Battleground

In this episode, Saul David and Julius Strauss travel to western Ukraine to visit the remarkable Superhumans Center in Lviv—a state-of-the-art reconstructive surgery and rehabilitation hospital addressing a staggering crisis of an estimated 100,000 amputees nationwide.They sit down with Eddie Scott, a British volunteer who survived catastrophic, near-fatal injuries while conducting humanitarian work in Ukraine. Instead of returning to the UK, Eddie chose to stay and now serves as the centre’s Senior Media Manager and global ambassador. In a deeply moving and raw conversation, Eddie shares his journey of physical and psychological recovery, the unique spirit of unity he finds in Ukraine, and delivers a blistering, urgent message to a Western world he fears is growing dangerously indifferent to the ongoing conflict.Julius Strauss writes the blog Back from the Front and also owns and runs Wild Bear Lodge, a bear-viewing lodge, in Canada. Check out both in the links below:Substack: https://backfromthefront.substack.com/Wild Bear Lodge: https://wildbearlodge.ca/Join the Conversation: If you have a question about the war in Ukraine or any of the conflicts we cover, email us at [email protected] us on:X - @PodBattlegroundInstagram - podbattlegroundProducer: James HodgsonA Goalhanger Podcast Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In a remarkably mixed bag of an episode, Roger Moorhouse and Saul David explore whether the war is finally "coming home" to ordinary Russians as a systematic Ukrainian degradation campaign triggers widespread fuel shortages and chaos across fifty-three Russian regions.The team breaks down Ukraine's multi-strand, hybrid strategy: disabling crucial land bridges to isolate the Crimean Peninsula, mocking Moscow's air defenses with daylight refinery raids, and the geopolitical shockwave of Belarus' Alexander Lukashenko publicly apologizing to President Zelensky. They also dive into a historical comparison to the 1944 Normandy breakout, asking if we are on the cusp of a major Russian battlefield collapse.Featured Interview: Later in the episode, intrepid Hungarian war reporter Boldi Gyori joins the podcast from Budapest. He shares deeply moving—and at times gruesome—firsthand accounts from his recent trip to the liberated but heavily targeted city of Kherson. Boldi details the terrifying reality of the Russian "human safari," where drone pilots use civilians for target practice, distance-mining litters the streets with "flower petal" explosives, and local volunteers brave "the blue hour" to evacuate the vulnerable and the deceased.(Warning: This episode contains graphic descriptions of civilian suffering and war casualties.)Plus, in the Q&A:A look at the clandestine partisan group Atesh.The likelihood of a desperate Kremlin executing a false flag operation.Why Vladimir Putin recently cut the Kremlin's security cameras over cybersecurity threats.Join the Conversation: If you have a question about the war in Ukraine or any of the conflicts we cover, email us at [email protected] us on:X - @PodBattlegroundInstagram - podbattlegroundProducer: James HodgsonA Goalhanger Podcast Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.