Investigate Earth Conspiracy Podcast - Russia Coup Attempt By Wagner Group | Exclusive Interview With JD From The Frontlines

Episode Date: June 24, 2023

In the past 24 hours, a dramatic event unfolded within Russia as the notorious Wagner Group, led by the ruthless Yevgeny Prigozhin, allegedly attempted a coup against the Russian government. Today, we have an exclusive interview with JD, a member of Dark Horse Allies, a dedicated group based in Ukraine that has valiantly fought the Wagner Group for over six months. If you're eager to uncover the truth behind this audacious coup attempt and gain invaluable insights, this is an interview you simply can't afford to miss. All of this and more on this episode of Russia Coup Attempt By Wagner Group | Interview With Dark Horse Allies On Front Line In Ukraine

somebody on a sidewalk carjacking old lady had a red light pull a gun on the owner of a liquor store you think it's cool like to fool if you like cuss out a cop spitting his face stomp on the flag and light it up in a small town see how far you make it down Hello and welcome to Investigator's podcast. I am your host, Chad, alongside my beautiful wife, Sherry. Say hello, Sherry. Hey, guys and gals. Welcome to the podcast.

Welcome, guys. It is 624, 2023 here on East Coast of the United States 436 p.m. And guys, we are coming to you with a very concerning podcast episode. We are a little late on this one. But the reason why we were a little late on this one is because we wanted the right guest on this podcast. Now, Sherry and I have covered the Russia-Ukraine war extensively. over to past, I don't know, 15 months. And many of you have not heard our interview, actually,

with JD from Dark Horse Allies, where we actually released our original interview on our Rumble channel. If you guys want to check out the original interview with J.D. from Dark Horse Allies more than six months ago, please go check out our Rumble channel and listen to that interview.

Now, as we know, we are coming at you guys now with this Russia possible coup attempt, right, from the Wagner Group, right? And this is basically an attempt to upend chaos in Russia. The leader of the Wagner Group says his troops will not enter Moscow, but this challenge to Putin's regime probably does not end here. Now, we have seen since yesterday, which was 623, the Wagner Group, which was a private military contracting company,

a private military organization that was funded and hired by, the Russian military, they were assigned to go into Baghmute in Ukraine and basically take over and win this part of the war of Ukraine. They are evil. They are heinous. They are very barbaric. And they are some of the worst individuals and people on the planet. And so what we have for you guys tonight is an interview with JD. Now let me give you a little background. As I just said, We interviewed JD more than six months ago when he was a part of Dark Horse Allies. He's actually led Dark Horse Allies. He created Dark Horse Allies. Yeah, he was the founder of Dark Horse Allies.

And what Dark Horse Allies did was they went over to Ukraine in the beginning of this war and they trained civilians to be ready to fight in a wartime scenario. And so this company, this nonprofit organization was made up of NATO, soldiers around the world alongside U.S. military, British, many others, J.D. will tell you in just a moment as when we interview him. But this group was to train civilians to fight in a war. And these civilians have never seen war. They don't know. They're not soldiers. Their mentality is not to go and join the military. Their mentality is not to go and fight for their country necessarily. But when you're put, when you put your back against the wall and

you're putting a position where you have no choice, this is what you get. So JD's group went over there to train these people in the best way, in the fastest way possible, to get them ready for war as best as they could and also to keep them alive as long as they could. That was their goal. They were trying to teach military tactics very fast. And obviously this is not an easy thing to do, especially with brand new people. And as JD talks about in a minute, these people come from all walks of life. but man listen we have listened to twitter spaces we have listened to fox news we have listened to

CNN we have listened to everyone in regards to this potential or attempted coup inside of russia between the wagner group and the the russian government the wagner group led by a very prominent oligart in russia a billionaire this guy is basically at a power struggle with a major official inside of, I guess the defense ministry inside of Russia. There's a lot to go on about this. But what I will say is that J.D.'s interview tonight in his commentary and everything that he talked about is much better than anything you're going to hear on CNN, Fox News, Twitter spaces, whatever.

This guy, he's a friend of ours. We care deeply about him. You'll hear our entire story of kind of how we became. to even know each other. He listened to our podcast, and he was actually mad at us at one point in time. And we'll talk a little bit about that. But I think it's a great interview, and I think he unleashes a ton of information. It is amazing.

Amazing. Yeah, and listen, guys, whether or not this Russia coup potentially could, they're backing off right now is what they're saying. Russia is in turmoil as has been the headlines as the leader of a powerful paramilitary group staged an armed and brazen challenge to the Russian regime. Pergozen, which is the head of the private military company, the Wagner Group, said Saturday that his forces will halt their march on Moscow and that he is turning around on columns and return into a filled camps according to plans. We don't know what the plan is, but Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko claimed to have reached a deal with Pergozen. Pergozen has denied a deal, saying he turned around to avoid bloodshed, okay? So this is what we have right now, that you had this Wagner group coming up from you. Ukraine. This was a group that was assigned to basically create bloodshed inside of Ukraine. They

got pissed off at Russia, basically. They decided that they were going to go and get the guy that was against them that they believed was against them, denied ammunition, potentially killed some of their men, and they were not going to leave until they got this. Now, was this a coup or was it not? Well, what J.D. has to say in this interview is extremely interesting. I think is absolutely right on point. I think J.D. 100% covers this best that I've heard anyone cover this and talk about this scenario. So please listen. And if you have anyone that's out of talking all this BS about this and this and this and this,

share this podcast episode with them. This guy is on the front lines right now in Ukraine fighting against the Wagner Group and has been for six months. This guy's six-month main mission in life has been how to defeat what's his name? Prego. Prego. You'll get that in a little bit. Pergosen? Yes, Progozen.

J.D.'s main mission for six months has been how to outsmart the Wagner group and Progosen and his heinous, barbaric, military, paramilitary force. And guys, this is an interview you don't want to miss. And without further ado, we're just going to get it right into it. Yeah, here's JD. Here's J.D. All right, guys. So we are here with J.D.

How's it going, man? I'm doing well on yourself. We are doing pretty fantastic. So, J.D., where are you at right now? Are you in Ukraine or are you back home or what's your situation? I am. I'm still in Ukraine. We'll call it the Dernetsk region.

That's about as specific as I'm going to go, but the Netsk area of Ukraine. Okay. Now, for people that have not heard our other interviews with you, which we released on Rumble, that both those are part one, part two. Tell a little bit about what your company does, why you guys are over there, and how long you've been there? Well, so I've been here for 14 months now, coming up on 15 months.

It's actually segmented into some chapters for me, basically the first six months, seven months, which I believe is the time that we spoke, kind of towards the end of that period, was setting up Dark Horse Allies, which was a 501C3 nonprofit organization, and we used volunteer instructors from different NATO militaries. We had British, we had American, we had from New Zealand, giving instruction to new volunteers that were joining the Ukrainian military since obviously the experienced military of Ukraine was very busy at the front. We were able to help out with the training of these new volunteers that had joined. did that through November and then I mean we can get into it as many or as little details as you want but through some personally life-changing I'll call it experiences specifically when we liberated Keroson and I was one of the first into that area and saw for myself for the first time what goes on under Russian occupation that was a pretty big gut check for me and then

at this same point that would be November time frame middle of November a lot of these units that we have been training and kind of grooming to prepare for the war were now at the front and fighting so I was receiving a lot of requests from unit commanders that we had worked with in the past to come to the front because as is always the case nothing can truly prepare you for what you're going to see when you first get to combat and so they were you know they were sustaining some serious losses and specifically around Bachmute so So I went to Bachmute to visit with one of the units that we had worked with. And that led to a situation where we were under attack and we were involved in a very long firefight. And I was able to see a lot of teaching moments that could be had. That's not to take away from the ZSU. They're doing amazing work. But there was a lot of things that could be done in that AEO. So from that point forward, it kind of became a second chapter for me,

continued to run Dark Horse Allies. We had teams of instructors in various locations around Ukraine training these upcoming units. But I stayed then for the next six to seven months up until the end of May at the front line. Most of my time in Bachmov occasionally done by Zaparizia and sometime in Kerasan as well. Working with units more of a at the front advisory role, if you will. So just kind of continuing on what we had started with these units when we first started training them, just now doing it in the practical sense at the front. So that was my last six to seven months.

Most of that time, 80% of that time was in Bachmout or the outskirts of Bachmout. And then like I said, sometime in Zappreciate and Keroson. Okay. And then now we've just started chapter three, and then I'll end the saga for now. But I actually just flew back to the United States, end of May for two weeks, to take care of some things and clear my head a little bit. And then upon my return, I've actually joined a Ukrainian team. And so I'm actually fighting with them at the front now. Oh, wow.

And Dark Horse has actually closed down. So many of the instructors were like, hey, it's been a year. You know, we didn't make any money. We never made a single penny. So after a year, a lot of instructors needed to go home for various reasons. Some of them are married. Some of them have families. And then the instructors who remained all wanted to do the same thing, join units, and support directly.

So that's the new direction. So Bachmute, you mentioned or probably saying that a little bit wrong, but is that the place that, and we're getting a little bit in a minute to who Wagner group is exactly? but is that where the Wagner group suffered losses supposedly by the Russian military? That are you talking in the last 24 hours? No, I think it was over within, I guess, the last month, but apparently this was the big, I guess, power struggle or power battle between the general and then the head of Wagner group to where he felt like Russia intentionally killed a lot of his men or whatever. I'm not sure if it was in Bakhmud or where exactly it was. Okay. Yeah.

Wagner was fighting in Bakhmut. That's the only place that they were engaged. They were actually a private military company, and they were contracted by Russia specifically to take Bakmute. So that's the only place they were engaged in Ukraine. So, yeah, it has been – Wagner is very personal to me because that's who I have been up against for seven months. in Bakr.

And it was not direct killing of Russian soldiers. His accusation was that the Russian armed forces soldiers in the area were not giving his men any ammunition. He was claiming that they were intentionally, according to him, because they were having the most success and that they were doing better than the Russian armed forces. General Soigu, who is the our version of a Secretary of Defense, he's the secretary. of their armed forces, that he was trying to make Pergosa look bad so that it wouldn't appear that Wagner was better than the Russian armed forces. And so they weren't giving them any ammunition and that they were promising ammunition and then taking it away from them.

And he blames a lot of deaths of Wagner fighters on that. Okay. And who do you, so obviously you probably come up against Wagner Group. Now, are these guys, is it similar to, say, Blackwater? armor group, some of these other, what the United States calls them as contractors, but obviously we call them mercenaries over here. What is the deal with, you know, are they very experienced guys, are they better than a lot of the Russian military? And, you know, why specifically, I guess, did Russia contract them specifically for Bogmute? So as far as the entity is concerned, it's the same

structure as you would have with Blackwater or Triple Canopy or these American contract companies. they're also considered private militaries. However, the tasking is different even if only on the surface and I won't go too deep into making accusations of what our American companies are doing because I don't have first-hand knowledge

so I'm not going to pretend I do. But Blackwater, Triple Canopy, the premise is that they take security contracts. They are never contracted to assault or to attack anyone. They're there as security contracts

and then if they have to fight in the course of that works, then they do. Whereas Wagner is really what the name sounds. They're private military, and they are contracted in Africa, Libya. They did work in Chechnya. They've been around for quite a while, and they are contracted specifically to go fight. And they are very, very well funded. Progosen is one of the oligarchs in Russia. He's a mega-billionaire.

And then, of course, Russia, part of the contract is not only, paying the soldiers, but providing some good equipment. So Wagner has far superior equipment and weapons than the typical Russian armed forces. And in the beginning of this conflict, they were highly skilled, highly trained soldiers comparative to the Russian armed forces. Prior to even this engagement in Ukraine, Wagner was very well known in the intel community in the military community as being feared as being a really good PMC, or I should say a really effective, not good by any means,

but really effective PMC. During the initial, I don't know, two, three months of fighting in Bachmute, it's estimated that we killed 10,000 out of 30,000 Wagner. And then by December, January, we had killed almost all of the original Wagner. And so he began recruiting prisoners. He would go to the prisons, and he worked out of it. deal with the Putin regime, that any prisoner, regardless of their sentence or their crime, would be 100% cleared and free if they would come serve with Wagner for six months.

And so he got all these murderers, rapists, all these people from prison. So the people that were arriving in Bachmute fight, no higher skill level, no higher training level, just better weaponry. Yeah. And so, I mean, and that's just crazy. What do you guys think is the reason that you? you guys are so effective against Wagner group in Bogmute? A lot of it has to do with their ineptitude.

I'm not going to lie. I heard, you know, stories coming back from the front during that first six or seven months when I was pretty exclusively training about how bad they were at this. But when I first saw firsthand, they're pretty bad at this. But Ukraine is also incredibly ingenuitive. What they lack in experience, they make up for an ingenuity. I've told a number of my contacts back in the United States,

old friends that were military service, rangers, special forces, guys, that asked me, they're like, so what have you learned over there? What could we take away from this? And I tell them all, we've got to find a way to recruit people who would typically never be drawn to join the military because this situation here where all of a sudden we have people from all different walks of life who are not the quote-unquote stereotypical military personnel.

are fighting and they see things from a different perspective. And they're really bright. They're pretty incredible with some of the stuff they come up with. And they're incredibly dedicated. So I'm not going to lie, though, and say that we didn't suffer losses. I've seen Conforge before I've been in some bad places. Bachmoot's the worst thing I've ever been through my life. We were losing a lot of people.

So it was not a, it's not a cheeky, oh, we were. able to kill a lot of Wagner people in Bachmute. It was a, we lost a lot of people in order to kill a lot of people in Bachmood. Yeah, that's sad. And so by the way, you had mentioned the leader of Wagner Group and always murder his name. But, um, Pergozen. So is this the guy that was seen on video? There was a lot of videos on the internet and kind of went throughout Twitter and everything

yesterday. Is this the leader that was actually in Russia that was with the, Wagner men or with the men of the Wagner group that was seen speaking with, I guess, one of the Russian military leaders in this courtyard. He's an older guy. It looks like he's probably in 60s. Is this the leader you're talking about? He looks like an orc from the Lord of the Rings. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, it's weird because, you know, you don't think, I guess, and this is an insight that I have not heard yet because there's been so much coverage of this, Twitter, and there's been many of these.

huge Twitter spaces that have been happening with a lot of people. But I guess something we're kind of missing the point of. So this guy is basically a billionaire, right? And yet he's walking through the streets of Russia. Isn't that, do you find that strange? Or is this, you know, normal behavior for this guy? He thinks he's kind of invincible? In some levels he is.

The Progosen story goes back. I am aware of the fact that it just surfaced in the United States, just judging by the volume of messages. I've received from friends the last point I've heard but I would say that

the things of what is happening right now started in January this is when we're still fighting for Bob Kootch um prior Hey J.D.

Stand by. Stand by your you sound like a robot all of a sudden. Let's see. All right, try now. Is this a mm-mm.

Yeah, you're, You're still got a little robot going on. Hold on. We'll pause and then we'll be right back. Yeah, I guess just taking the story back to January before Pergozen began all his little video statements complaining about RAF, starving them of ammunition. In January, at least for me, when the first flag went up in my head, was he did a video

because he's known for doing these short video statements. And then they released it on Telegram, which is a popular app in Russia and also widely used in Ukraine. He did a video where he was He was standing with a number of Ukrainian killed That they were putting into these nice pine boxes And he was talking about how it's an honor to die in war And you must honor the brave whether they're the enemy or not The honorable thing to do is to make sure the bodies get back to their families

And all of these things Now if you know Pergozen's track record If you know his history in Africa and Syria and other places. And then specifically in Bachmout, he is one of the most evil humans on earth. He is the guy who gives orders to kill civilians. In Bachmute, his order was,

take no captives, whether that's military or civilian. We don't, like, Ukrainians can't surrender. If you put your hands up, they don't care, they kill you. 50 women and children hiding in a cellar gives the orders to go in and kill them all. Like, he's, he's an animal. So for him to make this video where he's posturing, and creating some sort of optics of him being this benevolent, honorable person. It was a little bit of a red flag for me like, what's his agenda?

What's, you know, what's, why would he, I know who he really is. Why is he pretending this? And then that just escalated. In February, he released a video where he was praising the Ukrainian military, saying that the Ukrainian military has become one of the best militaries in the world and they're an honorable foe and that he thinks they're far better than the Russian armed forces. And then it just kept progressing to where he would make all of these statements. And then it turned into, we are fighting honorably for the motherland of Russia, but the Russian

armed forces are not. The Putin regime is not. Choygu is not. They're all fighting for other motivations. We're the only ones truly fighting because we care about our people. They're lying about how many Russians are dying, which was very true. And he was like, you know, they're being sent in like meat to a grinder, which also was very true. And was saying all of these things that you would expect the Ukrainian commentator to be saying. Yeah. And it just continued to escalate to where most of us in my community here were just like, okay, this guy's clearly posturing to win over the people of Russia. Yeah.

Everything he said had an angle of, well, two-part angle. One, convince everybody in Russia. He's the only one that's for the people. And two, create the optics that he is a legitimate world leader with these comments about Ukraine and honoring Ukraine and these sorts of things. It was like, this is the kind of guy who needs to be able to talk to the UN one day, if that makes sense. So we kind of saw this coming in some regards. Yeah. So I guess that's just the background for him.

And then we can get more into current events. It's crazy because just on an interview this morning or last night, he was saying, as he was coming through Russia, we're not here to kill kids or anybody else. You know, we're only here to attack professionals, is what he said. We're only, you know, we're not going to take men and women or kids. Yeah, and he was kind of almost saying like we're here and any resistance is who we will kill. But, you know, to your point, Jady, you know, because I remember in the beginning of this and during the time that around the time we talked to you, the first. time and I guess the when Wagner first came in you know Wagner was everyone was saying like you said they were feared they wanted blood they were brutal uh Russia had hired this this group that was

going to go in and kill as many Ukrainians as possible and you know it is weird because the posture seems to have changed or reversed a little bit at least in optics wise it looks that way is do you think there's something to do with um the leader and and and maybe his either want to overthrow Putin, get rid of Putin, have some other higher position than what he has. I mean, what do you think the, I guess the angle is for this? So obviously, this will all be speculation. But no matter what, you have to always remember that whatever he is doing,

and he's a very calculated person, I loathe him and respect him at the same time. He's one of the worst human beings on earth, but he's also incredibly intelligent. And no matter what, his angle is self-promotion, always will be. And I mean, the guy started as a hot dog vendor only like 15 years ago. And now he's a billionaire that runs the biggest private military company in the world. He's got aspirations. So in my personal opinion, I believe he has been attempting to posture to become Putin's successor.

Maybe not necessarily right friggin now. Because they were already doing popularity polls in Russia. Putin had like, I don't know, 52% popularity versus Per goes and had 46%. This has been going on for like 60 days. And he has always left Putin out of his accusations. Every statement has been against Shogu, has been against the oligarchs, has been against, But he's never, ever called out Putin. Wow.

And then in this situation that transpired over the last 24 hours, Putin was doing the same thing. He came out and said, this is an act of treason, those involved should be punished, but never said Pergozen's name. The Wagner group shot down seven Russian aircraft yesterday, or this morning, I should say. I'm forgetting about the time difference. shot down seven Russian aircraft and immediately the Russian state media reported that there was no loss of human life. Five of those were helicopters.

There's absolutely no way there was no loss of human life. So it's almost like they're both trying to leave and out for each other, if that makes sense? Absolutely, yeah. So obviously you can do a lot of speculating on that. I don't know if this was a situation where he was hoping that he was going to make this grand gesture, and that would get Shoygu, who again is the commander of the Russian armed forces,

get him removed and replaced, assumedly by Pergozin. If that was his whole play and then in the course of doing so, was also going to use that to bolster his public opinion polls even more and be like, see, I'm an amazing leader and I care about the Russian people so much, I'll do all of this just to protect our soldiers. And then it escalating got out of control and it was, oh shit, now I'm up against Putin. Yeah. Don't know.

That's just speculation. That's interesting you say that too because, you know, Shogu, which is who he really wanted, right? I mean, this was the guy that he wanted out because he felt like this guy was responsible for whatever his, you know. Not giving him weapons because the guy didn't like him. Yeah. And all that. But, you know, isn't it?

Well, that also escalated. Isn't it strange, though, that I go. You're good. Sorry. Because there is, and by the way, guys, there is a little, you know, delay here because he is in Ukraine, we're here. But isn't it strange also that, you know, all last night we were hearing about Russian defectors, all these Russian soldiers that were coming together and they were kind of just letting these guys in and do what they wanted to do. Yeah, they were even putting white

bands on their arms to say they're part of Wagner group. And isn't it also strange that, you know, considering the fact that if it was as serious as everyone made this out to be to where it was potentially going to be a coup or a potential coup or at least something like this, right, that Russia did not use any weaponry. I mean, I think there were some explosions here and there, whatever the case is. But I think you're right. I mean, is it possible that that, I mean, yes, it is speculation, but is it at all possible that it could have been a ploy between Wagner guy? I need to write his name down.

Wagner guy and Putin. You can just call him Prego. That's what I usually do. Prego. You can just say Prego instead of progocean. Prego. Okay. That sounds way.

better. I hate Prego too. Ork. Either one works. So is there any way it could have been some kind of connection? Because, I mean, you know, obviously, that, you know, as Putin sees the war going, if he doesn't like what a general's doing, what this guy's doing, what this guy's doing, he just rids them. And he gets rid of them. He's like, screw these guys. We're done. Obviously, there has to be a pretty tight connection. You would think if Prego is an oligart in Russia, he's a billionaire, he's got to have big connections of Putin. obviously. Do you think there's any kind of conspiracy between that?

So I'm definitely going to answer that because you're on the right path. But first, I want to back up real quick to clarify, we were talking about the reason for Pergozin's hatred of Soygh, yes, they were weaning off weapons in Bachmoo, but in addition, what allegedly, and I will use that word very intentionally, triggered everything that happened last night, was that the Russian armed forces actually attacked a Wagner base, shot missile was at it and killed a bunch of Wagner people. Okay. And that's what triggered this entire thing that happened.

And I say allegedly for a reason because false flag operations would be right out of Pergosen's playbook. So if he was looking for an excuse to do this, he could just blow up some stuff around his base, take a couple of videos of burning things and say that Russia just attacked him. So I will say allegedly. But to answer your question, I was going to say that would be the second potential scenario. and it's the one I assumed all over the last five months or so was a very strong potential scenario.

And that is that Putin and Pergozen were writing the script together. I think the last time we spoke, I would assume that I would have brought this up because it's been my line pretty much since I arrived here, that in my opinion, and I'm not alone, the only past a full victory is, or I'm sorry, the only way I should say that Putin can

withdraw and admit defeat and give Ukraine victory would be to find a way to sell it to his people as it's not my fault. Because obviously he can't just say we got beat. So when

Pergozen was making all of these statement videos that lines up with, okay, he's already presenting the optics that the Russian military leadership screwed this up, that it should have gone better, it could have gone better. If I was in charge, it would have worked, but they screwed it all up. That's already starting to shift some blame off of Putin.

Now at the same time, Putin and everybody that speaks on behalf of Putin stopped using the word Ukraine. They haven't said that they're at war with Ukraine and over a month. It's NATO. We're with NATO. We're fighting NATO. The war with NATO is going, et cetera, et cetera, changing the optics to we're not fighting Ukraine were fighting all of NATO and our Russian leadership turned out to be corrupt and need to be

destroyed. It was the perfect scapego. So it was kind of lining up with what I would see to be the signs of the beginning of the end. So I was on board very much with that scenario of Putin and Pergozen being in on it together. And you are correct about them being very connected. He made all of his wealth by opening a catering company and became the caterer to the president. So his nickname is the chef because he was always at Putin's side for the last six, seven, eight years as his personal chef. And then, of course, eventually became one of his close, whatever you want to call it. That might be actually why. Yes, they are very close. If the rumor is true that potentially Putin has cancer, that might be why, because if this guy is

his chef and he used to be a hot dog vendor, we have all heard that hot dogs do cause cancer. Just saying. Anyway So this has been a long game for him. Yeah, it might be. Just conspiracy theory, guys out there. So what do you think about when they were talking about the rest of the Russian army are a lot of them defecting to the Warner side yesterday?

Wagner. Do you believe that or what do you think about that? It's one of those tough scenarios. To answer it bluntly, I can't believe any of it because both sides will lie. it's their job too. Obviously, the moment this started happening, like we know that it's a fact that Wagner went and took over the military headquarters in Russia.

We know it's a fact that they started marching towards Russia. We know certain things for a fact. But the moment that stuff started happening, Ukraine, the West, anybody on this side would be a full not to start throwing out every story they can about. Everybody's behind it. let's have a civil war they want to encourage that that would be good for us and then on the other side they're going to lie and say half because they did there were reports coming out of russia that

half of the wagner guys retreated and ran to military enlistment offices and switched over to the russian army like both sides are going to spin these stories so i can't tell you what's true and what's not true for certain i can tell you that the russian army forces have extraordinarily low morale right now because the things Pergozen has been saying are true. They are being sent like me to a grinder. I mean, they have sent waves at our trenches

where not everyone has a weapon. You're just three meters behind the guy in front of you and once he dies, you grab his weapon and continue. I mean, their morale is ground zero. So I would not be surprised if a lot of them have been

seeing his video statements for three months saying, Russia doesn't take care of their troops. If I was in charge, I would take care of them all and going, I like this guy. So it's very feasible that a lot of them got behind Wagner. Wagner is treated kind of like a heroic element in Russia. I mean, it's common to see people wearing Wagner t-shirts and pictures just walking down the street in Moscow, like they're kind of worshipped. So I would not be surprised if a lot of RIF was like, hell yeah, we want to get behind this guy because they don't want to be here anymore. Most of them never wanted to.

At this point, pretty much none of them do. So it wouldn't surprise me, but I can't say that I know that for certain because both sides are definitely going to spin the wheel. Have you seen any de-escalation over the past month or so or three months from the Russian side? I mean, especially since Wagner and, you know, and Pergozen, kind of how you were talking about, you know, how kind of, I guess, his stance or his philosophy or some of the things he was saying kind of changed. But especially have you saw any I guess de-escalation since

as far as in Ukraine I guess yeah in Ukraine I mean Is it a huge push Like is it the same thing as like Say I don't know Is war in Ukraine right now And this is what I want to I guess get out to Our listeners

Is war in Ukraine right now similar to Like what war is it similar to Is it similar to desert storm Is it similar to like Afghanistan type stuff It is absolutely nothing like any modern war in the last 80 years. The most similar war would be as if you had World War I and Star Wars War at the same time. It is one of the biggest headaches for every NATO military person over here because it just burns our brains.

Fighting this absurd trench, storm trench situation where there's no such thing as break contact or fire a maneuver, which is the way that we've been taught to fight for 50, 60 years. But then throw in the element of unprecedented drone influence. There are drones over you at all times, and you have drones over the enemy at all times. And you can see every move everybody's making at all times. So I've seen something like any war that's been fought. Yeah, it's nothing like any war that's been fought. It seems like Ukraine has been doing an incredible job with drones, by the way.

I mean, I've seen some pretty rough videos from the Ukraine side. So a lot of that goes back to what I was talking about. When you get these people that are not military-minded people, it's unbelievable. Like, there's a guy who, I mean, the nerdy little, this dude would never be in the military guy who his country was under attack. So I'm going to do what I can to help. He's building drones, like ordering components from Turkey and. Greece and all these different places and building these homemade drones that can carry seven RPG grenades and fire them up to two kilometers. I mean,

the stuff they're coming up with is just mind bending. And, you know, there's no design plan for that. It's not like he went to school for this. He's just super gifted when it comes to electronics. And that's just one story. Like there's a lot of that going on. Correct. There's no oversight.

And then, oh, I don't remember what your first question. Oh, the de-escalation. So, touch on that, I wouldn't say there's been any de-escalation that I would attribute to Progosen's statements. We saw basically after they declared that they had the city of Bokhmut, they definitely went into a defensive posture because they knew that we were preparing to go on an offensive. So I still wouldn't necessarily say de-escalation.

They were still attacking. The mortar fire has never stopped. But they were no longer really trying to advance on the level that they were previously. But I attribute that to they knew we were about to use all of the stuff that the West has been giving us for the last year and this massive assault. And so they went into more of a prepare their defensive lines posture. Absolutely. And a question I did have for you, too, is have you seen firsthand, like whether it be Wagner or Russians,

what has your kind of firsthand visuals been of civilians being killed by either Russia or Wagner? and what does that kind of look like? So when I mentioned earlier that I had a bit of a fork in the road, if you will, back in November, we liberated Kerson on November 14th, I believe it was. And I went in two days later. And we're going into, you know, this is, Kersen had been occupied by Russia for nine months. They had held a completely fraudulent election and claimed that it was now part of Russia and exited all of that. So it was completely held by Russians for nine months.

And we're going in and, you know, you are on the outskirts in these little villages outside the city and you just, you walk into a house and there's the five-year-old, the eight-year-old, the mom and the dad all naked with their hands tied behind their back and body parts cut off and laying their dead. and just we came across a ravine that had 100 bodies in it, all similar situations. Castration is one of their favorites. They castrate most of the men. It's obviously not going to be every single person in the Russian military, but it is too common to believe that it's just some psychotic individuals in the military. It is part of the weapon they're using to control the population.

If they want everybody's complete obedience, they establish themselves as we're going to do what we want. And I went in and talked to two. I only found two people that were pretty fluent in English while I was there and sat down and spoke with them for hours. And they were telling me the stories that every block in the city you had to go through a little checkpoint and they would check your phones. and if you had anything on your phone that was pro-Ukrainian in any way, shape, or form, so much as watching a video on YouTube, they would take you to a, they call it the basement, and they would take you to these chambers for three days and put your hands in boiling water until the skin fell off so you can't use your phone again, things like that.

Wow. Yeah. It sounds like the Holocaust. It's the parallels are plentiful over here. And I had of course heard of this stuff And Boucha and Irpene back in the beginning of the war These sorts of things that happened But this was the first time I was putting my eyes on it

And talking to survivors of it And that's Like I said, I knew it had happened But there's something about seeing it That is a pretty big gutcha Getting back to the Wagner group I heard a lot of stuff going on About neo-Nazi Nazi

What do you do you think that they are And it's like they both accuse each other at this, right? Ukraine accuses them and vice versa. So what makes it difficult, and I can say this, because I was one of the ones that didn't get it for even a while after I got here, what makes it difficult for us Westerners to understand why this whole Nazi accusation is getting thrown around, is it means something completely different over here. You know, for us, it's just face value.

it was a group of people who did terrible things and should all be killed. There's no question about it. Nazis are the worst. Here, to be a Nazi in their language and the way they speak means more of to be anti-communist, anti-Russian. Because the Soviet army was fighting against the Nazis. I mean, at first they collaborated until the Nazis burned them in Poland. Then they fought against each other. And so it was,

Ukrainians who worked with the Nazis to fight the Soviet Union back in that day, the Soviet Army, that created this whole Ukrainians or Nazis thing. Because, and I've discovered this by being in the East so much, when the Red Army was in eastern Ukraine, they were taking everybody's food, taking their houses, abusing all the civilians. And then when the Nazis defeated them in that region and took over, they were giving everybody food and taking care of them just because they didn't want them to turn on them. But because of that, some of those families and those regions grew up with this storytelling from great-grandma and grandpa that the Nazis were way nicer to us than the Red Army.

So to a person, I still have yet to meet anybody in Ukraine who's like, yep, I'm probably. Nazi, go Nazis. I haven't met one. Yeah. But I do know that there's a lot of people that don't have the same gut reaction that I do to the word because they're like, yeah, the Nazis were terrible. People, they did awful things and we know it was awful and we don't want to be associated with them. But God, they were way better than the Red Army. So that kind of a mentality, you will get some of that in the East. Yeah.

And so that's where it kind of gives, it gives an opportunity for the propaganda that Putin wants to push the, oh, they're all. Nazis is that in their era and the great patriotic war, as the Russians call it, which was World War II, it was basically the Soviets versus the Nazis. So now everybody who is Russia's enemy, they call them a Nazi. They call Americans Nazis. They call everybody in Lithuania Nazis. They call everyone in Poland Nazis. It's just the enemy is now Nazis. Well, to be fair, Americans call themselves Nazis now, too. So, I mean, you know, it is what it is. Yeah, I don't get to stick my head up too often and look at news from back home. But when I do, I'm not really sure, which is the safer war zone, where I am now or where I came from. I'm not really sure at this point.

So now we're up to date. And it sounds like Wagner and Putin has made some kind of agreement where Wagner is retreating back to their bases. What do you think is going on and how did they make the agreement? What do you think about all that? And could that be propaganda? Could it be? could Russia be putting this out saying this and maybe

that's not the case? Is that possible to? Obviously this is fresh for me as well so I haven't really had a lot of time to talk to contacts and dig into things but I will just say this without any question zero doubt

it is not face value it is not Putin saying all right I understand here's what I'll do for you and you have to call off your coup and Pergozen said okay that makes sense and they're just going to go back to the corners that is not the case one million percent not a chance because in this particular situation

someone's got to die because you can't take back certain things and when Putin said this is treason and everybody involved should be punished and he sent attack helicopters and planes to attack the convoy and then Pergozen responded on telegram by saying President Putin has made his wrong choice. There will be a new president in Russia soon. You can't come back from that. So I don't believe either one. My personal opinion, Porgozen has been very methodical with all the steps he's taking.

He's been working towards building the correct optics for this for six months, if not longer. I think this is just another play of he, if there were concessions made, my assumption would be that Shuegu is going to to be removed because that was the one thing that that progozen demanded and if that's the case now pergozen's in an even better situation perhaps it is waiting until Putin dies or the next election maybe it's not a coup but the next time there's an opportunity from him to be president it can be president Putin was so weak that i told him i was going to replace him and he still didn't do anything about it he's a complete loser you can't trust him you can't have faith in him he's weak as hell and I got my way, I'm the guy to lead your country.

In my opinion, it still follows the same path. Just none of us know the timeline. And from what I'm getting from you, that would not be a better choice for Russia. Even a, whose choice would it really be? It's no one's choice, but I'm just saying that it sounds like Prego is way worse than Putin. Yeah, I mean... I love that this is catching on. Yeah.

But at the same time, you know, here's the thing. It's like, you know, who actually... You say elections, but do the people actually elect? Because I don't think they really do over there. Who actually decides the power structure of Russia? And that goes back to the Prego. Oh, Pergozen. How many...

I wonder how much support among the officers and among the higher-ranking officials, potentially in in Russia may he have to where you get what I'm saying I mean because Russia is obviously not a democratically elected country although they want to make that out. Oh sure they are absolutely they're they're pure democracy yeah exactly although they no they hold elections they do but I wouldn't trust the results they said 98% of kerosan voted to be Russian and 100% of the people in kerosan I met said that they definitely did not vote to be Russian. So no, I wouldn't, I wouldn't trust it. They do call themselves a democracy. In my opinion, from what I have seen, and this goes further back than me just coming to Ukraine,

I've always nerded out over Russian history. I would say it's extremely safe to believe that every single person in power in Russia only has their own best interest in mind. I have not seen any indication of there being anybody who has any power. that has even a patriotic motivation. So at the end of the day, it's who shows the most promise. And we saw that. In my opinion, there's a strong chance that's all progozen wanted, was to run a test and see what happens,

see who it is that bails, see who it is the stays of Putin's side, and see what the state of things are. And we saw, I mean, there was flight after flight being booked out of Russia on private government jets to Turkey and to Greece and and some people running. There were certain people that came out and made statements on Putin's behalf. There was, it's mixed, but I do think that Pergozen is doing a pretty decent job if somebody wanted to try and take the presidency away from Putin. He has said all the right things to make it sound like he is both the benevolent person who

cares deeply about the Russian people, but also the person that can roll with an iron fist and make sure that the right thing is done. So all optics, all fake, but he's doing a pretty phenomenal job if I was to say whether or not he's going to be able to take over. So yeah, we just have to wait and see, though, what the outcome of the so-called peace agreement is and who knows what his overall strategy is. But to your point of which would be better for us, neither one of them is good, what was best case scenario for us was if this had spiraled out of control.

Because if one side had opened fire, like full on open fire assault on the other side, that would have been the line because the other side would have to shoot back. And now all of a sudden you're in it. And that would have been great for us because that would have been complete unrest. Soldiers dying would have been phenomenal for Ukraine. That didn't happen in this particular instance. So now best case is, in my opinion, already been achieved. The moment he started this, that was a massive victory for all of us,

because now I was referring to the terrible morale of all the troops on the front, if you, you know, we all wish that we had more money in our lives, right? We'll have that thought every once in a while. I wish I had enough to buy that house to do this. That's kind of where they're at right now. Now imagine that somebody tells you, you have a winning lottery ticket, and you're getting $20 million tomorrow, and you have 24 hours about thinking about that.

And then the next day they go, oh shit sorry wrong ticket you didn't win it that's going to be the mentality on the front lines now we we had a guy who it looked like he was going to go and he was going to put an end to all the bullshit and we're going to finally start getting paid and we weren't going to be putting these stupid assault lines as meat in a grinder we were potentially going to pull out of ukraine our whole situation was going to change everything was about to get better and now never mind it was all a joke and we got to go back to the trench tomorrow yeah that makes complete sense what you're saying For us, the morale victory was enormous already, just from what happened.

But as far as who's better to have in there, Pergozen or Putin, probably not because of who he is as a person, but probably Pergozen because he has an opportunity, Putin doesn't. Putin cannot turn around now and say, I was wrong. I'm sorry, let's make nice. Past the point of no return, can't do that with the rest of the Western world. Pergozen could come in and say, it was all my successors. fault. He made the decisions. He's an idiot. Let's make peace. And he would have the ability to be a world leader. So he's a piece of shit. He would be doing it just for himself. But I would say

Pergozen would probably be the better case for us until we can take him up. Yeah. And that's very interesting too, because it's just, you know, it's one of those things you think about. You made a very great point. You know, there was a battle one, whether people see it or not. I believe you're right. I mean, you have all these guys, military-aged men that are being put in a meat grinder, however you look at it, by Putin and his military and his generals and everyone else. And then you have this almost savior to them potentially, which is why you probably had some of many defectors. But now you're really going to have a big moral issue outside of what you already had before, probably, is what you're kind of saying. And I 100% understand that. I think that's a really good point to this.

By the way, a lot of what you're saying. catastrophic. Well, a lot of what you're saying, too, like we've been listening to so many different reporters and these Twitter spaces and whatever. I'm not saying anything about it, but you're there firsthand. You've offered more information on this podcast,

and we've heard, period. And it's not even, it's not that you have to know exactly what's happened. It's just that you know so much about the region. Plus, he is a Russian nerd. Yeah, exactly, yeah. I do nerd out over these things, for one. And for two, this is a little bit my wheelhouse.

because trying to outthink progozen has literally been my life for the last seven months in boxing. So I've been following progozen probably closer than most people on Earth. Well, I mean, and let me ask you this, too. I have to ask you this, because I'm sure our listeners

probably want to know this. You're an American, right? You're over in Ukraine, and, you know, there's going to be a lot of people that listen to this. I promise you that have not heard our previous interviews and whatnot. And I don't want to, you know,

we don't have to like go deep into this. But number one, you know, your position now and kind of what you're doing was different than what your Dark Horse Allies position was, which you were over there to potentially or to train newcomers that were not military, not whatever, not really had the experience, which by the way is like, I think I made this reference before. I used to teach golf, but like when you teach golf to brand new people and then you teach golf to people that already know golf, it's a big difference. and um but you know you're i would have thought actually like okay if dark horse allies is over which i get why you know that that's kind of a chapter is closed because that part of the ukraine uh war is somewhat over but um number one you know you're you're at very high risk right i mean in what you're doing right now you're an american you're over in ukraine you're facing people like the wagner group in russia and all this stuff what keeps you over there

right now. Well, when Ukrainians ask me why I'm here, I always say the answer to why I came here and the answer to why I'm here are two different things. I came here to help because I felt that, well, for one, again, I nerd out over Russian history. So I knew what his move was and I knew that he was trying to stifle democracy. And I feel that people that want to be free and live in a free country should have that ability. That's why I came here was to try and help. The reason I'm still here is because truthfully they have become family to me and I don't know the demographic of your listeners so maybe I'll upset some people maybe I won't I'm not too concerned because I've already pissed off a lot of people in the United States but I'm a conservative I won't necessarily

call myself a Republican at this point because both parties can shove it as far as I'm concerned but I'm a conservative when it comes to politics small government people taking care of each other people taking care of themselves, taking responsibility for themselves, et cetera, et cetera. The decline that I have seen in the United States has left me for many years during the gap between my military service and this when I was doing the civilian thing. Dreaming of the days, if we could just go back to when everybody just took responsibility for themselves and, you know, a conservative dream, right? Yeah.

That really is this country. and so it just makes you want to help them even more. It's these, again, it pisses some people off because one of Putin's moves through the information wars over the past decade that he has been grooming us for is creating this rift to where it's Republican to be on Russia's side and liberal to be on Ukraine's side. So a lot of these support, and I'm using air quotes, you just can't see them, that's coming for Ukraine. and I use air quotes because the support I'm talking about is purely the people on Twitter.

They're not doing anything else except tweeting. But the people who are supporting Ukraine are very outspoken liberals. And so it kind of blindsides a lot of them when I'm like, yeah, actually the liberal thing, not very popular in Ukraine. They're very, very conservative. Their income tax is 2%. They believe in small government. I mean, obviously they're working their way out of a lot of corruption from the Soviet era. It's only been 30 years that they've had democracy and only about 15 years

they've been seriously trying to rid the government of corruption. But the people themselves, they believe in taking care of each other and taking care of themselves. I try to explain to people some of the mentality in the United States of, you know, the have-nots will try to tear down the people who do have because it's not fair and they should have to share it with us. And they'll look at me like I'm an alien. They're like, if I meet somebody who's way more successful than me, I want them to be my best friend so I can learn what they did and do it myself. Like, what a novel concept.

Who would have ever thought? So the fact that I can, like, I feel right at home with the Ukrainian people. I really do. They're incredible people. And this is not to say that I don't love my government anymore. Actually, I don't love my government. It's not to say I don't love my country anymore because I love my country very much. Right.

But all of the best parts of America, you're seeing in its infancy here. It's almost like the early days of the United States, which obviously I wasn't there for, but it's what I would imagine it was. Like nothing but hope and promise of this beautiful democracy and this future that we could have. And you just, you have to be a part of that. At this point, this is my family. And I still do believe that it is in our interest as Americans for Russia to not succeed. and that's a whole other podcast.

But I will also say it also is very much for the fact that the Ukrainians have become my family just as much as my family in the United States. Yeah, I'm actually, as you're talking, I'm watching a live feed from Fox. I think it is in Kiev, Kiev, whatever you say. And by the way, I 100% get it. You're taking it back to basics, core values, core principles, core morals, like what should people do for each other, care about each other? If you've got to fight for each other, fight for them. And I think that's what's so lost in America. And I get what you're saying.

I mean, the Russia and Ukraine thing. And I think it's like, you know, on the conservative side, people are like, look, if all the liberals are for Ukraine, then I'm definitely going whatever side is the other. You know, I mean, and I'm not saying all of them that are that way. I have a lot of friends that do. Yeah. I mean, and I'm not saying all of them or that. But I also think that in general, especially, you know, from the conservative standpoint right now. I know we're not going to get into politics, but what I'm saying is from the conservative side right now, you know, you have this administration which, you know, if, and a lot of people believe if it keeps going this way in the United States that we may be the new Russia potentially at some point in time.

And so, you know, there are people that say, you know, look, we don't want this administration. And by the way, I kind of feel this way. Like this administration, this government, and the way they are affecting politics at all in Ukraine should be. like the worst thing possible. Well, and I think honestly, a lot of conservatives are just pissed off because we're sending all this money to Ukraine and, you know, accidentally sent six more billion dollars to them. And they're like, you know, we're not even protecting our own country. We're sending everything to Ukraine. I think a lot of them is, you know, that's what I gather.

And look, and I think from JD's side, and I'm not putting words in JD's mouth, but what I'm saying is, yes, American people, you know, especially on the right or people that love our country. they're like, why are we giving all this money? Why are we doing this? And we get like, if you want to help Ukraine, because that's the right thing to do, understood, right? But I also think American politicians, which they do this in every situation. It's not just Ukraine. I mean, we've got to remember this, that politicians will always take advantage of a good situation, a good war. I mean, this is just what happens. Military Industrial Complex does. Everyone does. It doesn't matter if it's in Ukraine or vice versa. But this is what I say. I don't know 100 percent the government's, viewpoint as far as in Ukraine. I don't know if Zelensky is good or not. I am still, you know, to be decided on that. Don't know. But because it's hard. Like you said, I mean, it's hard with propaganda. It's hard knowing what is true and what isn't. But what I do know is that regardless, people should not be killed. Russians should not be even being sent to be, like you said, in meat grinders. And just kind of similarly, Ukraine kind of has no choice, I guess, when you're getting invaded, the people of Ukraine have no choice. And neither do a lot of the Russians as well.

I mean, considering the fact you either fight or you probably get killed or executed or whatever, it's not a good situation in a way. But I do 100% understand your viewpoint on, you know, if that happened in America, regardless of our government, regardless of whether our hate or loved them, you know, at the end of the day where we came from and who stands beside us and as fellow Americans, I think the sentiment in a country would change pretty fast, I would guess, but I don't know. Everyone's so brainwashed on so many things nowadays. So I think what you're saying is, it's almost refreshing, although you're in a very horrific environment. You're on the front lines.

You're seeing civilians dead. But you're also seeing a lot of good about what people should be. And that is just truly compassionate enough and loving one another enough to fight for each other to the death, pretty much. I actually I really appreciate the way that you just put that there can be a whole lot of conversation about the government here, the government in the United States, but you put it perfectly that what people don't take a moment to think of except that you did, and I appreciate that, is that if somebody attacked in the United States and was murdering and slaughtering and raping civilians, we wouldn't sit back and go, yeah, but Joe Biden's our president. so I'm just not going to try and stop them. You're not going to give a damn who you're. So anytime I hear people say, wow, I don't think Zelensky's a good president. Okay.

So all those people should be raped, killed, and murdered because you don't think he's a good president? Like, it's irrelevant. That's a great point. It doesn't matter. And, well, that's pretty much what you just said, so I appreciate that. Yeah, you're just making it better. Sorry. To touch on the spending thing, this is another one that makes me chuckle.

For one, we can get into the propaganda game in a minute. But what has actually been spent is 5.6% of our Department of Defense budget. So no matter what, that money was not going towards anything in the world except for the Department of Defense. So it would have been a new headquarters in Zimbabwe. Who knows? But 5.6%, which is a very small number as it is, of our annual Department of, defense budget, which means that that was money that was already pre-allocated for Department of Dispending. So none of this is coming out of our social programs, although I wish they would

cut back on some of our social programs. None of this is coming out of any other spending that would be spent domestically, no matter what that money was going to go to the Department of Defense. And that's something that doesn't come up. And then what's kind of going back to that propaganda game, in fact, if there's one book, and I tell this to everybody, and if you don't want to be a nerd and read a whole bunch of books, pick one Putin's playbook It's written by Rebecca I can't think of her last name

but she's Russian born worked in the intelligence agency and wrote this book and it's Putin's playbook and his plan to destroy America phenomenal book and really does a good job of everything I've read

is all kind of put into this one book so it kind of covers 20 different books and what a lot of people don't realize you know the information game they created, and this is well documented, Russian has an entire branch dedicated to cyber propaganda. They've created hundreds of thousands of Twitter accounts where it's some good American name,

veteran Trump supporter, and they post and they retweet. These are these people's jobs, is to post and retweet anti-vaccine, anti-liberal, all the same stuff that a typical Republican would put on their Twitter and then also put in all this Russian propaganda. So it seems like, oh, this is somebody I relate to. We have the same beliefs.

And they're saying this, it must be true. And so they've got all these accounts that do it. And so a lot of the, we're spending all of our money on Ukraine, a lot of that is coming from these accounts. And then being retweeted by true honest accounts. So we're going, oh, me and this person retweeted each other all the time because I agree that the vaccines were bullshit. And I agree that Joe Biden's a bad precedent. And I agree all these other things they say. this must be true as well.

So they're very good at that game. They're not very good at war, but they're really good at information war. So there's a whole lot of that going on. And like I said, Putin's playbook, if you're going to read one book, you know, the Trump scandal. It was Russia that planted the information that Russia colluded with Trump because they were trying to keep Trump from getting elected. So they're the ones that created the scandal that there was collusion between Russia and Trump. Because they didn't want Trump to get elected. They like weak liberal presidents.

So it's a fascinating book. Yeah, and that's why none of this happened while Trump was in office because he was too strong for them. And then once we got a weak link, this is when everything started going wrong. Putin, or yeah, I mean, Trump had too much. And weak link might be the strongest name anyone ever gave our current president. Yeah, no joke. Yeah, the problem with the problem with Putin and Trump was Putin knew that Trump was as probably as egotistical as he is, if not more.

So, you know, that's not a good recipe. That's like fire and gasoline, you know. And, but you have, but the problem is, is that Biden and Putin is like water and fire. And that's so much better, especially when you're the water. So, Jada, you are now on the front lines. And how long have you been there? Since December, well, late, late November. Wow.

is there like anything in is it I just couldn't imagine first of all I worry about you now that you say that yeah I do too gosh it just scares me but do you ever feel worried are you that close to them like what are you seeing on the front lines besides the civilians

yeah I mean I'm not going to go into a ton of detail about war but I'm fighting with them so um jade and by the way I want to bring this up to that you know actually how we met for there's going to be a lot of people to hear this and don't know. But JD actually sent us an email based on a podcast we did, which was kind of some of the things we were hearing, our thoughts and opinions on some of the Russia-Ukraine stuff.

And, you know, it's every vaven situation. And I've said multiple times that it's just tough. It is tough to get through propaganda and understand what is what and what is not. But you had sent us an email and you're like, hey, this is what I think about this. And you were actually kind of mad because you were kind of over there. You were in this position. You had listened to one of our podcasts. And I wrote you.

And I said, look, we're not trying to be – or we're not trying to relay whatever, you know. And I said, I want you to come on. But I think hopefully this podcast – this podcast, even though I think we should have done it on our original podcast to begin with. But I think this podcast, especially what's going on, I think your message and what's, what you're saying to our audience, and not just our audience, there's going to be so many people listen to this. I think this is really your opportunity to say it. And, you know, we just wanted to get it right. And we always want to get it right. And we're not always necessarily right. I don't think anyone is always right. But, you know, obviously we have our opinions and thoughts

and stuff. But that's also why, you know, as soon as this stuff started happening, I said, I got to get JD. I got to see where he's at, what he's doing. But to Sherry's point, we do worry about you. And look, I think you're a great guy, by the way. I respect you for reaching out to us. And I think your heart 100% is in the right place. I think if more people had your heart and you're, whatever it is, like you said, you've already explained about what is putting you there fighting with Ukraine. It's not about patriotism. It's not about whether you're American and not Ukraine. It's about being a human being. And that's what's so lost nowadays. So I agree. And And I do appreciate you guys as well.

You just reached out to me. Well, it was today my time. It might have been yesterday. Your time, I'm not sure. But I promise I don't instantly respond and jump on with every reporter and every person that reaches out wanting to talk that quickly. But I appreciate you guys and I was happy to come on. Yeah, we love it, man.

I appreciate the fact that you, and you were correct. I was upset because the topic of that podcast that I listened to was a lot of the Russian propaganda that was coming out. that time and I wasn't specifically upset with you guys but I was just overwhelmed with how hell are people believing all this stuff in the United States and you guys I was very impressed with the way you said well by all means please come on and give us more information we're just all about information and you can't not respect that so I appreciate you guys a lot and I have since then as this evolved and the propaganda became even more prevalent I have really come to

understand to the point I have said to people I'm like if I wasn't in Ukraine if I had never come here. I don't know for sure what I would believe because there's so much on both sides going back and forth. So I'm a little less judgmental these days of the people who are who are eating some of the propaganda as long as they are open-minded to hearing more. But I do certainly encourage people to dig because you don't even have to dig that deep these days into why Russia does what it does. Because as soon as you do that, you're kind of looking through the correct lens. As long as we're looking through that American lens of what we know, maybe some things don't make sense. But when you understand the way Russia operates and what their goal is and you look through that lens,

it's a lot easier to sort through the information. Well, Jady, I do have one thing to say. And I know this is kind of lackluster at best, what I'm about to say. But number one, get home safe. Do not get killed over there because, unfortunately, and this is what I do believe, I believe America is degrading. very fast. And depending on what happens in 2024 and how things work out, and there's a lot of things that could really go wrong in the United States, especially over the next two, three, four years. And we're going to need, potentially,

at one point in time, maybe more so in a near future than we realize people like you that are going to be in America to potentially, whether it be a tyrannical, possible government, whether it be another country realizing how weak the United States is because of all these other reasons. You know, just make sure you're safe. Make sure that, you know, that in the event and the future, because, I mean, you just don't know what's going to happen in this world right now. It is a scary world, and I know you're freaking on the front lines. I'm talking to you about scary world and whatever. But you understand what I'm saying.

It's just there's a lot of stuff that can go wrong. You know, we talked a little bit about the Russia thing last time. But I do want to bring you back on in the future to talk a little bit about, you know, just more. more about, I don't know, some of the Russia-U.S. relations. I will read this book, too, and I'll give you my thoughts, and maybe we bring you back on to kind of talk about the book, the Russia-U.S. relationship, some of the propaganda, the government-U.S. versus Russia and Ukraine. Dig a little deeper on that, but I know it's, what, 11, what time is? 11.18 p.m. there, I guess, right? Yeah, it is.

All right. I don't want to keep you too long because I know it's late. I told you that when I do check back on what's going on in the United States, it's concerning to use a light term. But when I talk to you guys, I think it's a little bit worse. This is now twice that you've had me on. And the first time you asked me the question, would I come back if something like this happened in the United States to help the United States? And now you're saying you need me to come back.

I don't think we need you yet. We don't need you yet. Maybe it's even worse than I thought. I don't think we need you yet, but it depends. You might want to be looking at like, I don't know, February, 2024 or somewhere on there. Well, who knows? Well, if it gives you any comfort, I have told countless Ukrainians who expressed their gratitude to me for what I've done here to help them. I have told many of them that I don't ask for anything in return except that they all jump on planes and come to the United States to help me if this happens in my country.

And can we all meet up, by the way? We'll meet up. We will be there to make sure we get it all coordinated. Yeah, you're probably actually better to that. But we can do a podcast during the time of whatever war we're fighting. Well, we just want you to stay safe. Well, I hope it doesn't come to that. No, I hope not either.

But, JD, listen, we're not going to keep you. We will definitely bring you back very soon. But number one thing is definitely stay safe. I know you're out there fighting a battle that you explained why. And I think no one can fault you for that because most people would not do that. But you've got to stay safe because we don't want to ever hear bad news on your side. And we're not going to, by the way, because we're putting this out in the universe. We're going to pray for you.

I don't know. Actually, I think we did talk about your religion last time. But anyways, we're going to pray for you and only give good vibes. I'm deeply offended. And only give good vibes. We're going to put good vibes out there. Only good vibes. I'm kidding.

I'm kidding. And if it alleviates any concern, it's funny. I was, like I said, back in the United States about a month ago, and I was talking with my father, and we both just know, given the things that I've done and where I've been and what I've been through in my lifetime, I was like, you do realize that I'm definitely going to die slipping on ice walking down the driveway to get the newspaper. Probably so.

Absolutely ridiculous. Or going to the range and shooting a weapon that blows up in your, face and blows your face off just randomly. It's going to be something incredibly silly. Yeah. Definitely. I don't know if you guys are pressed for time, but there's one thing I wanted to say. You're good.

Because you kind of teased it there with the whole U.S.-Ukraine relations. One thing that I think is important for people to realize is that it is okay to not trust our government and their motivation for helping and still believe in what is happening over here. Because that is, we've got this whole either or concept going on in the United States. Like, either you are for both or you're not for either one. You can't have both, which is just absolutely absurd. Like a rattlesnake is deadly and it's venomous.

That doesn't mean that a black mamba is safe. They can both be bad. And so they've got this, well, the United States government is pumping all this money over there and supporting Ukraine. So Ukraine must be corrupt. There must be something that we don't know. in my opinion, and it's a very substantiated opinion with a whole lot of evidence behind it, the United States does not have any desire. I shouldn't say that. Our government at the top does not have any motivation for helping Ukraine. It is money. It is the military industrial complex.

It is the fact that we've had war for 20 years in Iraq and Afghanistan and all of a sudden that all dried up. This was an opportunity to take advantage of something. And one of the biggest pieces of evidence is the fact that every single relief package that has come our way, which by the way is never monetary, those money numbers you see are the value of the equipment they're sending. They don't just send money. But every one of them is curated to help us stay alive for another three months. It's never enough to win the war and end the war. It's always just enough to make it to the next one in three months. They want this to go on as long as possible.

It has been very clear through their actions. One of the things I'm proud of Ukraine for is the fact that they kind of outsmarted that, and we've just stockpiled it and didn't use it and have not used any of the Western equipment until now when we have enough to win the war and end the war. So it's important to understand that just because we don't trust the intentions of the United States government does not mean that this is not a legitimate thing that we should be helping. if people want to be upset about what we're sending to Ukraine, it should be in the sense of why didn't we just send everything they needed to win it out front and be done with this?

Because that would have cost far less than what we have spent just keeping us alive for another three months. So that's the last thing I wanted to point out. It's okay to be like, I don't trust our government and I don't like what they're doing because you know what? Neither do I. But that doesn't mean that this isn't important for all democracies. And again, if you read that book or if you read some other books, you'll realize it's actually exosentially important for the United States as well. Just because we don't trust our government doesn't negate that. Hey, we better not be seeing no tanks or no RPGs on eBay over there from Ukraine now.

I'm just messing with you. I'm just messing with you. Making a laugh, man. I'll tell you what, if there's corruption going on, I can't find it because I've been trying to take advantage of stuff and be like, hey, man, slide me a couple of those grenades. They just won't do it. Let me say how much I can get on Facebook marketplace for these. So there's corruption going on. They're keeping it from me.

I'm not benefiting at all. I get you. Well, man, look, I hope there's more people like you out in this world. And we're very grateful to have you on. I think everything you've said is 100% accurate. And I've got to be honest.

Like I said, we've listened to Twitter spaces for hours and hours. I think you gave the absolute best angle on this of anyone I have heard. And supposedly these Twitter spaces that have the best people in the planet with their sources. But I think we have our number one source here, which is the guys on the front line in Ukraine, seeing this happen, and as a Russian history nerd. And we definitely appreciate that.

And listen, J.D., stay safe, please. And we're going to put an aura of protection over you. We'll figure out how to do that. You can pray for me. It's not actually going to offend me. It's okay. No, we will. We'll pray for you, man.

Well, J.D., thanks so much. All right. Thank you, guys. Well, hey, listen, we'll talk to you probably in a month, okay? Sounds good. All right. Thanks, Jay. Thanks, JD.

Suck a punch somebody on a sidewalk, carjacking old lady at a red light. Pull a gun on the owner of a liquor store. You think it's cool. I'll have to fool if you like. Cuss out a cop spitting his face. Stomp on a flag and light it up. I think it's tough. Try that in a small town

See how far you make it down the road Around here we take care It won't take long for you to find that I recommend you don't Try that in a small town That my granddad gave me They say one day might fly in the city