🎙️The only freedom-loving American bringing you a war journal from Ukraine every day since 2022.
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21h • 8 tweets • 2 min read
KYIV—For years in Ukraine, I’ve heard complaints about Zelenskiy almost daily, from Lviv to the front. The normal stuff of a vibrant democracy. But even most of those who want him out agree: Now is not the time.
Here are six reasons why most Ukrainians I know don’t want elections right now. These insights come from a post by a Ukrainian woman who voted against Zelenskyy, along with my own observations. 🧵⤵️1. The basic question: Who will actually vote? More than a million Ukrainian citizens are serving in the Armed Forces, with many on the frontlines, stationed at military bases, undergoing training, or working in essential production. Do they vote from the trenches?
Plus: Thousands of Ukrainians are under russian occupation—how are they supposed to vote? And what about those who fled the country and haven't done much to help the war effort? Do they vote?
Feb 16 • 18 tweets • 5 min read
If you care about Ukraine, walk with me through just how tricky Russian propaganda is.
It’s an uncomfortable walk—which is exactly why the Kremlin is so good at this game. They count on us screaming rather than calmly analyzing. The tactic? It’s called reflexive control—but let’s call it THE PARIS TRICK. 🧵⤵️
Remember the Algerian boxer at the Paris Olympics, Imane Khalif? Please don’t roll yours eyes or run away from this yet!
It’s precisely because this topic is so polarising and controversial that the Kremlin uses it so well! ⤵️
Feb 15 • 7 tweets • 3 min read
A smart retired American general who cares about Ukraine told me recently that Ukraine is just going to have to give up a lot, it's so sad. But then I remembered from my experience that even generals and White House officials often lack real evidence we see here in Ukraine every day.
I told the general these five quick anecdotes and suddenly instead of me being depressed by his dark analysis, it was he who was energised by possibility ... 1/7🧵⤵️
1. Kharkiv May 2024 - almost destroyed; Kharkiv June 2024- almost no bombs after 'red line' crossed when reluctantly the Biden White House let Ukraine use HIMARS to strike Russian missile launch points on Russian soil in a limited way very close to the border. No one has reported well or analysed this major success.
Instead of paying attention to how crossing the red line made Kharkiv safer, Biden team slept, and after a month of regrouping, Russia began to attack from further away.
Kharkiv was bombed again but not with the brutality of May 2024. Kharkiv today is clean, prosperous, low-crime city friendly to entrepreneurs and creative people. I know people from Lviv in safer western Ukraine moving TO Kharkiv.
What does this show us? Doesn't it show that fighting back works? 2/7
Feb 15 • 8 tweets • 3 min read
Here are my takeaways from General Kellogg's @MunSecConf panel and Q&A. I see reasons for hope—but also places where the Americans urgently need better information. 👀🧵1/8 ⤵️
First: For balance and a less optimistic take, please see this thread from Gabrielius Landsbergis, former Lithuanian foreign minister, whose perspective I trust and whom I recently interviewed: 2/8 ⤵️
After nearly three years of live reports from Ukraine—every single weekday, no breaks—my U.S. radio broadcast was canceled. I was the only person making a live report from Ukraine every weekday of the war for three years.
Not by Russia. Not by bombs. But by American corporate radio overlords. So be it. But now I see that @elonmusk and @DOGE are reforming Radio Free Europe. I have a plan, and I want to move RFE to Kyiv ... 🧵⤵️
2️⃣ Why It Matters
I always thought my last report would be from under the rubble after a missile strike—or on the day of Ukrainian victory. I was prepared for both options.
Instead, my unexpected last WGN broadcast came on a sad ordinary December morning. Somehow we kept the broadcast alive through 2022, 2023, and 2024, until the moment of the biggest possible turning point since 2022, just as Team Trump was preparing to take power. I know many people in the White House--and so these could have been extraordinary reports from Kyiv! ⤵️
Feb 8 • 9 tweets • 2 min read
When Biden finally let Ukraine fight back, the war changed overnight. Then he stopped.
What can a Trump White House learn from the Kharkiv Blitz? It’s the same old story: some people use words to hide problems—others use action to solve them. 🧵⤵️
Just 30 miles from Russia, Kharkiv is a major city with a grand metro, beautiful parks, and low crime. Since 2014, Moscow has tried to control Kharkiv's Russian-speaking population. But even under missile fire, Kharkiv people have refused to surrender.
Feb 7 • 8 tweets • 3 min read
Every time I piss off both MAGA people AND the Democrats, the Kremlin bots lose their minds. Why?
Because I’ve found the key to breaking Russia’s game. Here it is ...⬇️
Here’s the trick:
🔥 MAGA thinks corrupt Democrats got rich off Ukraine.
🔥 The truth? Those Dems got rich off Russia.
The lie is precious to MAGA.
Exposing the lie requires criticising people precious to the Democrats.
And in this deadlock, the Kremlin smiles.
Let’s break it down. ⬇️
Jan 30 • 8 tweets • 2 min read
Hello from Kyiv. You can argue all day about why Ukraine matters, but if you don’t address the core beliefs of American skeptics, you’ll never change minds.
Here are the three biggest blind spots that keep goodwill Americans—including those in power—from supporting Ukraine.
Remove these blinders, and suddenly, security, freedom, and America’s future all come into focus.
Let’s peak through the blinders ... 🧵⤵️
🚨 Myth #1: "Victoria Nuland & the U.S. created Ukraine’s 2014 Revolution."
Many believe a leaked call proves that the U.S. State Dept engineered Ukraine’s 2014 uprising.
But listen closely to what Nuland was actually doing:
➡️ She was pushing protest leaders to make a deal with the pro-Kremlin government that the Ukrainians were fighting to overthrow!
She wasn’t running the revolution. She was trying to stop it!
Ukraine’s people—against the Washington deep state establishment's orders—forced their dictator to flee. ⤵️
Jan 30 • 10 tweets • 3 min read
This is a story about the cost of not asking questions.
The CIA now says COVID-19 was likely from the Wuhan lab. In February 2020, I had assembled some astonishing information suggesting the same, but no one would publish my story.
Now, much of what I was asking is suddenly of interest. But some shocking pieces are still ignored.
To me this is of high importance because if we can't ask questions, democracy cannot function.
Let me piece it together for you. 🧵⤵️
I was in Sweden when the pandemic began. I flew to Ukraine on the last day of February 2020—just before the world locked down.
I was heading to Lviv for a conference on Information Overload, AI, and Responsibility. The irony?
A massive information war was already raging—and the one thing that helps us find truth, the ability to ask questions, was being buried. ⤵️
Jan 24 • 12 tweets • 4 min read
1/ 🎥 I want to show you my favorite city in the world. It’s an insane place. I think it holds the secret to thriving no matter what hits you. ⤵️🧵
2/ Kharkiv, Ukraine, is just 30 miles from Russia. Regular missile attacks should have emptied this city. Instead, it’s full of life, with even foreigners and Western Ukrainians moving here.
Why? Because the freedom here is so damn energizing. ⤵️
Jan 23 • 10 tweets • 3 min read
If I’d never been to Ukraine, I’d probably oppose it.
From afar, to those quite tired of Washington's games, Ukraine might look like another endless U.S. war—pushed by media spin, the defense industry, and Hunter Biden’s Burisma connections. Even Hollywood seemed in on it until they got bored.
And I’d think the 2014 Maidan Revolution was staged by some State Department lady handing out cookies.
But up close? The truth isn’t what you’d expect. 🧵[1]⤵️2/ On Trump’s Inauguration Day, 2025, I made a deliberate choice—not to join gatherings in Washington, but to take a train to Kharkiv, 30 miles from Russia.
It felt worlds away from Inauguration Day 2009, when a call from Rupert Murdoch’s consigliere sent me into the manufactured, manipulative world of media power.
Now, I’m in the actual, factual world—where freedom is fought for daily. ⤵️
Jan 18 • 11 tweets • 3 min read
1/ The U.S. intel apparatus needs reform.
In 2022, they correctly predicted Russia would invade Ukraine. They had the satellites, data, and expertise.
But they were dead wrong about Ukraine’s ability to resist. Why? They lacked something essential for real intelligence: the illative sense.
What is it? Let’s break it down. 🧵2/ The illative sense is an idea from John Henry Newman, a 19th-century philosopher.
It’s the ability to integrate:
👉 Diverse kinds of evidence (explicit and implicit)
👉 Data with intuition and experience
👉 Practical reasoning rooted in real life
It’s the missing link in understanding complex realities.
Jan 14 • 15 tweets • 5 min read
Trump’s national security pick, Congressman @michaelgwaltz , is parroting Biden’s weak policy of appeasement—calling for Ukraine to lower its conscription age from 25 to 18.
This isn’t leadership—it’s decline management.
Biden’s approach to Ukraine is the Fauci booster shot approach: endless patches without addressing the root problems.
Here in this thread are the moves of a winner—and, in the last post, why the conscription issue signals surrender. 🧵[1]⤵️
➡️ 1. Let Ukraine strike back.
For every attack on a Ukrainian city, Ukraine should get major new capabilities to respond.
❗️No more bombs on Kharkiv.
❗️No more shelling of Nikopol.
❗️If Russia targets a hospital, synagogue, or church, Ukraine should hit high-value targets in Russia—with America’s full support.
Zero tolerance anymore for such hellfire to be rained upon Europe. Every fresh Russian attack upon Ukraine is met with a lovely package from the USA.🧵[2]⤵️
Jan 13 • 11 tweets • 6 min read
Many American conservatives dismiss Ukraine while applauding culture-war nations like Poland. But Ukraine doesn’t just embody modern conservatism—it survives because of it.
Fed up with bureaucracy and rootlessness, Americans long for safe, human-scaled communities grounded in freedom.
Ukraine—yes, Ukraine—offers a glimpse of that dream, tested and proven under three years of missiles, drones, and unrelenting hell.
Let me explain. 🧵[1]⤵️
➡️ I was mentored by leading figures of the American conservative movement, working at the Heritage Foundation, the Intercollegiate Studies Institute, and Fox News. I studied with liberal political philosophers like Alasdair MacIntyre and Guillermo O'Donnell and learned about resistance to tyranny from friends of Václav Havel.
Among my generation, including many who will staff the new Trump administration, we weren’t just debating ideas in Washington, Austin, or New York—we were searching for purpose-filled ways to live.
image: CommunityFirst experimental village for the formerly homeless in Austin, Texas [2]⤵️
Jan 10 • 12 tweets • 3 min read
1/ Most people missed the brilliance of Trump’s Greenland play.
It’s not just about what’s under the ice—it’s about shifting US foreign policy from reacting to events to defining the game.
Let me explain. 🧵⤵️
2/ For years, even during Trump’s first term, U.S. foreign policy has been stuck in reaction mode, following agendas set by others.
But here’s the thing: reacting isn’t leading. It’s weak. It cedes control to your opponents. ⤵️
Jan 8 • 13 tweets • 4 min read
Here’s why the global elite, including Biden, hate and actually fear Ukraine—and why they’ve quietly prevented Ukraine from winning 🧵[1] ⤵️
🧵[2] ⤵️ The Elites Fear Ukraine’s Maidan Revolution
From Macron to Scholz, the global elite don’t want their own citizens engaging in a people-powered uprising like Maidan.
- Hong Kong protesters, before Beijing shut them down forever, once waved Ukrainian flags, showing how far Maidan’s influence spread.
- Elites push the narrative that “Victoria Nuland created Maidan" in order to undermine the idea that the actual people can overthrow a deep state regime.
- Biden, Scholz, Macron, and others talk about Ukraine’s sovereignty but rarely its freedom—they prefer top-down control over genuine grassroots power, and they tremble to think of peaceful revolutions. 🧵⤵️
Jan 6 • 10 tweets • 5 min read
⚠️ 😱The 2019 Trump-Zelenskiy call was not the scandal we were told—and it matters right now.
In this thread, I’ll show you how it all went down, and share a bizarre personal story revealing just how much this saga disrupted U.S.-Ukraine relations.
Grab a seat—this might change how you see everything. 🧵⤵️
🧵[2] ⤵️ Three days before the Trump-Zelenskiy call, The Washington Post was asking the exact same questions Trump asked Zelenskiy!
Trump and Zelenskiy spoke on July 25, 2019.
Three days earlier, The Washington Post ran a story questioning the Biden family’s dealings with Burisma, a firm operating in Ukraine—but masquerading as Ukrainian when it was actually a Russian asset.
So, wouldn’t it be natural—and even responsible—for Trump to ask about the WaPo’s headline?
For three years, I’ve reported daily from Ukraine on Chicago’s WGN Radio, sharing truths the global media won’t touch. But there’s one thing I haven’t made clear. And it's something Russia does not want you to know.
Let me show you why Ukraine is good for MAGA. 🧵[1]⤵️
🧵[2]⤵️
In Ukraine, so much of what the West has lost still thrives:
• Clean, low-crime cities
• Healthy, natural food
• Strong, rooted culture
• Tolerance born from true free speech
• Human-scaled life
• And the realization that freedom must be well-armed
Ukraine isn’t just fighting a resistance—it’s preserving the values for which Americans are striving. ⤵️
Dec 31, 2024 • 18 tweets • 10 min read
In May 2024, the BBC reported that the Vatican was changing its rules on supernatural phenomena. The article referenced the 1917 Fatima apparitions.
But the BBC curiously left out three explosive connections: Russia, UFOs, and aliens!
You see, the Fatima apparitions included a warning about Russia—a topic that couldn’t be more relevant today, so it's exclusion was strange. Meanwhile, the U.S. Congress is discussing apparitions of “interdimensional beings.” Why are these connections being ignored?
Let’s connect the dots, perhaps a bit cheekily but also a wee bit seriously ... 🧵 ⬇️ 2. First let me bring you back to Easter 2024 in Kharkiv, Ukraine—to a Catholic parish almost within sight of Russia.
I was having lunch in the sun-streamed parish hall with the pastor, two nuns, American volunteers, and a few parishioners.
“Russia is controlled by demons," Father Mykola said, and not for the first time that day.
At first, I assumed he spoke figuratively, out of frustration in a city frequently attacked by Russia.
Then the parish hall shook. Really shook. 🧵 ⤵️
Dec 28, 2024 • 9 tweets • 5 min read
Today is Childermas.
It sounds like a horror-film version of Christmas—and, in a way, it is.
Every December 28, this day marks a chilling history woven through the ages—from Biblical times to the Blitz and beyond—echoed by some of the most powerful voices of all time.
What is it? Let’s take a look and listen ⤵️
One of the most famous Christmas carols commemorates this day: The Coventry Carol, written in 16th-century England.
It’s been sung by Sufjan Stevens, the King’s College Choir, Alison Krauss, Annie Lennox, and John Denver. Here's a version by Irish group Anúna.
But for a Christmas song… why is it so damn sad? ⤵️
Dec 23, 2024 • 5 tweets • 3 min read
Four polarizing Americans, by attaching themselves to the Ukraine story, have spurred many Americans to oppose Ukraine.
Well, let me show you three shocking little revelations that will change how you see it all. 🧵 next ⤵️
Victoria Nuland: Let Them Eat Cookies
Photos of State Department official Victoria Nuland handing out cookies during Ukraine's 2014 Maidan Revolution became a symbol of America's failed meddling in other countries. The fact that her in-laws, the Kagans, are part of the American philosophical war machine doesn't help the picture.
And so many people readily believe the Kremlin story that this one cookie-lady orchestrated an entire revolution that resulted in the regime fleeing, the police collapsing, and a rejuvenation of local democracy and ancient language.
But here's the truth: Victoria Nuland was not fueling a revolution—she was trying to stop it.
Yes, if you look close at that famous leaked call in which Nuland and another American official are talking about who they want to be in the Ukrainian government, you'll see that see was working to make a deal with the hated Yanukovych regime.
In the end, Ukrainians rejected the deal that Nuland and EU bureaucrats were creating with the corrupt pro-Kremlin government.
If Nuland truly cared about Ukraine, she'd drop the Main Character Syndrome and admit she failed to halt the revolution. next ⤵️