Russia continues to do wild, incomprehensible things. Pilots who shot down an American UAV are awarded there, in general, Russia's behavior in Crimea is not easy to explain. This is also against the background of the fact that the ICC issued an arrest warrant for Putin.

In addition, the Russians are panicking that Ukraine is likely to receive uranium shells. Mykhailo Podolyak, Advisor to the Head of the Office of the President of Ukraine, spoke about this and much more in an exclusive interview with Channel 24. Incidentally, Crimea is beginning to be called a “time bomb” for Russia.

Read the first part of the interview here.

Crimea returns home

Russians are getting used to the idea that Crimea needs to be returned. And it became a kind of starting point for the thought that one should not take someone else's, because now it is unpleasant and painful for it.

There is such a thing in criminology – this is classic criminalized behavior. You steal and subconsciously expect to be caught and punished severely or not. This is exactly the behavior in Russia today. They clearly understand that they stole the peninsula. I will not talk about legal procedures, they were not there.

It was a banal theft of our property. And they remembered this all the time, understood it, and therefore they made the Crimean elite out of bandits of the 90s. Why? Because this is stolen property, no more, but no less. Therefore, they carried out large-scale propaganda projects and said: Crimea is forever Russia, Russian land, it was Khrushchev who gave something away.

They just forgot that when the Crimea passed to Ukraine, the Krasnodar Territory partially became part of the Russian Federal Republic of that time. They feel this and internally say: well, finally, we got what we wanted. That is, they came for us to punish us.

This is the classic behavior of a bandit – a person who commits criminal offenses. And he's waiting to be arrested. He manifests it. Crimea constantly said for 8 years: catch us and imprison us, punish us. This is what they understand today, but they still want to steal and run away to the same Chita, for example.

There are Chinese guards who will not allow them to be taken from there and brought to trials in Europe. They will travel far beyond the Ural Mountains. All those who in one way or another were directly involved in the annexation of Crimea, all of them will look for places far from the European part of the Russian Federation.

Russian panic over Ukrainian counter-offensive

In Russia, they are talking about a Ukrainian counteroffensive. You can see the panic that swept through the TG channels.

We do not underestimate the Russians. We understand that they have a lot of people who are not sorry, and a lot of residual resources of the Soviet era – this creates certain problems, including in the Bakhmut, Ugledar, Avdeevsky, Maryinsky directions. It would be desirable, that it already came to an end resource.

Mobilized without a difference, it just automatically increases the number of black packages. But I wish there were fewer resources. That is, we do not underestimate the quantity, but correctly estimate it. In terms of quality, not only we, but also many overestimated the Russian army, and in general.

Today we understand that there is no quality, there is only quantity, and here we need to put the right emphasis. Don't be afraid of what is. And at the same time, destroy everything that is as efficiently as possible. We don't have another scenario. I understand that after a year of war, I would like to see the light at the end of the tunnel and understand that tomorrow it can be finished.

But this type of war is a fundamental civilizational war, value, existential. It cannot end because it is difficult for us. We must reach the right ending. Russia must become what it is – a small, insignificant state, to which no one pays attention.

Yes, it is desirable geographically that it also decrease. But meanwhile, this is no longer our problem, but China, the USA, Central Asia and so on. The war must come to a proper ending. It is impossible without the de-occupation of all lands, if there is no counteroffensive.

However, I keep talking about this: I don't think we need to discuss the scenario plans of our General Staff or the Headquarters of the Supreme Commander-in-Chief for the counteroffensive, these or those scenario actions. This would be wrong because it should be:

• first, surprise;
• secondly, only the military or the Supreme Commander-in-Chief should talk about this.

And you and I can already give a political assessment on the fact of a counteroffensive or on the fact of de-blockade of territories. This would be true. In general, I don’t really like it when experts say: here we go from one side, from the other – this will be a distraction, and so on. It's a bit strange.

Because, again, planning is carried out exclusively by the military of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. And only they understand the risks that they bear. They understand what is needed from a resource point of view and where they want to go in order to gain operational advantages.

Therefore, we will wait for certain actions, after which we will already talk about the political component of these actions. This is the second.

Third component. No matter what Russia says, let them talk more about the counteroffensive. They are absolutely aware that in Russia there is no resource for an offensive. It is obvious that all their offensive in the Bakhmut or Avdeevsky or Ugledar directions today is the number, and again the number.

It's loss, loss and loss. Thousand, thousand every day. Of course, they understand that this is the “big” offensive. But this is a big offensive of zombies, that is, people who are not sorry. And they already understand it. They also understand that we will not sit only in the mobile defense of the war.

They proceed from what they saw in the summer-autumn of 2022 in the Kharkiv region, Kherson region. They proceed from the fact that we are accumulating a resource, that we have an absolutely conscious will to leave and take from them everything that we need to take away.

First of all, all debts for our destroyed civilian infrastructure and civilians, for arrivals in apartment buildings. Here we want to collect debts for all this.

They understand that we have a different attitude towards Russia, that we do not pay attention to all these: “Let's agree on something, let's talk about something, let's not fight any more. Well, excuse me, we are there something then you got a little killed, but come on, well, you are like us, like one territory, and all that.

They understand that we have accumulated a desire to pour out all our hatred on their, excuse me, heads, I wanted to say something else, but in the meantime. Therefore, of course, they should talk about it, and it would be desirable if they talked more. But it would also be more desirable that this be the most severe counteroffensive punishment of the Russian army.

Uranium weapons for the Armed Forces

About what we are accumulating, about weapons with depleted uranium, and about the fact that Lukashenka even said that “ok”, if so, then Putin can give us nuclear weapons in general.

This is my favorite propagandist, you know, and forecaster – Lukashenka. Very much with great sympathy, I now treat him with irony. He needs to be listened to. And I remember how he said five or six times there: “Now is the time to negotiate, to agree with Russia, because further on it will be so scary, so scary.”

This is what Lukashenka always says. But, you know, if a person is poorly educated, if he did not even finish high school, it is a little strange that he publicly emphasizes this over and over again. Depleted uranium is not about nuclear weapons at all, not about some kind of radiation pollution or anything else. No.

This is an ordinary projectile that is in any army and is used specifically against armored vehicles in order to more effectively penetrate armor, no more, but no less. Again, it has nothing to do with nuclear weapons.

Meanwhile, this is only an opportunity for us to get any shells, we need any weapon that will allow us to destroy Russian equipment. This is the first. And this, again, is about the possibility of obtaining certain shells.

The second component is very important. There is a statement from our American partners to the Russians that if they don’t know physics, well, they didn’t study physics, then if they want to protect their armored vehicles so much, they can simply take it out of the territory of Ukraine. And then they won't lose it. Well, that's sound advice, right?

Well, they didn't study history either, Mikhail.

They didn't study well at all. I know. We just have to calmly explain elementary things. And third. So the same subject Lukashenka has repeatedly said that he will be given nuclear weapons there literally tomorrow. That is, he receives it periodically, then gives it away or what? It is amazing.

You know, again, Lukashenka is generally not the kind of person who understands the war as such. In general, in the processes that are taking place today. He is completely out of touch with reality. Well, the gentleman lives there, doing something. Well, let him live. So far, at least, Russia still exists in the form it is now.

It makes no sense to pay attention to the words that, for example, Peskov, Lavrov, Lukashenko say. We are already somewhere, say, on February 24, 2022 at 15:00 (I conditionally say that it is not here now, what exactly at this time), we decided that there are no moderators from Russian for us, Belarusian side.

There are no people who are newsmakers for us, there are no proposals from them that we can accept. Nothing exists, except for one thing – they must win the war, they must reach the final so that all these subjects then answer for threats, for insults.

For all these airspaces, which are periodically provided by the MiG-31 so that it rises and our children go to bomb shelters today. This gentleman will later tell why he did this to Machulishchi. Why did our children have to be afraid of this constant use of the MiG-31. Why they spent their childhood in bomb shelters.

These are the questions we will be asking. And then we will talk with him, and at the same time, maybe we will talk about the course of the 8th-9th grade of the secondary school in physics.

Downing of an American UAV over the Black Sea

Mikhail, another incident that took place over the Black Sea with the MQ-9 Reaper drone, and, in fact, they could not decide for a long time whether it was them or not. Why were the pilots who coped with the same drone awarded?

It is, in my opinion, cool that Russia continues to nullify its reputation with such primitive awards. Just look at Shoigu, this is enchanting, I don’t know who, just enchanting.

He said that any war ends in peace, a world where there is no Russia. Well, what did you say wrong?

The war ends, unambiguously, in peace. But in this world, the Russian Federation will not exist in this form. And Shoigu will be responsible for the massacres of Ukrainian citizens. It is clearly legal. And they will reward each other in a prison cell, they will make medals out of bread crumbs and reward them.

For the correct use of, for example, the toilet and so on. Once again, Russia continues to reset its reputation. Of course, it is nonsense to reward people who shot down a drone. This is nonsense. Thus, Russia says that this is not the second, third, fifth, tenth army of the world.

This is a bunch of strange people of hysterical composition who are in frustration today and do not know how to do anything – they fight exclusively in numbers and fight with windmills, nothing more. Unfortunately, Ukraine proves this with its blood that there is no need to be afraid of Russia. We have already proved this, and the world already understands this.

The moment of shooting down a US UAV over the Black Sea / Associated Press

However, there are still certain logistical nuances, because, you know, the world is not ready to answer the key question – how can one exist at all in the new reality, where Russia as a subject does not exist. Well, because they are used to the fact that there is some kind of frightening country that behaves rudely on certain international platforms.

It seems to me that the ICC warrant, which everyone has already spoken about many times, is a very important signal to everyone: that's it, there will be no pre-war time, where there is brutal Russia. No. There will be a completely different space. Just get used to it, quickly get used to it.

This order is very important in that it accelerates this getting used to another reality, where Russia will be – I emphasize again so that we do not waste time on incorrect definitions – a small, insignificant state. Territorially a little big, it will have oil, gas, furs and other resources, but it is a small, insignificant state.

We need to get used to this and, of course, transfer the instrumental weapons we need, which will prove that the war will not go on for decades.

That there is no point in dragging out what has already been decided. What's decided? And it was decided that Russia must lose. Decided? Yes. Is there some consensus on this? Yes. Did the ICC warrant confirm this legally? Yes. Because you will not legally testify that this president of Russia is a war criminal.

He cannot enter 123 countries, and you do not want to bring the war he started to its logical conclusion. All this is already obvious. There is only one thing left: logistics, logistics and more logistics.

And there are positive processes here: There is a completely different role played by Germany and Mr. Scholz personally – they are ready to logistically speed up the supply of armored vehicles and the creation of the repair hubs that we need in Slovakia and Poland in order to repair faster, because the intensity is very high.

Today we discussed the creation of an agency that will deal with the supply of shells. This is a key element of the war. We need a million shells, an agency has been created, there is money both to buy and transfer to Ukraine, and to strengthen and speed up production.

In order for Ukraine to receive them and increase the ability to carry out artillery work on Russian logistics. These processes are quite positive, they are obvious, and they accurately dot the “i” – how the war should end.

And according to Shoigu, he is an interesting character, behind the psychotype you can see that he is psychologically unstable. I think he will give a lot of evidence. It can be seen that the person who communicates with shamans is a little different from you and me. Therefore, I think that we will receive very effective testimonies from this gentleman.

Russia's crimes and Putin's arrest warrant

The ICC warrant hit them hard, they didn't expect it. At first, they reacted as best they could, and then Putin or the one who represented him left for Mariupol, then Nebenzya came out and said: “Listen, we wanted to convene the UN Security Council and talk about the children whom we first wanted to destroy, and then saved them from themselves! But in general, we are basically ready to return them, as long as they are normal.”

Regarding Putin and his trip, there is no point in even discussing this at all. Even for Russia's domestic propaganda market, this alleged trip to the Crimea and Mariupol had no effect. What did he do there?

In addition, for Khusnullin to say: “You know, everyone watched live as we bombed Azovstal, the Ilyich plant, the center of Mariupol … But it was not us, it was the Ukrainians who did it.”

You know, it is much more important for me that Russia does not understand at all levels: you came to Donbass in 2014, you started killing civilians, you criminalized. If you hadn't gone there in 2014, there would have been no destruction, destruction, or murder at all. That is, a specific crime with a specific initiator and author.

Why do you continue to carry this nonsense: “you killed children in the Donbas”, “you destroyed Mariupol.” I understand that a person with the surname Khusnullin may have problems with logic, with civilizational logic, especially if you are the minister of theft, meaning construction, and so on.

However, who is it for? You came to kill in 2014. Today you just scaled up the killing and destruction and all that stuff on foreign territory. The war is not on the territory of Russia or some third country. Learn, finally, to be logically responsible for this, because then it will be easier to lose.

And then you will not sit with an idiotic face in the courtroom, you will at least explain your motives: “I, Khusnullin, am simply so stupid that I did not understand that the Russian army was bombing. Therefore, I just said this, because I did not understand the causal investigative links. It is obvious.

However, I emphasize once again that these visits by Putin do not affect anything at all. They can't even stimulate Russian propaganda. They pretended that they saw something or did not see it. Therefore, it certainly does not affect the course of the war.

Remember, it was “we are fixing new regions in the constitution”, we are holding referendums, we are restoring Mariupol. That is, we came to destroy, and now we are restoring. Why did you destroy it? Why did you even come there? If you weren't there, this beautiful city would still exist. Because it doesn't make sense.

Regarding Nebenzi, he is a war criminal who justifies crimes against humanity. For this bald man from Brazzers, it will be much worse than for anyone else, because the person deliberately justifies specific crimes, especially against children, a genocidal type of crime. What does it mean “you took it because there was danger”?

• First, who created this danger?
• Secondly, who killed the relatives of these children?
• Thirdly, why are you tearing up their identity by giving them up for adoption to some strange families in Russia?
• And fourthly. Why don't you allow international institutions to take away the children you have abducted? And why don't you transfer these children back to Ukraine through a third country?

It can be done. So it doesn't matter what he says. There is already a warrant for these crimes, and many other names will definitely be added there. Not only 2 key organizers – Lvova-Belova and Putin, but also other performers. I emphasize once again why the ICC reacted to this, and reacted absolutely correctly.

To date, we have 16,221 recorded and legally processed cases of kidnapping of our children. Because it is a systemic crime. Russia came to our territories knowing consciously what to do with our children. They thought they were occupying the whole territory and would control it. This will be an explanation of the motives of these crimes.

They entered the Kyiv region and thought that they could kill, torture, rape – anything, because they would control Kyiv, and no one would investigate these crimes. That is, they thought: “Those tens of thousands of people whom we will kill will simply be buried or burned.”

It is the same with children – when they came to the occupied territory, they already had a program for the deportation of our children – with the murder of the relatives of these children. And this is a systemic crime, it is very important. And we will talk about all this on different platforms.

I emphasize once again: our partners understand this, why this war cannot be ended at the negotiating table – “let's, like in 2014, agree on something there.” No. Because this subject by the name of Putin will definitely need to be taken and brought to The Hague.

Putin only cares about his own life

In the meantime, he is sitting and waiting for The Hague, Volodymyr Zelenskyy went to the Kherson region to the village of Posad-Pokrovskoye. Was in the Kharkov region, also in Bakhmut.

The President of Ukraine is a real global politician who definitely deals with the problem of war and peace. And they definitely care about the specific tasks that Ukraine faces. Thus, it shows that he is really together with his people.

Unlike Putin, who cares neither about the country nor about the war, but about his own survival, because he understands that the price for this war will be extremely heavy for him. There is a good story from the GUR that we and our partners do not quite understand today whether Putin is alive or not,

Because he looks strange from time to time, like different people. From the point of view of specific physiognomic features, we see that these are different people, but meanwhile there is no difference.

It seems to me that whoever is in Putin's place will be physically and legally responsible for everything that we see today.