I’m coming to you tonight from my hotel room in Kyiv. In just a few minutes, Nathan and I will head out to catch the night train south. But before we go, I need to bring you a full, unfiltered, on-the-ground update—because today revealed a truth most people in the West never see:

Life in Kyiv goes on… even as Russia tries every day to break it.

A City That Refuses to Die

We spent the day in downtown Kyiv—Khreschatyk Street, Maidan Square, all the places that became symbols of freedom back in 2014. I was here during the Maidan Revolution. I saw the burned-out bank. I stood at the plaza where over a hundred protesters were massacred by Russian-backed agents.

Today, that same square is full of families, strollers, workers, tourists. People are drinking coffee, playing with their kids, going to work. The only thing that hints at the cost is the long row of Ukrainian flags—each one representing a soldier who has died defending their country.

Sixty thousand dead.
Sixty thousand too many.

And still, they endure.

The Hidden War You Don’t See

If you drove around Kyiv today, you might not even realize the city gets attacked almost every single night. The damage is there—you just have to know where to look. Very often, you need someone local to take you to a block that was hit the night before.

That’s the reality here: Russia’s missiles don’t destroy a city—they destroy families.

This morning, a Kinzhal missile—a huge 20-foot-long monster carrying a ton of explosives—hit an apartment building in Ternopil. One moment people were sleeping. The next moment their world was fire, smoke, shards of glass, collapsed walls, and screaming.

At least 20 dead, 66 injured and many still missing.

The “Human Safari” — Russia’s Teenagers Trained to Kill Civilians

If you watched yesterday’s report, you saw it yourself: Russian suicide drones flown by teenage operators being trained not to hit military targets…

…but any white civilian vehicle.

I watched video after video—posted proudly by Russian channels themselves—of drones cruising down highways, slipping under camouflage nets, and waiting for a civilian car to pass.

Russia calls it the “human safari.”
That’s not my term. That’s theirs.

If you ever had doubts about who is targeting civilians—those doubts should be dead and buried now.

Ukraine Isn’t Losing—And Russia Knows It

The Western narrative says Ukraine is on the ropes.

That's wrong.

After spending the day with high-ranking Ukrainian commanders—men with decades of service, men who’ve lost friends, homes, even their own churches—I can tell you this:

They’re confident.
They’re committed.
And right now, they believe they are winning.

Ukraine is:

• Striking Russian infrastructure deep inside enemy territory

• Improving air defenses with new U.S. Patriot interceptors

• Innovating new forms of drone warfare faster than any nation on earth

• Gaining momentum on multiple fronts

Meanwhile, Russia is:

• Using Iranian-made drones

• Sending men into combat on Chinese motorcycles

• Losing hundreds of thousands of troops

• Relying on terror because they cannot win on the battlefield

One commander told me bluntly:
“If we stay united, Russia cannot win this war.”

Europe Is Waking Up — Fast

This past week alone:

• Russian saboteurs blew up rail tracks in Poland

• Russian drones violated NATO airspace in Poland, Romania, and Moldova

• German leadership announced NATO may be at war with Russia as early as 2026

• A Russian spy ship began dragging for undersea cables near the UK, prompting a military standoff

Europe is mobilizing.
Poland is practically foaming at the mouth to engage.
NATO knows the clock is ticking.

The Church Under Fire—but Growing

One of the most powerful stories today came from a Christian pastor—one of the most famous worship leaders in Ukraine, once even in Russia.

He’s lost two homes in this war.
He’s been beaten by Russian forces.
His church in Melitopol was taken.
His apartment in Kyiv was destroyed just three weeks ago.

And yet…

His new church has grown from 4 families to over 500 people in less than a year.

People are hungry for hope. They’re asking for Bibles. They’re showing up to pray. They’re coming to Christ in the middle of the fire.

Addressing the Critics

Every time I report from Ukraine, someone asks:

“Why should American taxpayers help Ukraine?”
“What about hungry kids in America?”
“Isn’t Ukraine corrupt?”
“Shouldn’t we stay out of it?”

Let me answer plainly:

• We made written commitments to support Ukraine's security decades ago.

• If America abandons allies, America has no allies.

• If we leave the world stage, Russia, China, and Iran will shape the next century.

• Ukraine is teaching the U.S. military how to fight modern war.

• The money we send is less than 10% of our annual defense budget—and far cheaper than fighting Russia ourselves.

And the hungry kids in America?

That’s the job of churches, communities, and citizens—not the Pentagon.

The Human Cost You Cannot Ignore

Watch this translation from a woman in Kherson—an elderly Christian woman who has lived hell on earth:

“I saw the homes burning.
I lived in the basement because I couldn’t walk.
I saw everything.
This is a nightmare.
My son is fighting.
Our young people are dying.
How much more can we endure?”

If your heart doesn’t break hearing that…

…you might want to check if you still have one.

Where This Is Going

This war is not slowing down.
If anything, it’s accelerating.

• NATO countries are preparing for open conflict

• Russia is escalating asymmetric attacks across Europe

• Millions remain displaced

• Ukraine continues fighting with everything it has

And today, Nathan and I will be back on the front lines—to bring help where we can, and to keep showing you what the mainstream media refuses to show.

Pray for us tonight as we take the night train south.

We’re going to keep telling the truth.
We’re going to keep helping the people who need it most.
And we’re going to keep exposing Russia’s war on civilians.

This is the Hot Zone.
And this is what’s really happening.

I’m writing this from a hotel room balcony in Odessa, Ukraine, looking out over the Black Sea. A few hours after we landed, the sun went down—and the sky lit up.

Tracer fire. Heavy machine guns. The crack of air-defense cannons. Every few seconds another burst stitched across the dark as Ukrainian gunners tried to knock Russian drones out of the sky.

If you’ve never seen air defense at work, it’s eerie. You’re standing there in the dark, listening for the drone engine you can’t quite hear yet, watching glowing rounds arc up toward an invisible target… and somewhere out there, a warhead is either going to get stopped—or come down on somebody’s apartment.

Welcome to “normal life” in southern Ukraine, four years into this war.

Life Under the Drones

Russia has been sending hundreds of drones and missiles into Ukraine—sometimes five, six, seven, eight hundred in a night. About every few days there’s another big wave. Most of the time, the targets are civilian neighborhoods—apartment blocks, playgrounds, power plants, shopping centers. I’ll be taking you to some of those impact sites while I’m here, and you can judge for yourself whether those were “military targets.”

Earlier today we walked along the waterfront. It looked, at first glance, almost normal- moms pushing strollers along the promenade, guys running with their dogs, people drinking coffee in seaside cafés, a couple of lunatics swimming in the Black Sea in 50-degree weather

And then you notice the new concrete bomb shelters popping up in the parks.

These look a lot like what you see in Israel—thick concrete tubes with a steel door and a little S-shaped entrance so shrapnel can’t fly straight in. You can squeeze 15–20 people into one. They’re not meant to survive a direct hit, but if a drone or missile goes off nearby, they’ll keep you alive.

That’s what “normal” means in Odessa now: push the baby in a stroller, grab a coffee, make sure you know where the nearest shelter is.

While Russia is busy terrorizing civilians, Ukraine is doing something very different: it’s going after Russia’s wallet. Instead of pouring their limited missiles into random apartment buildings, Ukrainians are focusing their own drones and homegrown missiles—like the Neptune and the newer Flamingo—on oil infrastructure and air defense systems deep inside Russia.

One of the biggest recent examples: the strike on Novorossiysk, a major Russian oil port on the Black Sea.

Moscow called that port “Fortress Russia.” It was supposed to be impregnable—ringed with their most advanced S-400 air defense systems, layered radar, the works. Then Ukrainian drones and missiles came in low over the water, slipped through that air-defense bubble, and:

• Shut down a port that moved over 2 million barrels of crude a day

• Destroyed or damaged a big chunk of Russia’s high-end air defenses

• Sent one large tanker listing badly after being hit by an unmanned surface vessel

By some estimates, that one port alone accounted for around 20% of Russia’s energy exports. You take that off the market, you’re not just hitting Putin’s war machine—you’re jacking with the global oil flow.

Ukraine has hit multiple Black Sea terminals and depots in recent weeks. People here have started calling these strikes “Ukrainian sanctions.” When Western leaders talk big about sanctions but don’t enforce them, Ukrainians say, “Fine. We’ll sanction Russia ourselves—by blowing up the infrastructure that funds the war.”

Russia still has a lot of people and a lot of guns. But it does not have infinite money. Roughly 40% of the Russian government’s revenue comes from energy exports. Every time Ukraine takes out a port, refinery, or depot, that number gets harder for the Kremlin to sustain.

That’s called strategy. And frankly, it’s a lot more moral than what Russia is doing to Ukrainian civilians.

“Why Should Americans Care?”

I know some of you are asking the same thing I see in the comments all the time:

“Why should we give Ukraine another penny?”
“What does it matter to anyone here if Russia owns Ukraine?”
“We’ve got 42 million Americans on welfare. Take care of our own first.”

So let’s talk about it.

A lot came fast in the last 48 hours: reports that Washington may stage a stabilization force on Israel’s side of the Gaza border, and a first-ever White House meeting between President Donald Trump and Syria’s transitional leader, Ahmed al-Sharaa—an ex-jihadist commander turned head of state. Let’s separate noise from signal.

“We’re not putting American brigades in Gaza. The idea on the table is a staging site inside Israel to support a multinational peace force—if, and only if, the political conditions exist.”
—Senior U.S. official, background brief, summarized from regional reporting. 

1) Is the U.S. building a base near Gaza?

Multiple Israeli outlets report Washington is exploring a large facility on Israeli soil adjacent to Gaza to support an international stabilization force once Hamas is out of governance. Early estimates: several thousand personnel with an operating bill around $500 million and a mission centered on staging, training, logistics, and coordination—not a big American garrison living inside the Strip. Key detail: Israel would retain a veto over which nations participate (for example, Ankara’s involvement has been described as a non-starter by Israeli officials).

What this would and wouldn’t mean

• Not “boots in Gaza.” The concept situates the facility inside Israel, reducing exposure and leveraging Israeli infrastructure (water, power, secure roads). 

• International force, U.S.-led coordination. Think liaison-heavy oversight and contractors, not 10–20k U.S. soldiers camping on the fence. 

My read: If a force is truly coming, staging it in Israel is the least-bad logistics and security choice. But the U.S. should condition any shovels in the ground on: a firm political framework, Israeli veto authority, strict financial oversight, and hard exit criteria.

“A base near Gaza would mark a shift for Israel, which has typically resisted international security footprints around the Strip.” 

2) Trump’s Oval Office with Ahmed al-Sharaa: optics vs. strategy

President Trump welcomed Ahmed al-Sharaa—the Islamist rebel chief whose coalition toppled Bashar al-Assad in late 2024 and now leads Syria’s transitional government—in a first-of-its-kind White House meeting. The session focused on counter-ISIS cooperation, normalization steps, and sanctions relief. 

“Today we turn a page. Syria will join the fight to finally extinguish ISIS, and we’ll work with the United States to stabilize our country.”
—Ahmed al-Sharaa, remarks around the visit, as reported by major outlets.

Sanctions: what actually changed?
Washington announced a 180-day partial suspension of Caesar Act sanctions—an extension of earlier limited waivers—to test cooperation while keeping leverage. A full repeal remains a congressional decision. 

“The suspension of Caesar Act provisions supports Syria’s economic recovery while preserving accountability tools.”
—U.S. government guidance on the new relief. 

Why this matters:

• Counter-ISIS math: The U.S. wants to crush ISIS remnants without surging U.S. troops. Al-Sharaa’s forces have been raiding ISIS cells nationwide; Washington is testing whether that can scale with joint targeting and intel sharing. 

• The risk: We’ve played “enemy-of-my-enemy” before. Tactical wins can mint tomorrow’s adversary. Guardrails—snapback sanctions, human-rights baselines, and verifiable counter-terror deliverables—are non-negotiable.

3) The detainee powder keg the world keeps ignoring

The ISIS detainee and displaced-person complex in northeast Syria remains a strategic time bomb. The Al-Hol and related camps still hold tens of thousands, including ~9–10k adult males under detention and many foreign nationals. U.S. commanders warn the sites remain radicalization incubators and breakout targets, urging rapid repatriation and adjudication. 

“Repatriating vulnerable populations before they are radicalized is not just compassion—it’s a decisive blow against ISIS’s ability to regenerate.”
—U.S. Central Command statement. 

If the U.S. is going to empower Damascus against ISIS, then the deal must include:

1. A concrete detainee plan (due process or transfer to secure, internationally supervised facilities),

2. Verified persecution safeguards for minorities, and

3. Independent monitoring tied to sanctions snapback.

4) So where does this leave us?

• A Gaza-adjacent staging base is being explored—not green-lit—and only makes sense with clear political conditions, Israeli veto power, and airtight oversight. 

• The Trump–al-Sharaa meeting marks a strategic gamble: squeeze ISIS using new Syrian partners while keeping Washington’s hand on the sanctions lever. The test is whether Damascus can deliver sustained counter-ISIS results without reverting to old habits. 

“Short-term, this could accelerate ISIS’s defeat; long-term, it will only work if the guardrails hold.”

Sources for further reading

• AP: Trump hosts Syria’s al-Sharaa for a first-of-its-kind meeting. AP News

• The Guardian: US declares partial suspension of sanctions after historic meeting. The Guardian

• Times of Israel liveblog: US said planning major base near Gaza (est. $500M, several thousand troops). The Times of Israel