Voices From The Front & The Wire Tap, recorded August 26, 2026, two days after Ukraine marked 35 years of independence. Shaun Pinner joined from Lviv; I was on my balcony in Kyiv.
We spend the first half hour on Mykhailo Fedorov's call for elections. Shaun says he has not met a Ukrainian who wants an election during the war, and points to Russian interference as the bigger risk. I ask Western supporters to be patient before judging Ukrainian politics from abroad. Then: Zelensky's request to build Patriots in Ukraine, Shaun's visit to Fire Point and its Flamingo missile, CIA Director John Ratcliffe's trip to Moscow, hybrid attacks across Europe, and Ukrainian strikes on Russian logistics.
Shaun also describes interviewing foreign fighters held as POWs in Ukraine, why Russia does not exchange them, and how journalists should question prisoners. We close on Simon Ostrovsky and Shaun's documentary Captured.
Chapters
0:00 35 years of Ukrainian independence
1:29 A Russian economist says Russia is losing
3:52 Another deadline for Donbas
4:43 Fedorov and the call for elections
16:59 Why most Ukrainians don't want elections now
18:00 Russia's playbook for a wartime election
19:31 Be patient before judging Ukrainian politics
26:24 Fedorov and Ukraine's drone innovation
32:28 Zelensky asks to build Patriots
35:10 Fire Point and the Flamingo missile
36:40 Keith Kellogg
38:55 Patriots over Kyiv and North Korea's testing ground
40:59 Ratcliffe in Moscow
42:31 Hybrid attacks across Europe
43:36 Ukraine's long-range strikes on Russia
46:58 Russia's covert mobilization
48:43 Subscriptions and a hard day for Shaun
49:44 Dutch volunteers and Russia's foreign recruits
51:44 Visiting foreign fighters held as POWs
55:55 Wagner films and state capture in Africa
1:00:38 How journalists should interview prisoners
1:09:40 Simon Ostrovsky and who funds war reporting
1:11:27 Supporting independent reporting
1:14:18 The Captured documentary and two babies on the way
Watch on YouTube: Shaun Pinner on Ukraine at 35: Fedorov's election call, Patriots, and Russia's foreign fighters
