The MeidasTouch Podcast - Exclusive: Interview with Ukrainian Member of Parliament Dmytro Gurin [Bonus Interview]

Episode Date: April 2, 2022

On this special bonus edition of The MeidasTouch Podcast, we speak with Ukrainian Member of Parliament Dmytro Gurin. Dmytro speaks to us from an undisclosed location in Ukraine about the horrors of the Russian invasion and what we can do to help. While it's great to chat with analysts and talking heads, there’s nothing like speaking directly to a Ukrainian Member of Parliament to hear his thoughts, his needs, and truly understand his strength and his struggle. This is the first in a series of bonus episodes we will be releasing exclusively for our audio podcast listeners to highlight important voices we feel are not getting nearly enough attention in the mainstream media. If you enjoy the show, remember to subscribe, tell a friend, and leave us a 5-star review! Follow Dmytro Gurin on Twitter here: https://twitter.com/DmytroGurinMP Remember to subscribe to ALL the Meidas Media Podcasts: MeidasTouch: https://pod.link/1510240831 Legal AF: https://pod.link/1580828595 The PoliticsGirl Podcast: https://pod.link/1595408601 The Influence Continuum: https://pod.link/1603773245 Kremlin File: https://pod.link/1575837599 Mea Culpa with Michael Cohen: https://pod.link/1530639447 Zoomed In: https://pod.link/1580828633 The Weekend Show: https://pod.link/1612691018 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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No, my brothers and I conducted an exclusive interview with Ukrainian Member of Parliament Dmytro Guren. Dmytro is currently in Ukraine. We are not disclosing his exact location for operations security reasons, but we had a very powerful, emotional conversation with him about what is happening on the ground as Russia continues their illegal invasion. Sure, it's great to chat with analysts and talking heads, but there's nothing like speaking directly to a Ukrainian member of parliament to hear his thoughts, his needs, and truly understand his strength and his struggle. We've had numerous chats in recent weeks with incredible people who don't get nearly enough attention in the mainstream media, and we'll be releasing many more bonus episodes from here on out, exclusive to our audio listeners. If you love the Midas Touch podcast, make sure to tell a friend about it today,

or tell two or three or four or five, and remember to leave us a five-star review. Without further ado, here's our interview with Ukrainian Member of Parliament, Dmytro Guren. We are joined by Dmytro Guren, member of Parliament of Ukraine in the Kyiv Majority District. Dmytro, welcome to the podcast. Hi, guys. Dmytro is currently in Ukraine. We will not be disclosing the location. We so appreciate you taking the time to speak with us, to speak with our audience. We're over a month into the

unlawful invasion by the Russians of Ukraine. We've seen atrocity after atrocity committed by the Russians. You're on the ground. What observations do you have over a month into this unlawful invasion? Let's talk first about general frame. When this war started, 24th of February, it started as a conventional war, Armenian army. And in a week, Russia understood they cannot beat us on the battlefield. And all the world have seen that it's not a second powerful army in the world, it's just a fake,

and that the army is demotivated and they don't have real experience. Only like this Wagner private military company have some real experience, but not in theussian army in general so they changed the strategy and they understood we will not meet them with flowers as they waited and they decided to use syrian strategy and started just to kill civilians. So the first week we had a war and now we have mass murdering. The most

famous example is Mariupol. It's the half million people city near Zobzi and now it's a place of humanitarian catastrophe. There are 160,000 people that are still there without any communications, without heating, gas, electricity,

and the most important, without food and medicine and drinking water. And like everything around the city is mined heavily, heavily mined all the roads, fields, everything. And Russian troops they have ordered to kill everybody trying to escape, I mean civilians and they just destroying the city, bombing all the time, artillery works all the time, they drop like 100 bombs per day, for 24 hours every day from airplanes. And there are street fights, and it's not like in old European cities with narrow streets like where sniper works. No, street fights with using the tanks uh so it's a disaster in Mariupol and that shows us what Russia really does the siege of Mariupol is under command of

Mizintsev it's the same person who who ruled the operation in Syria and destroyed Aleppo. So they decided, Russia decided, that will be a nice strategy to kill as much Russian-speaking people as possible, because Mariupol, Kharkiv, Sumy, and Chernihiv are mostly Russian-speaking cities. And that's what the liberation looks like in Putin's head. Dmitry, your background. Tell our audience and our listeners about your background with Mariupol and your history there and what it was like before and after. I lived there for 15 years during my school and university.

And then I lived on the left bank of Mariupol. It's now like famous video that's showing all the TV channels shows, you know, the totally destroyed neighborhood where there is no any military infrastructure and never were. And it's sort of destroyed by 15 years of my past, of my childhood, my university years, everything is destroyed. All the buildings, my building is totally burned. I'm telling about a nine-story building, two-hundred apartments, because it was shot from tanks several times.

All the buildings around are also destroyed and cannot be repaired. My school is destroyed, university, all the hospitals, and everybody heard about drama theater, about maternity hospital in Mariupol. But, you know, it's just a catchy example, sketchy buildings, like all maternity hospital. No, all the hospitals are destroyed, all of them and all the like a university,

the state university of Ryazovsky and the city is destroyed almost all the schools are destroyed and I mean totally destroyed and we don't have a half a million people anymore we have, they even destroyed

we don't understand the scale now, because it's really hard to move in the city because of constant shelling. But it looks like they also destroyed the metallurgical plants and just decided to destroy the half a million people city during the month. And of course, we will rebuild the city, but we'll have to rebuild it from scratch now. What message do you have to the United States, to Europe, about what could be done right now to be more helpful to Ukraine and the Ukrainian people? Oleg Kuzmenkov The first goal, of course, is to save people from these places of humanitarian catastrophe that Russia made. First of all, Mariupol, because we clearly see that Russia wants to start hunger in Mariupol and to use it as a leverage in diplomatic processes. And they do now mass deportation, like tens of thousands of people.

They forcefully move them to what they say recreational centers. That's really filtration camps. There were people checked on the, it's very interesting, on the tattoos on their bodies. Like if they have our, you know, tree soup, the Ukrainian coat of arms and these people, we don't know where are they. So maybe they're tortured.

We just don't know where are they. We leave context to them. And their phones, their documents are taken. And they force people to sign some kind of paper that they will not leave Russia during the next two years. And they just send them to different regions of Russia. You know, the very classic Russian and Soviet deportation, they did it like a lot of times during the last hundreds of years, 300 years.

It's very common to them. So the first of all, we need humanitarian corridors. It's our, you know, really first goal. One mad maniac is trying to start a hunger in the middle of europe and everybody are saying how you all united with ukraine how you all uh with us and helps us and support us and if you know everybody all the countries united around ukraine cannot stop a hunger in the middle of europe. So what can we do? And we're asking you saying we cannot give you a no-fly zone.

That's nice. But our pass to give us make for us and no-fly zone over humanitarian corridors. And we're asking about one percent of your tanks and your planes. 1%. And you're saying, no, it's not possible. Guys, maybe it's not possible, but all of you have to understand that they will not stop. I lived in Moscow for 12 years, and I've seen these people during Putin regime,

and they won't stop. And now your choice is to have this war, to join this war when it will be on our territory, Ukrainian territory, or on yours territory because all the Russian propagandists on the central TV channels, they're already telling almost every evening that Ukraine is only the beginning and we have to enlarge our special operation, as they call it. So we need weapons.

We need not only defensive weapons, we need tanks and we need planes. And 1% of it, it's really not so much. And we, first of all, we need, you know, clear understanding what's going on and common sense from your side. Because if you will clearly understand that it's already World War III, and it's already started, and now the only question is when to join it. And we have a madman who decided he was just telling some kind of tales to his 145 million people that a neighbor country does not exist. That's what he's telling on television. What's the difference between Hitler who said that Poland

doesn't exist and Putin is saying that Ukraine doesn't exist. So if we will have clear understanding what's going on, everything, all other questions, they will be decided. And we really need weapons, first of all, to kick them out of Ukraine. So, Dmitry, what do you think it is? Because I've heard you echo that same sentiment in a few different interviews where you've said, you know, it's not only our war, it's common war,

it's World War III. Do you think the rest of the world is just in denial at this point as to what's actually going on? I think that everybody awaits that sanctions will really work and they will have some kind of revolution inside or maybe military cope. As a person who lived there, I don't believe neither in revolution, neither in military cope. As a person who lived there, I don't believe neither in revolution, neither in military cope. And I see only

escalation scenario. From the beginning of this war, I think that they will use chemical weapon, and they are pushing this topic in their propaganda and the TV channels. And if they will use chemical weapon, that means they will use nuclear weapon.

And it's just, you know, we have to be ready for this because when they will use chemical or nuclear weapon and everybody will say just, oh, it's not possible in modern world. How can it be? We will have like two weeks more of deep concerns. Yeah, because it's already, it's not the war anymore. It's mass murdering. Everybody has to understand it's mass murdering. Like tens of thousands of people, like more than 160,000 people at least in Mariupol without food and medicine and water, without water. And tens of thousands of people in Mariupol apartments

that are killed and we don't even know about it. Because in Mariupol, there is not enough bomb shelters. There are only basements under buildings. And it's not enough for 350,000 people that we had in Mariupol in the beginning of the siege. So they just dropped bombs on the residential districts and people died in this apartment because like in the in the apartments

what's the word, English word like in one vertical I'm sorry like a condo yeah yeah yeah in condo like in one stairs like from first to nine. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Floor. And there is 45 apartments like in this. And at least 10 people. I mean, where my flat, where I lived and where my parents were, at least 10 of people burned

alive when it was shot by tanks. So we have a lot of people dead in Mariupol and nobody knows because it's not possible. It's like several thousands of just people who were collected on streets. Why Mariupol? Why has that become such a strategic target for the Russians to just indiscriminately bomb and commit mass genocide like this? It's a strategic point for Russian propaganda. During several years, they told tales on the television that Azov in Mariupol, it's Nazis. It's really, it's very hard to really discuss this topic because we have Jews in Azov. We have like 40 nationalities in Azov. It's just you know, the big formation, army formation. And like from

the 2014. And it's, it's not Nazis, but we have seen that, you know, we have even in maturity hospital, we have even there, we have pregnant Nazis, what Russia says. And they used in their propaganda heavily that it's a place where there are no army, but no Nazis. And so now they are telling that they have a war with neo-nazis and uh i think because of this and they put uh general nizintsev to rule the separation in siege of mariopol and it's person who destroyed aleppo i think it's the only thing that he can do to kill civilians, is really experience this in this, as we see. Well, what do you make of the fact of this shifting Russian strategy, where now they're kind of downplaying the fact they're saying,

oh, we actually never intended to capture Kyiv. The entire time we were just trying to focus on taking Donbass. Do you think that's just a sign that they're losing and they're trying to say something to the people in Russia? Just show that we're doing something here and not just killing, you know, even their own people? They don't know how to stop this story. They don't know how to finish the war. They're trying to construct any kind of a second of the situation that can look like success for Russian people. And of course, like in any war,

people start uniting around the people in power everywhere because people understand everywhere that if you lose a war, that goes bad. And in Russia, all the wars that they lose, everything went bad. Like revolutions, like coups, anything. They have like military rage in their society. And they cannot explain what's going on. Because too many, too many dead soldiers, too many, like 15,000 and it's real numbers. And you have casualties, wounded soldiers, three to one killed. And it's around 50,000 people from 150,000 military groups. And it's a lot. And

they're demoralized. And a lot of information already, they're trying to block everything. They made this new criminal law about telling something bad about army and about state at all uh state bodies at all but uh of course information goes and uh it spreads and like in some some cities like nova siberia they already get 1000 coffins And they never have seen it. Never. Like in Second World War Two, of course, but after never. And even the war in Afghanistan. It was like, now it's much bigger than war in Afghanistan is much bigger than two wars in Chechnya. And in general, of course, they want to stop it. They just don't

know how. And Putin understands that he's on a position while this war is going on. Because if he wins, that's all. If he loses, that's all. Did you see, you know, US President Biden gave a speech in Warsaw the other day. I was wondering if you had a chance to see any of it. And in the speech, he made a comment off the cuff. He said, for God's sakes, this man cannot remain in power. Speaking about Putin, I was wondering if you agree with that sentiment. I certainly agree. And, you know, we had USA, it's the most powerful and military and economically country in the world, because I think that China is a little bit bubble. And in the real world, USA is economically the most powerful. And we had Saddam, we don't have Saddam.

We had Qaddafi, we don't have Qaddafi. You know, we had Osama bin Laden, we don't have Osama bin Laden. That's what America as a world sheriff, let's say so, sometimes does. And of course, we see now this movement that we, like all the world, clearly understand that was going on in Kharkiv, Mariupol, Puch, Erpen, when Russian troops just really got mad from all of this propaganda and started to kill people for fun. Yeah, they really do.

They kill people for fun. And it's war crimes. And Putin, yes, of course, he is a war crime. And of course, we need some kind of tribunal because it's not like you can say he is a war crime, let's kill him. We need a decision of some kind of court that everybody will trust this decision.

And if we are talking about putin we have to have this legal decision he's a war crime and act accordingly after this all of us and if we are telling about uh russia and militarization so i think we have to be realistic, totally realistic, and to go, like, to do next steps already. Because we made sanctions for Russia, and that's great. But we have to say very, like, I mean, both society and countries that call themselves civilized countries, have to say these sanctions cannot be undone until Putin is the president of Russia. It will never be undone. And these sanctions can never be cancelled over a Russian state, But any territory that will proclaim

itself independent will not have these sanctions. That's what we have to say very, very clearly to everybody in Russia. Because they don't really like what's going on. It's a super unitary state now, and they don't have money on the lower levels. Because in parliament, I'm doing the big reform, the most successful Ukrainian reform of the last eight years, decentralization, because we were not like Russia is now. We didn't have any budgets on the level of municipalities and regions.

And now we gave them powers and we gave them finances, first of all, and it's like their budgets are four times more than, bigger than eight years ago. And if we also take into account the state programs for locals of Garmin, it's six times bigger. So decentralization is really always successful and they cannot, in republics and regions of Russia, they cannot make their own taxes. They cannot rule the police and prosecutor's office, everything.

It's all state-level, controlled by state. And they don't see money uh they don't see money they don't see rights and powers they don't see anything so they want they want the real federalization of russia but i think we have to uh to tell already now not about federalization, but about disintegration, because until 145 million people in Russia, in the empire, that are not really connected between them, that not really have their own common interests, until all of them are in one state, this state will be militaristic,

will have the super president's power. They just go every time. It's just democratization back, democratization back to super socialist power and side again and side again. It's empire. Like all the empires in the world, they finished 100 years ago. But this country, no.

And it's just 30 years ago. It's just partly disintegrated. And they're trying to come all of this back, to get all of this back. So I think that we have to tell about post-Russian world to and discuss really discuss post-Russian world already to start doing it. What would be your message to the Ukrainian people the women men children grandparents who are in Ukraine with you every day in the trenches literally fighting side by side what would you want to say to them right now me to our people yes it won't be it it won't finish in a month guys i'm sorry it will last you know this rain is for a long time and what do you make of the leadership of uh president zelensky during

this time did you see this coming was this something that you always president z Zelensky during this time? Did you see this coming? Was this something that you always knew? President Zelensky now is the best, really best. Because we have in Ukraine, traditionally very bloody political life, very bloody. And everybody, you know, Eating everybody else. A little bit like in Latin America, like in Southern Europe, Greece, Portugal, like Spain, this country. And when the war started, and before the war,

the president was in some kind of weak position because he was hardly heavily criticized. A lot of people thought that he had a lot of mistakes that is easily too easy to understand because he never was in politics before. And but 24th of February, he's just leader of the country, He started doing the only thing that he had to do. And now he has unbelievably high ratings, like more than he had during the election. And during elections, he had 73. And now he had 88 or 85, something like this.

And it's fair. Because Zelensky now is doing what has to do the president of state in war. And he tells the right words and they make the right decision. And our minister of Defense is best, and our head of Army Command is really best. We never had a person like this. And our army now is like it became very similar to Israeli army, because when we see generals in the Russian army,

you have seen their faces. If you didn't, you have to, because it's like, I can't explain. You just have to see their faces. And in the Ukrainian army, and these generals, what we call in Ukraine, park generals, so the generals of peace time. And we have already eight years of war, because war started in 2014 with annexation of Crimea and we're in Donbas and we have like 440 000 people who were on the front line during these eight years and we have like 440 000 people who were on the front line on Donbas and we have real generals, we have war generals, who have experience.

And all our army command, it's new formation. And all of this is during the last eight years. I really want to see how Russia sees they can win. Dimitro Girin, thank you so much for joining us on the podcast. We appreciate your time and appreciate you joining us from Ukraine. We will be right back. Thank you. Thank you.

Bye bye, guys. Wow. So there you have it. That was definitely one of the most powerful conversations we've ever had. We are so grateful for Dimitro's time and we stand firmly with him, the Ukrainian people today and every day. Thank you so much for listening to this bonus episode of the Midas Touch Podcast. As I said earlier, we've got a lot more bonus episodes coming your way.

Remember to make sure that you are subscribed to the Midas Touch Podcast, tell your friends about the show, and leave us a five-star review. Until next time, this is Brett saying saying shout out to the Midas Mighty.