Judging Freedom - From Ukraine - Matt VanDyke

Episode Date: October 12, 2022

Nuclear moment of truth for Biden and the West https://thehill.com/opinion/internati... #Putin #UkraineSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Hi, everyone. Judge Andrew Napolitano here for Judging Freedom. Today is Wednesday, October 12, 2022. It's about 10 after 11 in the morning on the east coast of the United States. It's dusk and evening in Ukraine where our next guest, Matt Van Dyke, who's the head of the Sons of Liberty International, comes to us. Matt, of course, is part of a courageous group of people, many former military Americans who are on the ground in Ukraine, training Ukrainian forces to help defend their country. Matt and I attempted to have a conversation the other day, but his power was down because of the attacks on major cities now being conducted by the Russian military. He has the power back. We're going to try and reproduce that conversation so that those of you who want to hear this side of things, this is not the Colonel McGregor side, obviously, and this is not the Scott Ritter side.

This is the pro-Ukraine side from someone who risks his life every day to be there. Matt, it's a pleasure. Welcome back here. airs in Kyiv as we speak, given the well-publicized retaliation by President Putin for the destruction of the bridge to Crimea, the retaliation consisting in bombing non-military targets in the western part of Ukraine? Well, for the most part, life continues as normal, but there are some people who have headed to the train station to leave the city. The city came back to life almost completely in recent weeks, but this has certainly given some people some pause. There's a lot of citizens who are frightened right now. Each night, we don't know if there'll be another missile strike.

Last night, we fell asleep to the sound of air raid sirens. And you never know when something's going to hit. You never know where it's going to hit, because even if the Russians aren't aiming at where you are, the missile could always land here because their accuracy isn't always all that good. Do you and your people know what the Russians are aiming at? Stated differently, is it fair to say these are non-military targets? This is a campaign of terror and intimidation. This is not a campaign to defeat the Ukraine military.

Right. These are civilian targets. This is a campaign to break the morale of Ukrainians, to make the cost of being at war with Russia unbearable. It's caused electricity outages, internet outages, which affects more than just one's ability to use internet. It affects transportation. They use Bolt and Uber here as well.

And at times it's hard to get gasoline at gas stations. So, you know, it's really affecting everything, transportation. It's a tough strain on people's lives. And his goal is to break the spirit of Ukrainian people. What has this done to the spirit of the military, the folks that you and Sons of Liberty International are working with? Well, it hasn't changed their resolve at all. I just had a meeting earlier today with one of the units we're working with to set up a training schedule for the coming weeks. You know,

they're more determined than ever. The more that they see their city being hit by missiles and people in their lives and civilians in the area being upset, the more they want to get out and fight. So it's really going to have the opposite effect that Putin is aiming for here. You know, my regular commentators on Ukraine, the regular commentators on judging freedom, have taken the view, contrary to yours, that Russian victory is absolutely inevitable, that the Russian military is vastly superior to the Ukraine military,

and that President Putin's duration in office and maybe even duration on earth depends upon a Russian victory. What would President Zelensky say to that argument? Well, I think recent months have shown that the Ukrainian military is now superior to the Russian military in terms of equipment, but also in terms of even training and especially morale. As I've said, since my first appearances on your program, there was always a difference in morale. A lot of Russians didn't want to be there, and very much did. But even now on the training front, a lot of the Russians sent to the front lines now are conscripts who have little to no training.

Ukrainian forces have been training for months and gaining combat experience. So really in every way, the Ukrainian military at this point is superior. So, I mean, I don't know what other commentators, where they would get the idea from the Russia's superior, but they are correct that Putin's survival of his regime and probably him personally depends on his victory, which gives me concern because I think that he will stop at almost nothing to try to find a way to get out of this with at least a draw, if not a victory. Is there a fear amongst Ukrainian military or the Ukrainian government that President Putin might actually use some form of weapon of mass destruction, chemical or nuclear? Yes, it's believed that he could. I personally believe that he will use at least chemical weapons in the East. There's always concern of tactical nuclear.

I don't think that's too likely because then for his forces to operate in that environment, they would require equipment and training that by all indications they don't really have. But I think chemical weapons, especially after they were used in Syria, with no consequence for Assad, I believe that that is pretty much greenlit Putin to do the same in eastern Ukraine. In your travels around Ukraine and in your training of the Ukrainian military, Matt, have you come across American Special Forces? I haven't seen any American Special Forces here on the ground. The only Americans that are here that I'm aware of are volunteers, retired former military, like the ones that volunteer for myself or for others or ones that went and joined the International Legion. Do you have a sense about whether they're there?

I mean, both Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin and the president himself seem to have made some verbal slippages about you're going or you've come back. McGregor and Ritter report, and nobody denies this, that they're on the ground in not in uniform and not in a combat mode, but in a training mode similar to what you're doing. You have any feel for that? I mean, is this is this worthy of belief? special forces in small numbers, McGregor and Ritter tell me that they don't really move in groups of fewer than 100, are actually physically present in Ukraine. American military, but out of uniform. I've seen no indication of that. I don't know what the real benefit of that would be at this point. It wouldn't be necessary. If it is being done, I mean good. I'd like to see my country take more of a role in the conflict, but I've seen no indication of it. I haven't heard

Ukrainians speak of it before. From what I've seen of the performance of units, there's nothing that they've done that would have required a special forces presence on the ground to achieve what they've achieved. What does the advent of winter do for this conflagration? Does it help the Russians or does it help the Ukrainians? In this case, it's going to help Ukraine. Russia is essentially on the defensive now, thanks to the counteroffensive launched by Ukraine, but the Russians are poorly equipped. They already have poor morale. There was a news report that a million Russian winter uniforms have gone missing. No surprise there.

So they're going to be not as well equipped, even in standing up against the cold as Ukraine is. They have low morale. They're not going to want to hold their defensive positions. Their supply lines aren't good, so they're not going to be fed very well. You know, everything's pointing to if Ukraine presses the offensive door in the winter, they'll continue to make gains. There really isn't any reason to slow down and wait for spring. How many Americans can you estimate are there in a role similar to yours, backup support and training, but not fighting?

I really have no idea. Based on what I've heard of random people around and trying to do the same thing, and maybe another organization trying to do it, I'd say no more than maybe 50 at most. But again, I mean, the thing about the Ukrainian military is you work with the units you work with and every now and then something will trickle from what another unit might be doing, but there's not a real good sense of it. At this point, a lot of the ones who had come over earlier to volunteer have left. A lot left when Ukraine was losing badly under Russian artillery. Others left because they expected the war to be over quickly, and now they're going back to their American lives. So it's really, it's not a huge number.

The sense that Russia is fighting NATO is really in the supply and probably the intelligence being provided to Ukraine, but not really as much with retired NATO know, retired NATO forces on the ground assisting with training or anything. Is American equipment still coming down from Poland into Ukraine? Yes, I believe there was a delivery of HIMARS either yesterday or today. Yeah, that's not going to stop. And, you know, anybody who's saying that Russia is going to win this really must doubt the resolve of the United States and NATO. I won't go as far to say what side are they on, but they certainly really don't understand what's at stake here for Europe

and how determined Europe and the United States are to win this conflict. There's no, we're just as determined in the West as Putin is in Russia to win this conflict. We're just as determined in the West as Putin is in Russia to win this. Matt Van Dyke, Sons of Liberty International, risking your life for your beliefs and kind and generous enough to talk to Judging Freedom. A pleasure. Thank you, Matt. Stay well. Thank you. Always nice to speak with you. Judge Napolitano for judging freedom.