War Correspondent Tim Mak on the War in Ukraine

The Al Franken Podcast

Government, Progressive, Politics, Senate, Liberal, Senator, Minnesota, Franken, News, Saturday Night Live, Comedy, Snl

4.6 • 7.7K Ratings

🗓️ 7 September 2025

⏱️ 47 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Donald Trump rolled out the red carpet for Vladimir Putin in Alaska last month and came up empty handed... No ceasefire, no concessions, nothing. So what does the future of the war in Ukraine look like? We turn to journalist Tim Mak who has been based in Kiev since the start of the war. Tim is the founder of The Counteroffensive, a Substack that chronicles life in Ukraine and the agony of this war.

Tim breaks down the current state of the war, and he’s not too optimistic about the possibility of peace anytime soon. 70% of Ukrainians believe the war will still be going on a year from now. And if a deal is struck, how does the world make sure that Russia doesn't just attack again?

READ Tim’s work in The Counteroffensive: https://www.counteroffensive.news/

Get 15% off your skin care with our new sponsor, OneSkin, using code FRANKEN! https://www.oneskin.co

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Building a coffee business?
0:01.9	Serving the best Americano in town is up to you.
0:04.1	But winning back time and growing your business, leave that to sum up.
0:07.1	Take orders and payments anywhere with the new SumUp terminal.
0:09.9	Turn occasional customers into regulars with a free loyalty program.
0:13.4	And with the SumUp point of sale system, you'll always know when you're running low on your best-selling blends.
0:17.9	Visit sumup.co.uk to learn more.
0:24.3	Hey, everyone. your bestselling plans. Visit sumup.co.uk to learn more. Hey everybody, we got a great one today, you know, for a change. My guest is Tim Mack,
0:29.7	who's been covering the war in Ukraine from Kiev since the day it started. And it's the
0:36.6	second time that Tim has joined us.
0:40.0	Tim writes the counteroffensive a substack on the war.
0:44.8	We cover kind of where are we now?
0:46.9	Is Putin going to come to the table?
0:48.6	Or is he just going to keep going, grinding it out on the battlefield and bombing civilians and killing children.
0:58.0	The man is a monster.
1:00.8	Trump should have arrested him in Alaska.
1:03.4	Should have rolled out the red carpet, put him in the beast, and then arrested him.
1:08.5	The man is a war criminal.
1:09.9	He's kidnapped almost 20,000 Ukrainian children,
1:14.0	and no doubt is brainwashing them. Tim and I talk about that and about where this war is going.
1:20.7	Tim says that 70% of Ukrainians think this war is going to go on for at least another year. And we talk about
1:29.8	what we should do. I think we should be sending Ukraine arms and along with our European allies
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from The Al Franken Podcast, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of The Al Franken Podcast and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.