Your questions needed for episode 3 of ‘This Week in Ukraine’

Thank you for answering my question! It has helped me understand why Ukraine has too sometimes push their own narrative.

Q. How has the average Ukrainian responded emotionally to the fact that this is an American leak which is (potentially) harming Ukraine during its war for survival? Has their view on the competence of the Pentagon and the American intelligence community changed?

Q. Is the Kyiv Independent, as journalists, able to obtain some of the leaked papers and analyze them on your own instead of mostly reporting what other publications have reported based on what they understood after analyzing the leaked docs? It would be very interesting to hear Ukrainian journalists interpreting the docs directly instead of international journalists.

and concerning the format: I like to stream the RSS feed with the VLC app, so RSS or a downloadable mp3 would be great. thank you!

I heard an ukrainian official mention that a lot of intelligence is freely accessible on the internet. Transparent information on casulties and the horror of the barbaric war crimes might help turn public opinion in russia and their supporting countries. Maybe you could discuss advantages of Open Intelligence and transparency in the podcast?

Also, if the leak is real, who did it and how can this be stopped. And how much of the overall assessment of the situation does this one document represents? It may be an outlier.

Q: I would be interested to know what reaction ordinary Ukrainians had to news of the leaked documents and how it affects their understanding of their prospects for victory. And I would prefer a downloadable audio file, the simpler the better, such as an mp3 as mentioned above. I usually listen to podcasts while I'm driving or doing outside chores. So I appreciate a portable format that I can download to listen to wherever.

Perhaps the documents are fake in the sense that the US wrote them, but with false information, then leaked them so the Russians would think they wouldn’t have to prepare so much, and then they’d be unprepared when Ukraine just sweeps them back to the border, and sweeps the Black Sea clean?

Perhaps as a follow on report, I have read that the Russian KGB archives made public in the early 1990s reveal that Patriarch Krill was an officer in the KGB even though he was active in church clerical roles back to the 1970s, and that he also had positions in St. Petersburgh. I believe Putin was also formerly of the KGB and was located in St. Petersburgh at some point. I am not sure how much of this is true about Krill, or how those two got such a close relationship. But understanding the Church in Soviet times and KGB infiltration, Krill and Putin KGB ties, and how the Church maintains its ties to the Russian State would be an outstanding and informative read or Podcast.

I like the idea of offering an audio version but it could just be a plain mp3 download either public on your website (with a link in the YT video description) or as a bonus to your Patreon supporters' community. There are at least two direct benefits: (1) less bandwidth usage is better for the environment; (2) audio podcast are more usable and flexible — especially since background streaming has been restricted to YT Music paying subscribers. Personally I rely on an Android app called Ymusic(.io) that allows me to download YT video streams in several formats including MP3, OGG and M4A. It does the trick!

In terms of Youtube vs RSS feed, I don't know how to use the RSS feed so Youtube is needed. So I would say not "instead of" but "in addition to" would be fine.

Can those leaked documents dealing with Russia-Ukraine war be understood overall to reflect a TRUE US determination to aid Ukraine until peace is established on terms acceptable to UKR?

One idea for a blog or even a series: How democracy in Ukraine isfaring during this horrific war. we hear a lot about military, fighting arms-deliveries and, occasionally about the fight against corruption, but hardly anything about how democratic institutions are doing during this exceptional period. how is government dealing with opposition? is there any real opposition left against this war forced upon Ukraine? How about crime rate etc. are there any debates going on in Parliament? etc. etc. etc.

Q. Wouldn't it be more productive for the Ukrainian and US governments to provide a unified response to the leak instead of Ukraine immediately calling it a Russian fake only for the Pentagon to confirm that it's actually authentic with some minor alterations? As for you journalists, do these recurring conflicting responses between Ukraine and its allies (such as the missiles that landed in Poland killing civilians) somewhat discredit Ukrainian responses on matters involving the allies?

Is it possible to integrate this new series under a wider podcast umbrella on Spotify, so I will only have to pay once in order to listen to both podcasts?

I would like to also be able to listen to the episodes vs watching them, but since I use the Spotify platform which does not support the RSS links I had to separately subscribe to the paid Spotify 'Power Lines+'.

Q. What can the governments of Ukraine's supporters do to being victory to Ukraine quickly and certainly?