🎙️ In this powerful interview, Judge Andrew Napolitano sits down with international affairs expert Prof. Gilbert Doctorow to discuss the true state of peace talks between Ukraine and Russia 🕊️🛑
🔍 In this episode, we examine:
📉 Are peace negotiations truly stalled — or intentionally sabotaged?
🌐 What role does the West really play in prolonging or preventing peace?
🧠 Gilbert Doctorow's expert insights on diplomacy, NATO, and global tension
⏳ Is a peaceful resolution still possible, or is the clock running out?
⚖️ Truth, nuance, and global stakes — this is a conversation that matters.
👉 Be sure to LIKE 👍, SUBSCRIBE 🔔, and SHARE 📲 for more expert analysis and honest discussion.
#GilbertDoctorow
#JudgeNapolitano
#UkraineRussia
#PeaceTalks
#Geopolitics
#GlobalDiplomacy
#UkraineWar
#RussiaUkraineConflict
#NATOPolitics
#WarAndPeace
#InternationalRelations
#AlternativeMedia
#TruthInMedia
#PeaceOrWar
#ExpertAnalysis
#PoliticalDiscussion
#RussiaWestTensions
#RealNews
#StopTheWar
#GeopoliticalInsights
🔍 In this episode, we examine:
📉 Are peace negotiations truly stalled — or intentionally sabotaged?
🌐 What role does the West really play in prolonging or preventing peace?
🧠 Gilbert Doctorow's expert insights on diplomacy, NATO, and global tension
⏳ Is a peaceful resolution still possible, or is the clock running out?
⚖️ Truth, nuance, and global stakes — this is a conversation that matters.
👉 Be sure to LIKE 👍, SUBSCRIBE 🔔, and SHARE 📲 for more expert analysis and honest discussion.
#GilbertDoctorow
#JudgeNapolitano
#UkraineRussia
#PeaceTalks
#Geopolitics
#GlobalDiplomacy
#UkraineWar
#RussiaUkraineConflict
#NATOPolitics
#WarAndPeace
#InternationalRelations
#AlternativeMedia
#TruthInMedia
#PeaceOrWar
#ExpertAnalysis
#PoliticalDiscussion
#RussiaWestTensions
#RealNews
#StopTheWar
#GeopoliticalInsights
Category
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NewsTranscript
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01:08Transcription by CastingWords
01:10That is an angle that I haven't seen discussed. Of course there's discussion of whether or not there will be an African cardinal name to succeed him, whether it will be reformer because he had an understudy who will take over, or whether it will be a traditionalist.
01:28But that is the dogma side and the personality of Francis as a Pope of the people. That is the line that almost all European media are examining and promoting.
01:43I don't see a geopolitical side the way you could if you looked at what happened after the death of John Paul II. That was indeed geopolitical. This one isn't.
01:55One wonders why just two months ago the Pope called for an investigation in Gaza as to whether or not there was genocide going on. I mean, talk about too little too late.
02:10Couldn't he? Couldn't he have sent Cardinal Perala and the Secretary of State to Netanyahu saying stop, stop suppressing Christianity, stop slaughtering Palestinians?
02:20Well, he took many stands. He was a person who was not afraid to speak against the prevailing wisdom. And as a Russian observer, I'm, of course, thinking of what he told Zelensky to wave the white flag and to do the brave thing and spare his people.
02:42So you can look at many things that he has said and done. Some of them may not be so attractive as the one you just mentioned. But overall, as regards my territory, he was highly regarded.
02:57Putin, in particular, had very kind and warm, warm words in his eulogy because he saw him three or four times.
03:05So that is the Russian angle. The West European angle, as I said, is to question dogma, whether traditionalist or reformist would go on.
03:15Right. I think you know where I'm coming from, and I'm going to drop the subject, but I'm an old-fashioned pre-Vatican II Latin mass attending style Catholic.
03:28So I thought that Francis deviated substantially from the deposit of faith, which he's supposed to preserve.
03:35Well, your traditionalism has particularly importance here in Belgium, because a country like this, when it abandoned the Latin mass, abandoned a unified church in the country.
03:49So it's...
03:50Wow. Is Vladimir Putin a serious, believing member of the Russian Orthodox Church?
04:00This is absolutely true. Yes, very close relations. With the Patriarch Kirill, there's a great deal of mutual respect, and both of them are doing their best to be patriots. So there's a lot that binds them together. As to faith, yes, I think nobody would question today that Mr. Putin, the ex-KGB operative, so to speak, is indeed a believer.
04:23I have a close friend who's a Roman Catholic priest in one of the very, very traditional orders who has a close friend who's a Russian Orthodox priest who tells my priest friend that President Putin's confessor travels with him so that wherever he is, he can go to confession.
04:47I've never really, I've never heard of that in the modern era. European kings had that 200, 300 years ago. I've never heard that in the modern era. If true, and I believe it is, it's utterly, utterly remarkable.
05:02Okay. You mentioned President Zelensky. Is he free politically to enter into a peace accord, or does he do so at the risk of his own life?
05:15I think the latter was true. This traps him in an impossible losing position, whatever he does. And I think this last couple of days, we've seen him smoked out. Well, in the last four days, we've seen him smoked out.
05:32The first move that President Putin made for this purpose as a public relations move, a very clever move, was to announce the 30-hour ceasefire for Easter.
05:44There he caught Mr. Zelensky on the back foot, didn't know what to say, looked and sounded very disagreeable, unpleasant, ugly, in fact, when he finally conceded that the Ukrainians would follow suit.
06:02Now, something much more important has come up, and that is the announcement that was really extensively reported in the Financial Times that President Putin is willing to make a substantial concession for purposes of negotiating a peace, namely, not to insist on Russia taking over the full territory of the four provinces in eastern Ukraine
06:30That they incorporated formally into the Russian Federation after a referendum. That looked like a big concession, even the Financial Times was speaking of it in those terms.
06:44And then that was pressure on Zelensky to also make a move. And indeed, Zelensky did not make a move, which explains Mr. Rubio's cancellation of attending the negotiations or talks in London
07:00today. And it put the Russians exactly where they want to be, to be shown in favor of concessions to reach a lasting peace, where the Ukrainians are still holding on to their maximalist position.
07:13I don't think that Zelensky has a choice. If he were to make concessions, it would be at the price of his own life.
07:20The Financial Times article to which you refer reflects, I'll read the headline,
07:28Putin's offer to halt war at current front line, piles pressure on Ukraine. The current front line must be fairly close to 100% of the 4-0 blasts, no?
07:43No, close to 100% in Lugansk. But from the beginning, Lugansk was largely in Russian hands.
07:51Donetsk, it's about 60%, maybe 70% in Russian hands. And the other two, Zaporozhye and Kherson, are probably closer to 50%.
08:01The Kherson city, indeed, is in Ukrainian hands, although the territory of the oblast is, I say, 50% Russian.
08:11So he would be making an important concession. But just let's keep in mind that Peskov asked about this Financial Times report, said it was fake news.
08:22That is to say, formally speaking, the Russians have disowned that. And there's a reason for it.
08:28This was a tactical move by the Kremlin addressing the West, addressing Washington in particular.
08:39But it was not supposed to be known within Russia, because it would raise many, many questions about Putin's loyalty to the missions of the war that were embarrassing.
08:53So it was really addressing Washington. And if the Financial Times is correct, then this was somehow, by connivance, passed along to them to do exactly what they did.
09:09A front page long article. But it was not intended to be known or examined closely within Russia itself.
09:18Is it known in Russia and has there been any reaction to it amongst either the elites or the common folks?
09:27I can't say about a reaction because that will only come up this evening.
09:30It was really last night's news after Russian state news and Russian talk shows already had closed down.
09:39So this evening, I expect there'll be discussion of it.
09:44Very interesting. So your view is that this is a true and accurate report.
09:53They just aren't sure that it should have been leaked.
09:57No, I think they're happy it was leaked because the intention was to do exactly what has happened, to call out the seriousness of Mr. Zelensky and all of his discussions of an unconditional 30 day ceasefire, blah, blah, blah.
10:12And show that when it comes to push comes to shove, he doesn't want to give up anything.
10:17He said yesterday that he would not acknowledge Crimea as Russian.
10:22And that is the proof positive that he is dug in his heels and is against a peace with Russia.
10:29Is that the reason for which Secretary of State Rubio is not going to London either today or tomorrow or wherever they are to resume the negotiations?
10:40I'm certain it is. This gave those within Team Trump the hand that I've said they wanted, which is to have a good reason to abandon the talks and to pull out support from under Ukraine and to proceed with a rapprochement or detente with Russia as if the war never took place.
11:07Except that the person they're sending.
11:10Except that the person they're sending, well, it was going to go either way, but had had Secretary Rubio been there, this person would have been second amongst the American negotiators.
11:21Now he's first. And that's the belligerent old neocon General Kellogg.
11:28I mean, who's going to take credibly anything that he says after the proposal he made of dividing Ukraine up amongst the allies as if it were Europe in August of 1945?
11:41Well, Kellogg's presence is supposed to be holding the hands of the British and the French and Zelensky.
11:50He's there kind of decorative. He's an extra on the stage. Certainly the Russians don't take him with any seriousness. And he's doing that role.
12:01I don't, I don't, I don't believe that he understands how he's being used without being honored, but that's his role.
12:11The, his presence there gives an appearance of American continuity, but the reality is I think it's disruptive. I don't believe that this, this procedure will go on very long.
12:24Uh, let's go back to the 30 hour, uh, ceasefire. How did it go? I, I, I, I agree with you.
12:33It was a brilliant PR move and it caught President Zelensky flat footed, but was it honored?
12:40Uh, the bottom line, the remarks, uh, well, let me, before I get to the bottom line, uh, the remarks of the Russians, but they counted 4,000 Ukrainian violations of the, of the ceasefire.
12:53And a lot of these were artillery, uh, shells that were fired. Some of them were drones. Some of them were, were airplane, um, configuration drones, which are quite, quite dangerous, of course, but mostly were shot down.
13:07Um, they counted 4,000. The Ukrainian stranger, strangely, they wait for the Russians to say something and then, then take it as on as their own or maybe double it.
13:17Uh, the Ukrainians only claimed 2,000 violations by the Russians, but that's, that's just, these are just words.
13:23The bottom line is what, what, uh, Vladimir Putin said at the end, some of these, uh, after making this announcement and violations that indeed the Ukrainian attacks on the line of confrontation were significantly fewer, uh, than before, than before or after the 30 hour ceasefire.
13:45Hmm. How is the Russian, uh, how is the attitude amongst the Russian people toward the war?
13:53I mean, did many expect it to go on this long and be this methodically slow?
13:59Oh, not at all.
14:01And I'm sure there's, there's widespread disappointment that it has gone this slowly.
14:07Look, the, the, we were talking several months ago about the Russian, imminent Russian capture of Bukrovsk.
14:13This is a, a logistics nexus.
14:16This is maybe, it's maybe 10, 10, 15 kilometers away from the, the front lines today.
14:22And the Russians were, were focusing in, they were coming around from the north side and cutting it off.
14:27Wait a minute. Uh, nothing's happened.
14:30That's to say they have not taken Bukrovsk.
14:33And there, this is typical of what's going on.
14:35There are a lot of small incremental captures of this town and that town.
14:40Um, but not, but not a, uh, any change in the battlefield that you could consider decisive.
14:47Um, and it's because Putin is doing everything possible to minimize Russian casualties.
14:54And because the war is not what everyone's talking about.
14:59They're all, yes, we all know about the artillery problem.
15:02And, and, uh, Ukraine has a 10 to 1 disadvantage in its artillery shells.
15:06But wait a minute, the war has changed.
15:08The war now is dominated by the, uh, drones.
15:12And the drones, thank you very much.
15:14The Ukrainians are doing very well.
15:16They got several thousand from Britain, drones.
15:19They make their own drones.
15:20And the drones are hazardous, dangerous, and not easy to stop.
15:25Uh, Russian reporters who died in the last several weeks, these were drone attacks on their, on their cars.
15:31And the Russians do not mask their army precisely to avoid, uh, large casualties from drone attacks.
15:39Uh, you also, look, nobody's talking much about the casualty figures.
15:43Going back two, three months ago, every day the Russians were reporting 2,000, uh, 1,800, 2,200, and in that range, um, Ukrainians killed or, uh, mutilated.
15:58That is, so their further participation in the war is excluded.
16:02Wait a minute.
16:03We don't see that now.
16:04Now I watch Russian television, and on this front, I have 200 Ukrainians were killed.
16:08Now, on that front, the daily figures are down sharpening.
16:11And that means that, essentially, the, the, the level of violence has gone down precisely because of drone warfare.
16:20Interesting.
16:21Uh, are you suggesting that President Putin's offer to draw the line where the military is now, uh, is, uh, a product of a military necessity as well as a political acumen?
16:38I would turn that around.
16:39It's a net.
16:40It's a result of political necessity because the militarily, the Russians can overwhelm Ukraine.
16:46There's no question about it.
16:47Uh, but with what results?
16:49Just remember that about less than two weeks ago, the Russians marked because they've been, because they've come down the countdown to the 80th anniversary of the capture of Berlin and the end of the European war.
17:01Um, the Russians every few days have on their screen, on the television screen, some other town or city, city that has been kept, that was captured by the Red Army.
17:11It's the, in the closing months of World War II.
17:14And they had, uh, very recently, it was marking the, the capture of Vienna, which cost the Russians one, in three days or four days, 150,000 dead soldiers.
17:25Uh, Mr. Putin is not studying.
17:28He cannot afford to have that type of horrible losses that have to take, to take cities.
17:35So this is dictated by political necessity.
17:39There would be political chaos if he were to sacrifice lives so, uh, irresponsibly.
17:46Is the, uh, threat by Marco Rubio and somewhat endorsed by his boss to turn off the spigot of military supplies a serious one in your view?
18:03I think it is.
18:05So this is the key question that Mr.
18:07Uh, Trump wants to, will wash his hands of the Ukrainian war.
18:11I think that's almost a given, but what follows upon that?
18:15Is he going to continue the, the intelligence sharing?
18:18Is he going to do this, as you say, turn on or off the spigot?
18:21This will really be the decisive, uh, element factor in whether we can say that this is, uh, this was Biden's war or this is Trump's war.
18:32And I imagine the president is well aware of that distinction.
18:35Well, the president has said it's Biden's war and it's not his.
18:39I think most Americans recognize that right now it is his after a hundred days in office.
18:44He campaigned saying the war would be over within 24 hours of his, uh, election.
18:50As far as we all know here in the U S the spigot is still flowing and it doesn't consist of cash anymore, but it consists of all the military equipment Kyiv wants and all the intelligence data that Kyiv needs.
19:05Uh, well, the, the, uh, the notion that is all the equipment that Kyiv wants is a notion coming from Washington, not from Kyiv.
19:15Uh, the Americans like the Europeans have supplied a lot of junk to Kyiv and everybody knows that.
19:22And I doubt that it stopped.
19:24Uh, they, they were cleaning out the stables.
19:27They were cleaning out the warehouses or junk that have been accumulated and we're still on the books.
19:32And that's been all shipped shipped to, uh, to Kyiv at the nom at the prices that were in the books, uh, not the real value.
19:41So how much this all can help Kyiv is really is questionable, but hasn't turned the tide in the last three years.
19:48It's certainly not going to turn the tide.
19:50Now it's a moral boost to Ukraine, which is valuable.
19:53Of course, war is psychological, not just physical, but, uh, as to enabling them to fight on.
20:01Uh, it'll take more than the, than what's in the U.S. pipeline.
20:06What happens if the U.S. does turn off that spigot?
20:11Nobody knows.
20:12Look, uh, the shows, the talk shows and the discussion, interview programs that are on, uh, the responsible ones that are on, uh, YouTube.
20:22I have experts who are military experts.
20:24I'm not one, but I follow closely what they're saying.
20:27And there's cacophony.
20:28There's a very broad array of dates that people give for when the war can end.
20:34Of course, nobody knows for sure because the psychological element is unpredictable, a mental collapse.
20:41But the reality is, uh, that I see is that, as I mentioned in past programs, the Ukrainians are putting up young soldiers who have some, some adequate training, who at least, who have the respect of the, of the Russian soldiers on the ground who have to deal with them.
20:59And as I say, the numbers, numbers game changed because just looking at artillery shells doesn't tell you the real status of the war.
21:07Just that, just looking at numbers of soldiers doesn't give you the real status.
21:12It's this war that no one anticipated, but developed of its own, of its own course, this war of drones and electronic warfare.
21:22What does your crystal ball tell you will be the status of things in four or five or six months?
21:28The war will be over.
21:30I think that, uh, one way or another, there'll be a collapse of spirit in Ukraine when the United States pulls out.
21:37That is going to sap, undermine their, their, um, confidence.
21:42And confidence is decisive in the fate of a war.
21:47So, and the, there will be some change, some significant change.
21:52Capitulation, let's hope so, because that would be kindest to, uh, at the human, um, parameter for the Ukrainians.
22:01If they just got it over with as Pope Francis had, had requested.
22:07But I, I can't see this going beyond this, this calendar year.
22:11And if there is capitulation, I would think that President Zelensky would have to flee the country.
22:16Ahead of the capitulation.
22:18Ahead of the capitulation.
22:19Yes, yes.
22:20Ahead of the capitulation.
22:21With, with as many of his, uh, of his, um, local monitors and his, uh, British, uh, minders, uh, as they can take with him.
22:31Because that, that regime will be gone.
22:33Got it.
22:35Professor Doctorow, thank you for an excellent, uh, conversation.
22:40Starting with the Pope and ending with fleeing Kyiv.
22:45But, uh, very, very insightful and deeply appreciated.
22:49Pardon me.
22:50And thank you for accommodating my schedule this morning.
22:52All the best to you.
22:54Bye-bye.
22:56Oh, and safe travels, Professor.
22:59Uh, coming up later today at two o'clock, Max Blumenthal.
23:03Some of the things going on in Israel, you just won't believe.
23:09And at three o'clock, Phil Giraldi.
23:12Why are the Israelis suppressing Christianity in its birthplace?
23:18Judge Napolitano for Judging Freedom.
23:42The
23:55The
23:55The
24:08The