Luke Harding

speaker
461 appearances 6 recordings 2 series first heard Nov 2024 last heard 24 Aug

Luke Harding’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.

Trend

recordings per month · last 12 months
2 · Aug OctJan 26AprJulnow

Recordings per month over the last 12 months — 5 in all, peaking in Aug 2026 with 2.

Appearances

newest first · ▶ plays the moment
Today in Focus · Russia threatens UK over supplying drones to Ukraine — The Latest · 18 Aug 2026 podcast
This is the Guardian.
Today in Focus · Zelenskyy ousts Ukraine army chief after protests - The Latest · 22 Jul 2026 podcast
This is The Guardian.
Really, within hours of the decision, there were people gathering outside Zelensky's presidential office, shouting Searsky out.
The critique of Zelensky is that he can be centralizing, he makes impulsive and chaotic personnel decisions.
What I think is remarkable is that Zelensky, after five days of protests, has essentially bowed to their demands and he's got rid of Searsky.
I think this decision to fire the commander-in-chief, Colonel General Alexander Siersky, is really a victory for reformists, for modernizers, for society, civil society in Ukraine, which had demanded that Siersky was removed.
And I think it's a really interesting step.
I mean, it shows above all that Ukraine is a democracy where there is a president in the shape of Zelensky who makes mistakes, but who also is acutely aware of popular opinion in the middle of a war and tries to fix them.
I mean, Sersky is a controversial figure for a number of reasons.
I think primarily because he's seen as very much an old school general.
He's Soviet trained, 60 years old.
On the one hand, he's played a huge role in this war.
He was the person who organised the defence of Kiev in the spring of 2022 when Russia
Russian tanks were rolling imperiously towards the capital from Belarus and the Ukrainian armed forces kind of held them off and drove them back.
And he's also the person who launched a surprise counteroffensive into Russia, into the Western Kursk region of Russia in the summer of 2024, where...
Ukrainian soldiers were actually steaming on on fighting vehicles through Russian villages.
It was another astonishing moment.
So so he is someone with a record.
But the problem, I think, is that he's regarded by many people as inflexible, centralizing a micromanager.
And also, you know, the gravest accusation is that he is.
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