General First off,
thank you so much for taking
the time to speak with us today
about such an important topic.
We really appreciate
it. Well, thanks for covering the story.
'cause this is critically important.
I want to start by going back to
this partnership with Ukraine,
which spans 30 years,
one of the oldest state
partnerships in America.
Why do we do this and and how
important is it as we look
at what's happening today,
so the partnership
as you said, has been for about 30 years.
It was among the first partnerships
of a state National Guard which with
at the time a former Republic in
the Soviet Union and what we did is
after the fall of the Soviet Union we
partnered with Ukraine from California
in order to work with their military to
teach them how to behave as a military
that's subordinate to civil authority,
where the civilians are in charge.
In a constitutional democracy today that
that partnership has really come to
fruition and has stood the test of time.
Whereas over 30 years we became closer,
we helped them.
The Ukrainian military build
tremendous capability and capacity,
and now we're seeing those results
as the Ukrainians are fighting
very bravely and valiantly,
and I might add very skillfully as they
face this illegal Russian invasion.
These men and women that are fighting
in their armed forces on the ground
and trained with them both here.
And in Ukraine, and you also know and can
see now the resolve of the Ukrainian people.
As this invasion comes across,
what do you make of that
and what can you speak to?
How resilient these people are?
So we've known all along that the
Ukrainians are very tough fighters.
They have great leadership.
They have a lot of depth on the bench,
but they see the resolve
of the Ukrainian people,
which isn't surprising.
Having seen spent so much
time in Ukraine that.
They value freedom as much,
if not more than any freedom
loving country around the globe,
and they're really being put to the test,
and they're going to fight very
hard to preserve that freedom
against this illegal invasion.
When we started this state partnership
with all these Warsaw Pact countries
following the Soviet Union,
the goal being to help them
establish democracy reform,
military and I think in many
ways we've done that.
But to see now a democracy,
potentially in limbo.
After all the work we've done
and all the work they've done.
How do you feel about that?
Well, it makes me angry with
the Russians and with Mr.
Putin that they think they can get
away with something that's illegal.
And I think it surprised them of the
resolve not only of the Ukrainian people,
but of not just the Western
countries in the United States,
but people around the globe that
have categorically decried and
denounced this this action by them,
I think that we're also seeing how
effective the Ukrainian military
has been and how their entire
government has come together.
And the people have come together,
put their political differences
aside within the country in order
to face this very dire threat.
How concerned are you that the
new border of the free world
may move 800 miles to the West?
At the rate things are going,
I think that there is a tough road to hoe
for the Russians to achieve that objective.
First of all, it's illegal and it's wrong.
The Ukrainians are fighting very valiantly.
This remains a close run thing though,
so as aid continues to flow into Ukraine in
order to help their forces be more lethal,
the Russians still have a lot of
capability that we're only a little
over a week into this conflict,
so it's still hangs in the balance.
But I'm hopeful that the Ukrainian
people will continue to fight.
The Russians will come to their
senses and then pull out and go home.
What becomes of our partnership?
Now that Ukraine's at war
the partnership is never been
more important and never stronger.
We activated our headquarters
for the California Military
Department here in Sacramento.
As soon as the invasion began so that
we could bring staff augmentation in.
We're running what we call a full
battle rhythm on a 24 hour cycle
to be able to communicate with the
Ukrainians and share their needs and
what they're seeing on the battlefield
with the rest of the US government.
And with our NATO partners in order
to facilitate aid to breakdown any
bureaucratic walls to get them what
they need to sustain the fight,
and we're starting to learn that the
way the West works and the way the East
works is in many ways helping Ukraine.
And in the sense that the structure of a
despot is far different than the structure
of a democratic society wanting to find
absolutely. And you can see that in
the performance of their armed forces.
The Ukrainians have an
all volunteer military,
even though they've now added
conscription and brought in all men and many,
many women into too robust their ranks.
But they're they're military,
is performing extraordinarily well.
You contrast that with the Russian army,
which is, as you say,
led by a despot in the form of Mr Putin.
That's on all, conscript army.
They have low morale.
They can't synchronize combat power.
They're having a lot of problems that
doesn't make them any less lethal.
They're still very much a
problem and very dangerous,
but the Ukrainians are performing
extraordinarily well and I think
that's a hallmark to the underlying
freedoms that the Ukrainian
people practice and believe in
decentralized. Essentially, warfare,
fighting centralized warfare
top down structure, definitely,
absolutely, and it's a hallmark
of the West is that as generals in
Western armies and in the American
Army in particular, we give.
Broad guidance and objectives to our
subordinates and let them figure out
how to do it in the Russian military,
they tell him a script that they
have to follow and if things
don't go according to the script,
it does not go well for those poor
soldiers down in the lower ranks,
we discussed it briefly before we
started, but are the Ukrainians
better trained than the Russians?
Clearly, clearly their air forces
performing magnificently and there's.
And it's not just the training,
they are so much more motivated they
have the will to succeed because.
They're on the right side and they know
it. Let's turn to President Zelensky,
who I know you met a couple years back.
You hosted him during his
visit here in California.
What was that visit like with
him and talked to me about what?
That yeah, that was like with
him, so he's a very impressive leader.
And I think that just like the rest
of the Ukrainian armed forces,
maybe even the Ukrainian Government,
people underestimated the Ukrainians.
They underestimated Zelinski they
thought of him as a comedian, a showman.
Not really a serious politician.
My experience with him was far different.
He was extraordinarily knowledgeable
about his needs for his country,
the political situation, very, very.
He was very serious minded and
and and laser like focused on.
What we in the Calgary could do
to help his armed forces continue
to get better.
I want to pull up something he shared
with his Parliament just a day ago.
He quoted Churchill and saying
we shall fight on the beaches.
We shall fight on the landing grounds.
We shall fight in the fields
and in the streets.
We shall fight in the hills.
We shall never surrender.
Are those words appropriate
at this point in time?
Knowing the context,
you're a military man,
so I will. I will tell you that the
Ukrainians are putting that into action,
so those aren't mere words the
Ukrainians are doing that right now,
not only the members of the military,
the members of the National Guard of Ukraine,
the state Border Guard service,
the National Police,
but individual citizens,
whether they join the territorial
Defence Force or not,
they are taking every opportunity to
fight the Russians to kill the Russians
and to get them out of their country.
There's been numerous assassination
attempts on zalenski in recent weeks
and and in just the past couple
of days that have been reported.
The ability for the Ukrainian
Government to maintain itself,
and you know, and and by all
accounts it appears Russia is trying
to essentially strangle Ukraine,
and we can see now how important
Crimea was ten years ago.
Being a southern port to that end goal.
The ability for the Ukrainian
government and the people to to
maintain a war as essentially your
structures begin to fall is there.
Is there concern about that and how
important is zalenski to maintaining the war?
Does Ukraine fall with him?
So in any endeavor, leadership matters.
But as I mentioned before,
the Ukrainians have a lot
of depth on the bench.
They are a warrior society.
They are very tough minded people.
They have a lot of nationalistic
pride and they believed.
Our hearts of hearts in freedom.
So if God forbid something happens to
the President solinski the Ukrainians,
have what we would call in the West a
continuity of operations plan they have,
and continuity of government plan.
They have a plan that if something happens,
someone else will step in and
continue to lead their nation,
just like at lower levels.
If a military leader gets taken out,
someone else will step in
and continue the fight.
So I have full confidence that the
Ukrainian Government will continue to
function as long as they can hold on.
You've got friends and colleagues
overseas in Ukraine right now,
and I'm sure a lot of the folks
that you work with two here at
the guard because of this long
relationship you're keeping in
contact with those folks and.
How how is the I guess the morale here?
Just knowing and watching from
from afar what's happening
so we're in constant contact and a
matter of fact around the clock.
All of us that have friends and
colleagues in Ukraine are reaching
out and communicating both on a
professional and a personal level,
and the professional side we are working
to get them the aid and the materials
they need and the personal side.
Of course. 'cause they're friends,
we care about the safety of
them and their families,
but I think overall,
the sentiment throughout the
California Military Department
is we could not be more proud.
Of our Ukrainian partners about how
well they're performing about their
dedication to their jobs to their country,
and to this notion of democracy and freedom.
How serious is this situation?
Not just for Ukraine,
and we know for Ukraine?
It could be essentially deadly.
It could.
It could end their democracy,
but for the rest of the West,
Poland is on the border.
It's a NATO ally.
We know that an inch and a Poland
could threaten World War three.
The stakes are perhaps higher than
they've been since World War Two.
I think this has profound implications
for the entire world because the rule
of law that's been established overtime
agreed upon by nations written into
actual international law has been just
blatantly violated by a despot who,
for whatever his motivations are,
that he thinks he can invade,
and a sovereign country with
no basis whatsoever.
None whatsoever, no justification.
There is no just work.
This is not a just war to think
that he can get away with it so.
I'm very encouraged again by the
stance that the entire world has taken,
in particular Western nations and NATO,
and our own government in order
to stand up to this tyranny
with global stability hanging in the balance.
So many have to step up,
or I think what we know
of our structure and how.
The stability that we've created
over the past century which took.
4000 years I think many people
would argue to to reach.
We're in perhaps one of the most
peaceful times in world history,
even though we have a lot of turmoil.
And I think many of us are sitting
and watching Ukraine and hoping
that it doesn't extend beyond that,
indeed. Indeed, it's it's a very,
very troubling time.
Something, fortunately,
we in the West and the militaries
of Ukraine have dedicated our
entire lives and our entire
professional careers to trainingfor.
We hoped and prayed that we would
never have to put into practice
in this manner what we've done.
But the time is now and again,
I'm very, very encouraged by the
response by our government by the
West and by the Ukrainians to stand
up to this obscene illegal act.
Anything else general?
No, I just appreciate you guys covering this.
So thanks very much for taking the time.