Samuel Charap

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472 appearances 1 recordings 1 series first heard Mar 2026 last heard 24 Mar

Samuel Charap’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.

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80,000 Hours Podcast · #240 – Samuel Charap on how a Ukraine ceasefire could accidentally set Europe up for a bigger war · 24 Mar 2026 podcast

But those are weapons systems that are not necessary for defensive fortifications or for holding territory, but could be provided.

And we, in fact, propose having stockpiles in neighboring countries ready to go if Russia were to attack again.

There's a whole range of things that could be used defensively.

Most important, I think, in Ukraine's case is air defense.

But yes, territorial defense goes everything from landmines and obstructions to prevent armored assault to a full-scale...

Essentially, surveillance networks so that you can see and detect any any incursions and particularly any air incursions.

So, yeah, anti-tank systems, anti-aircraft.

Right.

So those kinds of weapons.

Of course, there's not a 100 percent clear dividing line between offensive and defensive weapons.

There will be those who will make the case that in order to deter, you need to be able to strike deep into Russia so that they will know that they'll feel the consequences there.

I think, you know, that's not completely unreasonable.

But the question is, can you use that threat as an incentive both to agree to a ceasefire and to comply with it?

So if Russia knows that

If it complies with the ceasefire, it's not going to be facing that missile threat from Ukraine, then maybe it has more of an incentive to do so.

Absolutely.

I think, you know, you could imagine Ukraine being in a position with defensive fortifications and defensive weapon systems that, you know, any Russian general staff officer looking at the situation would say this is going to be a nightmare.

Now, again, that doesn't necessarily deter rational decision making.

One has to imagine that there were people in the Russian military who knew something about the Ukrainian military who thought the initial plan was crazy.

But in any case, I do think that, yes, first, what we're seeing now, at least, is that with the use of the pervasive use of UAVs that has come to favor the defense, essentially, because both armored assault and even, you know, small infantry group assault has become impossible.

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