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The Ezra Klein Show

Sway: 'Fear and Panic Are Bedfellows' in Ukraine

The Ezra Klein Show

New York Times Opinion

News, Government, Society & Culture

4.314.5K Ratings

🗓️ 10 May 2022

⏱️ 44 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Today we're bringing you an episode from our friends at Sway about the war in Ukraine and the challenges of conflict-zone reporting. Clarissa Ward has had, as she puts it, a “long and very complicated relationship” with Russia. The chief international correspondent for CNN, she has had stints in Moscow since the beginning of her career, and has struggled to get a Russian visa since she investigated the 2020 poisoning of the Russian opposition leader Aleksei Navalny. But that hasn’t stopped her from reporting on the region, and in particular on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Yet after months of war, it can be an uphill battle to keep the viewers’ attention on the front line. “Our job is to keep finding ways to make sure that we don’t become numb and desensitized to the horrors of war, because that is exactly how wars continue and grind on,” Ward says. In this conversation, taped last week, Kara talks to Ward about her time reporting in Ukraine, what it’s like to “let fear sit in the passenger seat” when reporting from the front and how the hangover of war can leave correspondents detached from the “bourgeois and banal” normalcy of home. You can find transcripts (posted midday) and more information for all episodes at nytimes.com/sway, and you can find Kara on Twitter @karaswisher. “The Ezra Klein Show” is produced by Annie Galvin, Jeff Geld and Rogé Karma; fact-checking by Michelle Harris; original music by Isaac Jones; mixing by Jeff Geld; audience strategy by Shannon Busta. Our executive producer is Irene Noguchi. Special thanks to Kristin Lin and Kristina Samulewski.

Transcript

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0:00.0

When you walk in the room, do you have a swing?

0:16.0

Hi, as reclined show listeners, I'm Cara Swisher.

0:19.0

As her is taking a break today, he'll be back on Friday.

0:21.0

In the meantime, I'm doing an Elon Musk style hostile takeover

0:24.0

to bring you an episode of Sway, the podcast I host for New York Times opinion.

0:29.0

Here's a conversation I recently had with Clarissa Ward, a fellow journalist

0:33.0

and chief international correspondent at CNN.

0:36.0

She's been reporting on the ground in Ukraine throughout Russia's invasion.

0:39.0

Last week, she was back home in London, so I was able to catch up with her then

0:43.0

to discuss the war, our waning attention on it, and how covering conflict affects her personally.

0:48.0

Have a listen if you like what you hear, subscribe to Sway.

0:51.0

New episodes drop every Monday and Thursday.

0:54.0

Clarissa Ward, welcome to Sway.

0:58.0

Thank you so much for having me on, Cara.

1:00.0

So let's start with the big picture.

1:02.0

Russia announced a new phase of the war last month.

1:04.0

So talk about a little bit where we are right now.

1:06.0

What does it mean and where is Putin focusing right now?

1:09.0

So essentially, President Putin has had to dramatically down size his ambitions in Ukraine.

1:16.0

And after the failure of attempts to capture the capital Kiev and even small cities,

1:23.0

like Chernegive in the northern part of the country, they have now doubled down on a new offensive in the east,

1:31.0

which is all focused on this Donbass region and these two breakaway republics that comprise the Donbass.

...

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