Bucha

and making decisions about the war.

I was reporting about life around an Air Force base that had occupied Bucha in Ukraine, committed a series of war crimes there, as some listeners might know.

And when 2023 came around, Ukraine was telegraphing a massive counteroffensive.

They were planning to drive to the south, divide Crimea off from eastern Ukraine, and that way force Putin back to the negotiating table to try to find some settlement so it's And the Western press isn't reporting at all.

Quote, "Trump hands victories to Putin, who offers more war in return." Quote, "Minutes after Trump announced the diesel deal, the Kremlin reiterated Putin's stance that he would not negotiate with Ukraine at the moment because he remained angry about Ukrainian strikes during last month's Russian parliamenta- mentary elections.

The next day, Russia launched an attack on the Ukrainian city of Zaporizhzhia that killed 22 people, including four children." I had thought that maybe after the civilian massacres in Bucha, that it might just be untenable for even Donald Trump to align himself with Putin, but the, the attacks on, on Ukrainian civilians, including children, are, are a feature, not a bug, of Russia's assault on Ukraine.

Oh, 100%.

I mean, what is happening right now is because Russia is unable to make progress on the military battlefield.

For some background, how did this come to be, this partnership that has taken shape between doctors in Ukraine and Parkland?

Well, a- about four years ago, when the Russians invaded, uh, Ukraine, uh, I was watching the news and saw the atrocities that, um, the pain and suffering that was being caused in, uh, primarily Bucha and other parts of Ukraine, and I wanted to help.

And so I went over a few months after the war began and started offering my services as a medical doctor and a reconstructive surgeon to helping people who were injured by the war.

I was w- received very warmly.

First, Ukraine realized that it's not collapsing and that Russia is not as invincible as it seems.

And second, Bucha happened.

And the world was appalled by the atrocities committed by Russian army against civilians in Bucha.

So the incentive, the driving force before signing a capitulation in Istanbul was not there anymore.

And no one should have any illusions thinking that the document that was brought to Istanbul was about just peace.

It was an act of Ukraine's capitulation wrapped in soft words, but it was an act of capitulation.

But Ukraine had the confidence that it can survive without capitulating by then.

And Bucha created the emotional shield, the emotional pressure.

So that's what I've been doing with that for my years with my life.

Some of my team in Ukraine was like, would you be willing to come and film in Bucha, Irpin? And I was like, sure.

And they're like, show the world what's going on.

So we got to film under martial law with drones, which is unheard of, being able to actually use a drone, because drones are legal in Ukraine.