Judging Freedom - Patrick Lancaster: LIVE from war-torn eastern Ukraine/Russia

Episode Date: December 2, 2024

Patrick Lancaster: LIVE from war-torn eastern Ukraine/RussiaSee 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 for Judging Freedom. Today is Monday, December 2nd, 2024. Coming to you from a different location today, my office in New York City. Patrick Lancaster is here with us live from, well, I'll let him tell you where he's from. But first this. We're taught to work hard for 35 to 40 years, save your money, then live off your savings. Unfortunately, there are too many threats undermining the value of our hard-earned dollars. The Fed's massive money printing machine is shrinking your dollar's value. Just the cost of groceries is absurd. Let me be brutally honest. I think the dollar is on its way to being extinct, not just here, but globally. The BRICS nations, led by Russia and China,

threaten to remove the dollar as the world's reserve currency. Central banks have been shifting away from the dollar and into gold. And if we go to central bank digital currency, that will not only destroy the dollar, but we will lose our freedom. We will lose our privacy. They can track anything we do. You need to take care of yourself and your family. So here's what you need to do. Immerse yourself in knowledge and information. The writing is on the wall.

Now is the time to consider shifting some of your dollars into gold and silver as your bedrock financial asset. Call my friends at Lear Capital, the leader in precious metals investing for over 27 years. They help me diversify into gold and silver. They can help you too. Call Lear today at 800-511-4620, 800-511-4620, or go to learjudgenap.com. All right, Patrick, the problem with your camera, because we see, there he is. There you are, Patrick. Patrick Lancaster, welcome, my friend. I have to ask you this, where are you? Hi, Judge.

Thanks for having me, as always. It's great to be on and help show the world what's really happening here. But right now I am not far from Donetsk in the Russian controlled territory of the Ukraine war zone. And depending on who you ask, it's different PPS say it's a different country by Russian law says here is part of Russia by Ukrainian law and international law for the majority of the countries, they say it's part of Ukraine. But for me, the main thing that matters is the local people voted to break away from Ukraine in 2014. And in 2022, September, voted to join Russia.

And then Russia took the man and made Donetsk, as well as the three other territories, Lugansk, Zaporozhye, and Kherson, legally part of Russia as far as Russian law goes. What is the state of the battle as we speak? The last time you and I spoke, things were different. Since then, the Ukrainians with American technology, American know-how, and American assistance, and the same from the British, have attacked inside Russia. Since then, the incursion into Kursk seems to have been a disaster for the Ukrainians. What's your finger on the pulse of the battle between Russian forces and Ukrainian forces in early December 2024, Patrick?

Okay, well, we can start and kind of go backwards a bit, but let's start for right now today today there has been a lot of territory uh taken by russian forces from ukrainian control now this in the last weeks include uh territory in the harkov region the donetsk region, and the Zaporozhye region. Now, Ukraine has been saying that Russia is making a surprise offensive or preparing an offensive, a major offensive, in the Zaporozhye region, particularly on the city of Zaporozhye, which is actually about 30 kilometers from the front line. So it's a little strange whether they're actually predicting some sort of major assault by Russian forces in reality, or if they're just trying to take the eyes away from something else. Of course,

Russia wants to take control of the city of Zaporozhye, all of the Zaporozhye territory in that region, because Russian law says it's part of Russia. But basically now, almost every day, if not every day, territory is being taken by Russia from Ukrainian control. There are masses of refugees, displaced persons coming from the frontline areas after Russia takes control and then are evacuated by Russia from the hot zones. I've spoken to many of the refugees over the last weeks and months and just heard horrible stories. Some talk of executions by Ukrainian forces. And another in particular witnessed their neighbors who answered their door and was greeted by what they thought was a Russian soldier. And they opened the door and their son was shot by these, what turned out to be

Ukrainian soldiers faking as if they were Russian soldiers. Because what I'm told by the refugees now is that when Ukrainian soldiers come to these villages after there was already an evacuation ordered by Ukraine. And so these Ukrainians know the people that stayed there are waiting for Russia. And these refugees said that the Ukrainian soldiers said, we have come to kill you and destroy your property. And these refugees said they did that. They destroyed everything. Now, of course, this battle, there's attacks on both sides going on, but I'm telling you what the refugees had to say about the situation. All these words can be found on my full reports on my

YouTube channel. So it's not just me saying something. You can see it from the witnesses themselves. But as I said, territory being taken every day. Of course, we're having a huge escalation, of course, not only in the Ukraine war, but around the world, it seems. But yeah, that is the situation as of right now. And in reality, Russia has been taking territory ever since something kind of switched over a year ago when Russia took control of Avdiivka. After they took control of Avdiivka, the suburb of Donetsk, it really took a lot of pressure off the city of Donetsk because while Ukraine held Avdiivka, the center of Donetsk was about eight kilometers from the front line where Ukrainian forces were attacking the civilian population and military as well, of course.

But now the city of Donetsk is calmer, and the intense hot attacks on the Donetsk region are happening in the Gorlivka city, one of the bigger cities in the Donetsk region. It's smaller than Donetsk, but still a good size. And it's just under intense siege. I was just there filming a small film on Gorlivka. there. 11 people got injured by a United States cluster bomb that was fired over the city and separated directly over the main thoroughfare in front of the administration building and hit just outside the main bank, injuring 12 people. And the day before that, there was a woman killed making tea in her home. People are dying

every day by these attacks by Ukrainian forces. It's a fact. And... Is this, Patrick, is this still, you've told us about this as sad and sickening as this is, is this still Ukrainian forces and Ukrainian military attacking Ukrainian human beings in what Ukraine says is Ukraine. Do I have that correct? Well, Ukraine says it's Ukraine. Ukraine says the population there need to basically leave because the population voted to break away from Ukraine. So if you look at it as if before the war, yeah, they all had Ukrainian passports. But now there's a split in the people. I mean, the Ukrainians in the West don't really view the Ukrainians in the East as Ukrainians because they're Russian.

They're ethically Russian. Right. So it's a really complicated ethnic game that's being played. But the fact is, these people in the East voted to break away from Ukraine. It's the Ukrainian military attacking civilians. The Ukrainian military considers them to be renegade Ukrainians. They consider themselves to be ethnic Russians. Do I have that right? Basically, yes, Judge. Okay. Tell me about Kursk. And in the West, it appears the media has gone silent about it from our sources, who are your colleagues that come on

this program. It appears that this was a catastrophic disaster on the part of the Ukrainian military to invade Kursk. What do you read of the invasion by the Ukrainian military into Kursk? Well, after the first incursion happened, I raced there and arrived on the scene just about a week after it started. And really at the beginning, Ukraine made so much headway. It was very surprising to a lot of people. Over 1,500 square kilometers were taken control of by Ukraine in Kursk, Russia. I mean, we're not talking, you know, the disputed area. This is Kursk, Russia. That was Russia before the war. And so they took control of 1,500 square kilometers, give or take. And really, we're

making a headway fast, really fast. It was a surprise to many. I was on the ground there going to the front line and kind of swiftly the situation turned from Ukraine going so fast and almost seemed that they overextended themselves and then just getting a huge push back. And I was with Russian storm forces, as they call them, or assault forces while they were taking control of territory back from Ukraine and putting that out on my channel. And now it's reported that somewhere below about a third of what was controlled by Ukraine in the Kursk region is now controlled by Ukraine, but that number's constantly changing. But they're definitely making headway as far as Russia taking what was taken back. We're going to run a clip of your very brief but telling interview with a Russian sniper.

So let's watch the Q&A. He answers in English, and then you can tell us who he is and what you learned from him and where this was. Why is the war happening? Who made this happen? Who's at fault? Look, everyone knows it wasn't our fault, but it's alive. We support Russian civilians in old Ukrainian regions, but these old Ukrainian regions, it's oldest Russian regions,

and we support people in these regions. That's because we must be there, we must support and help him because these people are Russians. One sensitive question. If you don't want to answer, don't answer. You're a sniper, so I imagine you have killed other soldiers before. Would you be comfortable explaining your first kill? I don't know. Who was he, and where was he, and how did you come upon him?

How did you find a Russian sniper that speaks English? Well, I was embedded with a volunteer group in Russian forces called the Espanol Brigade, which is an interesting brigade who has roots in actually football fans that decided to volunteer for the Russian forces and made a first battalion, then a brigade, and also several international volunteers, some from Cuba, the United States, European countries. And I was actually on their training ground where the sniper team was preparing to go into battle. And I spoke to some of them. And he was a very interesting one, very well-read and educated and had some interesting things to say. Wow. And what has been the reaction to the American firing of attack into Russia and to Russia's response with the Ereshnik?

Well, from my opinion of what the Russian people, the Russian people, the ones on both sides, and what pre-war Russia and what Russia considers now in the war zone part of Russia. The Russian people look at it as somewhat of an eye opener, they hope, for Russia. You could say they say, oh, well, they're doing this now. Putin's really going to open up on the west of Ukraine. So they think it's actually going to, as Putin said, trigger a heavier response from Russia. But, you know, obviously the American people just voted to go down what seemed more of a line of peace. So what Biden's doing right now to kind of push this war along like this doesn't really seem to be going with the will of the American people.

But everybody, I can tell you, on both sides is hoping for peace soon. Of course, both sides have a different idea of what that peace is going to mean and how it can come about and what it will be. But everybody's hoping for peace and people to stop dying for sure. Is there any way that there will be peace with the Russians surrendering the land that they've acquired? I can't imagine that happening. I would think that the Ukrainians are delusional that they've acquired. I can't imagine that happening. I would think that the Ukrainians are delusional if they expect that. Yeah, I don't think without a change to the Russian constitution, it would be possible for the war to stop until Russia controls all of the

five territories now that Russia, law considers part of Russia. Russia controls all of those. That's the only way this can stop. And, you know, that's the Ukrainian war zone territories of Zaporozhye, Kherson, Lugansk, and Donetsk. But it now also includes Kursk. The outgoing National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan, that's the National Security Advisor to President Biden, reinforced over the weekend what he had said two weeks ago around the time of the election, and that is that Congress has authorized $7 billion with a B dollars in military aid that have not yet been spent, and the Biden administration is determined to spend all $7 billion of it.

Is that even conceivable that the Ukrainians could use, utilize $7 billion worth of military equipment in the next two months between now and the time Donald Trump becomes president? Well, they could sure try. And I don't think Russia would have too much of a problem helping them burn through it. But, you know, it's obviously a way in the wrong direction, you know, not in the direction of peace. And like I said, everybody wants peace now. It just depends on what that peace is to each individual side and how it's going to play out how much longer how much longer will uh president zielinski be in office i guess we just got to take one thing at a time i know a lot of people are praying for a ceasefire to start the day Trump comes into office. Okay.

What's going on in Georgia? Well, Georgia's really into the news. As you know, there has been huge, well, I don't know how huge, but some portray it as huge riots going on in the capital. And now it's been reported today that it's gone to eight other cities. Riots that started last week, four days ago, after the government, Georgia Dream announced that they were holding off a session talks to the EU until several more years. And this has triggered a response by protesters that are trying to go against this decision. Now, what those protesters are really doing and how it's coming about is a question.

Both sides are putting around accusations. The prime minister of Georgia says that Western instructors are guiding the protesters in their actions. The Georgian president, which has less power than the Prime Minister, has said she's not going to leave office in two weeks when her time is up because she doesn't recognize the election from a month ago, which brought the Georgia Dream Party into power. So there's a lot going on. And I'm actually going to be headed to Georgia tomorrow to show what I can and find out for myself what's really happening on the ground. And I'm going to be reporting there and hopefully get down to the bottom of some of the information

that's really going on and what these protesters are doing, what the government's doing, and just what's happening. These protests sound like they're straight out of the CIA playbook. This is the same thing that happened in Ukraine in 2014. It's so similar. It's just, you know, government turns their back on the EU and protests start. And it ends up, as we know, in a 10-year war. I pray for the Georgian people that this does not turn into a war, but many are saying the West is going

to be using these protests to start another front with Russia. Let me get this straight. The West has caused the death of 600,000 young men, a whole generation of Ukrainians, and the destruction of one-third of the country. Now they want to do the same to another country? That is some of the accusations, and it's so similar to what has happened before, it's hard to deny it. Patrick Lancaster, it's a pleasure, my dear friend. Stay well, and thank you for your continued reporting. You know you're welcome here anytime you wish.

All the best. All right. Well, Judge, thanks for having me. And I'd like to tell your viewers if they're interested in my work. Of course, my YouTube channel has my full reports. But now I'm on Substack as my blog, and I'm doing in-depth articles on my reports and much more, and more videos that aren't going to be on my YouTube channel. So I definitely recommend people go over to my sub stack and subscribe. There's so much more information

coming out there. You're an intrepid and fearless American hero, Patrick. Thank you for being a friend of the show and thank you for being my friend and come back again soon, please. Stay well, stay safe. Thank you very much, Judge. It's been a pleasure. Of course, it is a pleasure to speak with him no matter where he is or what he's talking about. Coming up remaining today at 10 this morning, Ray McGovern at 11, Larry Johnson at four this afternoon, Scott Ritter, Judge Napolitano for Judging Freedom. I'm out.