Over the past three years, hundreds of thousands of Western journalists have covered the war in Ukraine from the front lines. On the other side of the conflict, there is one Western journalist, one American journalist embedded with Russian troops. His name is Patrick Lancaster and he's a U.S. Navy veteran and for the past 11 years, he's been reporting from the war zone.
00:02:35.100But for all intents and purposes, we could say 2014, when the war started, following the events in Crimea,
00:02:46.180where Crimea joins or rejoins Russia, because there was a referendum.
00:02:53.840I was, that's where I first started reporting on the situation between Russia and Ukraine.
00:03:00.320I went to Crimea for the referendum where the Crimean people voted to break away from Ukraine
00:03:08.280and join Russia or rejoin Russia, because before 1956, Crimea was part of Russia.
00:03:14.380So if you think about this, the people that were born before that year were born in Russia.
00:03:20.680So there's people living that were born in Russia that were literally so happy to be joining Russia again,
00:03:28.660going home, as the people on the streets told me when I was there.
00:03:32.260And I've been there almost every year reporting since then as well.
00:03:35.560But that's what really triggered my interest and intensity in reporting on the situation between Ukraine and Russia.
00:03:44.660Because when I went from Europe to Crimea and saw the huge difference of what was being reported
00:03:51.860in the Western mainstream media about the real situation in Crimea, we were hearing in the West how Russia forces were going to be making people vote
00:04:01.140to break away from Ukraine and join Russia.
00:07:57.320And basically, Ukraine leveled, not completely leveled, but damaged, if not destroyed, the majority of the homes all around this area, around the airport, just with indiscriminate shelling of the areas, the neighborhoods.
00:08:17.920And just destroying or seriously damaging almost every home.
00:08:22.160And it just so happened my wife's childhood home was one of those.
00:08:26.840Thank God her family and her made it out.
00:08:30.500OK, they were living there when the war started and they made it out.
00:08:39.240This is just one example of many homes and families that lost everything in the war.
00:08:44.680You know, I don't remember hearing in the United States at the time that there was a war in Ukraine.
00:08:54.300I mean, my sense is this was basically ignored completely and that Ukraine at that time was effectively under the control of of the Obama administration.
00:09:07.020That was my that was my that was my sense.
00:09:12.760Yeah, a lot of people don't really didn't really understand what was really happening on the ground.
00:09:18.160But basically, I mean, it goes back to the Maidan revolution or whatever you want to call it.
00:09:29.760The locals in the eastern part of Ukraine at that point looked at the Maidan revolution as an illegal coup supported by the West,
00:09:37.300where ended up with their democratically elected president, Yadikovych removed from office without them having anything to say about it and which effectively made their Ukraine dead
00:09:52.440and not in existence anymore after a puppet government was put in by the United States in the West.
00:09:59.760So the people of the Donetsk and Lugansk areas just they said, OK, well, that's not our Ukraine.
00:10:08.060Ukraine's gone. Some of them were patriots for Ukraine before they just said, OK, we don't have anything to do with that.
00:10:14.420We're going to have a vote. We're going to vote ourselves what to do with the right of self-determination.
00:10:20.440And Ukraine in the West did not want to respect the right of determination.
00:10:24.400And Ukraine basically, in the words of the locals, punished them for them trying to break away from Ukraine.
00:10:34.140And every local family knew someone or had a member of their family injured or killed in the attacks by Ukrainian forces on the civilian areas of these regions,
00:10:47.740specifically the cities of Donetsk and Lugansk.
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00:13:56.720So you've been there rotating in and out or living there ever since, all these years.
00:14:02.940How did things change three years ago when the war began?
00:14:07.040Well, it was quite an interesting time, as you can imagine.
00:14:16.160Just days, a couple of days before the, it all started with Russia, and Russia officially came in.
00:14:25.180Russia officially recognized the Lugansk and Donetsk republics as separate from Ukraine.
00:14:36.680And the people had celebrations on the streets out of just celebrating the fact that Russia recognized them.
00:14:44.840And they knew that that meant that Russia was going to be helping these republics.
00:14:52.800And then days later, Russia came across the border, and the war between Ukraine and Russia started.
00:15:03.560You know, one way or another, the war between Russia and the West started, Western weapons, at least.
00:15:13.420And as many people around the world thought it was going to go a lot quicker than it has,
00:15:20.480I myself did a report in the center of Donetsk where I assumed and thought that Russia was going to be pushing Ukraine back within days from the city of Donetsk.
00:15:36.320Because you have to imagine the front line of Donetsk was just on the outskirts of the city.
00:15:43.600We're talking from the center of the city to the edge, just about, to the front line, just about five miles,
00:15:50.800with often just straight shelling hitting the center of the city.
00:15:57.320And as we know, it didn't end in three days like General Miley said it would.
00:16:05.640And there were, there's been a lot of intense battles around these areas.
00:16:12.380And in fact, right now, I believe there is eight regions between what is internationally recognized as Ukraine or Russia recognizes as Russia.
00:16:26.100But overall, there's eight regions that have active fighting.
00:16:31.600Some are Russian, some are pre-war Russian, after-war Russian, whatever you want to call it.
00:16:37.420We've got the Zaporozhye region, Kherson region, Donetsk region, and Lugansk region,
00:16:44.060which all four of those had referendums in 2022, September, where they, the Russian-backed referendums,
00:16:52.600unrecognized by the West, where they voted to join Russia.
00:16:57.800And then shortly after, Russia took them in officially.
00:17:01.780And then in addition to those four regions, you've got two regions of Russia,
00:17:11.220the Belgorod region of Russia and the Kursk region of Russia,
00:17:17.180where Ukraine came across the border and invaded, incurred on pre-2022 Russia.
00:17:28.780And in actually in the area of Kursk, they controlled last August about 1,500 square kilometers.
00:17:40.860Since then, it's been really reduced by Russian forces.
00:17:46.680But in addition to those six territories, we've also got the Sumy region of Ukraine,
00:17:54.920which there's some villages and some territory that Russia controls.
00:17:59.420And there's active, very intense fighting going on there.
00:18:04.040And now that borders the Kursk region.
00:18:06.140So basically, Russia went past the territory that was controlled by Ukraine,
00:18:10.880the Kursk region of Russia, and took territory in the Sumy region.
00:18:15.560Now, also in the Kharkov region of Ukraine, Russia controls some territory as well.
00:18:25.520And again, intense fighting going on there.
00:18:29.020So we've got eight regions with intense fighting.
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00:25:07.980I've got to say, almost everyone on our team looks suspiciously well-rested every morning.
00:25:13.040It turns out most of them are using a product called Sambrosa.
00:25:16.240Sambrosa blends antihistamine with a syrup of herbs and honey and is designed to help you sleep well, waking up, feeling refreshed and revitalized.
00:25:24.520And based on the sunny, cheerful faces of the people I work with, it works.
00:30:38.180And it was clearly a civilian from the area that Ukrainian forces had kidnapped and tortured and raped.
00:30:46.820And they carved – it's actually a little unclear whether it was burned or carved a swastika on her stomach.
00:30:55.740And, really, it was the first time that it stood out to me, the psychological effect of some of these instances when you see it.
00:31:05.400In my mind, I still remember seeing a bandage over her head, kind of like something like she was injured and it was bandaged.
00:31:12.820But if you look at the video, you see it was a plastic bag that was used to execute her.
00:31:19.620Now, that's just one of the many examples of executions that I've seen by Ukrainian forces.
00:31:25.120The most recent were in the Kursk region, just this last January, where I was with Russian regular army forces.
00:31:40.780And they had just days before gotten to this village and basically kicked Ukrainian forces out.
00:31:49.140And the village was destroyed and there was a shelter, a basement, basically, that we went down into and found a group of civilians.
00:32:01.540There was two elderly women and one elderly man that had been killed by – clearly by Ukrainian forces because as we walked down the steps, the smell was so bad, we had to put gas masks on.
00:32:18.500And at the bottom of the steps were – couldn't really say how many people because it was clear that some sort of explosive, I assume a grenade, was thrown down in the shelter where these people were hiding.
00:32:33.160And the people near the door were actually with a dog that were there were just turned into, you know, soup, basically.
00:32:45.760So it wasn't really clear how many were there.
00:32:48.400But then as we went farther back into the shelter, found, as I said, two elderly women that were killed by the explosion and an elderly man.
00:32:57.760And then back in August, as I said, when Ukraine first came in to Kursk, I was also there and met a man who explained how he was trying to evacuate his family from the Suzy region, which was basically the stronghold of Ukrainian forces when they came into the Kursk region of Russia.
00:33:24.160And he explained how his – he was evacuating his wife, pregnant wife, their one-year-old son, and his wife's mother.
00:33:36.200And this is – basically they were surprised that war broke out in their village because they weren't part of the war zone before August.
00:33:43.240And so he's decided he was going to drive in the front car and have his family in the back with his wife driving behind just in case something's happened.
00:33:51.860And it would hit him first, it would hit him first, and they might make it away.
00:33:55.980And they were – he said they were driving, came around a turn, and came face-to-face with a Ukraine or pro-Ukraine soldier.
00:34:05.240He said just two meters away from him.
00:34:07.700He said there was no way that the soldier did not see that they were civilians.
00:34:13.880There was no question they were civilians.
00:34:37.140And he saw that his wife's vehicle was slowing down, and he waited for her to speed up.
00:34:46.020And then when her car hit the back of his car, he knew something was wrong.
00:34:52.040And he went back to check on his family in the other car, and his wife, pregnant wife, was huddled over their one-year-old son with bullet holes in the side of her stomach.
00:35:03.380And he picked her up, took her to the nearest hospital they could find, and they weren't able to save her.
00:35:13.900He tried to do CPR, and his words massaged her heart back to life.
00:35:18.080And their one-year-old son was injured, but thank God he lived.
00:35:23.800And then unfortunately, he wasn't able to recover her body for many months afterwards.
00:35:29.500But now things have changed quite considerably in the Kursk region.
00:35:35.500As I said, it started in August with Ukraine just surprising many coming across, taking 1,500 square kilometers.
00:35:44.400And then right when they did that, Russia started taking some back.
00:35:50.800I went with the assault groups to the Ukrainian lines as the assault groups took territory back.
00:35:57.220And Russia started going and going and going and taking these villages back.
00:36:08.860And it almost slowed down as far as the recovery of the territory by Russian forces until last month,
00:36:16.720when an operation of Russian forces literally went into these gas pipes.
00:36:22.500And they tunneled underneath Ukrainian lines and reported 600 Russian forces, soldiers came up behind Ukrainian lines.
00:36:34.920And that operation with an assault from the other side basically collapsed Ukrainian lines.
00:36:44.020And now there's just a very small amount of Ukrainian forces left in the Kursk region.
00:36:51.940And just yesterday, there were a report from the Russian Ministry of Defense that some territory had been taken back by Russian forces.
00:37:02.760Now, unfortunately, this is leaving tens of thousands of people homeless, that homes were destroyed in this incursion or invasion by Russian forces or Ukrainian forces into this region of Russia.
00:37:21.500And basically, the standard thing for the Russian government to do is give certificates for new homes to the victims.
00:37:33.040They've actually gotten pretty good at it because there's so many regions of people that have had their homes lost by Ukrainian shelling.
00:37:40.620But one thing that I noticed, it's pretty interesting about what they're doing in the Kursk region and on top of the certificate compared to what the United States does when someone loses their house, say, to a national disaster.
00:37:57.100The governor of Kursk, Alexander Kinstein, started an initiative to request from Moscow a special stipend or payment of a monthly payment of 65,000 rubles for every member of a family whose home was lost monthly.
00:38:24.220So, if it's a family of four, that's about $3,000 a month.
00:38:30.380You know, of course, that's not going to, you know, replace everything in their lives that they've lost.
00:38:35.960But it's a lot more than I think what was the United States giving to some of the natural disaster, I think 700 lump sum payments, something like that.
00:38:45.580So, it's interesting to see the comparison.
00:38:48.020So, think about how you'll feel when you achieve your biggest goals of all, whether it's starting a business, paying off your mortgage, sending your kids to college, having the money to pay for it.
00:38:58.420You'll be pretty proud when you've met these essential life goals.
00:40:11.080So, let me ask you, from our perspective over here, the Ukrainian government is not just at war with Russia, but also with Christianity.
00:40:20.520The Ukrainian government has banned the largest Christian denomination in Ukraine and has embraced transgenderism and other explicitly anti-Christian forms of expression.
00:40:58.100And often, an answer that they give is they're fighting Satan because they view the religious atmosphere so different, as you point out, in Ukraine than the traditional Russian society.
00:41:21.400You know, so it's quite a, religion is very important to the Russian soldier.
00:41:31.640And, of course, I think it's quite a bit more than, you know, the traditional, you say, there's no atheists on the front line.
00:41:38.360But this goes a lot deeper into their cultural heritage.
00:41:44.040Have you seen any North Korean soldiers?
00:42:20.340So no one from NBC or CNN or Fox or PBS or New York Times, Washington Post, you're not aware of any American correspondents covering the other side in this war?
00:42:39.160So does it feel to you that American reporters have basically taken the side of the Biden administration, which told us that Russia is our enemy and are uncritically repeating U.S.
00:42:57.040Yeah, I mean, of course, the Western media has their narrative.
00:43:07.460And, you know, unfortunately, they try to hide the facts that most of what I report.
00:43:17.200They try to hide and not report on it.
00:43:19.040And, you know, I tell all my viewers, don't just watch my reports because I don't have all the answers, but I'm showing you what the mainstream media doesn't want you to see.
00:43:32.400I'm just giving you my piece of the puzzle, something that you're not going to see anywhere else, unfortunately.
00:43:39.000But, you know, people need to get as many perspectives as possible and educate themselves, not just be led like sheep by the mainstream media.
00:43:51.300And I'm very glad there's people like you out there as well that, you know, could give someone a little bit something to think about other than just the narrative that is trying to be forced down their throat.
00:44:04.660Yeah, I mean, if you're the only American correspondent embedded with Russian units, then I would think you would be in high demand.
00:44:14.880I'm embarrassed it's taken me over three years to talk to you.
00:44:18.400But I mean, I assume you're getting calls every week from American news organizations trying to understand what's happening.
00:44:24.300Unfortunately, no, they don't seem too interested in discussing things with me or seeing the information that I'm putting out.
00:44:39.360And in fact, in 2014, 15, and 16, I was what I would say is a freelance journalist, videographer as well, until, you know, I felt like my work was being betrayed.
00:45:02.080And because I was giving this material.
00:45:09.460And then once I saw that the material was being lied about, I mean, one instance, I was in the Lugansk region in Pervomysk when Ukraine forces launched a rocket attack on this soup kitchen.
00:45:23.640And we happened to be there, and we happened to be there, and I filmed in the aftermath, and the women saying how Parashenko was killing them and their families, just really horrible, just targeting civilians by Ukrainian forces with huge rockets.
00:45:39.260And I sold that material as a freelance journalist to Western outlets, and they turned it around and said that it was Lugansk rebels that fired on the soup kitchen, just totally lying about the situation.
00:45:55.820So after that, I decided I'm not going to do that anymore.
00:46:00.380You know, regardless if I get paid for it or not, I'm going to be showing exactly what I see.
00:46:07.280And that's what I've been doing since then, is just on my YouTube channel, showing my reports.
00:46:16.740Of course, I'll do collaborations with other channels and things if, you know, they're interested.
00:46:23.520But I make it a point not to get paid by anyone but the donations from my viewers.
00:46:29.980So the only people that I report to that I need to show what's really happening is my viewers.
00:46:36.660I don't have any editor or boss that says, oh, we need to show this or show this.
00:46:43.340No, I show in my reports on YouTube and my Substack blog exactly what's happening, exactly what I see with no narrative, just the facts that the Western mainstream media isn't showing.
00:46:57.180There's so much darkness in the world, it can feel overwhelming.
00:47:00.360Wars, political fighting, violence, hatred, the love between people growing cold.
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00:48:30.260So, since you've been there all these years and have a, you know, a tactile sense of what's happening, give us a couple examples of stories Americans may have seen or read in our media here that you know firsthand are wrong.
00:48:45.360Oh, well, we can, off the top of my head, the missile attack, Tochka'u attack by Ukrainian forces on the center of Donetsk in 2022,
00:49:06.000when a Ukraine launched a cluster bomb attack on the center of Donetsk, and cluster bombs came down and actually hit just about 200 yards from my apartment where my family and kids and wife were.
00:49:26.600And my dad was actually in the city with us as well, and we had to throw the, we thought we were getting hit.
00:49:35.740We threw the bulletproof vests on the kids and threw one of the others under the bed, and I mean, it was, it was not good.
00:49:45.700It didn't, in the Western mainstream media, they said that it was a Russian attack, which is just idiotic.
00:49:56.260Why would Russia attack Donetsk that hasn't been under Ukrainian control for the last eight years before that?
00:50:07.000I mean, just total grabbing of false information to try to portray a narrative that just is not true.
00:50:15.700And actually, that was my, the last day that my family was in Donetsk with me.
00:50:22.780I had to evacuate them as I stayed to show what was happening on the front line.
00:50:27.260My wife didn't want to leave, because, as I said, my wife's from Donetsk, but I said after that, just so close to us, I had to evacuate them.
00:50:35.360And after that, I just, you know, kind of went solo and went back to my family when I could, and that's what I do, even today.
00:50:48.140Where are you from in the United States?
00:51:30.280You know, it's been literally over a decade ago, but I believe just the fact of war and, you know, they're just not interested in putting commercials on my material.
00:51:45.700I guess because it doesn't fit the Western mainstream narrative, but, you know, it's great.
00:51:54.140That I'm still able to use the platform to show the world some of the things that's happening.
00:52:00.240But unfortunately, it's not monetized, so I'm only supported by, as I said, my viewers through donations.
00:52:08.720But, you know, what I do, it's not really because of the money.
00:52:11.280Yeah, of course, I've got to support my family.
00:52:14.080But, you know, as I said, after I saw how different what was being shown in the West, what was happening, I just had to do something about it.
00:52:25.280And, you know, if you would ask me before, 12 years ago, would I be a war correspondent, you know, going to the front lines with, you know, showing the reality of what's happening, and I'd be the only one doing it.
00:52:44.320I mean, given the atrocities, you've seen some incredibly ugly things.
00:52:50.620You described a few of them, but it's been so long.
00:52:53.920I wonder what effect that has on you as a person to see things like that.
00:53:00.700Well, I mean, I would say before this war, I had mixed thoughts about what post-traumatic stress really was
00:53:13.960and how serious it was, but I can tell you now, there's no doubt that it's definitely a thing.
00:53:23.560You know, I would say quite different.
00:53:28.540Of course, everything I've seen here is quite different than when I was in the U.S. military.
00:53:32.860I used to be in the U.S. Navy from 2001 until 2006.
00:53:40.160And I was on the USS Kitty Hawk that was involved with Operation Iraqi Freedom and, you know, never saw anything like that there, like I see here, of course.
00:53:54.620But, you know, I always find it interesting how the U.S. calls all of their operations operations.
00:54:07.700But when Russia says that it's not a war, it's a special military operation.
00:54:13.220The Western media makes this big thing about it, how, oh, it's legal to call it a war in Russia and all that, which is total bull.
00:54:20.840So the war is a war. Operation Iraqi Freedom was a war and Russia's special military operation is a war.
00:54:29.520And the eight years before it was a civil war. A war is a war, regardless what you want to call it.
00:54:35.820And I'm in Russia now calling it a war. Nothing's going to happen for it because of it.
00:54:40.020So that's just another false narrative that the Western media pushed of, you know, trying to say no freedom of speech in Russia and all that total falsehood.
00:54:56.080So did you know Gonzalo Lyra, who was maybe the only other American who was looking critically at what the Ukrainian government is doing?
00:55:07.900He was murdered by the Ukrainian government, as you know.
00:55:10.720Did you ever run across him? And are you worried that if you fell into Ukrainian hands, they would murder you, too?
00:55:15.520Well, we talked online a couple of times. You know, he was definitely ballsy for him to go against the Ukrainian government while he was there and unfortunately didn't work so well for him.
00:55:35.980And of course, if I was able ever, if I ever ended up in Ukrainian forces, it would not be in Ukrainian forces hands.
00:57:20.160Um, I mean, there's, you can imagine that there is probably some internal operations on the front line that involved, uh, Western special forces and not all of them made it out.
00:57:35.340Um, I've talked to, uh, soldiers, uh, on the front, Russian soldiers on the front line about, uh, foreign mercenaries or foreign soldiers.
00:57:47.500And they said they encountered them all the time, uh, from European countries, from U.S., uh, and more.
00:57:55.900And it also, as I actually made a video, uh, last month about, it's, it seems Russia's not really playing around anymore when it comes to, uh, foreign fighters or what they consider, all the foreign fighters, they consider foreign mercenaries.
00:58:13.500And Vladimir Putin says that these foreign mercenaries do not get the projection of the Jiva Convention and are, uh, there's a possibility of execution.
00:58:31.140Uh, so it really seems like now that, uh, there's only two outcomes for these, uh, foreigners that, uh, come over here to fight if they come into Russian hands.
00:58:45.260And I say jail because in the beginning of March, there was a British soldier, uh, who was taken a prisoner by Russian forces who was, uh, he would believe he was taken a prisoner in November of last year in the Kursk region.
00:59:02.560Uh, and he went through his trial and was convicted, uh, uh, and received a 19 year sentence.
00:59:13.960So it seems Russia's going pretty strong on the foreigners here.
00:59:19.780How long do you think this world will go on?
00:59:27.740Um, uh, I've, back in 2022, I tried to make, as I said, the predictions like, uh, many people around the world did and everyone was wrong.
00:59:39.120I mean, I, of course, the most important thing is people stopped dying and it would be great if today there was a, a ceasefire, uh, declared and everyone stopped dying.
00:59:51.460And everything went back to, uh, uh, peace and, uh, all that.
00:59:58.520But I don't think it's going to be happening anytime soon, unfortunately.
01:00:02.020Um, because Russia has made it clear that Russian law considers the four regions, Zaporizhia, her son, uh, Donetsk Lugansk, part of Russia, Western law, and of course, Crimea.
01:00:17.860But even now Trump says he's going to say Crimea is Russia.
01:00:22.340So that's not even worth discussing anymore.
01:00:25.260Um, but, uh, Ukraine law and Western law says that these four regions are parts of Ukraine.
01:00:33.820Russia cannot stop until they control what is legally by Russian law considered part of Russia.
01:00:41.760Regardless what side of this conflict you favor, looking at Russian law, Russian law cannot stop the war until they control part of all of what Russian law considers part of Russia.
01:00:58.340And I've been saying this for, for years.
01:01:00.720It was one thing before September of 2022, when Russia could have stopped and, uh, had a quick, uh, peace, a deal.
01:01:12.940But after September of 2022, these four regions were legally, as far as Russian law considers, part of Russia.
01:01:19.700And Russia cannot stop until it controls this.
01:01:23.660And Zelenitsky, Ukraine, and the West has made it clear that Ukrainian forces are not just going to stand up and leave these regions.
01:01:33.140Now, if we look at Lugansk, there's 99, uh, percent of the area of Lugansk that's controlled by Russia.
01:01:40.140But if you go south to the Donetsk region, it's, uh, uh, there's less controlled by Russia with several important, uh, key places like Kramatorsk and Slavyansk,
01:01:52.140which actually called the water supply, uh, to Donetsk.
01:01:57.600Um, and then of course in Kherson, you've got the city of Kherson and Zaporozhye, the city of Zaporozhye,
01:02:04.300which are cut geographically by a river is basically the front line now.
01:02:11.200Um, and I mentioned the water supply for Donetsk.
01:02:15.200Basically, after Russia took control of, uh, Mariupol in 2022, the first thing Ukraine did was cut the water, uh, from the Kramatorsk area going into Donetsk and down to Mariupol.
01:02:32.260The reason they didn't cut the water to Donetsk in the previous eight years, like they did with Crimea,
01:02:38.400because that was the first thing they did with Crimea when Russia, uh, uh, took Crimea and they cut the water supply from Ukraine,
01:02:44.840literally dammed the canal that was feeding water to the people of Ukraine, of, uh, Crimea.
01:02:50.480And, um, the water supply was going underneath Donetsk and into Mariupol.
01:02:56.740And Mariupol had to be fed by water when they controlled Mariupol.
01:03:00.720But once Russia fully took control, Ukraine shut off the water to Donetsk and, uh, Mariupol.
01:03:08.740And for a long time in Donetsk, you were only getting two hours every three days of water.
01:03:15.280I mean, just horrible, uh, living conditions because Ukraine made the decision to shut off the water to these people.
01:03:22.240The people that they said they wanted, they were trying to stop from leaving the country for eight years.
01:03:28.600Um, and, uh, Russia made a huge, uh, um, project to bring water from the Rostov region into the Donetsk region.
01:03:47.920Have you, uh, seen any reports of the Ukrainian military selling NATO arms outside of Ukraine?
01:03:58.980Um, you know, there, there has been, uh, some, uh, reports of Western supplied, uh, weapons showing up in the cartel hands, uh, Mexico and, uh, other, uh, places.
01:04:15.360But what I can tell you, I have seen with my own eyes is Russian forces using these weapons back against, uh, Ukraine.
01:04:24.340Weapons that Ukraine got from NATO countries and Russia captured them and turned them back against, uh, Ukraine and, um, reverse is in the process of reverse engineering.
01:04:39.740Uh, I just did a report where I went with a, uh, uh, the, uh, soldier group to a undisclosed location where they had, uh, about 20 military vehicles, NATO military vehicles that were on their way to be getting, uh, reverse engineered.
01:04:58.720And basically any type of secret information they could get out of them.
01:05:02.560Um, and that report will be coming out soon.
01:05:06.120But, um, I would say Russia's getting a lot out of these, uh, NATO weapons.
01:05:15.580Thank you, Patrick, for taking all this time.
01:05:17.360Um, do you think the U.S. population, Americans, would have supported this war, which they've paid for, for over three years, as long as they did, if they'd had factual, unbiased news coverage of what was actually happening there?
01:05:42.240And, uh, one reason is to go back to one of your previous questions about what's not being reported in the West that, uh, I could bring to light.
01:05:53.260Well, let's talk about the people of these areas, specifically the Donetsk and Lugansk areas for the last 11 years, just wanting to break away from Ukraine and the right of self-determination.
01:06:07.520And they didn't say this in the media, that these people were not being held down by these rebels or whatever you want to call them.
01:06:15.680These people were doing their best to leave Ukraine and Ukraine was punishing them for that.
01:06:21.660This is, they voted to break away, uh, uh, from Ukraine.
01:06:26.880So it's, I mean, definitely if the Western people would really understand what's really been happening here over the last 11 years, not just the last three years, but the overall situation, there's no way they would have wanted their tax money to be supporting this and killing hundreds of thousands of people.