Hello and welcome to Battleground with me, Patrick Bishop.

I'm flying solo today.

Saul is taking a well-earned break with his family in the Shatland Island.

So instead of the normal format, this podcast is essentially an extended chat with someone

and listeners will know well.

That is, journalist, environmentalist, wild bear expert, pilot, and all-round philosopher-adventurer, Julius Strauss,

whose reporting from Ukraine and thoughts on the conflict have added so much to this show.

Julius, of course, has his own outlets, his regular blog on Substack,

back from the front, which is full of brilliant stuff,

and he and his partner, Kim Rejek, are now also contributing to an innovative media outlet called Newsphere.

We'll be talking about his recent visit to frontline areas and also, of course, our diplomatic developments in Alaska and Washington.

Great to have you back on the show again, Julius.

Thanks, Patrick. You've oversawed me a little bit, but I'll take the compliment. Thank you. Not a bit of it, not a bit of it. Well, the last time we heard from you, it was just a little while ago when you and Kim and our friend, the young Hungarian journalist, Boldi Giori, were in Kramatosk, one of the cities in the fortress belt of Donetsk that we've been hearing

so much about in recent weeks, one that Vladimir Putin wants Ukraine to hand over to him without his

men having to fight for it. So brilliant stuff from Kramatosk, the three of you painted a very

compelling picture of life in the town, the look of the town itself and the mood of the place. Tell us how the rest of the trip went.

Yeah. I mean, it's always very interesting, isn't it? Because we think a lot about the policy and the politics and we follow the meetings in Alaska and the meetings in in Washington and we have a sort of an idea in our head about what we think about

what's going on. And then we go to Ukraine and spend a little bit of time on the ground. And

it's not that it's completely different, but it really does fill in some of the gaps and

gives you a different appreciation of the big picture.

And I think, I mean, for me particularly, going to Donbass this time was different than the last time I went,

which was really, you know, the last time I went properly was a year ago.

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