Here in Dnipro, Garrison Foster.
He was in the infantry with the U.S.
Marine Corps for six years
now fighting alongside
Ukrainian forces and Garrison.
I'm glad to see you.
Obviously, a,
you know, a
dark a dark, chilly, wet night here
in dark brown.
So you're
just obviously off the front lines
nearby as well.
And you've shared some GoPro footage
sort of thing.
You know,
when you
when you're in on your mask
wearing your chest,
that sort of shows
your perspective as you're
gathering intelligence
to try to target Russian Russian forces.
I know you've been here since April
of last year.
Mm hmm.
And a brief visit home
for the birth of your son. Yes.
You're putting your life in danger
to help another country.
I think everybody wants to understand
what drives you.
What drives you to do it, Garrison?
Well, part of it is
a lot of people
aren't aware of this,
but the Ukrainians sent soldiers
to Afghanistan after nine 11.
They were part of the forces
that were there,
and they were under no obligation
to do so.
And so to me, it's,
you know,
they came to us in our time of need,
and I see no reason
not to go to them in
their time of need as well.
You know,
this is a very resource dense area.
I don't want Russia
to get a hold of those resources
and leverage
that to kind of destabilize
the world and, you know, create more war.
So you've made
this great personal sacrifice.
I want to show
some of the things
that you've experienced
that you're willing to share.
This is a really intense confrontation.
That you had with Russian forces
recently, just a few weeks ago in the.
You came under fire
and you had to retreat.
And I just want to play that part
so people can actually see a little bit
you know, get a sense of what
it's like in those moments. Just listen.
Sure. Sure.
I think we're pulling back
we're moving
I don't remember the minute
that was closest
This is not a good spot to be, guys.
We got to move
get some counter battery up or something,
like you can't feel
okay through here.
Go, go, go, go, go, go.
Bunker, bunker.
Inside the so called
the ammo room.
Getting further
So watching
that is just give people
a sense of that one moment.
What's been the hardest part
of the counter-offensive so far?
Well, right now
we are conducting probing attacks
because we need to figure out
where the weak spots are.
We need to figure out where
the strong points are.
We need to figure out
what to do about both of those
and how to make it work together.
There's been a lot of time
since the last offensive.
So the Russians are very, very dug in
entrenched positions.
Lots of money. Yes.
And in order to dislodge them, you know,
sometimes the artillery won't do it
because the bunkers they have,
the artillery just can't penetrate.
And so we have to physically go up there
and try and dislodge them.
And you were doing that
in one of these videos.
You were trying to
to basically
sneak up on a Russian position.
And they saw you and they saw you
from the air.
Yeah.
Tell me about what we're looking at.
Yeah.
Drones, these
these small commercially available
drones are a big problem.
It's good for us
because the Ukrainians
have a lot more of them.
The ones they have are
a lot more capable.
But they they happened to see us.
They weren't even looking,
you know, in our area.
They just turned
and happened to see us
and then basically set up
an ambush for us
while we were in the middle
of a minefield
approaching their position.
So it's that's
obviously a
continual problem,
but it's something we deal
with regularly now, so.
And do you feel progress?
We hear the optimism
we just heard from those
Ukrainian troops.
They're about to go right back in. Right.
A few miles away.
Do they're trying to go back in.
Is that the same optimism
that that you hear from the Ukrainians
that you feel?
Yes, absolutely. Absolutely.
We have a very high degree of freedom
within our area of operations.
We're not just
in one specific spot.
We kind of bounce around that area.
And so we get to talk
to a lot of different units
and they're there
Their morale is extremely high.
And at the same time,
there are Russians
who are in the middle of the day
leaving their their gear
and equipment in their positions,
walking to the Ukrainian positions
with their hands up
and basically saying that they're done.
They don't want to fight anymore. Hmm.
It happened.
Yeah,
it happened about four weeks ago
to a position
that was directly next to us.
The Russian soldiers just walked over
to the Ukrainians.
And, you know, they're like, we're done.
Please give us food and water
and we'd
rather be a prisoner
than continue fighting.
Garrison, thank you. Very much.
I appreciate it.
And intervention understand
obviously garrisons
operating on frontlines right near here.
And we very much
appreciate your being here
with us tonight.
Thank you for having me on.