Human Events Daily with Jack Posobiec - MAY 30 2022 - THE NIGHT TRAIN TO ODESSA

00:00:00.000 a very special episode for you today something that was completely unannounced and a little bit

00:00:07.200 unplanned but here we go this episode is entitled the night train to odessa and is recorded in

00:00:16.740 various points along the route from lviv to odessa to mikolaev in southern ukraine you guys

00:00:25.040 are really in for something special here before we get into that i want to mention very quickly

00:00:29.740 what's going on tposa.com we have the conservative response to the great reset book that's out by

00:00:36.800 charlie kirk you go to reset.tposa.com and then if you want to register for turning point the student

00:00:42.300 action summit it's tposa.com slash sass use promo code poso all caps p-o-s-o for 25 off that's going

00:00:50.560 to be july 22nd to 24th 2022 and president trump of course is a confirmed speaker i've also heard a

00:00:58.240 certain florida governor might be there

00:01:00.500 ladies and gentlemen welcome aboard for a very special edition of human events daily

00:01:18.840 powered by turning point usa the sound you hear in the background it may sound suspiciously like

00:01:27.760 the noises of an ongoing train and the reason for that is because i'm currently recording this

00:01:35.900 from the forward compartment of an overnight train between odessa and lviv in ukraine

00:01:43.340 so to get everyone up to speed after the events of the detention in davos that happened last week

00:01:53.100 we continued to report on the world economic forum we continued to report on the world health

00:02:01.460 organization's assembly meeting in geneva having driven about three hours to get there three hours

00:02:07.160 back and one day myself and the crew were filming a documentary called the great global

00:02:13.180 reset that's going to be available at tposa.com when we get the whole thing up

00:02:17.120 i then had originally planned to fly back on friday evening from switzerland directly to the u.s

00:02:28.240 but then you know just something about being over in europe already i didn't want to not stop and visit

00:02:36.620 from my family's home country of poland so we stopped by to visit poland and to see family for the weekend

00:02:44.860 and while we were there i was reaching out to a few contacts on the ground local journalists local activists

00:02:53.720 who said essentially that if we wanted to they would be able to get us into lviv

00:03:00.380 and then get the necessary approvals to travel all the way forward from lviv where it's quite safe

00:03:07.160 into odessa and then into mikolaev and from odessa to mikolaev you're only a little bit further away

00:03:15.980 from herson probably about 15 20 miles at the closest point from russian occupied territory

00:03:24.840 and when we saw that opportunity and saw that it was being done safely and conducted

00:03:30.380 in a legitimate proper manner with proper authorization the ability to get us through

00:03:35.960 checkpoints we decided to take them up on the offer and so we did it so we took an overnight train

00:03:42.340 uh into odessa from lviv we then took a car we met with local journalists in odessa traveled around

00:03:53.860 odessa we're able to visit with a few people then traveled from odessa over to mikolaev and we're able

00:04:01.540 to see firsthand the effects of this war up close so let's take it back to the beginning we left my

00:04:13.540 cousin's house in poland and traveled to the train station uh shamsil which is just across the border with

00:04:20.820 lviv at that point we probably had to wait so we had an eight o'clock train but we probably had to

00:04:27.460 wait an hour to an hour and a half in line with the sheer amount of people that were standing there

00:04:34.420 waiting to get back into ukraine now these were ukrainians that were on their way back in and we've

00:04:41.300 got photos you've got videos on a lot of this but really the entire train was completely sold out

00:04:47.380 of people heading on their way back into ukraine now we were told anecdotally by some of the activists

00:04:54.260 who uh helped us arrange the tickets and get across they were saying that if you took the road so if

00:05:00.980 you tried to take by bus or by car uh and try to drive across the border that you could be facing

00:05:07.940 travel times of a six hour wait to a 10 hour wait some people even seeing 12 hours more or longer

00:05:16.100 weights and they said the train really was the fastest way to get across and so we took that

00:05:21.300 option um wholeheartedly because i've taken the train even in peacetime from belarus into poland and

00:05:29.300 one of the big issues there of course obviously is belarus is not a member of the eu it's not part of

00:05:33.300 the schengen zone and i've tried taking that border both by bus and by train and clearly clearly by train

00:05:40.260 it was absolutely the best way and that was even of course in the time of peace about five years ago

00:05:45.460 where there was no war going on whatsoever now interestingly enough uh at the time of this

00:05:51.780 recording i have not yet returned back into the eu or back into schengen zone so we'll obviously have

00:05:57.940 to see how that goes but we've been told is that a lot of those uh a lot of those restrictions for

00:06:04.020 example covid restrictions have been completely dropped when you're traveling between lviv into poland

00:06:10.580 or traveling from ukraine into poland and as an american you we were already allowed to travel

00:06:15.940 into ukraine for i believe up to 30 days without a visa prior to all of this um but for even now

00:06:23.220 they've made it much much easier to get in we were told actually the city of lviv right now is about 25

00:06:29.780 americans and going around with some of the activist networks some of the on the ground networks that we

00:06:34.740 met with they told us i mean it was predominantly american american run but of course americans ukraine

00:06:40.500 working together some of them were faith-based networks some of them were military-based networks

00:06:47.140 when i say military-based i mean veterans volunteers that type of thing not official u.s military obviously

00:06:53.780 but that being said a large amount of people were veterans and of course those veterans were then taking

00:06:58.580 up leadership positions in all of this so took the train across um train actually was very comfortable

00:07:06.420 once we got on even though it was a considerably long time to wait to get on now uh i personally

00:07:12.260 am not vaccinated and so i've been able to get through all of the eu and then even into ukraine

00:07:18.980 without a vaccination or even anybody asking me for any kind of medical status or tests whatsoever so

00:07:26.340 hop on that train and that really only took about three hours um very very slow mind you if you were

00:07:32.660 driving and obviously the situation were not what it is it would probably only take you about two hours

00:07:39.460 drive but it was a very slow train across from ukraine into poland and all along the way even at that

00:07:45.380 point the minute that we crossed from ukraine into poland or excuse me from poland into ukraine we

00:07:51.460 immediately started seeing these small villages with defensive outposts barricades volunteers of people you

00:08:00.180 know just standing outside the guard you know kind of the entrance road to that village or that settlement

00:08:06.660 armed with ak-47s sometimes wearing uniforms sometimes wearing kind of makeshift uniforms 1.00

00:08:12.660 and soldiers just everywhere soldiers on the train soldiers running the customs checkpoint at the border

00:08:19.060 soldiers were ubiquitous throughout the entire time that we traveled in and around ukraine

00:08:24.420 uh obviously obviously as you can imagine they've considerably beefed up their numbers and briefed

00:08:32.340 up their active presence patrols in order to protect against behind the scenes or behind the lines

00:08:38.020 activity being on the lookout for spies being on the lookout for subversives that type of thing

00:08:43.060 and so really the military presence with those ubiquitous golden armbands was just everywhere throughout ukraine

00:08:49.780 when we were on the train at one point actually uh my brother who i was traveling with he we were facing

00:08:57.460 separately because they're in different seats and he saw and recounted to me afterwards that when they

00:09:03.780 were going around asking us for passports one individual happened to be of russian descent and because

00:09:10.340 they had a russian passport that person was actually taken out of their seat and taken out of the car that we

00:09:16.580 were sitting in to some other area on the train it was moving at this point and we didn't see that person

00:09:22.900 again so that guy got taken away moving forward get into lviv pretty hectic area as you can imagine

00:09:33.380 once we got in hustle and bustle people moving everywhere humanitarian aid and tents all over the place

00:09:39.860 and free meals free food some basic humanitarian supplies and we're meeting for local contact

00:09:48.660 who would give us an address so we were able to find a local um local taxi driver went with the went

00:09:57.060 with the nice looking old guy as opposed to the the younger looking guys who uh looked like they might

00:10:02.260 screw you over because well when you're a situation like that you want to go with the friendly looking

00:10:06.420 older guy if you can if you have your chance and now they do have and this was something that

00:10:13.380 i didn't even realize going into it they do have uh bolt cars which is essentially the eastern europe or

00:10:19.780 a lot of europe's part uh their version of uber they also had uber up and running so both both bolt

00:10:25.940 and uber rideshare apps were running at this time and are running at this time that i'm recording this

00:10:31.860 and as a matter of fact the trains were running as well so we saw in the train station the trains not

00:10:36.660 only were running to lviv trains were running to kiev they're running to uh dnepr they're running to

00:10:45.140 zaporozha they're running all the way down to odessa that's the train that we took and so even all the

00:10:50.900 way up to uh harkov so which is right on the border with russia so the trains on at least the western

00:10:58.820 side of ukraine are running all the way across to the dnep river and i think that's something that's

00:11:03.460 been lost in a lot of the coverage in the war right now you know we hear this settlement's been taken

00:11:09.700 that settlement's been taken we hear that uh russia has stopped their advances on harkov and kiev

00:11:17.140 and some of the other locations in the south like uh nikolaev and odessa but has hardened their advance

00:11:23.700 and is continuing their advance in the donbass region so donetsk lugansk provinces as well as

00:11:29.940 across the line from herson which we'll get to but one thing that you know i just completely hadn't heard

00:11:36.660 was that the trains are still running all the way across from the border with poland all the way

00:11:43.300 essentially all the way to the border with russia in in harkov so if you want to go all the way across

00:11:48.660 and if you so choose you know feel free to um we actually had the opportunity to go to uh dnepro city

00:11:58.180 right on the dnep river as well as zaporozha and then continuing further south but we just

00:12:04.900 didn't have enough time in the schedule to do this and at some point if uh if this all continues i would

00:12:11.860 like to come back and do a further tour um run really focusing specifically on ukraine and what's going

00:12:18.580 on there in their fight so we get off the train at lviv huge hustle and bustle and i was going

00:12:25.940 to order one of those rideshare apps but i had bought a vodafone sim card while i was traveling

00:12:31.860 throughout europe and i've been there for about two weeks and this thing worked completely fine got a

00:12:36.900 great deal just as we were transferring across the airport in dublin and from there we were not

00:12:42.820 able i was able to use it all the way across europe but yep no such luck when i got to ukraine

00:12:48.180 so back to the drawing board and had to use good old-fashioned people skills so once again that's

00:12:54.660 a good reason to know people skills boys and girls you want to be able to actually talk to people in

00:13:00.420 the real world and be able to have a conversation get where you need to go and have the ability to

00:13:06.500 just operate without relying on apps on a little piece of glass in your hand you know just regular

00:13:13.620 real world discussions and the other thing was making sure we had cash you want to make sure

00:13:19.380 you've got cash on hand when you're going to be in a place like that you don't know where your card's

00:13:23.460 going to work or something you know your your debit card's going to get locked your credit card's

00:13:27.540 going to get locked for being in a different area or you're going to need talking to somebody who

00:13:32.420 doesn't have a credit card but you know what cash is king in these situations so first thing we did

00:13:37.780 we got off the train got some cash linked up with the old guy with the taxi and he took us off to

00:13:43.700 our first meeting in lviv wanted to take a moment to let you guys know about my friends at public

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00:14:58.260 now for opsec purposes i'm not going to be putting out any information regarding who we met where

00:15:04.740 we met them when we met them anything like that but suffice to say a network of americans ukrainians

00:15:10.340 very helpful once we got to lviv we were able to receive documentation we were able to

00:15:16.980 get a place to stay and we were able to get transport on further down to odessa and mikoliath

00:15:22.660 that's kind of the main thing that we were trying to do while we were in lviv but also wanted to meet

00:15:26.340 with people that were plugged into some of these local networks figure out who they were but also figure

00:15:30.980 out what they were up to and what was the situation in lviv but before i get to any of that just want

00:15:37.140 to say you know the city of lviv i was not prepared for how beautiful it was uh it really is just a

00:15:43.700 gorgeous old city reminded me a lot of krakow a lot of the city was built during the time when it was

00:15:51.220 poland um also a lot of it was built during the time that was in under the austrian empire so that city

00:15:57.380 has gone back and forth again and again over the centuries between who is essentially in charge

00:16:03.140 of it later then of course after world war ii it became a soviet city and then following the fall

00:16:08.500 of the collapse of the soviet union it was given to the newly formed country of ukraine following the

00:16:15.700 collapse of world war ii the excuse me the collapse of the soviet union so traveling through lviv just

00:16:22.980 again really impressed really stunned by the amount of churches the amount of orthodox and

00:16:28.020 also catholic churches we stopped in a good number of greek catholic churches while we were there we

00:16:32.500 even went into what's known as the garrison church that's the church where many of the funerals have

00:16:37.460 been held for members of the ukrainian military and the armed forces as well as volunteers who have lost

00:16:43.540 their lives not just in the recent fighting but going all the way back to 2014 it was very moving to be

00:16:48.580 there uh in those churches and these are active churches i want to keep in mind that uh there are

00:16:53.460 weddings going on these churches baptisms services at all times and just really amazing to be able to

00:16:58.900 be there and to say prayers to pray for the people of ukraine while they're going through this um but also

00:17:06.580 when we got to lviv one thing i i really think that hasn't come across in the mainstream reporting

00:17:11.380 because most of the mainstream reporters and people uh who are fakers like malcolm nance are in lviv

00:17:16.740 and lviv is quite safe uh lviv is a hustling bustling city there is commerce going on in

00:17:25.140 the streets it's the city of courtyards and cobblestones so you're traveling through you're

00:17:29.540 walking around your cafes open there's jazz bars open there's people playing music on the street um

00:17:37.780 just a whole cavalcade of of human life and lots moving parts lots of things going

00:17:46.660 on all happening right there on the ground in ukraine and it almost it almost seems like if

00:17:53.540 you if you didn't know right if you didn't know that there was a war going on in the other part of

00:17:58.260 the country you would almost think that it was just a regular day in the city in lviv rained a little

00:18:03.940 bit while we were there but for the most part the sun was shining it was only brief rain

00:18:08.180 and there was still this sense though there was this this heaviness that hung in the air

00:18:14.500 and everybody you know everybody walked a little bit quicker everybody sort of picked up their pace

00:18:20.820 you know they they held their belongings tighter than you might normally think and you know just

00:18:26.500 seemed to be this general tension throughout the entire city that being said people were outside

00:18:32.740 people were enjoying themselves they were enjoying life and one of our local contacts there told us that

00:18:37.540 that's that's normal for lviv that that's the normal pattern of life for the city that it is a very free

00:18:42.580 city very open and uh just has a lot of joy of life can't get over the exquisite buildings and

00:18:49.700 architecture that we saw in lviv i mean we're talking stuff that rivaled easily easily uh the cities and

00:18:56.740 architecture of budapest of which i'm an enormous fan and we're talking gothic baroque style architecture

00:19:06.180 you know even just just apartment buildings that look absolutely gorgeous when you look at them

00:19:10.260 not all of them obviously you can tell which ones were built and that's that's sort of the story of

00:19:14.180 the city um the patchwork of lviv is that you can tell which cities were built or which parts of the

00:19:19.220 city were built during which era so the polish era then followed by the soviet era and now the current

00:19:25.300 era one thing that was interesting is pretty much every catholic church that we went into while we were

00:19:30.020 there even though they're now part of the greek catholic church uh so many of the murals so many of

00:19:35.780 the plaques that were up were all written in polish my polish is definitely not the best but i was able

00:19:42.020 to muddle my way through through some of it and could clearly clearly tell that it was uh it was written

00:19:46.820 in polish and so we spent the better part of the day in lviv and then once we realized that the trains

00:19:57.460 were running and the trains were going at the pace they were we decided that we would buy the tickets

00:20:02.260 overnight to odessa and see where we could get from there um just before that though we were able to

00:20:08.740 meet with some local local activists we had heard about the recent bombing in dinepro at the barracks

00:20:16.100 there something like 38 killed and wounded at the military was the national guard barracks in dinepro the

00:20:21.940 night before and we would actually been looking to see if we could get overnight train tickets to dinepro

00:20:27.540 or possibly take a drive but it looked like the direct tickets were all sold out for that night

00:20:32.580 and so if we wanted to we would have had to take a transfer through kiev stay there for about six

00:20:37.700 hours so it really would have only given us um maybe half a day at best in dinepro which just really

00:20:43.380 wasn't long enough for us to be able to see anything that was on the ground there so we decided to end up

00:20:47.380 going to odessa but after meeting with some of the local activists and kind of seeing some of the

00:20:51.700 situations that were there you know you're hearing these stories about this humanitarian aid coming

00:20:57.860 in through lviv from the west but really it just seemed like such a hodgepodge and a patchwork of

00:21:05.860 efforts on the volunteer front and the humanitarian front so you know piles of tourniquets and quick

00:21:13.540 clot and bandages just stacked up on a guy's living room couch and you know somebody else saying that

00:21:20.660 they were going to throw it in these are americans and and and people saying oh i'm going to throw up

00:21:24.340 my car and drive it down to the people who need it right and so your question of course is well

00:21:28.500 where's the normal supply line where's the where's the regular supply chain why you know why are you

00:21:33.220 driving it directly and taking that risk on and and people saying well either one that the supply

00:21:39.380 chain wasn't working or number two we were told a story from a guy who was able to procure ak or excuse me

00:21:46.740 ar-15s from a polish arms dealer obviously much more expensive than usual trade them and bring them 0.99

00:21:54.820 into poland or excuse me bring them into ukraine across the border then hand them to a local defense

00:22:00.020 unit that wanted them for defense around kiev and this was a group of ukrainian volunteers and so the

00:22:07.140 contact was saying all right well let me see if i can get you weapons but i i'm not sure if i can get

00:22:12.100 the ars because we've sold so many of them lately but i can definitely get you ak-47s but then this

00:22:17.460 group suddenly said well if you can't get ars then we don't want them and they said oh okay fine and 0.99

00:22:22.740 then but then they turned around saying oh you know what though we're going to need some of these

00:22:28.580 ars for defense of our apartment building in kiev in case the russians come there 0.98

00:22:33.860 which of course kiev is a city of you know three million people so if the russians are

00:22:38.660 if they're at the point that they're at your house in an apartment building in downtown kiev you're

00:22:44.500 going to need something a little more powerful than ar-15 at that point but what the guy said

00:22:48.820 back to the contact was you know we we also need some humanitarian aid here in kiev and you know to

00:22:55.940 which of course raised a bit of a red flag what do you mean you're you're a volunteer defense unit

00:22:59.220 what do you mean you need humanitarian aid and then they said well can you just cut us a check for

00:23:02.980 about you know about a hundred thousand grivna i say what do you mean a hundred thousand and then

00:23:09.780 it dawned on him that about a hundred thousand grivna was the price for and they've been discussing

00:23:15.780 five ar-15 so 20 000 grivna each and so basically what he thinks had been happening was that the thing

00:23:23.140 was a scam and they were trying to get the ars off of him so that they could sell them and then pocket

00:23:28.340 the money in in you know in the middle but because he was saying no that perhaps these guys had already

00:23:35.300 promised people that they were going to be getting the ars and if they didn't get them then they

00:23:39.620 obviously had a problem on their hands so they were hoping to buy their way out of that problem

00:23:43.300 by getting whatever money they had been fronted up front for the ar so asking for the money for the

00:23:48.820 exact price of about five ar-15s so this is the kind of stuff that we that we you know we hear

00:23:54.500 anecdotally that's going on kind of behind the scenes coming through lviv obviously a lot of

00:23:59.140 weapons a lot of material coming through and that's the big point of it right so lviv is where

00:24:04.820 the supplies come in through the west and then they are distributed throughout the country following

00:24:09.540 that whether by hook or by crook networks of journalists and activists and partisans

00:24:15.860 that are working together to put this whole thing together get it down to people who are fighting

00:24:20.740 at the front down the front for the most part right now is the dnepper river and then

00:24:27.300 beyond that the front contact line in donbass so a lot of the supplies that we were hearing about

00:24:33.140 were coming across the line and then going towards that front line in uh along the dnepper river really

00:24:38.740 to to maintain that and if you look just on obviously there's been a lot of conflicting maps and

00:24:44.580 conflicting information that's come out in terms of where the lines are where things are drawn

00:24:48.820 but if you look on the map really the only place that the russian forces and the rebels have been

00:24:54.500 able to establish across the dnepper river is right at the mouth of it at herson and so in some of the

00:25:01.860 other areas as you go up the river from the black sea and crimea at which are at the end of the river

00:25:07.380 on herson at the end of the river all the way up towards kiev and then you know it eventually goes into

00:25:13.060 up towards belarus and the russian border so herson is really the only place that the russians have been

00:25:17.780 able to cross the river and so a lot of these towns like dnepro and uh zaporozha you know these are

00:25:26.340 potentially what people think may be the fallback positions should donbass go down should donbass fall

00:25:33.380 this cauldron situation that the ukrainian army and the russian army are fighting out right now

00:25:38.420 should they be forced to evacuate retreat they would eventually head back to that dnepper river and that

00:25:43.700 would be obviously as a natural boundary and a fallback line for ukrainian forces and the

00:25:48.660 volunteers who are going there some other anecdotes that we heard um were going on was at the training

00:25:54.660 right so the the conscription is in but it's not that every man who's you know of fighting age i think

00:26:00.820 it's 18 to 65 doesn't that doesn't mean you're all in the military automatically so there is a draft in

00:26:05.700 place and it's it's kind of like a selective service system where your number gets called at a certain

00:26:11.300 point for now you can go and volunteer for one of the volunteer units or as a man you can wait and be

00:26:18.260 drafted when your number is called and if your number is called you're sent into a training pipeline

00:26:22.420 and that training pipeline we were told consists of about two months of training in field operations

00:26:29.700 in ammunition weapons training as well as based on basic medical training so this is just some of the

00:26:36.660 the stuff that we were learning in lviv obviously lots of communications lots of intelligence fusion

00:26:42.980 cells and then of course the supply lines are being run through lviv and so our next step though was once

00:26:49.460 we realized we had these tickets that we could take the overnight train from lviv to odessa and that it

00:26:56.740 would really only take about 14 hours which when you think of it isn't really that bad we jumped all over it

00:27:05.300 we said yeah we want to take that train and so 8 p.m to 10 a 8 p.m to 10 a.m right so you're up for a

00:27:11.940 little bit you sleep you wake up you're where you need to be so we decided to take that train the

00:27:17.620 overnight train from lviv to odessa well it seems that in president biden's america criminals are exalted

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00:28:37.380 and so what can i say the people of aviv treated us very very well and helped us out with the train

00:28:43.540 helped us make sure we get there on time make sure we get some food had some provisions for the trip

00:28:48.020 obviously there's not food on the train but what was nice was that for a pretty low price

00:28:54.100 we were able to get a sleeper compartment with two two bunks um not much bigger than i had when i was

00:29:01.220 in the navy to be able to sleep overnight myself and my brother on uh on this train car all the way

00:29:08.420 across to odessa and so it's very nice great air conditioning by the way which for me huge huge plus

00:29:14.980 and i know i know don't worry folks because i had still even on an overnight train to odessa

00:29:22.820 the best night's sleep in the whole wide world thanks to my pillow.com and the fact that i brought

00:29:27.300 my travel pillow along with me so i'm there sleeping on my my pillow sleeping in my undertax

00:29:34.340 yeah that's right i'm sleeping in my undertax need that comfort especially when you're being frisked

00:29:39.140 by the uh by the world economic forum's police force funny enough i ended up being treated better in

00:29:46.500 ukraine by the ukrainian military and the ukrainian police than i ever did when i was at the world

00:29:51.860 economic forum so go figure but take the overnight train signal was spotty at best getting across

00:30:01.620 all the way down past so through moldova it's a longer train that you would think um going

00:30:08.660 in a straight line because you can't go in a straight line from laviv to odessa via train

00:30:13.060 because moldova's in the way so you've got to go all the way around moldova but i'd always wanted to

00:30:17.540 be able to see the black sea myself when i was in the navy i was a uh i was a paycom guy china guy

00:30:24.100 so doing given all the focus there's been on ukraine all the focus there's been on odessa over

00:30:29.940 the last decade i said i got to go down and see it for myself i got to go see what's going on

00:30:35.300 so we hopped the train probably the whole first car ahead of us was soldiers um and then we got on

00:30:43.140 ourselves and we were in we were in car number two and we're able to go down had an excellent night

00:30:48.020 really great night um of course that's the american in me talking when i say oh the wi-fi was going in

00:30:53.140 and out right so i've got a you know a hot spot set up through my sim card because i was able to get

00:30:57.220 that local ukrainian sim but right the the signal was spotty going in and out as we were coming across

00:31:03.860 and so good night all the way through coffee on board the train you know pretty not the most

00:31:09.940 austere conditions you can think of uh i've been on i've been on overnight boats you know in ferries

00:31:15.700 in china that were far far worse than this but the fact that we were able to get a sleeper compartment

00:31:20.260 really really helped us out for ourselves i'm actually recording this in a sleeper compartment on

00:31:25.540 the way back right now and what i did was because they didn't have any individual sleeper compartments

00:31:33.140 what i did was i bought four tickets there's four beds inside them so i bought four tickets so we'd have

00:31:38.580 the room to ourselves so it's just me and kevin and uh actually the room next to me was empty so i

00:31:44.580 ended up uh i'm recording in there and he's he's resting right now but we took we're taking the

00:31:49.860 overnight train from lviv to odessa great ride all the way through very smooth love the air conditioner

00:31:56.180 had plenty of food you know plenty of water all the way through so we were fine we get in

00:32:00.660 in there the train station odessa and pop out immediately place is crawling police law enforcement

00:32:11.140 territorial defense and armed forces as you can imagine at one point um facetiming with tanya now

00:32:18.180 tanya didn't stay with us uh tanya stayed behind to uh she basically found a hotel room up in 1.00

00:32:27.060 the tatra mountains which are part of the carpathian mountain range in slovakia so she stayed at this

00:32:32.500 you know mountain chateau not far from krakow about two hours out of krakow and we uh we've journeyed

00:32:38.580 further into odessa so at that point doing a face time with her just to let her know we got in safe

00:32:45.460 that everything was fine no problem totally on schedule get approached by officers at the platform

00:32:50.580 why are you recording where are you going what are you doing we explained we're media i showed

00:32:55.220 him i was talking to my wife um she was able to speak to them ukrainian explain the situation

00:33:00.500 and they said okay they understood and let us let us go on about our way at that point we were met by two

00:33:06.180 local contacts in odessa and they said what we can do is if you want we will take you around odessa but

00:33:13.540 also we can hop in the car and because we've got the documentation make it through the checkpoints

00:33:22.100 and drive all the way up to mikolayev mikolayev about an hour and a half depending on how you

00:33:28.420 drive looking at the map is closer towards the herson region and herson region is currently occupied

00:33:35.860 by russian and rebel forces mikolayev is really the last ukrainian controlled city before you get to

00:33:44.260 herson and so i said well of course i said at first you know is it safe and he said we're not going to do

00:33:49.220 anything unsafe we're going to go through but you know you have to understand keep your head on a

00:33:54.740 swivel pay attention to what's going on and do as we say said sure no problem so we make it through

00:34:00.980 i can't even imagine i can't even begin to tell you how many checkpoints we had to go through

00:34:05.220 just to get to mikolayev that town is completely on lockdown uh we're talking at least

00:34:12.020 at least half a dozen checkpoints where we actually stopped and had to show our passports

00:34:19.620 um in order to get to mikolayev and probably another you know another half dozen just makeshift

00:34:27.140 checkpoints so we had to drive past where people were still waiting while armed and so keep in mind

00:34:31.780 that the russians have attempted to take odessa once they've also attempted to strike out at the highway

00:34:38.820 that's between mikolayev and odessa and so and they've attempted to take they've uh attacked

00:34:43.780 mikolayev multiple times and so this is a place where now that now just a full disclosure there were

00:34:50.340 no attacks while we were there but we have heard about recent attacks recent shelling uh some attacks

00:34:57.140 going on even counter attacks being reported along the line towards herson outside of the city and so we

00:35:03.780 wanted to get some of that local color and understand what was happening understand what it's like to live

00:35:07.860 in a city that's essentially under siege uh and even the support of odessa although it's under siege

00:35:14.980 itself i haven't talked too much about odessa because we didn't really spend that much time there

00:35:19.220 there's a lot going on there's still you know they have the beaches open for the most part we're

00:35:24.180 downtown the beaches are open if you're outside of town all those beaches are closed and there was a

00:35:29.380 sign up warning about mines on the beach so mine implements that have been installed at many of the

00:35:34.980 beaches so various areas you're not allowed to go to the beach some people still though we're

00:35:39.140 jumping off the docks people are having a nice time in odessa walking up and down the pier

00:35:44.900 getting food getting hamburgers getting ice cream with their kids and again with that same tension

00:35:51.700 and you realize that people when they have the nice uh the nice weather you want to relieve that

00:35:56.660 tension you want to burst that bubble a little bit so being able to go to the shore being able to jump

00:36:00.500 in the ocean be able to hang out with your friends just grasp on to a little bit of normalcy amid

00:36:06.980 crazy times amid war that's what we saw going on people walking around their families and of course moms

00:36:13.300 and dads looking nervous and looking anxious and i gotta say as a father myself you know two little boys

00:36:24.100 i can't even begin to imagine what it must be like waking up every morning i'm speaking about odessa

00:36:29.220 at this point but waking up every morning and really speaking in general and not knowing if you're going

00:36:35.860 to have to run not knowing if there's going to be an air raid not knowing if there's going to be

00:36:42.180 some shell that or other type of weapon that could impact near you right and you're living with that

00:36:50.740 constantly day in day out and it's been going on now for three months for three months into this thing

00:37:00.020 and so what else can you say my heart goes out to the people of ukraine

00:37:06.340 and for those who are interested in raising money for the people of ukraine we're going to find some

00:37:10.980 links we'll put them in the description of this and regardless of your feelings about this war and about

00:37:18.420 which side you know there's obviously very heated discussion of about which side started it or

00:37:23.380 which side's in the right and which side's in the wrong but you got to put that aside for a second

00:37:29.300 and you got to understand that there are real people that are being affected by this thing

00:37:33.380 and there are people who are there just trying to live their lives they didn't do anything wrong

00:37:37.620 they're completely innocent and they are caught up in the middle of it many of them they don't have a

00:37:43.300 place to go they don't have the ability the luxury to be refugees they're stuck they're trying to live

00:37:49.540 they're trying to live their lives while all this is going on around them and so that right there

00:37:55.460 goes to show you not only the tenacity of the people but the real heart that people have they

00:38:04.420 feel like they're fighting for their homes they really do and you see it everywhere you see it the

00:38:08.660 flags up you see billboards up people walking around with pins people walking around clothing

00:38:15.860 you know speaking ukrainian not speaking russian because of course during the soviet union time

00:38:20.660 period everyone was required to speak russian both in school and in business and you know in the

00:38:25.860 workplace but now there's been a big push for the ukrainian language and so while a lot of people are

00:38:30.900 still still speaking both and there's a lot of similarities um you really do hear a lot of people

00:38:35.940 speaking the ukrainian language a lot more and so these austere conditions that you're in

00:38:42.420 living day to day it's has to take a toll it just has to take a toll and that's something that

00:38:48.580 that really struck me that really struck me um emotionally seeing that and just thinking about

00:38:54.980 myself my own situation if my kids were there my wife was there what would i do

00:39:01.060 how would i go about every day and so and there's honor in that there's absolutely honor in defending

00:39:08.100 your family defending your home you can't deny it so even in the city of odessa almost every single

00:39:15.780 street corner pillboxes barricades fighting positions and bunkers bunkers dug in even in the

00:39:24.340 city parks you see that you saw that at some of the city parks in lviv as well why because in case

00:39:29.860 something happens you'd be able to run into the bunker as fast as possible we saw bunkers up and

00:39:34.100 down the highway as we were driving to mikolaev just something hey something happens you're worried

00:39:41.220 that your your car might be targeted or might be hit not targeted but you know hit up caught up in

00:39:46.420 something caught up an explosion park your car run out get into the bunker as fast as possible you

00:39:51.220 might just survive it might be enough to protect you against shrapnel against or if a bomb isn't

00:39:57.540 hitting you um directly you might be able to live you might be able to make it through but just

00:40:03.380 understanding that this is something these people have to live with day in day out they're not they're

00:40:09.140 not just coming in to report on it and then being able to go back home no for them that is their home

00:40:15.060 and for them this is something that they have to live with constantly so last week i got detained

00:40:23.540 at the world economic forum by the police of the world economic forum there in switzerland

00:40:29.300 but luckily for me while i was in detention even though i was frisked i was wearing my under attack

00:40:37.140 brand boxer shorts and folks let me just tell you something if you've got to be frisked by the world

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00:41:31.540 get under attack well i mentioned before about how the minute we left odessa the first thing we had to

00:41:39.940 do was show our documents at the first checkpoint and this went on again and again for the entire hour and

00:41:48.740 a half as we drove along coastal road there towards the city of mikolayev now mikolayev has been attacked

00:41:57.620 already most recently passed in march about two months ago at that point it seemed like the russians

00:42:04.500 fell back tried to consolidate their forces more towards the donbass region but they do still receive

00:42:13.300 intermediate fires in and around mikolayev and mikolayev of course as i said before is the last ukrainian

00:42:20.500 controlled city in the south just before the front line between mikolayev and herson

00:42:28.740 as we drove down that coastal road we could see the black sea to one side salt marshes to our left

00:42:37.380 a lot of open grassland farms settlements here and there little villages dotted the the the landscape cows

00:42:45.620 sheep gas stations still in operation for the most part it seemed as though people were eating

00:42:52.740 it seemed that people had food available when they needed it up and down the roadway but of course

00:42:59.060 multiple checkpoints and even in multiple places along that the road from odessa to mikolayev we saw

00:43:06.900 bollards and hedgehogs that could be deployed you know steel girders in in x patterns that could be

00:43:13.540 utilized at a moment's notice to drop across the highway to stop or at least hinder any type of

00:43:20.900 mechanized advance and as we got closer and closer security grew tighter and tighter and just before

00:43:29.460 we got into the city we stopped we were questioned but again still not detained or frisked like i was

00:43:35.380 when i went into davos to report on there still people just asking for your documents you turn them over

00:43:41.460 say here they are go in so we make it to the city of mikolayev huge industrial city one of the largest

00:43:48.180 shipyards of the black sea is right there uh of course this is where during the soviet times a lot

00:43:55.860 of the black sea fleet was actually built and so a lot of the ships that even uh obviously the russian

00:44:01.460 federation inherited from the soviet union a lot of those ships were built right there at mikolayev

00:44:07.700 the city now controlled by a separate country and so really speaks to the complexity of the situation

00:44:16.660 there on the ground and in this on the situation here in this war that there are these competing

00:44:23.140 claims there's the people who live there there's the government of ukraine there's the government of

00:44:28.260 russia the history there's so many overlapping claims to this area but again i just emphasize the

00:44:35.780 thing that the thing that's not overlapping the thing that's immutable the one factor that's

00:44:39.460 completely immutable are the people caught in the middle so driving around mikolayev our uh our

00:44:47.220 contacts showed us to multiple buildings that had received shelling fire we were able to document those

00:44:53.940 we were able to photo those some of which had just been in recent days um obviously we're not able to

00:45:00.420 tell how the how those areas have been utilized prior to them being hit but we could tell what

00:45:05.700 they were designed for one was one would seem to be a hospital one was a a residential building

00:45:12.500 and another was in an industrial area down by the river now that river that mikolayev is situated on

00:45:18.420 is actually the book river and the book river runs through southern ukraine and then all the way up to

00:45:25.380 right in between poland and belarus the book river forms the current barrier between poland and belarus so

00:45:30.340 one of the largest rivers in eastern europe and it empties out into the black sea there but

00:45:35.220 sort of meets up with what's called the goal of the deneber gulf so that's the gulf of the deneber

00:45:41.380 river the deneber and the bug river both meet and then flow into the black sea eventually right

00:45:46.260 across so mikolayev is right across from crimea in that aspect but atmospherically speaking once we got

00:45:53.140 in to the city of mikolayev um if odessa seemed like a city that was intense this was a team this

00:46:03.300 mikolayev seemed like a city under siege uh military everywhere bunkers everywhere barricades everywhere

00:46:10.820 and yet civilians civilians still moving around um much less people than maroon odessa and certainly

00:46:17.220 far far less people that you would see publicly than lviv but carrying groceries shopping in open

00:46:23.700 air markets almost like uh almost like flea market type situations but uh shopping for groceries shopping

00:46:32.020 for food shopping for the local meats uh one thing that in eastern europe just in general even even

00:46:37.700 outside of wartime even in regular peace time that they do is people will shop for it's not like the

00:46:42.740 american conception of you go to the supermarket on a saturday or sunday and you stock up for the

00:46:48.420 week and you throw everything in your fridge and you just eat it now people in eastern europe they 0.97

00:46:51.940 don't do that it's much more farm to table you get up you go out some point in the morning and then you

00:46:56.900 buy the things that you're going to eat through the day you eat that through your day so it's fresh

00:47:01.060 you have smaller refrigerators and then you go out the next morning and do it again

00:47:05.380 so you're buying the food that day food that is either freshly picked uh meat that's freshly freshly

00:47:10.980 butchered fresh eggs it's you know fresh caught fish of course fish being a huge staple of the

00:47:16.420 diet they are rolling the black sea so you still would you still saw some vestiges of that though

00:47:22.660 obviously far diminished from what it would be in normal times and yeah sometimes cars i noticed

00:47:29.540 that cars were um you know not really following the the traffic lights um some car you know some

00:47:35.620 areas you see cars speeding just zipping down the streets um other times cars just putting along

00:47:41.860 saw older cars a lot you know cars that looked like they've been around for 30 40 years

00:47:47.540 but still with original license plates on and they're still going still keeping them running

00:47:52.500 so again speaking to the tenacity of the people the tenacity of the people of this area

00:47:57.140 now we asked at one point of our guys we said well how close can we get

00:48:01.060 you know how close can we get right what's what's the limit um that they put on you and they said

00:48:07.380 look the road to herson is completely blocked off right at the front you need very special permission

00:48:13.220 to be able to get to do that we were on a tight time frame and so we were the closest we were able

00:48:18.500 to get to anything like that was actually being on the road of the herson highway which leads out of

00:48:26.180 mikolayev to herson of course right now cut off by russian forces on that front and we've seen

00:48:33.860 even in the past few hours right before we arrived there was a reported counter-offensive

00:48:40.180 by ukrainian forces along the herson line probably about probably about an hour from where we were

00:48:47.140 driving time and there had been intense fighting along that line and that remains to this day to be the

00:48:54.500 contact line but of course you're seeing artillery fires you're seeing missile fires going back and

00:48:59.940 forth along that line some of which which we were able to document and i'll have the videos and photos

00:49:05.300 from this up afterwards you know just wanted to sit down with you guys while i was on the train here

00:49:10.980 report all of this get it back out while my memories were fresh so that i would have it down

00:49:17.780 and hey gives me something to do while i'm on the train right so even in there even in the city of

00:49:24.980 mikolayev the city under siege families children animals pets you got people there you got people

00:49:35.140 that are right in the middle of this thing so

00:49:38.980 that just really remains for me to be my main focus that for the humanitarian organizations the

00:49:48.180 volunteers that are willing to go in harm's way to put themselves in harm's way to be able to get

00:49:54.100 supplies medical supplies food keep that open and just the workers right we saw so many trucks

00:50:01.220 obviously driven by truck drivers and that goes to show you right even in you know we saw the trucker

00:50:06.180 convoys right being held up in canada some were held in the united states as well and you saw how

00:50:12.100 they were treated well here we are in a time of war and the ukrainian people are are in a time of war

00:50:17.460 and who is it that's keeping the supply lines moving it's the truckers the truckers who are willing to go

00:50:23.460 in day in day out they know they know that they could be headed in to a potential conflict zone they

00:50:29.140 know they could be headed in um in towards receiving fire if they need be but they went all the way in

00:50:35.460 because they want to be able to keep showing up to work doing what they're doing get the supplies

00:50:40.820 to the people who can't get out and so let's just take a moment just take them i'd like to take a moment

00:50:47.940 to remember not just the people of ukraine but the truckers of ukraine the truckers who are keeping

00:50:54.660 this whole thing going from the salt from the the highest ranking general to lowest ranking private

00:51:00.420 right if you're eating something if you're being protected if you're being aided

00:51:07.780 that something came off a truck so you better thank that trucker

00:51:14.900 ukraine is seen in many ways as the bulwark the buffer between east and west when it comes to europe

00:51:25.460 but also the greater west which includes the united states canada and australia and there on

00:51:30.820 the front lines depending on how you look at it is it a war simply between ukraine and russia or is it a

00:51:39.140 war between the east and the west as we now see russia and china are joined militarily although china and

00:51:49.860 the west are joined economically this is a very strange situation for china to be in where they

00:51:57.300 represent a real military threat to the united states and more more precisely in america's allies in

00:52:04.180 japan south korea but also potentially to the united states which has outposts in okinawa guam singapore

00:52:14.260 philippines off and on so the question then becomes which side is the greater threat now i was at davos

00:52:25.300 last week was able to hear the speech by dr kissinger he said

00:52:32.020 that ukraine should sue for peace with russia and be willing to cede territory

00:52:37.540 i also heard the speech from president zelinski in the q a that he conducted with klaus schwab

00:52:45.860 and president zelinski said that he didn't want to cede a single inch of territory and certainly from

00:52:53.380 the fighting spirit that i saw there on the ground of the people defending their homes in ukraine

00:52:59.300 they did not seem like they were interested in ceding any territory either and so it looks as though

00:53:09.060 if russia continues forward in this

00:53:12.740 which they certainly seem intent to that the fighting will continue and the fighting will continue for some time

00:53:18.740 i don't intend to have any specific overall answers as to

00:53:29.620 what this means i don't prepare i don't want to pretend to say that i did anything special in going

00:53:36.340 to visit these areas odessa mikolayev laviv

00:53:41.380 i saw an opportunity i was literally in the neighborhood and i wanted to see for myself

00:53:46.500 what was going on on the ground to see what i could see talk to who i could talk to

00:53:53.300 and find out what i could find out on my own without having the filters of twitter and telegram and

00:54:02.900 youtube and rumble and everything else in front of me be able to see with my own two eyes

00:54:08.500 i'm very blessed not only to have been able to do so safely but to have a brother who was

00:54:16.420 willing to come with me same brother kevin who was willing to back me up two years ago

00:54:23.780 almost two years exactly when we went into chas out in seattle reported on there day in day out

00:54:32.980 to see what was actually happening on the ground turn that into a mini documentary

00:54:38.740 and so i'll leave you with that

00:54:47.220 my observations musings and some of my initial thoughts of having been on the ground in those

00:54:54.180 various places in ukraine at this time three months into the russo-ukrainian war 2022

00:55:02.820 we'll see what happens both sides do not seem like they're quitting

00:55:11.380 neither side seems ready to give up anytime soon russia is drawing upon their fast natural resources

00:55:18.980 and their military strength population ukraine is drawing on their relations with the west

00:55:26.660 the military alliance there and the humanitarian aid but i do want to emphasize this above all else

00:55:37.620 it is the people that should come first when you're a government your job is to defend your people

00:55:46.420 and defend your national interests in in the interest of those people in the interest of the people

00:55:54.260 that are in your care that are in your stead and that means that your decisions should be made for

00:56:01.140 the good of the people not the good of the elites not the good of the oligarchs

00:56:07.140 not the kremlin not washington dc but for the people on main street if no one speaks for the people

00:56:15.940 do the people do the people truly have a voice in government whether that be the lao baijing of china 0.99

00:56:24.820 whether that be the hard-working people of the west people who fly over country as they call it

00:56:32.820 or whether that be the innocent men women and children of ukraine

00:56:39.460 it's jack posobic from human events daily powered by turning point usa coming to you from a night train

00:56:51.700 to odessa ladies and gentlemen as always you have my permission to lay ashore

Human Events Daily with Jack Posobiec - May 30, 2022

MAY 30 2022 - THE NIGHT TRAIN TO ODESSA

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