Hello and welcome to the Ukraine episode of the Battleground podcast with me, Saul David.

Today, in a break from the normal news and questions format, which will return next week

with Patrick, I promise, I'm talking to David Petra Caracos, an internationally acclaimed author,

journalist and war correspondent, and a regular contributor and co-host of our sister podcast,

Disorder. Disorder attempts to make some kind of sense out of what's

happening in the world today. Gone are the days of coherent international coordination.

Rather than working together to solve pressing crises, many of the most powerful actors on

earth are actively making those crises worse. Disorder asked the important question why.

David, welcome to the podcast.

Hi, Saul, great to be here.

Now, you've been covering Ukraine since the first days of the war in 2014, and in 2017,

published your book War in 140 characters, how social media is reshaping conflict in the 21st century.

It's been praised by a lot of people, including senior military figures, former chief of the

British Army, General Sir Nicholas Carter, and also Admiral James Foggo, commander of NATO forces

in Europe. But can you give us some examples of how social media has transformed the conflict

in Ukraine, both before and after the full-scale invasion in February 2022?

That's a really good question, Saul. So I think I'll start. Let's start with 2014. So

I turn up to Ukraine. Actually, it's kind of funny because I didn't intend to cover a war. I intended to cover

the aftermath of Maidan, the Maidan Revolution, but I'm a bit like Jonah. Everywhere I go descends to

disaster. In 2009, I went to interview the Lebanese president, Hariri, for one week, and the

government collapsed and he fled to Paris. So I turned up on the 1st of April, I think, 2014, and then war broke out

two weeks later. And so I spent almost a year off and on covering Ukraine. And then in 2015,

...