Judging Freedom - LIVE from Ukraine at the Front Lines w/Patrick Lancaster indy journalist

Episode Date: September 12, 2023

LIVE from Ukraine at the Front Lines w/Patrick Lancaster indy journalistSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Thank you. Hi, everyone. Judge Andrew Napolitano here with Judging Freedom. Today is Tuesday, September 12, 2023. Patrick Lancaster, the intrepid, fearless, courageous Patrick Lancaster joins us live from eastern Ukraine. Patrick, thank you very much for coming here. Thank you for every time you come on the show. Where are you coming from? Where are you, Patrick? center of Donetsk, which Donetsk is the basically frontline city which borders. It's controlled by Russian forces and bordering Ukrainian forces. Now, it's also the city that had one of the cities that had the referendum in 2014, where the local population voted to break

away from Ukraine. and last September, when they voted to join Russia, in which followed Russia taking them in by Russian law, considering this city and this area part of Russia. Were there, since you were on last, a couple of things have happened. The Wall Street Journal reports that the Ukrainian troops have moved eastward and breached the first of the three defensive rings that Russia has built. Nobody else is reporting that, and our military people don't believe it. I'll let you opine on that in a second. The other thing is I believe there were recently elections there in the region where you are. So let's start first with, has the Ukrainian army made, military made any progress

moving east? And then we'll talk about the local elections. Okay, well, the West keeps pushing on this counteroffensive that's been going on since the beginning of the spring. And General Miley saying, you know, just using his word games, saying that they've breached the rings and all this. But all it is is just a little bit here and there going back and forth. There's been no considerable gains by Ukraine. The lines are almost the same as when the counteroffensive started. There's a little changes here and there. But the fact is there's not much has changed. Ukraine has not been able to take back Artyomov or Bakhmut. And they have not made any considerable advances. They've even blamed it on foliage overgrown, slowing it down. And they keep saying it's not over. The counter offensive is not over. It's going to go into the winter. Well, what are they going to blame it on in the winter? The snow?

So, but in the reality, all jokes aside, once the, before the winter starts, it's going to get really muddy, and things are going to slow down. So they've had several months, and the counteroffensive doesn't seem to have given much result, so it doesn't seem like coming into the winter, that's going to change. Here's a clip of President Zelensky just either yesterday or the day before on CNN, basically saying that they waited. Well, there's two waitings he's talking about. One is Ukrainians waited too long to start the counteroffensive. And the other is this is critical of his masters in the West.

The West waited too long to get equipment to him that he needed. But you take a listen and you may agree or disagree. When we speak about the counteroffensive, it depends on many cases. Of course, we gave a lot of time for Russians. We gave a lot of time to prepare to mine. To put the mines in. To put the mines on the fields and on the big territory and so you you see the three defending lines and that's because you were waiting for the weapon

that's why i said depends on many issues we wait look we waited too long it's true no i'm thankful to partners to united states i'm thankful very much to President Biden and to Congress. But we have to understand, first, we waited too long. They put much. Then when we been ready from the point of view of our partners, because the decision to give us, for example, Bradley or another kind of weapon, the decision, it doesn't mean the result. You don't get them immediately.

Of course you don't. Of course you don't. So it sounds like he's critical of his own people for waiting too long to start the offensive and allowing the Russians to make that area of Ukraine the most mined land on earth. And he's also critical of the West for not getting military supplies to him fast enough. What do you think? Seems like it's just the next round of excuses that he's making of why their counteroffensive is not giving any results.

It'll be interesting to see what excuses he comes up with in the winter. But that's what I can say about that. How aggressive is the Ukrainian bombardment of Ukraine killing Ukrainians in eastern Ukraine? The government of Ukraine bombing eastern Ukraine, the government of Ukraine bombing eastern Ukraine, destroying Ukrainian property and killing Ukrainian people. That's where you are, right? Well, I can tell you where I am. The United States in Europe and, of course, Kiev calls it Eastern Ukraine. But if you ask the people who live here what country they live in, which you can see in my reports, I do every time.

I always tell the people that I'm interviewing, I say, the United States, Europe, and Kiev says that Donetsk is Ukraine. What do you have to say about that? And they laugh at me and say that Donetsk is Ukraine. What do you have to say about that? And they laugh at me and say that Donetsk is not Ukraine. Donetsk is Russia, and they're Russian people, not Ukrainians, regardless of what Kiev and United States and European countries say. All right. Those human beings and the real estate on which they live are being bombed by the Ukrainians, right? Yes, that is a fact. I can take you through kind of, you mentioned the elections as well. I can take your viewers through how the last week to 10 days has gone. On the 31st of August, the elections, mobile election centers started. Now, this election is Russian election.

This is the first time the people of Donetsk have had an opportunity to take part in Russian elections, Russian government elections. Now, this started with the mobile election polls that were going around from the 31st to the 7th and going to places where maybe the people would not be able to go to the polls. So that went to about a week. And during that time, Ukraine was hammering Donetsk, the city of Donetsk, in many different areas and other villages around. And literally every day there were civilians dying from Ukrainian shelling and many apartments and homes damaged. This is a fact. This is not my opinion. This is a fact of what happened. Now, on the 8th, the polling stations opened for the first time. Not mobile stations, but the stationary stations at the school where people can come from their homes, come to the official polling stations, and vote in the Russian elections.

Now, I started my reports there and interviewed many people who were there on the polls about what they have to say. I also interviewed workers and politicians who were actually candidates. And as far as the locals, they said that how happy they were to be able to take part in the Russian elections for the first time. It was a holiday for them, they said. And actually, in fact, the 8th was a holiday. It's the anniversary of the removal of Nazis from Donbass some 80 years ago. And they looked at this as a new holiday for them. Now, again, I told them all, I say, the United States and the West says this is Ukraine. And every single resident here says this is Russia. This is a fact, whether the West likes it or not.

This is the facts of what the people want with self-determination. Let me stop you for a minute, Patrick. Let me just stop you for a minute. What was going on in the election? What were they voting on or voting for? What were they voting about? These elections were basically like you could say state elections, local elections for what the equivalent to a governor would be and deputies and things like this. I mean it's a stepping stone, it's not the presidential election, but it's a stepping stone for the people and nevertheless no matter how big of an election it was, there is a process. during these days, while I'm reporting, Ukraine continues to bombard the city of Donetsk, where I am right now, with shells.

And on Sunday, I was at one location where they hit. I was actually on Sunday at at least six locations that were hit by Ukrainian shelling. We're going to show one of those locations now. Now, this woman here is actually the daughter of a man who at this home was injured. She's showing us right there how her daughters, thank God, are safe because they were inside the home when the shell came down and hit their home. And unfortunately, her father was injured,

but the kids made it. Now, this woman is actually taking some food from the house that was burned down. As you can see, as the words of the owner, her son, an incendiary round launched from Ukraine, landed on their roof and burnt half of their house down. And I asked him, why is Ukraine firing on their home? Maybe there's military targets near it. And he said, no, there's no military targets and Ukraine flies drones overhead and knows there's no military there. What is the Ukrainian justification for bombing the civilian homes of people that Ukraine considers to be Ukrainians? Because they, regardless if they say this land is Ukraine, they still look down on the people here.

Just like Peter Pereshenko back in 2014, the previous president of Ukraine, said the people of Donetsk, the children are going to be hiding in the basements while their children in Kiev are going to be going to school. That's what the previous president said just before this war started. So, and this is what has been happening for nine years. Things obviously now are changed a bit. Now everyone's hiding in bomb shelters. But we have we have a clip of you, Patrick. We have a clip of you, which I think was taken just last night on the night of the 11th. So it's a nighttime clip. You appear to be standing in a courtyard between two bombed out buildings. It's very compelling.

We'll run it and then you can tell us what was going through your mind and what you were seeing while you were making this clip. All, so we see just the devastation here in this courtyard between these two homes. And we see where the rocket itself hit here on the side of this home. And this little girl that we saw has her face covered in a cut from broken glass

was inside this house. Thank God she lived. But this is Ukraine hammering Donetsk on the last day of the russian elections the first russian elections here they're making a point the polls just closed and the results are about to be announced and ukraine hammered near the center this is a kubashevsky uh district ukraine hammered this this neighborhood the civilian neighborhood children here Dnipro, Dnipro, Dnipro, Dnipro, Dnipro, Dnipro, Dnipro, Dnipro, Dnipro, Dnipro, Dnipro, Dnipro, Dnipro, Dnipro, Dnipro, Dnipro, Dnipro, Dnipro, Dnipro, Dnipro, Dnipro, Dnipro, Dnipro, Dnipro, Dnipro, Dnipro, Dnipro, Dnipro, Dnipro, Dnipro, Dnipro, Dnipro, Dnipro, Dnipro, Dnipro, Dnipro, Dnipro, Dnipro, Dnipro, Dnipro, Dnipro, Dnipro, Dnipro, Dnipro, Dnipro, Dnipro, Dnipro, Dnipro, Dnipro, Dnipro, Dnipro, Dnipro, Dnipro, Dnipro, Dnipro, Dnipro, Dnipro, Dnipro, Dnipro, Dnipro, Dnipro, Dnipro, Dnipro, Dnipro, Dnipro, Dnipro, Dnipro, Dnipro, Dnipro, Dnipro, Dnipro, Dnipro, Dnipro, Dnipro, Dnipro, Dnipro, Dnipro, Dnipro, Dnipro, Dnipro, Dnipro, Dnipro, Dnipro, Dnipro, Dnipro, Dnipro, Dnipro, Dnipro, Dnipro their passion. What is the attitude of the Russian military defending this portion of what Ukraine considers Ukraine and the locals consider to be Russia?

Well, I mean, they consider it just like the locals consider it part of Russia. And I mean, as far as we can talk about, I've said it before, but we talk about the Russian law. The Russian law says this is Russia, as well as the Lugansk region and Zaporozhye and her son. The Russian law says that it's Russia. Regardless of what the United States and the West says, this is not going to end until Russia controls these four regions, regardless who likes it or not. How far it'll go after that, I'm not sure. Maybe it'll go all the way to the Moldovan breakaway area of Transnistria. But who knows for sure?

There's no way to tell. But the Russians aren't going to give this or even an inch up. And that's what Dnipro says as well. Big picture. Big picture. Not narrowly focused on where you are, but big picture. Does the Ukrainian military stand a chance? The only way they stand a chance is if Russia is no more, because there's no way Russia can let this,

let any other foreign country control what they consider Russia. It's not like they're fighting over territory. That's already done. These four regions are legally, as far as Russian law goes, part of Russia. So there's no way Russia could stop until they control these four regions. So what is more likely? Ukraine is going to lose these regions or Russia is not going to exist anymore? I think everybody kind of understands the outcome there. We saw some reports yesterday showing about 450,000 Ukrainian troops. This includes some foreign mercenaries. It was a little over 400,000 actual Ukrainian troops killed and about 50,000 foreign troops

and other volunteers also killed. Do those numbers resonate with you? That's a huge portion of the Ukrainian military, if it's accurate. You know, I'm not over there. I do what I can to see and report as much as on the front line as possible, but I can't. I'm only a small drop in the lake, so I can't really say for sure about casualties and whatnot. I can just say what I see with my own eyes, and that's why I'm trying to report as much as possible. Do the Ukrainians lament the pace at which American aid and Western aid has been getting there? Or do you think they recognize that Ukraine has become a vassal state of the United States? We're paying for its government. We're paying for its health care. We're paying for the health care of its veterans. We're even putting money in the pockets of its politicians and its military leaders? Well, I mean, it's what, somewhere around 25 billion, 250 billion over all the

Western countries. So, I mean, you know, I think the people of Ukraine realize that things aren't going in the right direction that they might necessarily want them to go. Again, I'm not over there. It's just, you know, for my opinions, which I don't like to put my opinions in my reports, but occasionally let things come through. But one thing I can say, backtracking a bit to what you were talking about of protecting the people here, Russia protecting the people. On that note, yesterday morning, I actually went with the Russian army, specifically the Pitnashka battalion, and met up with one of their artillery teams. And they had received reconnaissance that a group of an artillery battery of Ukraine had been located. And purportedly, it had been one of the artillery batteries that had been launching on the city of Donetsk during the elections and causing all this damage, all this horror throughout the days of the election.

And I actually documented Russian forces firing artillery onto these batteries and explained by the commander of the artillery brigade, they had, as he put it, eliminated them. So, you know, that's a little bit of how the, you know, you could say an example of how Russia is protecting people or however we should, uh, call it, but that's the facts here on the ground. Um, so I'm not sure what I can, what else I can say about that. Okay. All right.

It's the middle of, uh, September, uh, Winter will be there in two months. How much longer do you think the conflict will go on? I don't think this will be the last winter. I mean, of course, I hope it ends tomorrow. But unfortunately, I don't see it ending anytime soon. I hope I'm wrong. I pray I'm wrong. But I'm thinking another year or two, maybe more, maybe less. I hope less. Patrick Lancaster, thank you for your incredible reporting. Thank you for your personal coverage, your personal courage. We wish you well. Be safe.

Come back whenever you want. Thank you, Judge. I will. Of course. Wow. There you have it, live from the Donetsk region of Ukraine, the type of one-on-one commentary that you really don't get anywhere else. Tell your friends, tell your colleagues about Judging Freedom. Tell them to subscribe. Tell them what we do. We look out for your liberty. Thank you.