How Ukraine was betrayed by corruption at home
The Story
The Times
4 • 1.5K Ratings
🗓️ 4 August 2025
⏱️ 28 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Our Ukraine correspondent Maxim Tucker returns from the frontlines of the country's defence against Russia's invasion. With its soldiers under constant attack, a new war has opened up - this time against corruption at home. It comes as the US special envoy Steve Witkoff travels to Moscow this week for 'last chance' ceasefire talks.
This podcast was brought to you thanks to the support of readers of The Times and The Sunday Times. Subscribe today: http://thetimes.com/thestory
Guest: Maxim Tucker, Ukraine correspondent, The Times.
Host: Calum MacDonald
Producer: Kate Lamble
Read more:
- How Ukraine’s air defence warriors take aim at Putin’s drone swarms
- Anti-corruption bodies arrest four over drone sales fraud
Clips: AP, BBC News, Fox News, Times Radio, Kyiv Independent, Tucker Carlson Network.
Photo: Getty Images.
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Transcript
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| 0:48.4 | From the Times and the Sunday Times, this is The Story. I'm Callum MacDonald. |
| 0:55.3 | Today, we're heading to the front line in Ukraine. |
| 1:01.2 | In some point, you feel like you're in a Second World War movie, and other times you're in a science fiction movie. |
| 1:06.1 | Our guide is Maxim Tucker, the Times Ukraine correspondent. He's just returned from a unit testing new ways to respond to Russia's latest weapon of choice, |
| 1:13.8 | the Shahid suicide drone. |
| 1:16.2 | Hundreds are being launched every night at Ukrainian cities. |
| 1:20.1 | The answer, Ukraine hopes, lies in a mobile office. |
| 1:24.1 | We were in the control cabin of a Soviet vehicle, which had got all these wires plugged into it, |
| 1:31.1 | banks of screens inside the cabin, only six soldiers there, concealed in a tree line. |
| 1:36.1 | So this Soviet vehicle is hidden under branches. |
| 1:39.2 | There are bunkers dug into the trench line around it, which the men can take cover. |
| 1:43.7 | And if they're being bombed by |
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