Judging Freedom - LIVE from Ukraine - Matt VanDyke

Episode Date: April 18, 2023

Hi everyone, Judge Andrew Napolitano here for Judging Freedom. Today is Tuesday, April 18th, 2023. It's about 1230 in the afternoon here on the east coast of the United States, about 6.30 in the evening in Kiev, Ukraine, from which our regular contributor Matt Van Dyke joins us. Matt, as always, welcome back to the show. What is the prevailing view amongst you and your colleagues about the progress Russians have made, the Russian military has made eastward or westward, or the progress that the Ukrainian military has made eastward? In other words, how do things stand today militarily as you perceive them? Not too much different than the way they've been the past few months, actually. Russia hasn't made too much progress uh they're still focused on bakhmut

they make incremental gains along the front line here and there but in bakhmut it's actually been back and forth a little bit around the railway station it was captured twice by russia and recaptured by ukraine twice um they're slowly taking bakhmut but ukraine's intent on fighting that one out. So, you know, the standoff is... Is Bakhmut... Well, first of all, what remains of it? Is it still a city or has it been pretty much decimated? There's probably not a single building in the city that's not damaged.

It doesn't have any strategic significance. It's really symbolic to both sides. Is it worth the human suffering and human death that both sides are enduring just to claim victory in this town that six months ago, nobody in the West had ever heard of? History will have to determine that. We're not going to know the answer to that until months or years from now. Well, strategically or morally, will it be a victory for whoever prevails? I shouldn't say morally.

In terms of morale and in terms of strategy, will it be a significant victory for whichever side controls it? I think at this point, because of the amount of fight that's gone into it, that if Ukraine pulls out, which they likely will eventually, you know, they'll chalk it up to a good fight and focus on the counteroffensive and people will be focused on that. I don't think it'll be the big hits of morale that people fear. I think the people, I think Bakhmut's going on longer than most people ever thought it would okay has ukraine lost more people in defending this town it is it is destined and doomed to lose uh than it should i mean russia has a bigger military a bigger population uh population base ukraine is suffering a higher

percentage uh of losses uh compared with the size of its military and its population. Is Bakhmut worth it to Ukraine? I've been arguing for months that Bakhmut isn't worth it. Russia's losing a lot of our Wagner mercenaries, well, mostly Wagner mercenaries up to this point. And Ukraine's losing some of its best soldiers, people that we will need for the counteroffensive. I don't think it's a good trade. Russia is certainly losing multiples compared to what Ukraine is losing. But as you said, it's the population, it's the amount of human resources we have to draw on, and we need the soldiers that have been lost in Bakhmut. We're going to need them for this counteroffensive, and we won't have't have them. You are seated in front of an American flag, an old continental war flag, and there appears to be some sort of military gear or a missile behind you. Can you show it to us and tell us what it is? Right. This is a 220 millimeter Oregon rocket.

See if I can get this is the fuse to it. From here, the cluster munitions are released and the only part that's missing is the engine. So this is one of the pieces that we recovered out near the minefield that we work, sticking halfway out of the ground. So is that Russian aimed at Ukraine or Ukraine aimed at Russians? It's Russian aimed at Ukraine. It explodes in the air and releases landmines. And then this part of it just falls to the ground. We actually have a video of us digging it out.

I think you have it. There we go. Okay, so that's your guys. Is that the very same one you showed us or just a similar one? I have the very same one here off camera, but since it was a bit more bent up, I just showed you the other one we pulled out. There was a better condition.

Okay, Gary, can you put the video up uh again so the the the empty or open area equal about with the bottom of that fellow's jacket that's where the shrapnel is sent out and explodes in the air it's a canister full of landmines so it explodes and landmines are disseminated out from that and land on the ground scattered about ready for people to step on. So it's a way of spreading a large amount of landmines over an area that you can't reach physically. Okay. So this is obviously to kill people. I mean, do these landmines disable tanks or armored personnel carriers, or are they not that strong? These are anti-personnel mines, so it

causes people to lose limbs and life. Okay. I think we have a couple of other photos that you sent over as well. Now, what are we looking at there, Matt? It almost looks like the gearbox of an automobile, no? Right. That's from a truck that hit a landmine. Prior to us arriving at the area of work home, one of the things we're doing is clearing the road that this truck was destroyed on. The truck landed about 10 meters away from where it impacted the landmines, flipped over, not much left of the truck, and it threw the engine out quite far from the truck. Is that the same truck? That'sendous amount of damage. That's the same truck, yes. And this is a civilian vehicle or Ukrainian military, or this is Russian military?

That was a Ukrainian military pickup. And what is this, another view of the same truck? Another view of it with all the personal human items that were spilled out of the truck when it was destroyed. Obviously, the occupants of the truck were killed. Right. No, nobody was going to survive that. And how far did the... Well, what struck the truck? The truck drove over an anti-tank mine, and that explosion also detonated another mine next to it. So it really

took the impact of two anti-tank mines that threw it about 10 meters away. The anti-tank mines were laid in a line across the road so that there was no way to avoid them. And the destruction of one caused a sympathetic explosion of the other one. All right. What are we looking at now? It looks like a huge hole in the ground. Those are two craters from the two mines that detonated. And we believe there is a third mine there that we're going to get to eventually. It's buried pretty deep, we think, under dirt from the explosion of the other two. So it's one that'll take a little more care getting out. How does your group locate and disable landmines, whether they're the big ones that would destroy a truck or a tank

or the small ones that would kill a human being? It's mostly step-by-step landmine detecting with a metal detector, walking and sweeping. It's dangerous. It's tedious. But you get a rhythm, and the guys actually cover a lot of square meters each day uh we also have a special kind of uh mine detector that uses ground penetrating radar

that can also detect non-metallic objects how much pressure does it take on a landmine for it to explode what a what a normal human being say a person that weighs 150, 170 pounds, stepping on this thing, would that be enough for it to go off or does it have to be a lot of weight and a lot of pressure? That's not likely to set off an anti-tank mine. That will certainly set off an anti-personnel mine. The anti-tank mines are really made for a vehicle to pass over. I suppose if a heavy enough person ran and jumped and landed on it, they could set it off. But generally, a person's not going to set off the anti-tank mine. How do you disable it?

Do you dig it out of the ground gingerly and then throw a switch on it? What do you do with it when you find these things and they're still live usually we dig them out we put them in a pit and then ukrainian emergency services comes and detonates them all at once a big explosion um if some mines especially anti-personnel mines we we use a method that involves shooting them with m14 from a safe distance that detonates the. We can also disable anti-tank mines by shooting, but it just damages the mine. It doesn't cause a detonation, but it will render it inoperable. What is your own activity? What are you now engaged in, if at all, with respect to the Ukraine military? This past week, I just did my medical testing for the Ukrainian Armed Forces.

They're doing a background check now. I'm in the process to join, to take part in the counteroffensive. Does that mean that you, a natural-born American, will become a member of the Ukraine military subject to the rules and regulations of the Ukraine military subject to the rules and regulations of the Ukraine military? Yes, that's exactly what that means. What rank will you have? I've been offered a position of platoon sergeant. I have a couple offers of units. Throughout this war, I've had some numerous offers of units to join. So I'm taking a close look at that one. right now I'm just going through the background process and then I'll decide

in about a month when that's finished. Are there other American young men similarly situated to you natural born American citizens in Ukraine wanting to join, about to join, or already have joined the Ukraine military? Yes, there's a good number of them. Some were here and left, some have died, some have been wounded, but there's still a good number of Americans serving mostly in the International Legion, but also they serve in Ukrainian units. The units I'm looking to join are Ukrainian units, not the Legion. You say that some Americans have left. If you join and you can't stand it, can you leave? All foreigners, even though they sign a contract, they're allowed to leave at any

time. Early on in the war, a lot of people came to this war thinking it would be quick and not really having a grasp of what kind of artillery war this would turn into. And some people got in over their heads and left. So there was, the numbers have come down of Americans over here, but there's still a good number of serving. In the United States in the past week or so, the headlines have been dominated by the arrest of a 21-year-old Air National Guardsman from Massachusetts, whom the government alleges had lawful access to top secret military and intelligence documents, which the government alleges he shared with about 20 or 30 of his chat room buddies,

people he didn't even know personally, one of whom gave it to somebody who gave it to somebody else who made it public. He since has been arrested for espionage. Those who have examined the documents say that they have all the earmarks of authenticity. Has this in any way, this type of news made its way onto the battlefield in Ukraine? Because there's information in there that's not flattering to the Ukraine military. People know about it, but there's not too much discussion about it. The most likely result is that the counteroff clearance process clearly needs an overhaul. I recall when I was in my master's degree program at Georgetown, students would go through that program, would be just brilliant students and have a lot of knowledge coming out. And some of them couldn't get the job that they wanted because they were too nervous to pass a polygraph to get the security clearance. And then here's the government giving a 21-year-old a security clearance

and access to this kind of information. So something's certainly gone wrong in the system. One of the documents seems to indicate a consensus on the part of senior Pentagon officials that the Ukraine air defenses have been materially degraded. And if the degradation continues at the rate the Ukraine air defenses have suffered heretofore, will be almost non-existent by the end of May. Does that trouble you? It's troubling, but I'm not sure that that's the way it's going to play out. I'm confident that they'll be able to replenish the air defense. We don't have brownouts anymore, blackouts here.

We don't have any of the problems that we faced during the winter. We've had maybe one blackout in the entire month. So this has allowed a lot of the country to return to life as normal. It's been good for morale of the people. And I think that's a top priority of the Ukrainian government and of Western governments supporting Ukraine to make sure those systems keep functioning. They've had an extraordinary success rate in taking down Russian missiles. Yesterday, President Putin visited Kyrgyzstan. I think we have a clip.

There he is getting out of a helicopter. There's another clip of him saluting somebody. You'll see that in a few moments. It may be the same gentleman that just greeted him at the helicopter. There's another clip of him saluting somebody. You'll see that in a few moments. It may be the same gentleman that just greeted him at the helicopter. Do you know where this is, where President Putin is depicted as being here in these videos? That would be the east side of the river near Kherson. We do work in Kherson, not currently, but we're familiar with the area. But, you know, I mean, he's in firmly Russian territory there on the east side of the river,

probably not in much danger, unfortunately. All right. So that's what I was going to ask you. How close is he to the Ukraine military? I mean, it's just a few people around him. Maybe there's a band of soldiers defending him at some or protecting him at some length. But in terms of physically with him, I mean, Joe Biden has more Secret Service agents with him when he goes to church than President Putin appeared to have in those pictures. Is that normal? Well, we know from the intelligence leak that the U.S. knows pretty much everything that goes on in Russia. So certainly this mission was kept very secret, probably only known to a few people, and probably why there's only a few people in the videos, for the security of Putin.

I think you said just a few minutes ago, unfortunately, he's well protected. Would the Ukrainian forces have bombed a building knowing he was in it or stated differently? Would they have assassinated him if they could have? I would hope so. And I'm sure they would at this point. Russia tried to assassinate Zelensky. They had a team that was trying to get into Kyiv to do that early in the war. It's very likely that if Putin were killed, that whoever the next Russian ruler was would use that as an opportunity to exit this war. Well, not if it's his predecessor, President Medvedev, who says he wants to see Russian troops in Poland again. Well, how much of that is just talk and how much of that is reality, who knows? I'm not sure Medvedev would be the successor. Okay, good point. Good point, Matt. Is it the policy of these governments to assassinate civilian leadership?

I don't know what the Ukrainian government's policy is on it, but I would think they went after Zelensky, they'd have no problem going after Putin. It would possibly save tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of lives if that would end the war. So it would certainly be a shot worth taking. Does your view that you just expressed, is it likely shared by a significant number of Ukrainian military? It'd be safe to guess 99.9% of Ukrainian military feel the same way I do. Does that include the Ukrainian military leadership? That I don't know. I'm sure if asked, they'd say, and I would be willing to bet they would say that Putin is a fair target. Is this because of a prudential judgment that if Putin were dead, his successor would end the war?

Or is it just a personal, collective hatred of Vladimir Putin? People here certainly hate Putin. I think there's a good chance that it would cause a shakeup in the war and could possibly lead to his successor using that as a way out, blame what happened in this war on Putin and find a next strategy. Because Putin's certainly not going to stop. He has everything riding on this war. So the death of Putin could be what changes everything. Did he take his life in his hands? Gary, if you want to run the clip again, or is he taking his life in his hands when he does what we see him doing? This is Monday in Ukraine, Monday, April 17. Is he taking his life in his hands at this moment? To an extent. I mean, he's probably outside of artillery range in this, and Russians control the airspace above them. There's probably a chance he could have been shot down by his own incompetent side as he flew over. That's probably the biggest danger to him, was his own side's air defense accidentally shooting him down. But no, I mean, I'm pretty sure they calculated that he wouldn't be killed on this.

It is odd, though, considering that for the past two years, we've heard that he makes people quarantine for two weeks before doing a meeting with them because he's so afraid of COVID. And then here he is meeting with people, shaking hands there in the video without a care in the world. Interesting. All right, Matt, as always, you're taking your life in your hands even to talk to us. We're deeply grateful for you,

for your personal courage. Good luck in the next phase of all this. Please let us know when you're able to speak again, and we'll be happy to put you right back in front of the camera. Thank you. Always nice talking to you. Okay. If you like it, if you want more of this, like and subscribe. More as we get it. Judge Napolitano for judging freedom.