Transcript of WION interview, 4 June

Transcript submitted by a reader

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x4DCzMfqhzA

WION: 0:00
The American President Donald Trump is yet to issue a public comment on Ukraine’s 1st of June Spiderweb operation, which targeted billions of dollars worth of Russian nuclear-capable fighter jets that were stationed at bases across the country. This, even as his social media activity has significantly increased over the days. In the past couple of days, Trump has in fact posted about a gamut of different issues on his Truth Social network, from his relationship with the Chinese President Xi Jinping to Poland’s elections, but there’s not been one word on the Russia-Ukraine war. The White House press secretary Caroline Leavitt has confirmed in a briefing on Tuesday that he was not informed in advance about Operation Spiderweb.
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Reporter:
Was President Trump informed in advance by Ukraine that the attack is coming?

Leavitt:
He was not.
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WION: 0:52
Now the American President Donald Trump is in fact on an online posting frenzy. He’s been posting on the internet at a much faster rate than what he did in his first term. As of the 1st of June, Trump had posted about 2,262 times in his company’s social network Truth Social in the 132 days since his inauguration. And this is according to a Washington Post analysis, [and now] this is more than three times the number of tweets that he had put out during the same period in his first presidency.

Now, during his first term, Trump had used Twitter, but his account was blocked by the network’s administration following the attack on the Capitol Hill by his supporters on the 6th of January back in 2021. In 2022, the tech billionaire Elon Musk took charge of X, lifted the restrictions, but by then, Donald Trump was already using his own Truth Social network, where he continues to post pretty much on a day-to-day basis. While the American president began to use social networks for communication with his supporters more than 10 years ago, but his activity has since been significantly on the rise. In 2017 the President had posted about 14 tweets per day at the most. And this number is nearly 10 times greater, 138 posts on Truth Social.

2:11
The heightened volume is not just to the credit of Trump. He has now a team of aides who actually help him post through the [day]. To give us more perspective on this, we’re joined by Dr. Gilbert Doctorow, who’s a Russian affairs analyst and also an international affairs expert, an author, and a historian. Dr. Doctorow, thank you very much indeed for joining us here on WION. And let me, in fact, start off by asking you this: in the aftermath of Ukraine having carried out those drone attacks that targeted Russian nuclear-capable fighter jets, in your assessment, why is it that we’ve not heard anything from American President Donald Trump, who is so given to putting out his ideas on his social network?

Gilbert Doctorow, PhD: 2:56
Well, we also haven’t heard very much from Mr. Putin. So it’s not just Donald Trump has been quiet about this. I think there’s been enormous speculation as to whether or not the president of the United States was informed in advance. The question that was posed to his press secretary, Leavitt, was whether the Ukrainians had informed him. But in the alternative media there is some great speculation and discussion that he should have or could have been informed by the CIA. in the assumption that the American CIA was involved in the preparation and execution of the attack. That of course is pure speculation, which I don’t share.

3:39
Coming to Mr. Putin, I think we will hear from him in a very important way in the coming days. I don’t think your audience is aware, but all Russian ambassadors around the world have been called back into Russia for a meeting. Now, this could be just an annual event. In the spring there are such events.

But the timing is peculiar. And I expect that Mr. Putin will be briefing them on what he is about to announce to all of us on Russia’s revenge for this disastrous strike on its nuclear assets.

WION:
Right. It’s interesting that you point out that not only Donald Trump, but even Vladimir Putin has said very little. But the fact is, Putin would see this as a massive, massive embarrassment for what has been done to him in a war that he believes he is actually quite clearly winning on the battlefield. But the question that I want you to weigh in on, Gilbert Doctorow, is, you know, considering the level of American involvement in this war, the amount of intelligence that the Americans have been sharing with the Ukrainians, the sophistication of this attack that was carried out by the Ukrainians, do you think the Ukrainians could have done this without active American support? And if that is the case, could the American president not have been aware of this?

Doctorow: 5:05
Well, let’s take what Ukraine has told us, that this event was planned 18 months ago. The preparations began 18 months ago. And this was all during the period of Joe Biden’s presidency. So it is not an attack that was arranged or staged during Mr. Trump’s time in office. It is unlikely that the United States, which had surely participated in setting up this type of attack 18 months ago and contributed no doubt to its planning later on, it is inconceivable to me that after Trump came into office and purged the intelligence agencies, decapitated them in fact, that those agencies would persist in a program that was directly opposed to the plans of their boss, Mr. Trump, to find a common language with Russia.

WION: 6:09
You know, it’s interesting that you point out that this could have been an attack for which the planning may have been going on for 18 months, so it may have been sanctioned very well by Joe Biden when he was the president. But the fact is, it is Donald Trump WHO has now been pushing for a deal to bring about a ceasefire. In the aftermath of this attack, what happens to those negotiations that the American President Donald Trump has taken upon himself to try and bring about a ceasefire?

Doctorow:
If there is any hint that Americans have continued to participate in the planning and execution of this attack after Donald Trump came into office, then I think we would see, and we would have seen already, but certainly if not already, then in the coming day or two, the Russians pulling out of peace negotiations, denounce the United States.

7:00
And it’s more than just the loss of this equipment. It would be the complete loss of trust over the viability of the New START treaty, which still has a year to run, which the Russians have suspended but say that they are still respecting. And the fact that all of their jets were lined up on the tarmac for open view was a consequence of their following the agreements they had negotiated with the United States. The United States would be utterly destroyed in terms of credibility and as a talking partner for Russia if that were so. And therefore I believe it is not so. that the Americans were not involved, though the Brits very clearly were.

7:45
And I’d like to add, let’s be a bit more kind, or at least a bit more understanding of the Ukrainians. To say that this could not have been done without foreign assistance, I think is missing the point. The Ukrainians in drone affairs are probably way ahead of the British. It’s a joke to think that they would need massive help from abroad to perform this drone attack.

WION:
A lot of people have turned around and said they need the satellite data that would be supplied by the Americans to give effect to an attack of this nature. But we’re completely out of time. Thank you very much indeed, Dr. Gilbert Doctorow, for joining us with that perspective there.

Doctorow: 8:24
Thank you.