Jake Broe - Putin's Empire is in Ruins and he Appears Increasingly Desperate to 'Win' War in Ukraine

today I'm delighted to speak to Jake bro United States Air Force veteran who served for six years as a nuclear and missile operations officer and of course you may know him better as one of the most prominent voices on YouTube throughout the war someone with absolute moral clarity about who the victim is and who the aggressor is and who brings direct military experience to his detailed analysis of the unfolding conflict please do make sure you subscribe to his channel I'm sure most of you already are but it is essential viewing to get uh Jake's content

that he produces and the insights that he provides there are also lots of familiar faces there other expert YouTubers who you will find he's interviewed as well welcome to Silicon curtain if you find this video valuable please like and check you are subscribed in order not to miss the new content that's published daily please also check out the new channel silicon Wafers that features in-depth news coverage of the Russia Ukrainian war and a little snippet a couple of minutes out of this conversation uh will be made available on that channel uniquely on that channel uh

so you can get that bonus material this format is designed to be much easier to consume not the hourong videos but little 15minute deep dives into stories that are happening and of course analysis of what's going on in Russia I know many of the subscribers appreciate this slightly more punchier and in-depth format but I'm delighted to welcome Jake back to the channel this is the third conversation and things seem to be speeding up don't they Jake every day it seems quite a challenge to cover all the new stories that are surfacing uh yes and no

I mean I feel like we've gone weeks where you know mud season or whatever and there's just not a lot happening but then when the mud dries out and people can move uh yeah it's been a busy month for both the Russians and the ukrainians so try to cover this in the format that I do there are moments where I'm like can breaking news just please stop I need to at some point stop collecting new information and just make the video and It's Tricky isn't it as well because the initial reports often um there is

a tendency to underestimate what Ukraine can achieve overestimate what Russia can achieve there are lots of biased voices out there how do you cut through all of that noise to try to figure out not just what's really going on but what your particular angle is going to be on these stories it's hard to say you know I just try to take in the information as I get it uh let's not give Russia more credit than they deserve concerning their history uh Russia loves to beat its chest about World War II and that's the Mythos that

they've built around themselves that the entire world has had to hear about for the last 70 years but let's not forget that you know the Soviet success on the battlefield in World War II was largely in part because of ukrainians uh who were in that military um so I I I don't like the framing at all that this is some kind of Slavic Civil War but when you talk about the military success of the Soviet Union you can't discredit the ukrainians who are a large part that's part of the reason why Russia is so desperate

to reabsorb Ukraine they want their people they want their culture they want their resources for themselves it is a extraordinary I mean speaking on a video last week I was stunned to uh learn that Ukraine contributed up to 40% of the GDP of the Soviet Union uh at certain points in its history that is a an extraordinary amount given that they are a minority of the Union's population um and that perhaps goes some way to explain why Russia might want to reabsorb it you've got Ukrainian creativity you've got Ukrainian Innovation but you've also got the

wealth that comes from the Rich agricultural land Russian propaganda perpetuates this victim complex concerning World War II that the Soviet Union was this peaceful Utopia and those evil Nazis just randomly attacked it and it completely you know Russia kept the anthem Russia views itself as the the the continuation of whatever Soviet history they shared but the statistic that I like to share is that only 5% of modern Russia was ever occupied by the Nazis whereas 100% of Ukraine was occupied by the Nazis for two full years so when we talk about the atrocities and the

hardship experienced by the Soviet people at the hands of the Nazis Ukraine is the victim they're the ones who suffered the most not the Russian people yet Russia has just stolen that narrative and and deprived Ukraine of their own legitimate history in my opinion uh so I I like to share that fact whenever I can the Russians are just out of this world ridiculous uh with how they spend their own history none of it none of it's true when you put it to scrutiny it's an extraordinary is it getting sort of details eyewitness accounts obviously

from the second world war is rather rather difficult now um but some of the facts are little known that you know the most intense Damage Done to KV was not by the retreating German forces but actually the scorched Earth tactics of the Soviet Army as they barreled through um and similarly many Russian cities were turned to Ash and Rubble because of the choices of how to fight those battles and and how to treat those territories once they're liberated I had an extraordinarily I mean this moment hit me like a like a thunderbolt I was uh

staying in a village um near uh novarad which is a great novarad which is about a third of the way down from St Petersburg to uh to MOS OS and speaking to some very elderly people there I mean this is none of them around anymore but they still had the memory from their parents of that Village being occupied by the German forces and they would uh use the church Spire to calibrate their artillery as they sought to pound the center of novarad and actually speaking to some of these old people and getting their stories they

were saying well the Germans weren't too bad you know they they they didn't uh torture us and they didn't destroy our houses for no reason and we could uh quite happily trade our eggs milk and butter and I almost felt they you know one master or the other it makes no difference as long as the master treats you right and allows you to do your Commerce and whatever it was a stunning kind of moment there um we are getting some of that sensation I think in ksk as well that many of the Russians there really

you know your master is is is going to be your master is going to be the person who is powerful Etc um but if they're a benevolent Master it really doesn't make any kind of difference there's no push back there's about 20,000 people living in the occupied territories these are Russian citizens now interacting with the Armed Forces of Ukraine daily and they don't care I mean maybe the True Believers all evacuated but for the people remaining behind whether it's zar Putin or some foreign governments once you said as long as they can still trade their

butter eggs and whatever they don't they don't care who's in charge of them as long as they're left alone but I do want to say there was this video I saw two months ago that haunted me of a a Ukrainian woman who was like 98 99 years old being evacuated from boens she survived German Nazi occupation during World War II uh and then she survived Stalin and she survived Decades of of Soviet Rule and she says the Russians are the worst out of all the atrocities out of all of the rulers out of all the

militaries that have taken her Village and she's survived all of it the Russians are indisputably the worst and I I was in an event uh Ukrainian Independence Event and there were some veterans there uh in in London and one of them actually you know brought this up that he's spent a lot of time over the last couple of years trying to figure out who the enemy is and how they behave um and still I think mystified you know he speaks Russian uh he understands all the primary sources he can watch all the media he has

visited Moscow before he knows a lot of Russians part of his family are Russian and he's still scratching his head and I think one of the answers is is is it's an incorrect framing of the question is why do they treat ukrainians so badly actually it's they treat everyone badly including their own and I think once you realize that that actually you know the trauma the violence they don't distinguish actually between ukrainians in their own given the chance uh they they would potentially sort of Loot and uh maltreat their own citizens do you think that's

does that ring true well you just your question you just phrase the answer they treat ukrainians like they treat their own when they say we don't view a difference between ukrainians and Russians they're the same people well yeah then you're saying you treat your own people like you treat the ukrainians and the occupied territories there's no difference I mean brutality intimidation lies uh it's it it's it's shocking to me as an American as a Westerner having grown up in a relatively peaceful country in the United States uh my entire life I've never experienced what I've

seen the last two and a half years these videos on telegram how the Russians treat their prisoners how they treat their women how they treat the people in the occupied territories I understand uh this is a different part of the world with a very different history than what I've known my entire life um the hord lands going back to the legacy of the Mongols when the Mongols showed up to your city and they said surrender and pay tribute or else we will murder everyone here they did it they severed heads and then they took those

heads to the next town and they launched them over the walls saying we just killed your neighbor surrender and pay tribute join the Empire or else we're going to slaughter everyone in this city that's what the Mongols did so that's the tradition that's the Legacy that the Russians inherited the muscovites uh when the final cons retreated back to their ancestral lands and that's the way it's been for 800 900 years and the Russians understand what soft power is they've tried to do good public relations they want to have this new image uh that they project

to the world but in in in in the Hinterlands you know in in in in the rural areas uh it's it's still savagery all of it uh it's shocking I had no I had no idea it was this bad prior to two and a half years ago and of course it's framed as victimhood isn't it but actually I think there's something more interesting going on here which is what the muscovites learned from the Mongols is not just suffering and trauma but they learned it as a technique as they learned it as a technique to build

Empire to coerce and subjugate their own people uh and to you know keep their uh I would say sort of vertical power structure intact keep the Bas you know the aristocrats and so on um you know keep them in line as well so it's a it's a political technique that perpetuates that trauma it's it's not just trauma on its own it's also the indefensible geography of Central Asia it's just flat and open in every direction and when an enemy unit an enemy Force gets into your lands you can't use geography to contain them there are

no good mountain ranges or coastlines or other traditional Geographic barriers to hold off your enemies and the Russians have known this for over 600 years which is why they uh you know expand in every direction they they entire military Doctrine is based on strategic depth just get the core territories as far away from our enemies as possible so that when an enemy gets in they're going to have to crawl over you know the corpses and millions of our people before they reach Moscow or petrograd or you know the the old capitals of of of of

the old Russian Empire nothing's changed and it's really sad it's really sad that in the postor War II era with this golden opportunity of a reset for the Russians in 1991 and they immediately I mean Putin I'm sure Putin Putin's not very bright but he views himself as has this historical expert you know he spends time talking to or reading about Russian history and he views this as his source of legitimacy for everything he says and does but for someone who claims to be such a history buff to fail at this opportunity because Russia doesn't

need more territory Russia had the ability in 1991 to become one of the most powerful and influential super nations of the world with all of the resources that Russia was blessed with their their uh mineral deposits their oil and gas if they had just invested in their own people built proper schools and hospitals and infrastructure uh to I mean we could be arguing that Russia Today 30 or 40 years later could be an economic Powerhouse comparable or greater than Germany or or or Japan you know it should be number three if it was a real

democracy with real human rights and protections and they actually had an economic agenda that worked for all Russians as opposed to their limited 80 bill you know 80 billion years the the oligarchs let's turn to course because it seems to me at least that ukrainians are starting to build their campaigns and strategy around the understanding of the Russian mindset that we've just been talking about and and Russian history and the political architecture so how important is the ksk counter offensive on many fronts um you know military social psychological political uh and economic because it does

strike an economic blow against uh Russia's War economy too there's so many layers here with Ukraine's Invasion and occupation of this 1200 square kilometers 92 settlements or whatever in k um the first one is very important Ukraine proved to the world Russia has no red lines for 2 and a half years the Russians have been screaming if you deliver any Aid at all to ke we're going to Nuke you f-16s Patriots leopards whatever whatever we're going to Nuke you and now we have Ukrainian Armed Forces invading and occupying Sovereign Russian territory and and nobody is

talking about nukes anymore not medev not Putin not svof because they knew it was all empty rhetoric it was all Hollow threats Russia is not going to use a nuclear weapon because there's no benefit there's there's nowhere on the map they can nuke where a month later it'll be in their favor uh because the global South the Western Community will have such an adverse reaction to this change we the Russians talk about nuclear weapons so casually we forget that one has not been used in in anger in war since 1945 this is a PCT I

don't know how honestly that Humanity has kept with itself for over 80 years that so many countries it really is a lot now you know there's what eight or nine countries that have nuclear weapons and none of them have ever used them because I argue there is no benefit Putin knows this there's nowhere on the map you can nuke where a month from a month from then it'll be to their advantage so that's the important first aspect uh the second one is just about winning I hate the Sports analogies because these are people's lives people

are dying uh but yeah I mean people want to back winners and if Ukraine can achieve something on the battlefield that looks like winning looks like progress in the big picture this is I think a political or an economic collapse as Russia of Russia is necessary for True Victory but people love their map updates and they love seeing the little shaded regions of blue or the Shaded regions of red changing uh so yeah by having momentum getting across the border occupying territory we're already seeing it in the polls I just saw yesterday from The burking

Institute they conducted new polls what do Americans think about support for Ukraine continuing and there's been a sharp Spike and increase over the last three weeks just with Ukraine getting back in the headlines showing progress somewhere on the map people are now saying wow I didn't think Ukraine could do this maybe Ukraine can win this war so this is the political debate that I think zilinski has been thinking about non-stop for the last nine months uh because here in the United States we're going to have this debate again everyone's waiting until the November election is

over but late November December or January Congress is going to have this debate again about another 60 billion in military assistance for Ukraine for the next uh fiscal calendar year and if we get to mud season and Ukraine is still holding this territory that's a talking point that's a debate point in Congress where the congressmen who support Ukraine can put up a map when when speaking on the house floor saying look at what they've done when we give them the tools to succeed let's continue this for another year or two and that raises a really

interesting question it's one that uh we started to explore uh with Ben Hodes sort of earlier earli today when I spoke to him and is the idea that many analysts look at course okay well Ukraine will take this they might hold it they might not but they don't really think about what might come next and those who know what come next of course aren't going to mention it but Ukraine does have potentially a number of options and we are starting to see them push into bilg uh Brians ksk uh and we're also starting to see

them push into hariv I mean there's a possibility there they may actually um push Russia Beyond back over the Russian border and keep going a little bit in order to secure that territory cre buffer zone um for artillery fire there's lots of options they could also push South they could push north um and a really interesting development is the massing of B Russian armor and troops on the border I don't know if you think that that is a serious threat at all or whether it's just a piece of saber rattling but if Ukraine was to

strike North it could potentially uh cut B us off from its Ally um and uh you know that that might let's say encourage uh some independent Spirit amongst the belarussian people so I think there's an extraordinary lack of imagination on our side about what Ukraine can do and I think Ukraine is starting perhaps to think quite imaginatively about these options um do you do you think it's worthwhile speculating uh about this it was Anders Puck neelson who uh I think first pointed this out in the video part of the reason why in May or June

Russia reinvaded Harkey uh is they wanted to put pressure on the border region for Ukraine they wanted Ukraine to take Serious uh you know the border security between Sumi and K and Brans and belgrad uh and and even though the Russians have made very little progress in harke they only only went 5 kilometers deep people who supported Russia were saying well this has value this has benefit because now Ukraine has to fully staff and commit to protecting their entire border well Ukraine looked at what the Russians did in May and June and said well why

don't we just do that to them so this invasion of curse caught them off guard Russia was trying to cheat they were trying to send their best forces all their contract soldiers to the actual war zone well it's all the war zone but the access they were focused on in denes and they were just going SN the border with conscripts people who didn't volunteer for this war people who have no real training no real equipment um they put some chachin there as well basically just to intimidate and Bully the conscripts to keep them in the

trenches but no that's not an effective fighting force and the ukrainians saw it and exposed it so Russia was cheating they thought they didn't have to take their side of the Border serious and Ukraine did in order to waste resources but now it's been flipped so concerning Belarus lucenko is not going to pull the trigger if lucenko actually wanted to invade Ukraine he would have done it two and a half years ago why did lucenko never commit his military to attacking Ukraine two and a half years ago and it's because lukos sheno is a dictator

and dictators only care about one thing keeping themselves alive and staying in power and if lucenko commits his meager military forces I mean his his own military has been picked clean because Russia recl re repurposed it all for themselves there there are pictures of the Russian for uh the Belarusian forces near the border and they don't have things like anti-drone dramers on their tanks are they really going to cross the border with no proper air defense systems or no electronic warfare equipment cuz the Russians have taken it all back uh so I want to believe

deeply all these people are idiots they could definitely make irrational and stupid decisions uh so you have to take it serious but no I I don't think lcas shenko is going to do anything with the K uh Invasion Putin got on the phone and just told lukashenko send everyone to the border to look like it's his it's a threat make Ukraine respond to that but um in my opinion uh the dream scenario for Ukraine is some kind of popular Uprising in Belarus have Belarus become the second front in this war against Russia if people remember

the protests that took place in Belarus in 2019 or 20 I can't remember exactly when that was but hundreds of thousands of people this was lcas shenk's last election that was rigged and Russia had to come in to quell that Russia had to come in to help uh lucenko stay in power so I I I I definitely think the Belarusian people are happy to sit this war out if they can but if their dictator forces them to start dying they could take to the streets and there's nothing Putin can do at this point I think

to save uh lucenko if if if things tip uh in in Belarus and I think you made a really fascinating Point earlier about the spike in uh positive sentiment towards uh Ukraine uh and of course we have seen a media Spike and I don't know if you've seen on your channel as well I tend to feel there's a uplift of Interest amongst the activist and even the non-activist community as uh around corus it does emphasize the point however that allies over the last uh year and a half at least have been trying to push Ukraine

into a style of warfare that does not generate this kind of positive sentiment that does not generate sort of maneuver Warfare and the kind of things Ukraine has building opportuni to do in kusk it's as if we've been trying to get Ukraine to fight a war that gives them a disadvantage against Russian uh mass and brutality um and they've decided not to play that particular game anymore and you know it's met with some extraordinary success why would we however be so afraid so cautious to so timid of Ukrainian victories um that uh you know we

don't suggest to them to fight like this uh they have to kind of Almost Do it in secrecy without telling their allies the the ultimate fear is a Russian Civil War in which Regional Warlords all have nuclear weapons I mean that's nothing's changed in the last two and a half years uh I I I've made this argument but I don't think anybody in Western intelligence is trying to assassinate Putin the ukrainians might be trying but the CIA MI6 I I I think Washington DC has told Putin himself we're not trying to kill you we're actually

trying to keep you in power but we want you to go back to your own country and stay there the nightmare scenario is you die and then people start killing each other in Russia with nuclear weapons fighting over gold mines and oil fields and mineral deposits my argument is we we can't do this anymore after two and a half years Putin is never going to back down Putin is never going Putin is Putin is willing to die to get this some kind of tangible win for the historical record this man is so delusional about his

own greatness so it's not up to us if Russia dissolves and falls apart and then people start using nukes to kill each other fighting over gold mines and oil deposits it's not our fault if this happens I understand we're looking at a nightmare alternative reality in the future where millions of people are dying um but we're just going to have to deal with it as a global Community if Russia collapse and nukes start flying then we're going to have to have help from China we're going to have to help get help from India to find

these nukes contain these nukes secure these nukes deal with these Warlords uh and then come up with some kind of Martial plan to rebuild Russia but I don't think Russia should ever be allowed to uh reconsolidate Power in the Kremlin ever again because this this cycle is just going to keep repeating uh I I think the best scenario for the people of the caucuses Eastern Europe and Central Asia is Russia needs to be decolonized we need about 14 new bellarus siiz countries across the Eurasian Plains and let those people finally have real representative governments that

share the of their natural you know Landscapes with the people is it's going to take decades it's going to take decades to stabilize this part of the world if Russia falls apart but it's not it's not our fault we didn't do this it's one man and what he wanted Putin and I think that hard thinking that hard planning is something which uh a lot of governments just uh want to stick their heads in the sand and really not think about it one in point you make there though I mean Putin is sacrificing literally hundreds of

thousands of people not just on the Ukrainian side but on his own side as well a sea of blood in order to keep himself alive day in day out week in week out and for those I think on the cautious western side who are looking to manage escalation risk um we have essentially seeded escalation dominance to Putin and the no sign that he will show any kind of moderation or Humanity last year we had the destruction of the kovka dam we've had threats against the zapia nuclear power station Russia seems to be intimating threats against

its own nuclear power station in ksk I don't think Putin is beyond destroying his own power station if you think he can pin it on Ukraine and it also seems that there's been a mass poisoning in the CM river which is that River in kurk which uh the ukrainians are using as a kind of natural forication I wouldn't be at all surprised if that wasn't also in some way engineered to deprive ukrainians of the ability to go through that water drink that water to get food or fish from that water or whatever um Putin it

seems to me is capable of almost uh any heinous act and the missiles that were flying on on Monday and Tuesday were hitting the Kiev hydroelectric stations but also it seems they may have been aiming for the dam itself unlikely they destroy it but again do you think Russia is is perfectly capable of causing another Eco side uh if they were given the opportunity to do so yes pu pu doesn't care how many people die he doesn't care how many dams are destroyed he doesn't care if there's another nuclear meltdown of a power plants nothing

nothing matters he just wants to uh stay alive and look strong because that earns him political capital for doing his deals around the world um concerning the river the river does flow from east to west so it actually enters Ukraine after that point but as far as poisoning the river I mean water tables extend in in under the under the ground in every direction so there's no way to effectively poison a river indefinitely you can do it temporarily but the bedrock in the soil acts as a filter it'll just absorb it so long term you

can't you can't do that uh as far as what were we talking about you said uh you said this the nuclear threat there's the the um ksk uh nuclear power station and Russia has uh been saying that Ukrainian uh forces have been firing artillery shells at it um on occasions before where these kind of accusations have been flying it is just as likely that Russians have been shelling their own infrastructure um and really the idea of this speculation here is they wouldn't be Beyond uh you know causing some form of Devastation on their own territory

if it was to D that territory to Ukrainian forces we've been hearing this argument from Russians that parts of their own territory don't matter uh they they argued this on Kremlin State tv that Russia is so big the relative territory that Ukraine is taken and cursed actually doesn't matter you know the solv off and and the Kremlin has prepared people that this is the new normal sometimes ukrainians just will occupy part of our country it's not a big deal Russia is massive we're still making progress towards Picos in the denes region the The Narrative that

Russia Neely will win this war when there's nothing inevitable about anything Russia is doing their their resources are finite they can't do this forever uh so I think we were talking about potentially Putin and will he ever back down will he ever admit defeat basically and and try to go for peace and I think that's what we've been seeing I think the indications the last three months you know Victor orbon with his world peace tour and all of the these flags are going up the release of these Russian dissidents uh part of this transfer of

uh American citizens with uh Russian arms dealers and assassins Putin is sending signals through proxies you know in in in the Middle East as well as uh you know friendlies in Europe they want a deal they want a ceasefire Putin gave a press conference saying his acceptable terms were give us everything we fail to take and we will start talking about a ceasefire that's not really a good deal but I think he knows I think he knows how bads this is getting just this morning another three oil refineries were hit uh Ukraine just announced they

have this new jet drone in mass production uh and they just successfully test fired their own domestically produced ballistic missile there there is no one Silver Bullet there is no one one wonder weapon but we keep seeing all of these additional tools all of these additional capabilities Ukraine is suffering I'm not I'm not going to Discount that but considering financial and military aid being provided by the West it's enough to keep Ukraine going whereas nobody's going to save Russia once uh Russia financially is spent Chinese aren't going to loan the money the Indians aren't going

to loan them money one once they can no longer pack Planes full of gold to pay for stuff people are going to stop giving them stuff and uh we we we'll see if they can keep fighting or they want to fight when hyperinflation comes and nobody can even buy food at the grocery store anymore and that uh that takes us back to the 90s where certainly in many rural parts of Russia people reverted back to a barter economy I mean there wasn't even cash circulating among certain portions of the population one can imagine a fast

track to that for many people as well now Ukraine has asked uh or provided rather a list of Targets in Russia that it wants to hit these are the launch sites for Shahs and for various types of projectile which we know are causing tremendous suffering in Ukraine and hitting its infrastructure at this point however they're having to do it with their domestically you know made drones as you mentioned because they're not allowed to use the weapons that are ideal to hit the airfields on the launch sites which is attacks I think the KK offensive was

was designed partly to show that there are no real red lines no real repercussions to striking deep into Russia but unfortunately the US has not lifted the Embargo on that it's not ease those red lines at least publicly and it has made sure I think that allies such as Britain um cannot give permission uh for things like storm Shadows to be used as substitute Utes I mean I know what you're going to say here I mean this needs to change but how can Ukraine change uh Minds in us to to get this policy reversed so

for your audience uh this is in Mission but I think um I think the United States military has a veto power over what other allies can say and do that might lead NATO to go to war so the Secretary General of NATO is always a European but the uh Supreme Allied Commander of NATO is always an American and the reason why it's always an American is because we bring the most military hardware to the fight if NATO goes to war all of the NATO and Military assets of the other countries Britain France Germany whoever they

become subordinate to the US military chain in command in times of War so any decision that other NATO military countries might make that might lead NATO to war is going to go across the desk of the NATO Allied Supreme Commander who's always American he he answers to the United States presidents and the National Security Council Jake Sullivan that's why I'm convinced the UK wants Storm Shadow cruise missiles to be used and it's the United States saying no we can speculate uh why and I've made the political arguments that the United States doesn't want anything crazy

to happen prior to our November election something that Donald Trump could spin that if he were elected this could have been avoided you know some kind of provocation from North Korea Iran or Russia Donald Trump at the moment is losing and he would love for some kind of wild event to occur that he could spin now it could backfire you know if if Russia does something and US service members die and there's a rally around the flag flag effect that could help the incumbent party or it could help the opposition so neither side knows how

the American public would react to a provocation but I actually think both I think both the Trump campaign and the Harris campaign they just don't want anything crazy to happen for the next 70 days uh so I do think there will be some policy changes come late November December and January but not not until then that's that's the political answer uh we're speculating the other the other aspect could be the United States just wants Ukraine to do it so they have plausible deniability these successfully tested domestically produced ballistic missiles these new jet drones we don't

know what the United States is doing to help the ukrainians or enable the ukrainians to manufacture their own stuff so they might be saying no to 300 kilometer attacks because they know in the short term Ukraine's going to have their own domestically produced resources that can go a lot deeper than 300 kilometers and then the United States can act like the good cop to the Russians we can call them up on the red phone and say oh those crazy ukrainians you really upset them now they've got all these jet drones and ballistic missiles if you

want to talk Russia the United States can facilitate that because we can work with the ukrainians if you want some kind of deal it we've speculated this you know both both Ukrainian and the Russians keep talking about peace plans and peace talks and peace conferences we'll see if everyone's still talking that way after the November election because it is all about framing the debate to get more military aid once once those votes occur here in the United States and of course Russia was keen on talking peace when it thought it had the upper hand when

it thought it had its hands around Ukraine's windpipe ksk and as you mentioned earlier the strikes against oil refineries which are do seem to be increasing uh in their accuracy and impact and today the first major civilian uh energy generating facility Electric Plant was hit apparently the fifth largest in Russia I think that's a shot across the boughs to say look we we can we can move this wider if you want Russia if you are so determined to take out our energy infrastructure well be careful what you wish for because you'll experience the the same

thing it does seem that Ukraine is trying to stack its hand as it were before a potential winter freeze and before the next calls for uh negotiations to make sure it has a strong negotiating hand do you think that one of the sort of significant uh reasons why we're seeing an uptick in in so much Ukraine activity uh and so much I would say Innovation and boldness from them I think Ukraine knows that a freeze in the conflict is a death sentence you know if if Ukraine is not getting enough material to defend themselves today

why would they expect to be getting more if there's a freeze in the conflict if we're talking about Germany reducing their entire defense budgets you know reducing their military support for Ukraine well it would be even lower if there was a freeze in the conflict and and Russia knows this that if they can freeze it then Western governments will lose focus they lose attention Western capitals will go back to talking about their own domestic issues and budget problems with health insurance and you know infrastructure or whatever and then the Russians can continue producing everything as

fast as possible wait two three four five years and then just start the war again lights out for Ukraine so we need to finish this once and for all now I understand people are suffering people are dying but but zilinski is not going to fall for this he he he knows that under no circumstances can they stop this war now because Russia will just pause mobilize rearm and come back for more and it doesn't matter what Putin says in the short term especially as the Russian economy really seems to be uh suffering um and China

and uh turkey who are you know really depends on those two countries for uh various sort of import export credits and for the sort of financial uh Machinery to help keep its economy going that seems to have sort of at least paused for the moment under the pressure of us secondary sanctions so this is rather a successful tactic I think of the administration and one that is perhaps seen as less escalatory um do you think Ukraine uh is is is super aware that this is the time now where Russia is perhaps at its weakest and

most fragile not just militarily but certainly economically prior to February of 2022 I was talking about finance and investing topics on my YouTube channel so I have I I I was paying attention during all of the economic stimulus of the co era uh when the pandemic kicked off central banks around the world dropped their rates to zero governments just were handing out free checks to everyone to keep the global economy going during a pandemic uh and it's 20124 it's it's been three over three years and the money still is going like it hasn't stopped uh

so we haven't been in an economic contraction period recessions are inevitable recessions are the natural cycle of capital markets and Russia's been able to Coast on this war with high oil oil prices and an economic boom I posted you know something negative about Russia's economy on Twitter and some random person left a comment saying well look at these Bond rates you know actually I think Russia might be a good investment opportunity because look at these returns money is fungible you can put it anywhere in the world to put it to work so there are people

willing to still put their money in Russia and and and risk it for those High rates those High returns because asset prices everywhere else in the world are so high when you look at you know the uh price to earnings ratio of the S&P 500 when you look at how high Bitcoin is real estate prices everything is still so Skyhigh expensive making relative Investments for Global Investors inside of Russia still attractive despite the fact the countries at War uh so when a contraction comes rat flee the sinking ship uh they want to move their money

somewhere else so I would I would love to see a minor dip in global markets uh because I think the crash will hit Russia the hardest and when when the contraction comes you just have to endure it eventually it does bottom out and then there will be a recovery it's been this way for 300 years people don't need to freak out think long term but in the short term this could bring Russia to its knees and and and we're getting close with the FED announcing they're going to start cutting rates inflation here in the United

States is already down I think to like 2.8% or something unemployment is ticking up as an American these are not good indicators but as someone who wants to see Russia economically devastated and crippled this could be beneficial to us uh this winter so I've got one more question on this main video and then there's going to be one electric question of bonus material which people can find on the second Channel there'll be a link in the video where they can find that the last question on this one though is of course winter is coming and

everything ukrainians are doing is not just mindful of the election in the US yes great book um and of course Game of Thrones fans will will get the Resonance of that as well um but it's certainly coming and a lot of Ukraine's calculus will be around the election cycle but it'll be around potentially the difficulty of continuing campaigning through the winter and taking you know significant territory certainly uh within Russia therefore they've got potentially another couple of weeks another month or so another couple of months to really make some significant progress to keep Ukraine in

the headlines to position it for as you said earlier um both the media and the sort of political community in the US to to to say oh well you know Ukraine wow they they did so much um before the winter set in does that mean the next couple of weeks next couple of months are potentially going to throw up some sort of extraordinary things um what are your what are your expectations here we're still getting superlatives every day in this war two and a half years into it this oil Depot fire in rostoff has been

going for nine days has the world ever had an oil Depot fire going for n days Russia just this week launched their largest ever Air Assault something like 230 or 240 missiles and drones in a single night uh so I'm I cover this war daily and there's we're still seeing new things it's not routine it's not just the same thing happening over and over uh so I I still think for Global media they should be reporting this war they should be talking about what's happening um because this is history this is history happening right now

uh and and for people who are fans of current events or history I mean if you want to be reading books about this conflict or watching documentaries 10 20 30 years from now you should really be paying attention to it today this is important what's happening uh here in the United States though our politics is just insufferable it's terrible but it sucks all the oxygen out of the room uh so I think as far as how can we get Ukraine in the headlines prior to November 5th or whatever don't even try uh but once the

election is over I think there's more room for more stories and coverage of what's Happening uh in Ukraine and Russia we have to mention your drive as well your relaunching your fundraiser for uh vehicles for Ukraine could you give a brief description of that and describe how people can help towards it because the previous one you did was just beyond all expectations it's energized the activist Community is an incredible uh thing you managed to achieve there and I'm guessing you hope to better it with this one so the organization that purchases trucks and drones and

delivers them to uh Ukrainian Frontline units is the nafo 69 sniffing Brigade they're based out of Estonia uh so they contacted me if I'd like to do a fundraising campaign partnered with them I don't see or handle any of the money I'm just the pr Guy saying I've partnered with these fine gentlemen from Estonia give them your money and we'll show you the proof we'll show you the evidence of the trucks and drones and anti-drone systems Med packs socks you know whatever uh and yeah it was incredible for my birthday I wanted to donate my

birthday to Ukraine like don't buy me anything don't give me money uh donate to this uh charity drive and let's see what we can do the goal was for $4,000 my secret goal was always 100,000 and it just took off it went crazy and we ended up fundraising 1.2 million over 15,000 individual people donated uh so we we waited three or four months uh the the 69th guys were delivering about 10 trucks a month they had other campaigns and other trucks they were working on for other uh Partners so but as soon as all 30

were delivered we did another one and I wasn't going to be shy this time I wasn't going to try and lowball myself and say let's just do 100 or 200,000 I just told my audience the goal is a million because I know it's possible if if 15,000 people got us to a million and on average 300,000 people watch my videos that's only 5% of my audience now I know there's lots of people who don't have the financial means right now to donate or they donate in other ways to other organizations that's that's fine don't worry

about that uh remaining informed remaining engaged watching these videos you're you're already supporting uh but yeah we did it again we did it in seven days exactly a week we got to a million dollars again so this is going to be another 30 trucks another 500 plus drones anti-drone systems Med packs whatever uh and we're going to see these delivered over the next three three months I titled the campaign one 1,000 days of War uh because the 1,000th day of this war since the full scale Invasion I think will be November 20th uh coming up

in less than three months that's been uh absolutely thrilling as always Jake and I encourage people to watch your material if you want to see the little bonus episode then please go to the second Channel but for this one Jake hugely appreciate you spending the time coming on thanks Jonathan