Battleground

In this week's Battleground: Ukraine with Patrick Bishop and Roger Moorhouse we look at, the rising casualty figures of the Russians. Both sides guard their casualty figures very closely, of course, but the Ukrainian General Staff has kept a running total of Russian losses, this week, their estimate for Russian losses – dead and injured – topped 300,000. They also address some listeners questions including ones on Ukraines potential nuclear capability, and as ever questions on pronunciation. If you have any thoughts or questions on the conflicts in Ukraine or Gaza, you can send them to - [email protected] Producer: James Hodgson Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

In the last few days we’ve seen the long announced incursion by Israeli ground forces into the northern part of the Gaza Strip, while at the same time the Israeli bombing campaign shows no signs of letting up, in pursuit of the Israeli governments declared intention to destroy Hamas as a military organisation. Patrick and Roger Moorhouse (who is stepping in for Saul this week) will be discussing their chances of achieving that aim. But they also take a look at the Israeli military tradition, and trying to see how that will affect events in Gaza as they unfold in the days, and very possibly weeks and months to come. They also address some challenging listeners questions. If you have any thoughts or questions on the conflicts in Ukraine or Gaza, you can send them to - [email protected] Producer: James Hodgson Twitter: @PodBattleground Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

In our 100th episode on this tragic conflict, we'll be bringing you all the latest news and we’ll be asking two big questions: has much changed in that time? And what happens next? The big news from the front line is that Russia continues its hugely costly, and frankly inexplicable, attack in eastern Ukraine to capture the town of Avdiivka. Interested in donating to Saul David's SBS Charity Paddle? Follow the link here: https://www.justgiving.com/page/saul-david-1697547606357 If you have any thoughts or questions on the conflicts in Ukraine or Gaza, you can send them to - [email protected] Producer: James Hodgson Twitter: @PodBattleground Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

This week we’re going to again use the midweek podcast to focus on Gaza. Events there are simply too important for us not to address and things are developing, the conflict there is likely to be every bit as significant for global politics as the war in Ukraine. Saul and Patrick consider the options open to the Israeli Defence Forces in what can only be a fiendishly difficult operation before going on to look at the possibility of the Israel-Hamas conflict exploding into a regional war with all the dangers that will bring with it. Interested in donating to Saul David's SBS Charity Paddle? Follow the link here: https://www.justgiving.com/page/saul-david-1697547606357 If you have any thoughts or questions, you can send them to - [email protected] Producer: James Hodgson Twitter: @PodBattleground Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

On this weeks Battleground: Ukraine Saul and Patrick discuss the big news that Ukraine has fired its first US long-range ATACMS missiles at two airports in Russian-occupied Ukraine with devastating results, which begs the question: why weren’t they supplied earlier? They also take a look at some diplomatic developments, including Putin's arrival in Beijing for a meeting with Chinese leader Xi Jinping, while Joe Biden travels to Israel to underline America’s support for Bibi Netanyahu’s government as it plans its response to Hamas’s savage attack on its citizens. If you have any thoughts or questions, you can send them to - [email protected] Producer: James Hodgson Twitter: @PodBattleground Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

We'd like to introduce you to a new podcast we believe you would like to hear. Disorder takes a look at the way the world makes decisions and why now it seems so disordered. From Climate Change to Tax Havens, to Unregulated Cyberspace, to the Wars in Ukraine, Syria, and Libya. Jason Pack, NATO Foundation Senior Analyst, and Alexandra Hall Hall, a former British Ambassador, discuss with world-leading experts, senior diplomats and cultural icons, the fundamental principles lurking behind today’s global issues. Listen, follow and rate where you get your podcasts. For more information on the show, and hosts, click here Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

In another special edition of Battleground we return again to the subject of Gaza which is looming so large. In this episode Saul and Patrick try and explain what some of the forces are that lie behind this apparently endless conflict. Why is the bitterness on both sides so intense and how is it that a solution seems so difficult to find? Well as it happens both Saul and Patrick have written books which shed some light on both those questions. History may not help us predict the future but it is the only means we have of understanding the present. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

On this episode of Battleground: Ukraine Saul David and Patrick Bishop, discuss the main news from the front line this week that Russia has intensified operations in the Avdiivka area of Donetsk Oblast. They look at a story that has emerged from occupied Kherson Oblast where Ukrainian partisans are said to have used a car bomb to kill a local head of Putin’s political party. They also of course, take a look at the potential consequences for in Ukraine, as a result of the unfolding situation in Israel. If you have any thoughts or questions, you can send them to - [email protected] Producer: James Hodgson Twitter: @PodBattleground Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

In this special episode of Battleground, Patrick and Saul react to the deadly Hamas attack that was launched on Israeli territory on Saturday morning. Drawing on their expertise they discuss how this happened, the wider historical context, what happens next, and of course what this means for the war in Ukraine. If you have any thoughts or questions, you can send them to - [email protected] Producer: James Hodgson Twitter: @PodBattleground Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

After indications that a Ukrainian breakthrough might have been imminent, progress on the battlefield slowed down this week with no news of further significant advances. Saul and Patrick discuss this and the details released by Kyiv of an extraordinary amphibious aid mounted by their special forces, which resulted in putting Ukrainian boots on Crimean soil for the first time since 2014. Meanwhile in neighbouring Slovakia, Robert Fico won the election on a pro-Moscow ticket, Saul and Patrick examine the significance of this and answer listeners questions which includes a sighting of Yevgeny Prigozhin. If you have any thoughts or questions, you can send them to - [email protected] Producer: James Hodgson Twitter: @PodBattleground Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

On this week's big interview, Patrick speaks to Francis Scarr from the BBC's monitoring service, Francis is a member of its Russia team who analyse Russian TV and social media, and specialises in the TV political talk shows, which dominate the schedules. Francis shares his fascinating array of knowledge about the Russian media landscape and draws from his own personal experiences from years spent living in Moscow. If you have any thoughts or questions, you can send them to - [email protected] Producer: James Hodgson Twitter: @PodBattleground Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

This week on Battleground: Ukraine - Patrick and Saul David discuss a fascinating week in which the word breakthrough has been heard everywhere. The Ukrainians are claiming a series of small victories that collectively could bring about a decisive and favourable shift in their fortunes. Also in the news is the spectacular cruise missile attack on the Russian Black Sea Fleet headquarters in Sevastopol, they discuss the significance of this and more, and answer a host of interesting listeners questions. If you have any thoughts or questions, you can send them to - [email protected] Producer: James Hodgson Twitter: @PodBattleground Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

In this final instalment from our travels to Ukraine, Saul, Patrick and producer James sit down in the historic central square of the Polish city of Krakow, to reflect on the previous days spent in Ukraine and what they took away from it all. If you have any thoughts or questions, you can send them to - [email protected] Producer: James Hodgson Twitter: @PodBattleground Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

This week Saul and Patrick react to the news that Ukraine continues to make important gains on the battlefield, particularly south of Bakhmut and in western Zaporizhia, and has also been degrading Russia’s defensive capability in Crimea. They also take a look away from the battlefield, where President Joe Biden doubled down on his support for Ukraine in a meeting of the United Nations General Assembly, and they have a look at reports being spread by Russian opposition figures that Vladimir Putin’s staunch Chechen ally Ramzan Kadyrov, has either died in hospital or is seriously ill. If you have any thoughts or questions, you can send them to - [email protected] Producer: James Hodgson Twitter: @PodBattleground Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

For this week's big interview, we have some more material from our time in Ukraine, this time from the outskirts of Kyiv at a child psychiatry centre, where children are receiving treatment for war trauma. We spoke to Oksana Sliepova - the director of the children's club 'positive' and two of the club's members - 12 year old Nastia and 15 year old Sofia, who told us about their experiences of the war and about the club. We also have in the second half of the podcast, a moving interview with Oleg - a Bucha resident who buried some of the victims of Russian brutality in his hometown and described some harrowing accounts of his time there during its occupation by Russian forces. If you have any thoughts or questions, you can send them to - [email protected] Producer: James Hodgson Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

This week Patrick and Saul discuss the big news developments of the past week, Ukraine has taken out two Russian warships at the headquarters of the Black Sea Fleet in Sebastopol using cruise missiles. Also in the news, Vladimir Putin met North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un in the far east of Russia, and there’s been some very encouraging predictions from US intelligence suggesting that a big Ukrainian breakthrough could come by the end of the year. If you have any thoughts or questions, you can send them to - [email protected] Producer: James Hodgson Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

In this episode of Battleground: Ukraine, Patrick and Saul have a fascinating interview with Taras Byk - a political strategist, who before the war worked with leading anti-corruption fighters, such as the mayor of Mikolaiv, and who is now working on a project that supports the breakup of the Russian Federation. Saul and Patrick also speak to a young Ukrainian couple, Lydia and Dennis, about their views and experiences of the war and their view of Ukraines future. If you have any thoughts or questions, you can send them to - [email protected] Producer: James Hodgson Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

In this episode Saul and Patrick digest the news that seemingly the Ukrainian counteroffensive is gaining some traction on the western Zaporizhia oblast front, reports that President Putin will be asking North Korean leader Kim Jong Un to help him out, and the rather negative development that there’s been another corruption scandal inside the army with President Zelensky announcing he has sacked the longtime minister of defence Oleksii Reznikov. There is also some interesting insight into the capabilities of the F-16 fighter jet, and some fascinating listeners questions. If you have any thoughts or questions, you can send them to - [email protected] Producer: James Hodgson Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

This week we bring you more material recorded from our time in Ukraine, this time Saul speaks to Pete Smith - HALO's programme manager in Ukraine - who gave us a briefing on the situation regarding mines and unexploded ordinance in Ukraine, before taking us out to visit a minefield in the outskirts of Kyiv. Saul also speaks to the HALO teams translator Ivan, who tells us about how he managed to escape from Russian occupied Mariupol. If you have any thoughts or questions, you can send them to - [email protected] Producer: James Hodgson Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Joining Saul on this significant week in the war in Ukraine, and stepping in for Patrick is the excellent Roger Moorhouse. Together, Saul and Roger digest the news that Ukraine is starting to make significant inroads into the main Russian defences, a pledge from Brussels to give the war-torn country EU membership by 2030 at the latest, and confirmation from Russia that Yevgeny Prigozhin, the boss of Wagner, was indeed on board that private jet that crashed between Moscow and St Petersburg. They also discuss some thought provoking listeners thoughts and questions. If you have any thoughts or questions, you can send them to - [email protected] Producer: James Hodgson Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

In this week's big interview, Saul speaks to friend of the podcast Colonel Pavlo Khazan, for the first time in person from his base in an undisclosed location in Kyiv. They discuss what activities him and his soldiers have been involved in recently and also the significance of their experience and knowledge in drone warfare. Patrick and Saul also discuss their first impressions of Kyiv after their first full day in the Ukrainian capital. If you have any thoughts or questions, you can send them to - [email protected] Producer: James Hodgson Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

In this episode - Saul and Patrick discuss what's been quite an eventful week, with the much welcome news that the Netherlands and Denmark, with American approval, will give at least 61 F-16 fighters to Ukraine when their pilots have completed the necessary training. There also look at some significant gains for Ukraine on the battlefield, controversial reports in the Washington Post, and a Russian missile strike on a theatre in Chernihiv. If you have any thoughts or questions, you can send them to - [email protected] Producer: James Hodgson Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

In this emergency podcast Saul and Patrick react to the extraordinary news that Yevgeny Prigozhin has died, after his private plane was shot down in Russian airspace near Moscow. They discuss what actually happened as well as who did it, what does it mean, and is Putin now weaker or stronger? If you have any thoughts or questions, you can send them to - [email protected] Producer: James Hodgson Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

In this episode of Battleground: Ukraine - Saul and Patrick speak from the political heart of Ukraine - Independence Square in central Kyiv, where they discuss their first thoughts and observations of the Ukrainian capital, before having to rush to shelter as Russian Missiles enter the skies of Kyiv. Saul also speaks to Joshua Darnell - an American volunteer in the Ukrainian Army, who describes some of his experiences and the importance of continuing support for Ukraine. If you have any thoughts or questions, you can send them to - [email protected] Producer: James Hodgson Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices