Voices from the Front Podcast

Former British diplomat to Ukraine Cormac Smith joins me for a wide-ranging and uncompromising conversation about where Russia’s war is heading, and why he believes the West needs to stop calling what Moscow is doing “hybrid warfare.”From Putin’s next roll of the dice and the growing threat to NATO, to Ukraine’s deep strikes inside Russia, mounting Russian losses, disinformation and the battle for Western public opinion, we look beyond the daily headlines at the bigger picture. We also discuss the increasingly troubled US-led peace process, Ukraine’s refusal to accept territorial capitulation, and why events on the battlefield may tell a very different story from the one many people in the West are hearing.Cormac’s warning is simple: Ukrainians have been telling the West for years that this is bigger than Ukraine. The question now is whether Europe understands what may be coming next.Related Articles:Thank you Chris Sampson, John Mahoney, Paul T. Levin, HoldingTheLine(HTL), Laura K, and many others for tuning into my live video with Cormac Smith! Join me for my next live video in the app.DON’T MISS OUT: September is my birthday month, and i wanted to do something to say thank you to the people who continue to support my work. Throughout September, I’ll be sending a personally signed copy of my book, Live. Fight. Survive., to my Forward Line Founders. Anyone else choosing to upgrade and become a Founder this month will also receive a signed and personalised copy. Last month, Voices from the Front passed 3,000 subscribers, became a Substack Bestseller, and regularly ranked in the Top 50 for World Politics/ News. Across all platforms, this community has grown to more than 250,000 people. In a short time, those numbers are incredible, but my purpose hasn’t changed. My aim remains honest, independent reporting from Ukraine, my home. Grounded in what I see and experience here rather than simply repeating headlines and soundbites from a studio. I also remain committed to keeping the vast majority of my reporting “free to read”, for as long as i can anyway. The people who choose to support this work through a paid subscription help make this possible for everybody, and I genuinely value every one of you. Many of you have followed this journey since Mariupol, through Russian captivity, a death sentence, coming home, returning to Ukraine and now this new chapter of reporting and writing.Your support allows me to stay here, keep reporting from the ground and continue pursuing accountability for what Russia did, including supporting us financially with our landmark legal case against the Russian State.So if you just read, please also share, comment, subscribe, there is much more to come and we are only just getting started. Thank youShaunDon’t watch from the outside, be part of something epic. Support Voices from the Front and join our growing community. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit shaunpinner.substack.com/subscribe

A great conversation from inside Ukraine with journalist and author Tom Mutch, author of The Dogs of Mariupol.Tom and I have known each other for some years now, he first interviewed me after my release from captivity, and we’ve crossed paths in London and Kyiv ever since. So this was less an interview and more two people who know Ukraine well sitting down and comparing notes on where this war stands today.We talk about the increasingly brutal reality for civilians, Russia’s evolving “drone siege” of Ukrainian cities, the battlefield picture, Ukraine’s recent successes, Putin’s growing manpower and economic problems, foreign recruits in the Russian military, and what both of us believe could be coming this winter.We also get into Washington’s latest attempts at diplomacy, the widening gap between what is happening on the battlefield and how the war is being presented internationally, and why Russia can simultaneously be struggling militarily while making everyday life increasingly dangerous for Ukrainians.There are plenty of personal stories along the way, from Mariupol and Sloviansk to Kharkiv, Kyiv and Dnipro, and, inevitably, a few laughs despite the subject matter.One point we both come back to, Ukraine may continue to outperform expectations militarily, while life for civilians gets considerably harder.Just over an hour of candid conversation about where Ukraine is now, where Russia is struggling, and where this war could be heading next.And make sure you check out Tom’s excellent book, The Dogs of Mariupol. 🇺🇦Thank you John Mahoney, Urban Hermit, Laura K, Liz Alexander, Leslie in CA, and many others for tuning into my live video with Thomas Mutch! Join me for my next live video in the app. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit shaunpinner.substack.com/subscribe

The Journalism That Helped Explain Ukraine Before the World Was WatchingThis was a special one.A huge thank you to Chris Sampson for organising our latest conversation with Simon Ostrovsky, a journalist whose work I have admired for years and who, in many ways, helped set the standard for reporting on Ukraine long before Ukraine became fashionable.For those who followed the war before February 2022, Simon needs little introduction.His groundbreaking Russian Roulette series for VICE News took viewers directly into the events unfolding across Ukraine from 2014 onwards. He didn’t sit thousands of miles away analysing somebody else’s reporting, he went there, he spoke to the people involved, he followed the evidence and, at times, put himself at considerable personal risk to tell the story.Simon was even detained by Russian-backed separatists while reporting in Sloviansk yet returned to the work.One of his most memorable investigations saw him trace Russian soldiers from their social-media posts back to Russia, exposing the reality of Moscow’s military involvement in eastern Ukraine at a time when the Kremlin was still insisting its regular forces weren’t there.That kind of journalism mattered then, and it matters even more today.As Simon puts it during our conversation, there is now an enormous amount of “low fidelity junk information” online, people reading the work of journalists, adding their own commentary and presenting it as reporting. Meanwhile, investigative journalists are travelling, finding sources, paying producers and camera crews, spending weeks on stories and doing the heavy lifting from which everyone else ultimately benefits.That’s one reason I enjoyed this conversation so much.We talk about Russia’s growing manpower problem, Simon’s recent reporting on Russians who fled to Georgia to avoid mobilisation, and what may come next as Moscow struggles to find enough men to sustain the war.We also compare that with what I have just witnessed at the other end of the pipeline: my second visit to a Ukrainian POW camp, where the demographics have changed dramatically and increasing numbers of prisoners are now coming from Africa, the Middle East, Asia and elsewhere.It leads into a fascinating discussion about Putin’s increasingly global army, foreign recruitment, exploitation, Russian citizenship, prisoners who discover Moscow has little interest in exchanging them, and the human reality behind Russia’s search for more bodies to feed into this war.But perhaps the part I enjoyed most was simply talking journalism.I actually discovered Simon’s work after arriving in Ukraine in 2018, when Aiden Aslin told me I needed to watch this journalist called Simon Ostrovsky. I found Russian Roulette and was hooked, ironically, Simon had already interviewed Aiden, and for years our paths seemed to cross without us actually meeting.So finally getting the three of us together, Simon, Chris and me, was a real pleasure.Simon is now trying to revive that same spirit of independent, on-the-ground investigative journalism through his own Substack and YouTube work, with the money he raises going back into documentaries, travel, local producers and reporting. Journalism isn’t regurgitating somebody else’s investigation from your living room, but going there, finding the story, challenging what you’re told and doing the work.Simon Ostrovsky has been doing exactly that in Ukraine for more than a decade and it was an absolute pleasure to finally sit down with him.And again, thank you to Chris for making this one happen.Related articles:Thank you Laura K, Liz Alexander, Barbara Upshaw, Christine Nobbs, Nancy Elise Pulliam, and many others for tuning into my live video with Simon Ostrovsky and Chris Sampson! Join me for my next live video in the app. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit shaunpinner.substack.com/subscribe

In this week’s Meidas Defense Weekly Sit Rep, I join Ken Harbaugh from Ukraine to break down a war that is entering another dangerous phase.Russia is escalating its bombardment of Ukrainian cities and critical infrastructure as winter approaches, while reports suggest Moscow is preparing another major mobilisation after September’s elections. We look at what that tells us about Putin’s growing manpower problem, Russia’s mounting losses and why the Kremlin is increasingly looking beyond its own borders for soldiers.We also discuss what Ken and I witnessed firsthand during our recent visit to a Ukrainian prisoner-of-war camp, where the changing face of Russia’s army was impossible to ignore. Prisoners from Africa, Asia and the Middle East are increasingly appearing alongside Russians, with some describing recruitment pipelines, financial incentives and circumstances that brought them from thousands of miles away to the battlefields of Ukraine.The episode also examines the stark contrast between my own experience as a Ukrainian POW in Russian captivity and the treatment of Russian prisoners held in Ukraine from food and medical care to work, recreation and the ability to refuse an interview.We also get into the rapidly changing battlefield: Russian jet drones and ballistic missiles, Ukraine’s shortage of Patriot interceptors, unmanned ground vehicles, drone warfare and Ukraine’s extraordinary ability to innovate under fire. What once took military procurement systems years can now be designed, modified and returned to Ukrainian units in days, or sometimes hours.Related Article:Thank you PJ Schuster, David Bowen, Sheryl, Laura K, Natalie Doyle, PhD, and many others for tuning into my live video with The Ken Harbaugh Show! Join me for my next live video in the app. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit shaunpinner.substack.com/subscribe

I’ve just returned from a Ukrainian POW camp in western Ukraine, and what I saw raises some uncomfortable questions about how Russia is fighting this war.As many as one in three soldiers now being captured by Ukraine may be foreign recruits rather than Russian-born troops.Some of the men I met more than a year ago are still there.So why does Russia appear reluctant to exchange its foreign fighters? Where are these men coming from, and what does their growing presence tell us about Putin’s ability to sustain a long war?Chris and I also debate Mykhailo Fedorov, wartime elections and his warning that Ukraine could be heading towards defeat, while looking at North Korea’s expanding involvement, Belarus, Russia’s missile campaign and what Ukraine does next.Are we watching Russia struggle for manpower, or Putin quietly building the forces for years more war?And can Ukraine navigate the military and political decisions coming next without giving Moscow exactly the opening it wants?Missiles, POWs & Ukraine’s Next Move.🎥 Watch the latest Voices from the Front & The Wire Tap above.If you value independent reporting and analysis from inside Ukraine, please like, restack, share and subscribe. It genuinely helps us keep doing this work.Thank you John Mahoney, Ms. H, Thomas Day, Laura K, Elizabeth 🇨🇦, and many others for tuning into my live video with Chris Sampson! Join me for my next live video in the app. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit shaunpinner.substack.com/subscribe