The Inside Story | Episode 186

Yeah, absolutely. The individual in question is Mohammed Sharafulla, known as Jafar, and he was evidently in Afghan government custody until, according to the FBI affidavit, until about a few weeks before the horrible attack at A gate was released, and as many of these in these terrorists do, once released, they go back.

Big surprise to terrorism and was asked, was approached by ISIS K ISIS Corazon, the Afghanistan affiliate of ISIS, to go ahead and basically serve as a scout for ISIS and conduct surveillance or reconnaissance of the route by which the suicide bomber would later traverse and see if, if they thought that the bomber could get to the gate and then, and then, and then murder the people there.

He relayed that information, and then the attack occurred. And then, as you said, we had 13 US service members murdered. And approximately 160 civilians killed, and so he was in Pakistani detention, evidently, and US government reached out to them, and he is now in the United States and is facing charges. And I think for me, the main takeaway here is a positive one. I think it sends the message that if you harm us, service members the US government, regardless of administration, will do what’s necessary to find you and bring you to justice. And I think that’s a positive message.

CARLA BABB:

Yeah, even several years later, amazing news, President Trump also announced a new office of ship building in the White House, which he said would help build national security this is a problem that VOA is exploring in some reports that are coming out in recent days and soon to come. You and I have discussed this a lot vis a vis China. China has a big advantage on the US right now. Talk a little bit about this change and why you think it’s going up to the White House.

Bradley Bowman, Foundation for Defense of Democracies:

You know, it’s, I think this is a welcome announcement by the Trump administration. You know, an office and some tax incentives, while laudable, won’t solve the problem, but they do suggest this administration understands the problem and wants to focus on it, and this is a problem. In fact, problems probably not strong enough wording. I’d say we have a crisis. We have a ship building crisis in this country. We have insufficient ship building capacity, and the ships, and by ships, I mean ships and submarines that we’re producing are often late and over budget. We got a real problem.

And the People’s Liberation Army Navy a weird name, but the name for their navy is is larger than ours. They have three, depending how you do the accounting, they have 370 battle force ships. That’s going to grow to 395, this year, and as many as 435 by 2030, 2030, so, you know, the obvious question was, how does that compare the US has 296, 296, versus 370, and what’s going to happen in our future numbers, unless we have a dramatic intervention, the size is going to actually shrink. It’s projected to shrink to 294, so And by the way, our Navy is trying to cover and protect our interests around the world, while the Chinese navy, while increasingly venturing farther afield, is focusing a lot of their naval power on East Asia. And so that creates a real mismatch. And yes, many of our ships are higher quality. I get it, but as some people say, quantity has a quality of its own, and ships and submarines can only be in one place at a time.

CARLA BABB:

Bradley, what about the border? The President mentioned the US southern border several times. Officials went to the border this week for another look on what the US military is doing to try to help law enforcement efforts there, to do what Secretary of Defense Hegseth said would be gaining 100% operational control, tell us a little bit about the additions and how they are affecting interventions.

Bradley Bowman, Foundation for Defense of Democracies:

You know President when he was president Trump was a candidate, he really emphasized the border, and President Trump believes he has a mandate to secure the border. And in his first term, you know, in his National Security Strategy, he emphasized the importance of protecting our homeland.

And so now that he’s elected, I’d say President Trump has put his money where his mouth is in terms of focusing on the border, and the US military is involved. Roughly, we’re talking about 9000 US service members on the border fulfilling a variety of different functions. It’s administrative support, aviation support, transportation support, warehousing, logistics, vehicle maintenance, engineering, these sorts of things to help support the civilian agencies that are in the lead there on the border. And as a result, there has been a significant decline in illegal entries into the United States.

CARLA BABB:

Bradley Bowman with FDD thank you so much for speaking with us.

In his address, the President said he had received a letter from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

President Donald Trump:

The letter reads, Ukraine is ready to come to the negotiating table as soon as possible to bring lasting peace closer. Nobody wants peace more than the Ukrainians, he said. We do really value how much America has done to help Ukraine maintain its sovereignty and independence. Regarding the agreement on minerals and security. Ukraine is ready to sign it at any time that is convenient for you. I appreciate that he sent this letter.

CARLA BABB:

Joining us now is Ostap, Yarysh from the US Ukrainian service. Ostp, we know this mineral deal would bring the United States $500 billion in potential revenue from minerals, oil and gas. What would Ukraine get from this deal?

Ostap Yarysh, VOA Ukrainian Service Reporter:

Carla, thank you for having me. Well, we don’t know for sure if the US would get 500 billion from this deal. We also don’t know how long it would take to get any development of minerals and get them from Ukraine to the United States. It may probably take longer than one could expect, when asked last week about how much the US is expecting to get from the deal. President Trump replied that it was difficult to say because that would require some detailed on site research and more work on the ground there in Ukraine.

But of course, according to President Trump, it will definitely bring some revenue back to the United States. The draft of the agreement that we’ve seen says that the deal will create, or would create, some sort of an investment fund to which Ukraine will direct 50% of all the revenue from oil and gas and other developments in Ukraine, and that fund would also create the future investment or monetization for Ukrainian development projects or reconstruction projects, reconstruction projects that would be made on the territory of Ukraine. This deal, however, does not include, or doesn’t specify any security guarantees from the United States to Ukraine.

The US says that that would be Europe’s part, that Europe should invest more in its own defense and should take more responsibility when it comes to security guarantees for Ukraine. Of course, Ukraine says that they need strong reassurances from the US, from the partners, and they hope that they can work those out future down the road, and that this deal will be the first step, and would create some sort of framework for the future cooperation.

CARLA BABB:

So potentially, there is a lot of money on the line here for both sides.

Ostap Yarysh, VOA Ukrainian Service Reporter:

That’s true, yeah. But you know, coming back to the security guarantees, from the White House standpoint, it’s also important they say that they think this deal itself would be the best security guarantee for Ukraine. They say that economic presence of America in Ukraine, co investment with the United States would prevent anyone from attacking Ukraine in the future, and that would be the best guarantee Ukraine can hope for. That was national security advisers Mike Walz’ words

CARLA BABB:

Going back to that Oval Office meeting last week, tensions grew when President Zelensky raised concerns about diplomacy with Russia, because Moscow did sign a cease fire agreement with Kyiv in 2019 only for Moscow to invade Ukraine again in 2022 so if President Trump can get these two, Zelensky and Putin, if he can actually get them to the negotiating table. What are you hearing that Ukrainians want done?

Ostap Yarysh, VOA Ukrainian Service Reporter:

Carla, We speak to Ukrainians a lot, and what we are hearing from them that they want peace more than anyone. And of course, that’s true, because they have suffered enough for 11 years of this war, it began back in 2014 when Russia, Russia attacked for the first time, of course, then it launches full scale invasion 2022 but since 2014 lots of Ukrainians have died. They have lost their homes. And of course, they want to have peace as soon as possible. But at the same time Carla, they want to have a lasting peace that they want to have, not a temporary agreement that Russia would potentially break in a couple of months, or in two years, or after President Trump leaves the office. Of course, also Ukrainians what they want and what we hear from them.

They want this peace to be a just peace. We know that there are a lot of prisoners of war that Russia still keeps in their prisons. Ukrainians want them back. Many of those prisoners of war, by the way, they’re not only military, they’re civilians. Some of them are journalists. We know that my former colleague back in cave when I used to work there, Victoria Russian last year, we learned that she was killed in the captivity. So there are lots of stories like that. On top of that, Russia still keeps more than 19,000 of Ukrainian children that they kidnapped from Ukraine. Ukraine’s, of course, want them back to their families.

Lots of they those children still have families or relatives back in Ukraine. So that’s what we hear from, from people on the ground in Ukraine. And of course, those people that we speak to, they want to see that after peace, there is some accountability for the war crimes that Russia committed in Ukraine. So They want to see that Russia doesn’t get away with what they committed back in Ukraine and it’s not rewarded by getting back to business as usual.

CARLA BABB:

A just and lasting peace. Ostap. Thank you so much for your insight, Ostap Yarysh from VOA’s Ukrainian service.

Ostap Yarysh, VOA Ukrainian Service Reporter:

Thank you very much.

CARLA BABB:

On Monday, President Donald Trump ordered a “pause” to military aid shipments to Ukraine with immediate effect, which his administration said was aimed at forcing all sides to peace talks. As Henry Ridgwell reports from London, European leaders have said it is vital to continue weapons shipments to Kyiv — but there are doubts over how long Ukraine can keep on fighting.

HENRY RIDGWELL, VOA Correspondent:

As news broke overnight Monday of the U.S. decision to halt military aid to Kyiv, Russian drones continued to rain down on Ukrainian cities.

Ukrainian lawmakers say the consequences of Washington’s decision will be stark.

Oleksiy Goncharenko, Ukrainian Member of Parliament:

This means that thousands of people will die.

HENRY RIDGWELL:

West of Donetsk, Ukraine, near the town of Pokrovsk, the war grinds on.

Call Sign: ‘Berf’, Ukrainian 14th Brigade Unit Commander:

We fire an Italian howitzer. But we get a lot of ammunition, including 105-millimeter caliber, from the U.S. It is NATO standard, which is used in both Europe and the U.S. But whether Europe will be able to supply us? I hope it will.

HENRY RIDGWELL:

Can Europe make up for the shortfall of military aid from the U.S.?

Mark Galeotti, Mayak Intelligence:

There are certain systems, ranging from Patriot missiles all the way through to spare parts for the Abrams tanks and Bradley personnel carriers, that the Ukrainians are using, that the only way the Europeans can get is by buying them on the open market. And that is going to take time.

HENRY RIDGWELL:

But Ukraine is increasingly producing its own weapons.

Malcolm Chalmers, Royal United Services Institute:

Probably about half the weapons which Ukraine is now using are provided by its own defense industry. And of the remainder, it’s about half and half between the United States and the others, including the Europeans.

HENRY RIDGWELL:

The U.S. provides other crucial assistance — including shipping Western

weapons into Ukraine.

Malcolm Chalmers, Royal United Services Institute:

And finally, the U.S. plays a very important role in providing information, intelligence to the Ukrainian forces.

HENRY RIDGWELL:

The Trump administration says the halt in military aid is, quote, “to ensure that it is contributing to a solution.

JD Vance, US Vice President:

Neither Europe nor the United States nor the Ukrainians can continue this war indefinitely. So it’s important that everybody come to the table.

HENRY RIDGWELL:

Britain’s Prime Minister said Sunday that a “coalition of the willing” would continue to support Ukraine.

Mark Galeotti, Mayak Intelligence:

Vice President Vance’s claim — that a lot of the European leaders, who on social media and in public are four-square behind Kyiv but in private they’re actually much more skeptical — is not entirely incorrect. Do you essentially continue to hollow out your own armed forces and also alienate your most powerful security ally and guarantor in the name of defending Ukraine?

HENRY RIDGWELL:

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy appealed to the Trump administration Tuesday, writing on X that Ukraine was committed to peace.

For Ukrainians suffering under Russian bombardment, the cut in U.S. aid is a bitter outcome.

Viktoria, Kyiv Resident:

I hope that he [Trump] will change his mind. The victim of aggression cannot be guilty of everything and be punished in addition to that.

Illia, Kyiv Resident:

Maybe Europe can help somehow. The hope is only on Europe now, no one else.

HENRY RIDGWELL

Russia, meanwhile, welcomed Washington’s decision to halt military aid to Ukraine, saying it may help, quote, “to settle the situation by peaceful means.”

Henry Ridgwell, VOA News.

CARLA BABB:

Tariffs are a cornerstone of President Trump’s foreign, domestic, and economic policies.

To better understand how tariffs impact some small, American businesses, VOA’s Senior Washington Correspondent Carolyn Presutti visited a family whiskey business in the hills of Virginia.