Hello and welcome to the 200th Battleground podcast with me, Saul David and Patrick Bishop.

It's hard to believe Patrick, isn't it, that we've got to that

milestone, having put out our first pod just over two years ago in April 2020. We've just

checked the numbers and we're approaching 9 million downloads, which is absolutely extraordinary.

And we've got you, of course, our loyal listeners to thank for all of that. Without your

support, we would not be where

we are. So thank you very much. Absolutely. I'd like to endorse that. Yeah, it's all all down

to the people out there who are listening to us and we're very grateful. It's great to have this

interaction, isn't it? So all the feeling that you're connected to the people who are listening

to us. I think we've got really good rapport with our audience

and a long way that continue. Yes, well onwards, Patrick, with the news, it's been a dramatic

last few days, fewer of them good for Ukraine, I have to say, and to make some sense of this,

we're delighted to welcome back to the podcast, veteran journalist and military commentator and expert Robert Fox,

who will hear from shortly. But first, the drama. It began, of course, on Saturday when the

Republican U.S. presidential nominee Donald Trump narrowly survived an assassination attempt at an election

rally in rural Pennsylvania. What is the consequence of this? Well, if anything, it's going to improve his chances of returning to the White House.

Now, of course, we should say at this point, we don't condone anything that might have harmed his chances

and certainly his personal safety.

But the consequences, as I say, are probably that he's even more likely to get into the White House. And if he does,

what does that mean for Ukraine? Well, from what we've been hearing recently, he'll try to force

Ukraine to accept a humiliating peace with Russia, including territorial concessions. And if it refuses,

he might, of course, withdraw his military support, which is not good

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