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June 14, 2023 - Uncensored - Piers Morgan
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Transcriber: nvidia/parakeet-tdt-0.6b-v2, sat-12l-sm, and large-v3-turbo
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Philip Schofield's Manipulation 00:10:28
I'm Piers Morgan uncensored tonight.
An extraordinary exclusive interview with a Premier League superstar.
Ukraine's Alexander Zinchenko opens up on the horrors of war on Vladimir Putin, on President Zelensky, and whether he'd fight for his own country and why Russian sports stars should be banned.
Also tonight, ITV and the DOT network bosses are grilled by MPs and deny ignoring Philip Schofield's affair with a young male colleague.
Can we trust them?
Plus J.K. Rowling blasts one of the top universities in the United States after it redefines a lesbian as a non-man attracted to non-men.
What is this garbage?
We will talk about that on air.
Live from the news building in London, this is Piers Morgan Uncensored.
Well good evening, Lunda.
Welcome to Piers Morgan Uncensored.
Premier League footballers often get a bad rap.
We call them, I've called them, pampered prima donnas and overpaid wastrels.
We say they're selfish, arrogant, lazy.
They're also very often accused of being boring, media coach to the eyeballs, afraid to speak their minds.
Well, Alexander Zinchenko is an antidote to all of that.
He's someone I greatly admire on and off the pitch.
He plays for my beloved team Arsenal.
And after tonight, I think more people will admire him too.
I sat down with him earlier today for what turned out to be an extraordinarily passionate, raw, and emotional interview about the war in Ukraine, about the impact on all Ukrainians like him.
It's already making waves across the world.
We didn't talk much about football.
There wasn't time.
We spoke a lot about his homeland, a lot about the war.
Zinchenko's got more than 50 caps for his national team.
He's captained his national team at the age of 24, which was the youngest ever to do so.
Like millions of Ukrainians, he has friends and loved ones over there who are facing being shelled and bombed, mutilated, attacked, raped in their homes.
This is all because of Putin's barbaric form of genocide against his people.
And tonight, he opens up on Vladimir Putin.
What are your thoughts about Vladimir Putin?
I don't want to even say his name.
He's lying to himself.
On whether he would go to war himself.
You would fight for Ukraine.
Of course.
Of course.
On why Russian and Belarusian athletes should be banned from international sport.
They shouldn't be allowed to compete.
They shouldn't be allowed.
This is not political.
It's life and death.
This is war.
And why he won't shake hands with any Russian footballer.
If you had to come up against a team that had a Russian player, would you shake their hand?
No chance.
Well, it was extraordinary stuff, I've got to say.
One of the most powerful interviews I've done in a long time with an incredibly impressive young man.
It was gripping.
It was heart-rending.
It was shocking.
He'd just come back from his first trip to Ukraine since the war started.
And the impact of what he saw was very real.
It's the kind of thing you don't often see from a superstar footballer, frankly.
But I'm glad that he opened up to me and I'm grateful for his time.
And we'll be showing a lot of that interview later in today's program.
But first, join me now is talk to V Presenter Nicola Thorpe and talk to V contributor Esther Krakow's abrasive talk TVers.
A summer's here, Esther I noticed with your outfit.
It's too hot to be fully to be fully clothed in winter garments.
Of course, it's always too hot to be fully clothed in my estimation.
Otherwise, life gets very boring.
All right, Nicola, let's talk first of all about Boris Johnson.
Yes.
Tomorrow, we're told we're going to get this Privileges Committee report.
It's so damning.
He's already quit.
And he's now been spending the last three days throwing his toys out of a gigantic pram, which indicates to me that he's feeling very beleaguered and possibly thinks this report is so damning that there may be no way back for him.
Can we hope this?
Or is he like a boomerang?
Where every time you throw him away, back he comes.
I mean, we can hope and pray.
I'm actually praying that the Speaker of the House decides to remove his parliamentary pass as a result of everything that's gone on, as they did with John Burko.
Of course, we need to remember that Boris Johnson didn't have to resign.
It wasn't necessarily going to be the outcome that he would be suspended longer than 10 days.
It would have had to first go to the MPs.
Then he could have taken a petition to his constituents.
But he threw his toys out of the pram.
And then, three minutes before midnight, I believe on Monday, he made another submission to the parliamentary committee.
They've now reviewed that.
I think it's well overdue that we get the results of this.
Boris says, let people judge the report for themselves.
Well, yeah, we will.
Yeah, we will.
I mean, Nestor, he's come out fighting today because Bernard Jenkin, one of the people on the Privileges Committee, was apparently at some party himself during the lockdown periods.
Therefore, he says he's a hypocrite, therefore he should resign.
Therefore, of course, nothing this report does.
It's very Trumpy and all that.
But the thing is, he could be right, right?
If it's proven that he was actually at a party, fine, he has broken the rules.
But it shouldn't come from Boris, right?
This man has no principles to speak of.
I mean, he allegedly resigned in principle, like for his principles, but he has none.
He has no principles.
He has no convictions.
He's clearly not taking responsibility for what's happened.
And really, it's in the interest of the Conservative Party to distance themselves from him as quickly and as efficiently as possible.
Don't even mention his name because I think it's a complete disrespect to the country for what he put this country through.
Whilst, you know, what's amazing though, a bit like with Donald Trump, he still carries this large number of people that like him.
Well, he's such a narcissist.
And actually, the naughtier the stuff, the more they like him.
It's like they are, he's like a magnet to naughty moths, right?
It's like the worse he behaves, the more damning the judgments, the worse the stuff that comes, the better some people think he is.
But I don't think that'll ever be again the majority of the country.
Well, that's the key thing, isn't it?
Yeah.
All right, let's turn to ITV.
So you had all the bosses hauled down there by the House of Commons select committees today over this Philip Schofield scandal.
I was apparently the first question, so we might as well listen to it.
Piers Morgan said, and I quote, everybody at ITV knew what was happening.
Somehow you and perhaps Holly Willoughby were the only ones who did not know.
The people that have said they knew would only have heard rumours about it.
If any one of the individuals you have named or referenced had come to us and said, there is evidence that there is a relationship between Philip Schofield and person X.
We would have, with evidence, we would have been able to launch a formal investigation.
So it's quite interesting this, Nicola, because Dame Carolyn McCall there, we're supposed to take her word for all this, right?
I can only go on what my experience with her was when I left Good Morning Britain, where she has repeatedly said since then Meghan Markle's letter to her had nothing to do with my departure.
That's just a brazen lie.
I know that because she's told other people it had everything to do with my departure.
So I'm dubious about the veracity of what she says.
But on the investigation, here's what I think about that.
They said their investigation basically constituted asking Philip Schofield and this young runner, are you having a relationship?
To which they both repeatedly said no.
That's not an investigation, is it?
I mean, everyone, the whole, when I said the whole building knew, everyone was rumour mongering about it.
For the young man had gone to the National TV awards and he'd broken down after a few drinks and told everyone in the ITV box, I'm in love with Philip Schofield.
This wasn't a secret.
So the idea that their investigation began and ended with, well, are you doing it no, that's not an investigation.
But I understand the position that she's in is a difficult one because she said today that they'd investigated it or they'd spoken to both of them 12 times.
And as Esther said, if a few people deny that they're in a relationship, there's very little that they can do.
Is it an egregious offence for a guy in his 50s to be having a relationship with someone aged 20 at work?
I mean, in the old days, 40% of marriages began in the workplace, normally with an older guy.
and a younger woman, just historically.
Well, I don't think it's an egregious offence, actually.
I do think that the nature of how we've been even talking about this is completely inappropriate.
We should be talking about his wife, who he lied to, and his daughter.
But that's his business.
But the thing is, but that's what I think is actually more...
But that is his business.
I'm not quite sure what the crime...
It's so bad, apparently, that everyone agreed Philip Schofield's entire career had to be destroyed.
And yet I'm not seeing evidence of a serious crime.
I'm seeing him, you know, he's got a personal struggle with his sexuality, okay?
Other people do.
He's had a relationship, all right?
It's inappropriate, yeah, okay.
Where's the crime here?
Yeah, because there's no crime there, but it is an abuse of power if somebody at not just that age, but that level of power within an institution.
But the alleged victim hasn't said that.
They haven't said what, sorry.
Well, the alleged victim hasn't complained.
No, but ultimately.
And hasn't made any protest about the so-called abuse of power.
So my question is, they have decided it is.
But it sounded like very...
But there's no complaint from the supposed victim.
No, but it sounded very much like a mutual agreement that they realized that his position was untenable.
The thing is, it's because of the denials over the relationship.
Well, that's not really what has borne out by what they said in the committee.
They actually said that he got promoted to a new job at Lees Women.
It's because Philip Philip Schoatfield's position was untenable as a result.
Yeah, maybe.
Because he's not.
Yes, maybe.
I'm just saying, the more we don't hear more bombshells, the more we don't hear contradictions of Schofield's story, I'm just curious whether people do think what he did was a hanging offense.
You may not like it.
You know, I don't particularly think it was particularly edifying.
He shouldn't have done it.
But end of a career, shamed, vilified, you know, put on the old pitchforks.
I don't know.
I think it's because Philip got him his job at ITV.
And that's where the abuse of power comes in because he's powerful enough to get him through the door.
He's powerful enough to manipulate his career in that way.
But it is legal.
The man in question hasn't said anything illegal happened.
Even if you can argue that it was inappropriate, it's not illegal.
Okay, you're going to come back later, Pat.
Mental Strength on the Pitch 00:02:06
We're going to play my interview with Alexander Zinchenko now.
It is an extraordinary interview.
So we're going to watch this and then you guys can comment about it later.
And I'll talk to you about the latest load of woke virtue signaling nonsense because it's right up your alley.
Welcome back to Piers Morgana Censor.
Now to an extraordinary exclusive interview with Ukraine and Arsenal superstar Alexander Zinchenko.
It's not very often you get to hear a Premier League star talking like this.
Vladimir Putin's brutal war in Zinchenko's home country of Ukraine has wrecked countless lies.
But many people with his profile prefer to shy away from talking about such contentious things.
He's not one of them.
He's chosen to use his platform to rally support for the people suffering in his homeland and to condemn the people responsible for it.
He was speaking, of course, in a personal capacity, but he didn't hold back.
Alex, thank you so much for agreeing to talk to me.
I've wanted to talk to you ever since this war in Ukraine started, and particularly so since you came and joined my club, Arsenal, which I've supported all my life.
Because to watch a player like you having to go on a football pitch twice a week with all that's going on back in your home country shows me that you must have incredible mental strength.
How difficult has it been for you?
Well, thanks a lot for this invitation.
It's a really pleasure to talk to you.
And I tell you honestly, I'll be honest.
I'll try to be honest.
It was not easy to adapt on this.
But unfortunately, unfortunately, all of us, I'm talking about football players which is playing abroad.
It's not easy to be far away from the home and then watching all these scary things which is happening.
Adapting to War Horrors 00:14:40
But I remember quite well first couple of weeks that I just lost my head.
I didn't know where I am.
I didn't know where I'm driving to, to the training ground or where I didn't know, honestly.
I was like in the space.
I couldn't believe that this has happened.
But in the end, you know, there is two options.
You just keep being in the space or you have to do your best to help your country, to help Ukrainian people as much as you can.
You have to represent your country in the best way you could.
So this is the conversation was between all of us, abroad players, which is playing for the national team.
And obviously that was my decision to carry on, to do my best and to help as much as I can, because I know that I will be much, much more helpful to my country and to the people from here rather than being there.
But I really want to be there.
When did you know that Russia had invaded your country?
Well, it was a deep night.
I was sleeping because I had a session in the morning and my wife suddenly woke me up and she said, it started.
I said, what started?
She was crying, you know, like full in tears.
And what started?
What's wrong?
And she just showed me the videos, the pictures of this invasion.
So that's how it all started.
And that's how I...
Obviously, you know, if you look at a bit back, the...
Look, let me be clear.
Some of the people still think or they still talk that this is a conflict between two countries, but this is not conflict.
This is a proper war, right?
And this war started in 2014 when I was like 17 or something, right?
And I couldn't even understand what's going on.
And they took Crimea and Donbass without any resistance.
And you were playing a Shaktar Dones at the time, and you couldn't play, right?
Well, all Shaktar moved to the other city, but I had another story, football story, which we can speak later a bit, but I'm talking about just the general invasion.
And they took Crimea and Donbass without any resistance in 2014, and no one could understand what obviously happened.
And then obviously in 2022, since the main invasion crossed all Ukraine, it's scary, to be honest.
It's scary.
I still cannot understand for what, to achieve what.
I mean, it was terrifying to watch it.
And I'm not Ukrainian.
I can't even imagine what it must have been like for you and your family to watch your country being illegally invaded and in such a brutal, barbaric manner, where very quickly Russian forces were committing atrocities, war crimes.
I went to Bukha when I went to Ukraine and heard some of the stories there of the appalling massacre there.
To actually be Ukrainian and watch these scenes must have been an appalling thing.
Imagine the place where you were born and raised.
You know every single stone there.
You know everything around yourself.
You know the people around yourself.
You have some friends, I don't know, job.
And then one day, someone from the other countries with the guns coming there, destroying everything around, raping your, I don't know, your woman, kids, killing men, and then living, stealing everything around, everything what you achieved, what you, I don't know, what you bought before, for no reason.
You reckon in 2022 this is possible?
I don't know.
But it is.
And, you know, using this kind of opportunities even to talk to you, I would like to send another message to the rest of the world.
I know some people have got fatigue.
I know this.
But why it's so important to keep going, to keep pushing, to be together, to stick together, and to win this terrorist invasion.
It's so important because today Ukraine is a shield for all Europe.
And you never know.
Today is Ukraine, but tomorrow it could be.
It could be your country.
It could be any country.
Exactly.
What are your thoughts about Vladimir Putin?
I don't want to even say his name.
I don't want to even say his name or to talk about him.
It's incredible, honestly.
Just yesterday I watched, because I'm following all the news and I watched a short clip of his video when he was talking to someone sitting on the table.
I don't know even these people who were there around.
It's like young men and girls.
And he was talking about Kahovka Dam, which they destroyed one week ago.
And he was saying that obviously Ukraine did it.
Well, hundred thousand of people lost their houses.
Some of them didn't survive.
There was one zoo, 300 animals died.
And everyone was talking about Ukrainian counter-attack.
I'm talking about army.
And then he was saying in the video, he was saying Ukraine did it because they were planning to do counter-attack.
And then this dumb makes them so slow, slower.
And like, you're just trying to put it in your head.
Well, you are Ukrainian army, you want to do counter-attack.
And you destroying dumb to make your counter-attack slower.
Makes no sense.
And he's just saying this.
I was like, watching, no, no, I need to watch it again.
Maybe I didn't hear properly.
So he's lying to himself.
He did, I don't know.
I know that there is a proper propaganda.
I know, because I had experience to playing there, but I never followed the news or whatever.
But honestly, like, if I had some circle when I was playing there, now this circle became to zero.
Because I don't understand people.
Well, I'm going to ask you, you went and played in the Russian Premier League for one and a half seasons.
Yeah, and you did that because of what was happening in the Donbass and your family moved to Russia.
And you're Russian speaking, of course.
You must have made lots of friends in Russia.
Are any of these people still friends of yours, or have you had to...
Not a lot, to be honest, not a lot.
Well, I know that I had this experience in my life, right?
But and some of the people from Ukraine, they don't like it, obviously.
And to be honest, at the moment, me too, right?
But I'm a human being and I understand one thing that I would like to say again thanks to FC UFA for everything what they have done.
The Russian team that you played, yeah.
But that's it.
We've seen some Ukrainian athletes, sports people, now refusing to shake hands with either Russian or Belarusian athletes.
How do you feel about that?
If you had to come up against a team that had a Russian player, would you shake their hand?
No chance.
No chance.
Because I would never accept their reaction.
Honestly, I have to be honest.
Do you think it's cowardly, the lack of reaction?
I totally agree with this reaction.
There's no point to even explain it.
The things, look, you can say, well, but they didn't do anything against us or something.
Yes, they did.
They did.
How?
And what?
They didn't react.
Look, they have followers behind them, millions of followers in social media or wherever.
They have a lot of chances to speak out to the people which is following them.
And if you have, let's say, 10 million followers in Instagram and you post some people, I don't know, one picture like stop it, just, you know, black form, stop it.
Some people from these 10 million is going to follow you.
They're going to spray this as well to someone else.
And it will work in the end.
But if no one is going to speak out because they scared, I'm so sorry.
I'm so sorry.
Don't ever call us brothers or whatever, like they did it in the past.
Never again.
That's my...
Wimbledon Tennis, for example, has just said they will allow Russian and Belarusian players to play this year, having banned them before.
Do you agree with that decision?
No chance.
You think they should just?
No chance.
I don't agree.
I don't agree.
I have one of the Ukrainians don't like to see them on the highest level in any sport.
So they should just be...
Exactly.
And do you think both countries, Russia and Belarus?
For sure.
100%.
They shouldn't be allowed to compete.
Shouldn't be allowed.
Why?
Because how many bombs and rockets have been sending from Belarus?
How many?
Listen, I'm not political.
I didn't understand anything about it.
I don't understand.
And I would never understand it because this is not my area.
But this is not political.
It's life and death.
This is war.
And they're talking about don't put politic in sport.
This is not politic.
This is war.
Guys, you don't do anything to be, I'm not saying on our side, on the justice side.
Extraordinary passion and eloquence from Alexander Zinchenko.
And sensor next exposes second half of our interview where I ask him, can Ukraine win the war?
And if it came to it, would he himself go to war?
Welcome back to Pittsburgh and I sensed it on the final part of my interview with Alexander Zinchenko.
Talking about the fundraising game.
He's organizing to raise cash for the war's victims about whether he's prepared to fight himself.
But first, about his personal tragedies.
Do you know people who've lost their lives?
Of course I know people.
Friends of yours?
Well, not like close, close friends, but yes, friends.
But people you knew?
People I knew.
They'd been killed.
Yeah, killed.
Destroyed by bombs.
In their homes?
Yeah.
They didn't do anything like that to them, but and they didn't deserve it.
Do you spend your entire time just checking to see what's happening?
Every single day, I don't know how many hours, honestly.
Just watching.
In the morning, first, what I do, I'm taking my phone and checking all the news.
How does it make you feel?
Like I said, unfortunately, unfortunately, we already get used to it, to this routine.
And we have to be strong.
You have family, of course, in Ukraine.
Yeah.
I mean, you must worry yourself sick about them.
Well, of course, I'm so worried about them.
And I tell you what, the mentality of people, they don't want to leave.
They don't want to leave the country, even if they could.
This is their homeland.
And for sure, after a football career, I will be living in Ukraine.
That's for sure, 1 million%.
Because I didn't have been there for two years and now I had a trip there one week ago.
And obviously, as soon as I passed the border, it's just my homeland.
It's just my place.
I can't imagine what it's like, for example, to have your parents living in a country at war when you're here.
How is that for you sort of psychologically to have to deal with that?
Well, it's not easy.
It's not easy to...
It was not easy from the beginning.
But you know, when you already in this routine, you're just getting used to it.
And the thing is, if you follow all the instructions in terms of siren and you hide yourself in a boon care, you're more or less safe.
But you never know.
Because even last night, they destroyed, I don't know, one building in Odessa.
Three people died straight.
You went back to Ukraine very recently, the first time you've been there since the war started.
It's one thing to see video footage on the news or on social media.
It's another to be there, to see the actual devastation.
When I went to Kyiv last summer, to be able to go to places like Buker and see what had happened and to talk to people who'd been caught up in that, who'd lost loved ones, who'd been shelled, who'd had people they knew raped and murdered.
I mean, it was horrific.
What was it like for you as a Ukrainian to go back to your country and actually see it?
Well, it's completely different when you see it from your phone rather than from your eyes.
Painful, you know?
It's not like scary, oh, because I've seen it by social medias and stuff, but it's so painful.
It's so painful how people suffering, how people trying to survive.
I don't know.
It's just a simple example that thanks to our president that he made this happen.
Well, that moment on the first night.
Returning Home to Pain 00:05:13
Yeah, yeah, that's what I was trying to say.
When he did that video in his combats with guys around him and he said, I'm not going anywhere.
That was powerful for me.
That was the moment where the country looked to their leader and he was gonna stay, even if it meant he died.
And this is about this story as well when US President calling you and saying that, look, I know I have information that you target number one and your family target number two.
Please let me take you somewhere they will never find you.
And he said, listen, I really appreciate everything what you are doing and stuff.
But I don't need taxi.
I need guns and bullets.
How are you not going to follow this president?
How are you not going to follow?
I don't understand.
What's incredible about him is that he was before all this, he was, you know, five years ago, he was a TV star.
It's crazy to think that this guy who was just known on Ukrainian television for sort of light entertainment has become such an influential and inspiring wartime leader, isn't it?
Well, yeah, it's incredible stuff, but at the same time, I used to say it doesn't matter what you have done in the past.
It's so important who you are today and what are you doing today.
So the job he's doing is honestly, I have no words about this.
Seeing that from inside, even don't understand a lot of things still.
But people say he should do a deal.
He should end the war, bring the peace by giving Russia some of the land they've taken.
What do you feel about that?
No chance.
Listen, how many...
Imagine you lost someone from your circle and no, no, let's go to the beginning.
I was born and raised knowing that Crimea and Donbas is Ukraine.
Yeah, I spent five years of my life, most of the beautiful five years in my life in Donetsk.
Amazing city.
Amazing.
And then at some point, it's already Russian.
How?
For what?
Do they have the right to do that?
Why we should give them?
How many people have already been killed?
How many buildings was destroyed?
And why we should give them?
I don't understand.
So you reckon you lost someone from your circle and then in one day we're going to do that.
Like you said, we're going to give them land and then you're going to sit and well, I lost one of my circle for the reason because we were fighting for that.
And now you gave them like this?
Just your reaction.
Just your feelings.
Do you feel most Ukrainians feel this way?
For sure.
For sure.
100%.
I don't know why they still sending every single night bombs to Ukraine during the night from 1 a.m. till 5.
You know, when you sleep so, so deep.
Obviously, why?
Like, in my opinion, maybe I can be wrong.
Like, to keep people in fear, to try to push people to go against our president, to let us go against our president to stop.
Exactly.
Yeah, exactly.
So that's what they're trying to reach.
And people living with that already more than one and a half years.
Do you believe Ukraine can win the war?
I don't believe.
I know.
I know we're going to win.
We already won.
Because they didn't expect what we're going to do.
They didn't expect this.
Maybe they thought, like they're saying, for three days they do parrot, parrot in Kiev, city center, or what they were thinking, I don't know.
It's impossible to give our homeland like this, our place where we were born and raised.
And to people who say, like you say, they've got tired by it all, they've got bored, if you like.
What do you say about what Ukraine needs now in terms of firepower?
Would you like to see countries like the UK who've been very good so far, but also United States and other countries?
Do you want to see them give Ukraine more weaponry, give them more ability to win the war?
I would love to see that.
But in the same time, what I know and what I can see, that they are giving everything, what they can.
But of course, obviously, you never know, all of us, we will never know.
Is it everything or is it not everything?
But still, I would like to say, using this opportunity, I would like to say massive thanks for all the help around the world and support which we received and receiving every single day.
And I really appreciate that.
I mean, many United Kingdom people have taken in Ukrainian families.
Are you grateful that they've done that?
Heartbreak for Young Families 00:04:22
Well, I'm so proud of this moment, honestly.
Since the invasion started, the little kids used to come to me in the shop.
I was thinking, like, maybe they want to make a picture or something.
No, they came to me like saying, Alex, we are praying for all your people and your country, and we hope it will finish very soon.
So it means a lot for me, you know.
It means people staying with us.
How hard has it been to play football at an elite level?
Arsenal were chasing the Premier League title this season, very nearly won it.
How hard has it been for you to try and perform to the level that you're used to performing at with all this going on?
Look, football is my life.
This is the place where I feel most comfortable myself.
And this is the place when I'm on the pitch.
I just forget everything around myself.
I'm just in the game, enjoying these moments.
And it's everything from your head, how you behave, how you react on this, this, this.
Sometimes I'm losing my head from the morning straight away.
Seeing the news all day, don't touch me, please.
Does it make you emotional?
So much, so much.
But now I guess I have no emotions at all inside.
I'm completely empty because I'm a sensitive person to be honest.
And seeing all these scary things, I think I left it all.
And you said it's hard and not hard.
It's hard for the people which is staying on the forefront line, taking their risk of their lives every single second.
Having babies at home, families, wives.
It's hard for them.
You told a story, I think, about a woman who had two young children, babies.
And when the dam was blown up, she died.
And you had some knowledge of this woman, I think.
Well, I read it in the social media and then I asked a couple of people, a couple of volunteers, is it true or not?
And they said, yes, unfortunately, it's true.
It's hard to read.
It was so hard to read and I couldn't even believe.
I really didn't want to believe in that.
And I was just thinking about this for two days and then I was calling some of the people which is helping there in that region and they said, unfortunately, it's true.
Honestly, it's so hard.
Just that image when I read that of this woman with these two babies and then the water was coming and she knew she was probably going to die with her kids.
It's just, it's not just heartbreaking, it's enraging, isn't it?
The question is to achieve what?
They donate for to achieve what?
You know that in that region there is a lot of plants growing, before it used to grow.
And now when all water will go down, it's not going to grow anymore for years.
It's a big ecologic catastrophe.
Massive.
Where you come from right now, every day people are getting killed.
Well, all of us Ukrainians, we are praying and we are hoping that our victory is not far away.
And all of us, you know, I'm talking about the rest of the world, all the people which is helping us and supporting us.
We believe that we're going to beat this invasion, that's for sure.
You're going to be a father again soon, and you have a little two-year-old girl.
Has having your own child and another child to come, has that given you something extra when it comes to how you think about this war and what's going on with the young kids back here?
I'll be honest with you, when I'm playing or seeing my daughter smile, I'm over the moon.
I'm straight away forgetting about everything around myself.
And in the same time, I'm just thinking about being a dad.
I'm just thinking about the people in there which have exactly the same kids and then some of them have been killed for no reason.
Protecting Children from Conflict 00:08:03
Some of them didn't come back home.
And I don't know.
It makes me so disappointed.
So disappointed.
Have you wanted to join the fighting yourself?
If there will be a time, everyone will be there.
If it will be the last call or something or wherever, it will be a call.
We go, all of us will go.
You would go.
Everyone will go.
You would fight for Ukraine?
Of course.
Of course.
But in the same time, I'm just thinking about today.
I'm thinking about that I'm much, much more helpful from here at the moment.
But listen, you never know what's going to happen.
Maybe this is the last speech when we're going to speak to each other.
You never know.
You never know.
And how many people have already been killed by this invasion?
I'm not seeing myself hiding somewhere.
I'm not seeing myself hiding somewhere.
Alex, it's been an honor to talk to you.
Honestly, thank you for your time.
I wish you all the best with this game.
It's going to be star-studded, lots of great players.
Can we have a few names?
Gerald Piquet, I think, is playing.
And Clarence Seedorf, you've got some other friends of yours you've roped in.
Robert Pires, I hear?
Yeah, well, you said already a lot of names.
And to be honest, we would like to announce it step by step.
Are you looking for a slightly older striker?
Are you ready?
Are you fit enough?
You don't wake up with a body like this without a lot of hard work and effort.
Alex, I'm ready for the call.
Okay, let's speak with our manager.
Let's speak with our manager.
I'm not quite as fast as I used to be, but I'm lethal in the 60s.
So you're like me?
Yeah.
Okay.
Slow on the pitch.
Well, you said already a lot of names, but for sure there will be a lot of legends on the pitch and a lot of people which will be able to watch it from the stadium or even by TV.
They're going to have fun.
But the main target from this match is to raise the funds for the school in Chernyev region to rebuild it.
And Obviously, apart from this, this is another powerful message to the rest of the world that obviously we stick together, we stay together.
And all these people from different international nationalities, I mean, different countries, they stay with us.
Look, the leaders from different countries, Brazil or whatever, they stay with us.
So even this is another message to the Russian civilians, which is still believing and supporting what they do.
This is another message like, okay, you can watch your propaganda for 20 years on the same TV channel and you can believe in this.
But in the same time, in the end of the day, you can just think, well, okay, this is one information, but from the other side, all the world is against us.
Maybe they have a reason, or maybe this is, maybe I need to find the real truth.
So you never know.
Obviously, I lost my hope already, like a long time ago.
I'm talking about Russian civilians that they can do anything.
I lost my hope.
I'm not hoping anymore, but still, you never know.
When I interviewed your president, we ended it with the words, Slava Ukraini.
I wish you all the very best for you and your family.
Thank you so much.
And to your country.
Thank you so much.
I think you're going to win.
And I think that's going to be a powerful message that dictators can't just invade countries when they feel like it and kill everyone they feel like.
I know we're going to village and do what they want.
Actually, they can be held accountable.
I know we're going to win for sure.
Alex, thank you very much.
Thank you.
Good to see you.
Thank you.
What a remarkable young man in his mid-20s.
He's a footballer.
But wow, what an interview.
Came away really giving me a lot of food for thought.
I'm sure he has with you the viewers too.
Uncensored next, the Pat will be back with him to give their reaction to the interview.
We'll debate that argument he made that all Russian and Belarusian athletes should be banned from sporting events.
Welcome back to Petersburg and Seneca.
What Nicola Resto are back with me?
It's quite an interview that, wasn't it, Nicola?
You know, it's patronized to say you don't often hear footballers talk that way, but you don't.
No, I mean, he really changed my mind on so many different things.
I went into that interview thinking that it was right for Russian players to play or go in as independents.
And he spoke so articulately.
I've argued that, actually.
I have.
I've argued it.
My instinct was you shouldn't ban the individuals.
But when you listen to what he said, it's quite a convincing argument.
Complete change of heart because what are they putting on the line?
I've argued, I've defended people and said, well, what if Russia, you know, causes harm to them or their families?
And he would just turn around and say, well, what is he doing to my entire country?
In order to be an ally, you have to be all in or you're not.
So you could imagine a scene at Wimbledon where there could be a Russian male tennis winner, okay?
And he talks about him a bit cryptically in that interview.
But if he was to lift it and be presented with it by a member of the British royal family, that's a hell of a moment for the Russians to claim a victory, right?
I get it, but I still feel very uncomfortable with banning people from certain countries because of their nation's political stance on many things.
And I also think we have to...
Where do you stop, right?
Exactly, but we also have to remember that they are not their country.
And you can't punish individuals for something that their countrymen have done.
But you also have to remember it's his country.
Yeah, but he's got something.
It's his friends who've been killed.
It's his family who live in terror.
And I can completely understand why Zinchenko feels the way he does.
But they're Russians.
I don't necessarily agree with it all, but I understand why he feels that way.
I think that the idea that you can punish someone for an individual for something that their country does is really wrong.
I don't agree with that.
I don't think it's going to move the needle.
And I also think we have to remember that there are Russian people on the other side who are also victims of Putin's war.
And I don't think you're going to get very far by trying to convince people that you should ban Russian or Belarusian activities.
There's been a bit mixed reaction on social media, as I would have expected.
But I thought, I've got to say, I just thought he was so... raw and kind of articulate and emotion charged.
This felt real.
But this wasn't the normal PR controlled footballer interview.
This was a guy bearing his soul about something that has been the most life-changing thing in his world, right?
Yeah, and I really think it helps for British viewers as well.
We often get fatigued with stories like this.
As he said.
Yeah, a year on, people are going, well, you know, there's only so many images you can see and feel horrified by, but to see it through his eyes was really, really powerful.
I think one thing that he said that I found, you know, quite interesting was he said, it's not political.
Like, you know, standing.
To him, it's war.
But the thing is, it's political.
Exactly.
That's why there are two sides to play.
It doesn't feel political if you're on the receiving end of the box, right?
You just feel like my people have been killed.
Yeah, but he plays for one of the biggest clubs in the Premier League.
He has millions of eyes on him every week.
He is a very powerful tool to keep the attention on this war going.
And I think, you know, I think he should be using that.
And they're doing this big charity game, Hinn Andrei Shevchenko, another Ukrainian football legend, at Chelsea, August the 5th, to raise money to rebuild one of the schools that have been demolished.
800 schools have been really badly damaged in Ukraine, 220 irreparably.
Imagine the damage to the kids, education, everything.
I want to just segue to something far more insignificant, really, but it has wide-ranging, I think, consequences if it's allowed to carry on.
Redefining Lesbian Identity 00:01:56
The John Hopkins University, a center of medical brilliance around the world in Baltimore, has come up with a glossary of their LGBTQ plus guide, and it's redefined the word lesbian.
It says that whilst past definitions refer to lesbians as a woman who is emotionally romantically and or sexually attracted to other women, this updated definition is apparently includes non-binary people who don't identify with that.
So a lesbian is now a non-man attracted to non-men.
And yet bizarrely, in the same glossary, a gay man is a man who's emotionally romantically attracted to another man.
Even you, surely, throw the towel in now.
I think they just did this to wind you up and it's worked.
No, I think that what they've done rather clumsily, I'll admit, is explain that the term lesbian literally just means for women who are attracted to women, whereas gay can be used to describe lesbians.
Gay can mean just a man who's in love with a man or a woman who's in love with a woman, whereas lesbian is just for women.
They have airbrushed the word woman again.
And we see this time and again, where medical institutions and universities, they just won't use the word woman.
Well, yes, but I am curious because I want to, I thought that was what the word queer or homosexual was.
So queer means everything.
So just what about homosexual?
Because, you know, homosexual is the same.
Yeah, it's gay.
Well.
Can we just agree on one thing?
Can we not just have all these debates, but not eradicate the word woman?
I can't believe I'm the one fighting this lonely battle for you women.
I would argue that we need you on.
Why is it on me?
We do need you on lots of other battles.
Yes.
But I would rather you spent more time.
Just let women be women, let lesbians be lesbians.
And whatever you're up to, whether you're a lesbian or a woman or a man, keep it uncensored.
Good night.
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