Judging Freedom - SPECIAL GUEST: Patrick Lancaster - LIVE from #Ukraine

Episode Date: December 14, 2023

Judge Napolitano welcomes back to Judging Freedom, Patrick Lancaster: Independent Journalist Covering the Ukrainian WarPatrick Lancaster is a seasoned independent journalist renowned for his dedicated and impactful coverage of the Ukrainian War. With a passion for uncovering the truth and a commitment to shedding light on the complexities of conflict, Lancaster has become a prominent voice in the realm of international journalism.Hailing from a background in investigative reporting, Lancaster's work has consistently delved into the heart of the Ukrainian War, providing in-depth analysis and firsthand accounts that go beyond surface narratives. His fearless approach to reporting has earned him a reputation for presenting nuanced perspectives on the geopolitical dynamics, humanitarian challenges, and the human stories often overshadowed by the broader conflict.Lancaster's career has been marked by a commitment to journalistic integrity, transparency, and a deep sense of responsibility to his audience. His insightful and evocative reporting has not only kept audiences informed but has also contributed to a more comprehensive understanding of the multifaceted issues surrounding the Ukrainian War.As an independent journalist, Patrick Lancaster continues to play a pivotal role in shaping the narrative surrounding one of the most critical geopolitical events of our time. His work stands as a testament to the power of journalism in fostering awareness, empathy, and understanding in the face of complex and often turbulent global events.See Patrick's work here: http://www.youtube.com/channel/UCbjTWVaRx6jMN5ZYgbqe2_wSee 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 Thursday, December 14th, 2023. Patrick Lancaster, the intrepid, fearless, courageous Patrick Lancaster joins us from Donetsk, Ukraine, or Donetsk, Russia, depending upon whose laws you want to follow. Patrick, welcome back to the show, my dear man. How are you? I'm good, Judge. Nice to be back. Thank you.

Thank you. Good to be back. Thank you. Thank you. Good to be with you. So my introduction to you was a little ambivalent. Tell us about what Donetsk is and where you are and who controls it and what the locals believe it to be. Okay. Well, it's, yeah, I mean, for some people that aren't familiar with the situation, it might be kind of difficult. Basically, Donetsk is the capital of what for the last nine years was ousted from power in Kiev, the local population of Donetsk and actually Lugansk, the region to the north, had a referendum to break away from Ukraine.

And they did that, and that preceded this nine-year war. For almost eight years the people were fighting, the locals formed their own military and fought against the attacks of Ukrainian forces, where Ukraine was trying to take control of the area that the locals took control of. Now, of course, we know that the mainstream media tries to portray that this war just started a year and a half ago in February of 2022. But it started in 2014 for sure as a civil war. Now, in February of 2022, Russia finally recognized the Donetsk People's Republic, which was a huge celebration for the local population here in Donetsk and Lugansk,

because Russia also recognized Lugansk. And then Russia decided to move in and help the Donetsk-Lugansk People's Republic make their borders controlled, because at the first time when Russia recognized these republics ukraine forces were in a good portion of these so by russia passing the law recognizing these republics it also recognized the fact that ukraine forces were in a sense by russian law occupying these territories that, on the other hand, Ukraine considers and the West considers part of Ukraine. Okay, so what the West and what Ukraine consider to be part of Ukraine and what Russia considers to be part of Russia and what the locals consider to be part of Russia

and where you are now, was it being shelled, bombed by the Ukrainian government? Yes, it's been being shelled by the Ukrainian government since 2014 and including today. I just not long ago came back from a shelling site where unfortunately there were two civilians killed and three injured. And there we can see, unfortunately, one of the victims that was a woman, civilian woman that was killed. Now this was in a civilian building, an administration building. And now that is, those military members are the military inspectors that come and record

for official purposes the results of these attacks. So this building with the flag on it and where that unfortunate woman's remains lie, how far is it

from you? And is it in this area that Russia and the locals say is Russian and Ukraine says is Ukraine? Yes, this is in the center of Donetsk, just about a kilometer or a mile and a half from where I am right now. And that building seemed to be, from what we were told by the locals, as a kind of management and control area for the governmental workers that take care of the streetlights for the city. And it was many civilian apartment buildings around it. and we could see by the exact hole on the roof of it was uh seemed to be with all of my information my experience a united states supplied high mars that hit directly in that civilian area and it's not the first time this is a virtually near daily uh thing that happens in donetsk and the Ukraine

fires these Western supplied weapons particularly the high Mars on to civilian areas and what the new development Ukraine has been doing they fire then wait and after about a half an hour to an hour, they do a double tap and fire again, targeting the first responders, which includes emergency workers, journalists. Just in the last month, about a month ago, there were three journalists that were injured by these double attacks, which is a violation of the Geneva Convention targeting first responders. And there's been many firefighters killed and other emergency workers. And particularly just about a month ago, a little over a month ago, in the center, there was a high-mars attack where many people were buried under rubble. And a colleague of mine, an American and Australian journalist, filmed a interview with a 19-year-old child or young man, and he was there trying to dig out some of the people that were stuck under the rubble. And my colleague had left, and just minutes later, a second HIMARS came and severely injured this young man, and he laid in

intensive care for a week. This is a young man, a civilian, just out of high school, and laid in intensive care for a week and unfortunately lost his life because of these violations of the Geneva Convention by Ukraine targeting first responders, hitting the same location in civilian areas after there's time for first responders to come. So let me just make sure, because we have an international audience here, that I have this straight. The government of Ukraine, President Zelensky's government, is using American weaponry and American ammunition to kill people it considers to be Ukrainians, Ukrainian civilians in areas it considers to be Ukraine.

Is that a fair statement of what's happening? Unfortunately, yes. And this is a form of ethnic cleansing, you could say, because the population that lives in these areas are mostly ethnic Russians. And the Ukrainian government is viewing the Russian people that consider themselves Russian. They don't consider themselves Ukrainian anymore because when Yanukovych was ousted in 2014, they viewed their Ukraine as dead. This is what the locals say. They view themselves as Russian here and want to be part of Russia and wanted to be part of Russia for the last nine years, almost a decade. But Ukraine kept on and did not give them the freedom of self-determination, even though there's been two referendums. The first was to break away from Ukraine in 2014, and the second was last year to join Russia. In September of last year, these regions

voted to join Russia. But the Ukrainian government will not let these people have self-determination. Okay, let's switch from the politics to military. What is the state of military affairs, bearing in mind President Zelensky exploded at General Zeluzhny, the commander of Ukraine troops, when General Zeluzhny told The Economist magazine about a month ago that things were at a stalemate. We know that the so-called spring offensive, which became a summer offensive, was a dismal failure. But what is the state of military activity now? Are the Ukrainians making any gains? Are the Russians pushing westward? Just today, there has been a report from Russian forces that they have gained more ground,

not only into the Artyomovsk or Bakhmut direction, past the city itself, farther into Ukrainian-controlled territory near Bakhmut, but also just this week it's been reported that Russia has taken full control of the village or suburb of Medenka, which is a suburb of Donetsk, just about 15 kilometers from where I am, which is a location that Ukraine has been launching on the city from for years. Now, there's also reports of Russia continually taking territory on the edge of another suburb of Donetsk, which is a bit more to the north, northwest,

and Maryinka is to the southwest. So there's definitely many reports of movement of Russia taking Ukrainian-controlled territory. As far as I think everyone can pretty much say and i think even ukraine admits that this the the whole ukrainian counter offensive was a complete failure there was no major territory taken by them i mean first they blamed it on the overgrowth of uh foliage and then now because of the winter and the, you know, they can just blame it on the weather all the time.

So our, or two of our principal military advisors, Scott Ritter and Colonel Douglas McGregor, have opined on this show that Ukraine has effectively lost already. Is that, and they have a number of measurements for that, the number of military killed, the absence of Ukrainian movement, the stability of the location of Russian troops, the impregnability of Russian defenses, etc. Would you agree withon waterfall of, support by the West and the lethal aid that, as we discussed, has been used on many of the civilians. Now, all that the West and NATO is doing with this aid is prolonging the war and making more of a civilian and overall just casualties happen. More people are dying because of the so-called lethal support from the West. That's what is being accomplished by the tax dollars of the West, just the loss of more and more life. And like Trump said, when he was asked

who he wants to win, he just wanted people to stop dying. And I think that's a pretty good idea to have. People just need to stop dying. And we can talk about the view of the Russian government. Just today Vladimir Putin had a meeting in press conference where he took questions from around the world. One of the many things that I noticed particularly, he stated, of course, as we know, there was 300,000 people that were Russians that were mobilized or drafted and sent in to the war zone. He says about 48,000 or excuse me, 41,000 have left the war zone for one reason or another. And during this time in the last two years, close to a half a million people have signed up voluntarily for the military. So in Putin's words, there's no shortage of soldiers and there is no need for another draft.

So it seems Russia has the soldiers it needs. Yet this is going, this war is going slow. A lot of people thought it was going to go faster. But by the Russian president's words, they've got the soldiers they need to put an end to this. Now, what the end of this is going to be, no one knows. But I think for sure it's not going to end until what is considered legally part of Russia by Russian law, which is her son, Regent Zaporozhye, Donetsk and Lugansk. It's not going to end until those are controlled by Russia.

That is the bare minimum, I believe. Are they controlled by Russia now, Patrick? The vast majority of the territory of Lugansk or the Lugansk People's Republic or the Lugansk region of Ukraine, whatever you want to call it, is controlled by Russia. Donetsk, a good portion of it, a very large portion of it is controlled by Russia as well, some by Ukraine. Zaporozhye and Kherson is a bit more of a split. So there's still a lot of territory that Russia needs to make up before it has any chance of ending this war, or either side has any chance. Now, will that territory be taken by force by Russia, or will Zelensky come to the negotiation table

and let these territories that are legally considered Russia by Russian law, uh, become part of Russia. I think it's all in, in Ukraine's hands. And of course the, the West hands, uh, telling Ukraine what to do. Um,

and with the supply of the weapons, but how many people die in the future is coming up to that. Who's going to come to the table and what are they going to do? Um, we understand and tell me if, um, if my understanding is accurate or inaccurate. It's coming up to that. Who's going to come to the table and what are they going to do? We understand. And tell me if my understanding is accurate or inaccurate. The President Zelensky has canceled elections for 2024, has imposed a draft that affects both genders, male and female, from age 17 to age 70,

and has closed the borders, making it unlawful for people subject to the draft to leave Ukraine. Are those statements effectively accurate or inaccurate? Well, I can even go farther than that. Now they are intensifying the advertisements for people to join the military. Even though there's a 100% draft, now they're telling people the family should come to the front line. Husbands and wives together should come to the front line and defend their country. Basically just putting them into the meat grinder. I mean, obviously we've seen Ukraine is not making any headway. They're just throwing bodies and bodies and bodies at Russia to think something is going to change. But the fact is that I think words need to come,

and Zelnitsky needs to stop saying He's going to fight to the last Ukrainian Because if he does that Maybe there's not going to be any left He needs to stop targeting the civilians Of These territories that Russia controls Would the meat grinder As you call it still be going on

If the United States aid Stopped Absolutely not. This would have been over last year. And thousands and thousands of less people would have died on both sides. President Biden, and I don't expect you to get in on the politics, has asked the Congress for another $68 billion with a B for Ukraine. He has the votes in the Senate. It doesn't appear as though he has

the votes in the House of Representatives. But here he is just a few days ago, number five, Chris, chiding Republicans. But I want you to listen to what he says at the end of this statement. It's only about half a minute long, Patrick. I think what he says at the end is very ominous, and I'm anxious for your thoughts on it as well. Extreme Republicans are playing chicken with our national security, holding Ukraine's funding hostage to their extreme partisan border policies. If Putin takes Ukraine, he won't stop there. It's important to see the long run here. He's going to keep going. He's made that pretty clear.

If Putin attacks a NATO ally, then we'll have something that we don't seek and that we don't have today. American troops fighting Russian troops. American troops fighting Russian troops if he moves into other parts of NATO. To me, that is terrifying, disingenuous, threatening, profoundly inaccurate. Tell me if I'm wrong. Putin does not want to, as President Biden says, take Ukraine. He wants a clarification as to what parts of Russia are Russian, and he wants NATO the hell out of Ukraine. He has no interest in invading NATO countries. The last thing he wants is a ground war with the United States. Take it from there, Patrick. Yeah, I mean, those are just scare tactics by Biden to try to pressure his political adversaries into

doing what he wants to with pressure from the public. It's a horrible idea to go at things from that angle, but it is what it is. Now, of course, Putin does not want to move into NATO and starts World War III. A lot of this has come from NATO pushing towards Russia. Right now, Putin wants to control what's part of Russia by Russian law. Now, if the White House and Kiev continues to play games here, how much farther that's going to go deeper into Ukraine to make more of a buffer zone or demilitarization zone to separate NATO from Russia in this area. Who knows? It's up in the air but obviously the most intelligent thing for Ukraine to do right now as it was last year is negotiate and it give uh Russia what the people have that have said

self-determination what they what the local population here in Donetsk once and these the other areas is to turn over that to russia that's right the best idea that's going to bring the least amount of casualties and stop people from dying here's uh president zielinski last night number eight chris uh with my friend and former colleague uh brett bear and of course i spoke with senators and with president biden and with the speaker and we spoke about the details which are really on today on the battlefield and what we need to success story to be against russian attacks invasion to ukraine and i think that's it's INVASION TO UKRAINE. AND I THINK THAT IT'S VERY IMPORTANT NOT TO WASTE TIME AND

IT'S VERY IMPORTANT TO SUPPORT UKRAINE. WE SHOWED REALLY SUCCESS ON THE BLACK SEA. IT REALLY WAS VERY DIFFICULT OPERATION. AND WE NOW CREATED THE ROOT, GRAIN ROOT, AND RUSSIA DOESN'T

HAVE INFLUENCE AND WE ON THIS ROOT, GRAIN ROOT, AND WE Grain route and Russia doesn't have influence and we on this route drain route and we destroyed mostly Russian fleet that was Situated in our waters and near our temporary occupied Crimea. That was very good. I think that's huge Result and also we spoke about the Wagner's, you know, on the east of our country. We destroyed their 20,000 of the terrorists. And you know that they walked in Asia, in Africa and in Ukraine and in Syria. So I think that it was so difficult for us to do it. But what is, I think, the most important thing to understand what's going on,

that Russia didn't occupy any village, any Ukrainian village during this year. Does he know what he's talking about, Patrick? Absolutely not. There's no question that Russia has taken territory just this week. I mean, as he's saying this, Russia's taking control of Maryinka, which is a village that had a population of 10,000.

So, I mean, it's just total lies from him. And as far as says about attacking the private military company Wagner, I mean they tried as hard as they could to stop Wagner from taking control of

Artyomovsk or Bakhmut. And they weren't able to succeed. And during this, and that was even before the counteroffensive, and during this counteroffensive, they weren't able to take that prize city back. So, I mean, of course, there's some areas that go back and forth sometimes, but, I mean, there's no question, especially around Donetsk, that Russia is,

has some momentum going. Obviously not as fast as some would like in Russia, but it is what it is. Henry Kissinger passed away recently. You know, his legacy was in part

good, the ABM was in part good, ABM Treaty in part bad, a lot of millions of innocents dead. But one of the things he said that tantalizes is the following. It is dangerous to be America's enemy. It is fatal to be America's friend. Will Vladimir Zelensky learn that lesson When the money dries up

You know what what's gonna happen after The West finally decides to stop I mean and as we know now but with the whole developments with Israel and Palestine things are Changing quickly where the money's going who's gonna get the money who's gonna cry is the loudest but what's gonna happen when it's done who knows I mean there's so many there's many rumors there's even rumors now that's as long as keys planning an escape to the United States so I would say if he sticks around and it comes to the fact of Russia taking control of, you know, all of Ukraine, or at least demilitarizing the full part of Ukraine, I mean,

Russia said they don't want to, you know, make all of Ukraine Russia. They just want these four territories, which the local population voted for. But, you know, we'll see how it plays out. How long can President Zelensky stay in office? Is General Zelensky a threat to the presidency of Zelensky? You know, that's beyond my expertise going in that direction. That's too far past the front line for me. But once the front line moves, we'll address that, Judge. Okay. People want to know, you know, we have a large, I'm blessed with a large audience, thanks to intellect and courage of people like you. And people want to know how they can find you and how they can fund you um well my main uh work in reports go out on my youtube channel you can just easily search patrick lancaster or also just put in as my tag patrick lancaster news Tag Patrick Lancaster News Today. And I am a totally independent, crowdfunded journalist, even though I do do cooperations with different channels,

different other independents such as yourself or Redacted and other channels. I'm always funded only by my viewers, totally crowdfunded. So I can film what I want, make the reports I want because I only answer to my viewers. So people can support my work via buy me a coffee just by searching Patrick Lancaster. And I think maybe we can put a link later in the bottom or something. Or just easily enough, go to my YouTube channel,

and every one of my videos has my link to my crowdfunding sites underneath. And, yeah, I'm totally supported by my viewers, and I will continue to be supported by only my viewers. So I can bring the highest quality, real information that's ignored by the Western highest quality, real information that's ignored by the Western mainstream media. Well, that's exactly what you do, is high quality, real information delivered with clarity. And if I might add, charm and personal courage. Thank you, Patrick. Thank you for the time you spend with us. Stay safe, you and your family and your colleagues.

And will you come back again soon and give us another report when there's information worth reporting? For sure, Judge. I'll always be happy to come back and have a chat with you. Okay. Your fans love you, and we're deeply grateful. If we don't speak in the next two weeks, Merry Christmas to you and your family. Merry Christmas, Judge. Thank you very much. Thank you. Wow. I love interviewing him. It's so on the spot, so raw, so in your face, so factually based. Coming up later today, Colonel McGregor, Scott Horton, Professor Sachs. We have a big day for you.

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