“I’ve been warning people about Putin for two decades.”
Investigative journalist John Sweeney has seen many wars, having covered bloody conflicts in former Yugoslavia, Afghanistan and Chechnya, and is currently in Kyiv, Ukraine.
Speaking to Jam Press, he describes the scene: “It’s eerily quiet in the centre, the war is on the outskirts.
“You can see the anxiety scribbled on people’s faces, the tension and the fear.
“I’ve been in war zones in [former] Yugoslavia, Afghanistan, Chechnya – I’ve seen this s**t again and again.
“I find it revolting that it’s happening in this beautiful city and I find it incredibly sad.
“I’ve been warning people about Putin since I covered the Second Chechen War in 2000.”
John says the air raids are constantly going off with an 8pm curfew imposed on the people of Kyiv and people are stocking up on essentials – like “booze and toilet paper”.
The award-winning journalist has unique insight into Vladimir Putin’s war with Ukraine, having once met the Russian President.
He describes the leader of one of the world’s biggest armies as “darker than the KGB” but believes that the leader has shot himself in the foot by crashing the rouble.
However, he still finds the future “frightening”.
John said: “This is the end game for Vladimir Putin, I think he’s made a great miscalculation.
“He has now screwed up his deal by effectively crashing the rouble, it’s a horrific mistake.
“The future is [still] frightening.
“Putin is in a kind of dungeon of his own devices and there’s so little light.
“He doesn’t understand the 21st century.
“A psychiatrist friend of mine who spent 10 years in the gulag and who understands the mindset of KGB officers and Putin better than anyone else says Putin is darker than the KGB.
“But I disagree.
“Putin isn’t mad – he’s bad.”
John is sharing reality of life on the frontline with his 120,500 followers on Twitter (@johnsweeneyroar) including an unfiltered take on what he gets up to in the evenings.
Last night (28 February), he had a spaghetti bolognese dinner with fellow journalists friends while the bombs fell in the background, and he’s also shared a clip of himself cooking Chicken Kyiv with a vodka twist which went viral with over 40,000 views.
Speaking about the importance of keeping spirits high during wartime, John said: “In 1940, in Soho, Graham Greene and Malcom Muggeridge went on a bender when the Nazis were blitzing London and there’s something about that courage under fire which I love.
“It’s about looking evil in the face and saying f*** you, we’re fighting, we’re not giving in, we’re not surrendering.
“We’re standing up for what we believe in, which is truth and decency and democracy and that’s the fight here in Kyiv, and Ukraine.
“I’m not a fighter but I would hope a truth-teller and me and my pals are here, we’re all a bit special.
“We are here to be the free and fearless eyes and ears of the democratic world.
“What we’re doing is telling the stories that people who don’t have a voice, we’re providing a voice for the voiceless.
“We’re giving ordinary, extraordinary Ukrainians the possibility of explaining to the world what Vladimir Putin is doing to them.”
The war reporter is currently crowdfunding for a a podcast on “what makes the Master of the Kremlin do what he does” called Taking On Putin.
John has already raised £10,270 of the £25,000 needed for the project, with 22 days to go.
In a clip filmed on the ground in Ukraine, he says: “I’m in Kyiv right now and in the distance I can hear air raid sirens going off, there is 40 miles worth of Russian heavy metal coming our way but for the moment in the centre of Kyiv everything is calm, the electricity is still on, the internet is still on, which is why you can see this film.
“For the moment it’s scary and I want to understand why it is scary, I want to understand what makes Vladimir Putin do the things that he does.
“What formed him, what fears and paranoias drive him to launch a full scale invasion of a peaceful European neighbour.”
In the description for his podcast, the war reporter also calls Putin a “serial killer”.
It reads: “President Joe Biden has said that Putin is a killer. I think Joe Biden is wrong about that. Vladimir Putin is not a killer.
“He’s a serial killer […]. Twenty-two years on, Taking On Putin is my attempt to understand what makes the Master of the Kremlin tick.”
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