's a junction for roads and rails, so for
getting onto other cities, for logistics. It's absolutely vital. And
there's been a battle there for more than a year
and a half. And the feeling is that if Russia
can take control of this deserted city basically, then it's

(00:51):
got a very good chance of taking control of the
entire down Bass region of the east of Ukraine, which
is one of its major goals. So the situation, according
to Russia is dire for the Ukrainians. Their troops are
definitely outnumbered. The Ukraine denies that its troops are encircled
and that they're planning to fight back hard. But clearly

(01:11):
this is a crucial moment in the war.

Speaker 1 (01:14):
Where do we stand then with response from Zelensky and troops,
What are we hearing from that camp?

Speaker 2 (01:21):
So Ukraine denies that its troops are surrounded. Vladimir Zolenski
did visit the area just a few days ago, and
he'd said that Russia had have asked tens of thousands
of troops on the borders of the town. There's claimant
and counterclaim here about just how dire situation it is
for the Ukrainians. They admit that it's difficult, but publicly

(01:46):
they say that they're optimistic about being able to crush
Russian troops back.

Speaker 1 (01:49):
It certainly doesn't after recent peace talks failed between the
President of the United States and putin that any pressure
from whatever form, does it appear to be working.

Speaker 2 (02:02):
No, it doesn't appear to be working. And I think
the Russians think that if they do take for cross
and they do make the situation much harder for Ukraine
in that part of the country, that will strengthen their
hand when it comes to Moscow's negotiating positions. President Trump
called Russia a paper tiger, and I think that the
Russians are trying to prove that that is not what

(02:23):
they are. So yes, President was frustrated with Latimer person
he called off that proposed meeting in Hungary. But Russian
officials still think they can do a deal, but they
only want to do it on their term.

Speaker 1 (02:35):
And is there are there ongoing talks? Are there people
at tables as today trying to make that happen.

Speaker 2 (02:43):
No, it doesn't seem to be. At least if they're happening,
they're not happening in public, They're not happening with publicity.
I'm sure that that there's some sort of back channel
discussion going on at low levels. But the last major
talks involves phone calls between the two presidents and phone
calls between the Secretary State more K Rubio and Russia's
Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov. That did not seem to go

(03:04):
very well, and it was after that call that they
decided there was no point having the president's meeting.

Speaker 1 (03:09):
Lastly, and I'm throwing a curveball here, though this is
not the sport I'm talking about. It's more bend it
like Beckham. Beckham is now a knight, how uh talk
to us a little bit about that ceremony that had
to play out on television big time.

Speaker 2 (03:24):
Oh yeah, well they don't happen live. The brootage afterwards
and some photo photos afterwards as well. It's you know,
there are knighthoods that happened quite a lot in the UK.
They announced twice a year a big list of people
who are getting honors and then they sort of stagger
of the ceremony. So yeah, David Beckham would be kneeling
down before either the King or the Prince of Wales
or some other high ranking royal. The royal then taps

(03:47):
him on his shoulder with a sword. It's a rise,
Sir David Beckham. And you know, I don't know this
for a fact, but I imagine he goes off to
get a sit of armor fitted because that's what knights are, right. Yeah, absolutely, or.

Speaker 1 (03:59):
At least another tattoo to that effect. But the reason why,
and I watched the Netflix documentary, if everybody didn't Beckham
wasn't necessarily somebody that everybody was fired up about. See
the World Cup. So now it's kind of come full circle.
He's got to feel better about that.

Speaker 2 (04:17):
Oh well, yeah, I mean, you know, he's he's a
peer pic name, he's a big star. He's got lots
of fans. Not quite the same profile as he did
when he was still playing football or soccer as I
must call it, but you know, he's still an influential name.
He's someone people talk about. And yeah, I think that
his knighthood was probably inevitable given his high profile.

Speaker 1 (04:39):
You can throw anything at Jonathan Savage, Fox News Radio
in London soon to be certain, don't. Thanks for your
time this morning.