Welcome to the Bullwark Podcast. I'm Charlie Sykes. Yesterday on CNN, a retired lieutenant

general, Mark Hurtling, who's a CNN military analyst, and former commanding general of the

US Army, Europe, and the seventh Army, talked about the extraordinary counteroffensive by

Ukrainians that have driven the Russians back. This is what he had to say.

But this was all about a brilliant advance resulting from things that we've been talking about

from the very beginning. Solid maneuver plan, deception, advance weapons, use of intelligence,

leadership, and morale. That's what Ukraine Army is bringing to this fight, and they're going

up against a force that has extremely poor morale, bad leadership, dysfunctional logistics,

and the inability to practice their train on what they're trying to do. But having said all those

things, there's still a lot of fighting to go. I do not count me in with those who are saying this

is going to be over anytime soon. And joining us on today's podcast is General Mark Hurtling.

Thank you so much for coming back. Hey, good day, Charlie. It's good to be with you again.

Thanks for allowing me the microphone for a while to continue to tout the great things

Ukraine is doing. Well, let's say do a deep dive into all of this. You said yesterday you were

euphoric about Ukraine's advances in Karkeev and Kursan, as well as the continued active defense.

But of course, you raised these caution flags. I want to do a deep dive into all of this,

all of the things that are going on and what you're seeing, including the cautionary notes that you

are sounding. So first of all, let's just step back. Has the tide of the war?

Technically, I would say yes. And I'd almost also advance that it's turned operationally.

Ukraine is controlling the temple of the operations. There have been what the military or what theorist

like Klaus would call a culminating point has occurred both in Russia culminating on the offense

that occurred way back in March and April. But there's also a culmination of the defense.

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