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“Inside the Kremlin, they know that Ukraine is able to fight back, and that’s why they’re escalating their hybrid attacks against NATO.” Russia knows it is slowly losing on the battlefield, as it is losing troops and replacing them with poorly trained men, says Ambassador Kurt Volker, former US special envoy to Ukraine. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

“They parachuted ground vehicles in behind enemy lines and drove them.” Journalist and British Army veteran Shaun Pinner describes how Ukrainian troops managed to drive an armoured personnel carrier right up to Russian defences as part of Operation Vivaldi in Lyman. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

“There is a fear that, look across the border, there is an economically successful, teaming in population terms, rival. At what point does China seek to turn its economic domination into political domination.” There is “a lot of fear in Russia” as the expanse in the Far East closest to China becomes more economically deprived and loses its population, says China expert, author and journalist Ian Williams. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

“The Russian idea of encircling the fortress belt within the next six months—that’s not going to happen.” Russia’s 25th Combined Arms Army is in “survival mode”, trying to establish a new defensive line along the Zherebets River, says The ISW’s George Barros. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Lieutenant Vladyslav Polskyi has won Ukraine’s highest military honour for rescuing two wounded soldiers in the ‘kill zone’. Maxim Tucker discusses his time speaking with the former teacher and his unit in Ukraine on Frontline. Read Maxim's interview with Polskyi on The Times: https://www.thetimes.com/world/russia-ukraine-war/article/ukraine-dispatch-teacher-hero-xkv7qkrk3 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

“Discontent is starting to rumble among the population.” Ukraine’s new spy chief has received intelligence suggesting that the Russian people are beginning to express their anger publicly over the war in Ukraine, says The Times’ Maxim Tucker. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

“They were certainly deliberately targeting to kill the people, to destroy the train, or at the very least to send a very intimidating signal that it is dangerous for Western VIPs to go into Ukraine.”  Russia tries to “choke off” constant Western visits to Ukraine by targeting Boris Johnson’s rail route to Poland, says Lord Ricketts. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

“If you have a command structure that thinks Russia is already in charge of a piece of territory and sends more people in, they die in their hundreds.” Putin’s self-deception is causing operational setbacks for the Russian military and making the prospect of a ceasefire even more remote, says Keir Giles. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

“Ukraine has managed to attack Russia where it is weak.” Ukraine has managed to suppress Russian drones using manpower and armour in Lyman and hold its position, says former British Army colonel Hamish de Bretton-Gordon. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

“Witkoff plays right into it … The idea that you’ve been spun by the Kremlin I don’t know how many times is at the top of your list?” Witkoff and Kushner’s visit to Moscow was openly mocked by the Russians, who called their meeting with Putin “diplomacy of the doomed”, says Professor Scott Lucas. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

“Where is the secretary of state, Mr Rubio? … He is absolutely AWOL.” Witkoff and Kushner’s visit to Kyiv was “hard to watch” after they sucked up to Putin during their previous meeting in Moscow, says Lieutenant General Ben Hodges. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

“Putin's pursuing his own delirious ideas... first he invented history, now he’s inventing biology,” A total consensus is forming across Russia that Putin has gone completely mad, as an exploding economy pushes the country to the edge with zero political mechanisms to remove him, says journalist Anna Zafesova.  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

“The Russians have had a miscellaneous ‘F’ failure there.” Ukrainian firepower and drone control over logistical lines of communication have put 2,500 Russian troops in a “world of hurt” on the Kinburn Spit and around the Fortress Belt, says former British Army Major General Chip Chapman. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

He was once Russia's richest man. Mikhail Khodorkovsky was thrown in jail for urging democratic change in Russia and since getting out and leaving Russia more than a decade ago, he has continued the fight. He says he was hopeful for nearly imminent change in Russia before the war started, but now thinks it will be a good 20 years before we see that "Happy Russia of the Future" Alexei Navalny always dreamed about. And Khodorkovsky believes Ukraine has ALREADY won the war. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

On this episode of Frontline, Amy Kellogg sits down with Putin critic and exiled Russian politician Boris Nadezhdin for an extended interview. Boris was perhaps one of the the last anti-Russian politician not behind bars until he decided to flee the country earlier this summer under pressure. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.