Hello and welcome back to the Battleground Ukraine podcast with me, Saul David and Patrick Bishop.

The news is still fast moving as a section of the Nord Stream

gas pipelines is blown up, with many blaming Russia, and Vladimir Putin's much-vaunted

partial mobilization descending into chaos. As always, the picture is quite confused and it's

difficult to get to the bottom of what is really going on. And that's at least in

part a result of the way in which we are being told about the war. So the media's obviously

been a vital front in the struggle for both sides. And the messaging could hardly be more

contrasted. On the Ukrainian side, they've brilliantly presented themselves as freedom fighters, shedding their

blood, not just for their liberty, but for that of the whole world. Meanwhile, the Russians

have made very little attempt at all to win over international opinion, and they seem to

prefer to promote a narrative that they don't really expect anyone to believe.

So this week, we're talking as promised to Anthony Lloyd,

the legendary Times war correspondent who was reported for many years from virtually every battlefield in the world.

He's superbly placed to put us in the picture about the media aspect of the war.

He's just returned to Ukraine, but before he went, this is what he told Patrick.

So, Anthony, you've covered many a war,

going all the way back to Bosnia.

How does this one differ from the ones

you've been engaged in before?

Counterintuitively, although it's a really serious war, obviously quite a mixture of modernised

weapon systems, digitalised artillery and such like, and also some Cold War weapon systems,

and you're dealing with Russia. In many ways, as a correspondent, it's more, I wouldn't use

...