I want to go now
to Lynsey
Addario, Pulitzer Prize
winning New York Times photojournalist.
She just returned from a trip
to the frontlines in Ukraine.
And Lynsey, I know on this trip,
you spent time nearby
where the volcano troops, of course,
have been leading the fight for Russia.
And the fighting
there is incredibly fierce
this close quarters fighting
that David was just talking about.
What did you learn?
Well, I was working
for about three weeks.
And Dan
Boss, very close to Bermuda
and as well
near criminal
where there are intensive battles
going on continuously.
I was working with Michael Schwartz
for The New York Times.
And what we were
seeing was sort of an endless
trail of fighters going to
and from the frontline, a lot of wounded
soldiers coming in, people talking about
how Russia is
basically sending
an endless supply of soldiers
to the front, to the fight
and really sort of dispensable
soldiers, soldiers
that they clearly don't mind
if they get killed in battle.
And it's sort of wave
after wave of Russian soldiers
coming at them, some in ambushes
and some just sort of
constantly targeting them.
And so definitely
there's been an uptick in fighting.
Their goal, obviously,
is to exhaust the Ukrainian forces
so that when they come in
wave after wave, eventually
they send in their most
professional fighters
at a point
where the Ukrainian soldiers
are exhausted already
and running low on ammunition.
And, you know, see,
you're actually seeing
that happening in real time here.
I know you also, Lindsey,
did some reporting
on a Ukrainian army unit
that's called the Free Russia Legion.
And that unit's entirely made up
of Russians fighting for Ukraine.
And I know you and your team were
doing that reporting
you took a photo of the unit
fighting on the front lines
that I wanted to share.
This is your picture of them.
Again, these are the Russians
fighting for Ukraine.
Why are they doing that?
Well, they're doing that
first and foremost
because morally,
they believe
this is wrong, that they believe that
Russia should not have invaded Ukraine.
And they feel
that it's their way
of standing up to
what they feel is an unjust war.
So so it's really a moral sort of stand.
And then there are, of course, Russians
who have lived in Ukraine
for a long time,
and they feel like
they want to fight
on behalf of the Ukrainians.
And then there's just, of course,
people who detest Putin
and want to sort of
free their country from his leadership.
So there are various reasons.
We spoke to Michael Schwartz
as a reporter,
and it was really
the story was led by him,
but we met sort of both on the frontline.
The trip to the frontline was very quick
because it was extremely dangerous.
As you can imagine,
the Russian Legion are
the soldiers that
the Russians really would like to target
because they're their own countrymen
fighting for the enemy.
So we were about a mile
from Russian positions.
And so we did a trip there
and we did a training.
Wow. And I want to show another photo.
This is a man
named Zaza,
a fighter with that Russia free
Russia Legion.
What stood out to you about him?
I mean, it's just incredible, by the way,
the context
you're giving here that you're
about a mile away from the Russians.
And you know for whom
these guys,
this free Russian Legion
unit would be target number one.
So Zaza looked like a baby.
I mean, he was incredibly young.
We met him at a training so that was
in the Kiev region.
That was not at the front line.
He was preparing to go to the frontline.
They had been training for
several months.
And very well-trained, very professional.
And Zaza talked about how
he just didn't believe in his country
fighting this war.
And he made a decision
finally to just walk across the border
into Ukraine
and offer himself up
to fight to the Ukrainian military.
There's a system whereby,
of course,
all of these Russian soldiers
have background checks
and have to be and are vetted before
they can fight for the Russian Legion.
Yeah, it is
incredible, though, and incredible
just to imagine what it would take
at such a young point
in your life to do that
and to walk across that border you have.
So incredible.
Lindsey, thank you so much.
I appreciate it as always.
Thank you.
Fantastic to speak to you and see your
incredible work. Thank.