New York- I have a new yet belated vlog up today from my recent trip to Ukraine. This was difficult to put together in the sense that going over the footage I had to relive making the decision to abandon what was meant to be a much more extensive trip. I had planned to go as far east as Kharkiv and had idea of embedding with troops in Ukrainian-occupied Kursk oblast in the southern Russian Federation. I wanted to acclimate in the relative safety of the western city of Lviv first. Food, language, a local SIM card, game out the trip further east.
But immediately after I arrived the security environment rapidly deteriorated. Putin ordered cruise missile and drone attacks across Ukraine as revenge for his and Russia’s humiliation in Kursk. When I arrived in Liviv at the tail end of independence day celebrations, the mood in the city struck me as jubilant and almost carefree. Then the air raid sirens came and there was info on social media that Iranian-made shahed-136 kamikaze drones tipped with warheads capable of destroying buildings were hovering over the oblast.
I was impossible for me to discern of the city itself was under any direct threat and that uncertainly was what unnerved me. Click play on the vlog above for the complete story.