The Russian “Collaborators”
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3.9 • 1.1K Ratings
🗓️ 8 February 2023
⏱️ 28 minutes
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Summary
For Ukrainians who remained behind when the war began, choices made in the fog of occupation come under scrutiny when the invading army leaves, and neighbors once divided by the Russians again must live side by side.
Guest: Joshua Yaffa, contributing writer at The New Yorker and the author of “Between Two Fires: Truth, Ambition, and Compromise in Putin's Russia.”
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Transcript
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| 1:04.7 | Joshua Yaffa has been reporting in Ukraine, and when I spoke to him earlier this week, |
| 1:10.6 | it was as if he'd taken on this unofficial project, chronicling all the things the war has broken |
| 1:16.8 | in its path. He'd been spending time in an eastern city, known as a Zoom. What immediately struck him |
| 1:23.7 | as he arrived was that it wasn't just Russia making a mess of this region. Pushing Russians out, |
| 1:30.8 | that was messy too. Well, the first thing I saw on the way into town was a highway littered with |
| 1:41.1 | shrapnel glass burnt out Russian tanks by the side of the road, essentially the remnants of what |
| 1:47.2 | had been this lightning fast, super successful Ukrainian counteroffensive that pushed Russian |
| 1:52.9 | troops out of a Zoom and basically chased them all the way down the highway, and you could see the |
| 1:57.7 | after-effects of that chase on the way into a Zoom. But when I got to the actual center of town, |
| 2:05.2 | the destruction is apparent immediately. I mean, the apartment buildings had clearly been bombed, |
| 2:12.6 | shelled, caved it on themselves, rubble around town, holes and buildings where they had been |
... |
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