Voices from the Front Podcast
A raw, unfiltered podcast exploring survival in war and in life. Hosted by Shaun Pinner, a British Army veteran, Ukrainian Marine, Mariupol defender, and former prisoner of war, the series delivers firsthand frontline stories from Ukraine and beyond, far from the safety of studio analysis.
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KYIV 2022 vs 2026 | Operator Starsky on the Frontlines, Russia’s War and the Reality of Peace
Is Kyiv really a frontline city? and how does the Ukrainian capital today compare with the desperate battle to defend it in February 2022?In this episode of Voices from the Front, I sit down with Operator Starsky (Andrii Kulish), a former Ukrainian National Guard serviceman and military commentator who witnessed the opening stages of Russia’s full-scale invasion.We revisit the Russian assault on H
RUSSIA GOES FULL-BORE TERROR | Voices From The Front & The Wire Tap
Russia spent another night hammering Ukraine, but the geography of this war is changing, and increasingly the consequences are travelling in both directions.In this episode of Voices From The Front & The Wire Tap, we break down a violent night across Ukraine, including the explosions and jet drones over Dnipro, Russia’s continuing attacks on civilian and energy infrastructure, and what increasingl
REPORTING FROM THE FRONT | Not From the Sofa - Live with Devin Woodall, Documentary Filmmaker
What does journalism from Ukraine actually look like when you’re the one going out, finding the story and taking the risks?I’m joined by Devin Woodall, photojournalist, filmmaker and editor-in-chief of East/West FM, for a candid conversation about independent journalism from inside a country at war.We talk about working close to the frontline, documenting stories the mainstream media often misses,
WE ARE AT WAR | Cormac Smith, Former British Diplomat to Ukraine, on Russia, Ukraine & Europe’s Next Fight
Former British diplomat to Ukraine Cormac Smith joins me for a wide-ranging and uncompromising conversation about where Russia’s war is heading, and why he believes the West needs to stop calling what Moscow is doing “hybrid warfare.”From Putin’s next roll of the dice and the growing threat to NATO, to Ukraine’s deep strikes inside Russia, mounting Russian losses, disinformation and the battle for
THE WAR IS GETTING WORSE FOR PUTIN TOO | Tom Mutch, Journalist & Author of The Dogs of Mariupol
A great conversation from inside Ukraine with journalist and author Tom Mutch, author of The Dogs of Mariupol.Tom and I have known each other for some years now, he first interviewed me after my release from captivity, and we’ve crossed paths in London and Kyiv ever since. So this was less an interview and more two people who know Ukraine well sitting down and comparing notes on where this war sta
NO SAFE DISTANCE | Kyiv to the Frontlines w/ Simon Ostrovsky, Chris Sampson & Shaun Pinner
The Journalism That Helped Explain Ukraine Before the World Was WatchingThis was a special one.A huge thank you to Chris Sampson for organising our latest conversation with Simon Ostrovsky, a journalist whose work I have admired for years and who, in many ways, helped set the standard for reporting on Ukraine long before Ukraine became fashionable.For those who followed the war before February 202
MEIDAS DEFENCE WEEKLY | SITREP with Ken Harbaugh
In this week’s Meidas Defense Weekly Sit Rep, I join Ken Harbaugh from Ukraine to break down a war that is entering another dangerous phase.Russia is escalating its bombardment of Ukrainian cities and critical infrastructure as winter approaches, while reports suggest Moscow is preparing another major mobilisation after September’s elections. We look at what that tells us about Putin’s growing man
MISSILES, POWs & UKRAINE’S NEXT MOVE | Voices From The Front & The Wire Tap
I’ve just returned from a Ukrainian POW camp in western Ukraine, and what I saw raises some uncomfortable questions about how Russia is fighting this war.As many as one in three soldiers now being captured by Ukraine may be foreign recruits rather than Russian-born troops.Some of the men I met more than a year ago are still there.So why does Russia appear reluctant to exchange its foreign fighters
ARE WE ALREADY IN A WORLD WAR? | Voices From The Front & The Wire Tap
In this week’s Voices From The Front & The Wire Tap, Chris and I unpack a week where Ukrainian politics, Russia’s mounting problems, North Korea’s expanding involvement and some very unusual diplomatic activity are beginning to collide.We start with Ukraine’s 35th Independence Day — more than four years after Russia expected its full-scale invasion to end with the rapid seizure of Kyiv, instead, t
SAME WAR, TWO DIFFERENT PICTURES | Voices From The Front & The Wire Tap
Tonight on Voices from the Front & The Wire Tap, Chris Sampson and I look back at another extraordinary week in Ukraine, and for once, there are some genuinely positive developments to talk about.🇺🇦 Ukraine is taking ground back, challenging the increasingly simplistic narrative that Russia is relentlessly advancing. At the same time, Ukrainian strikes are putting growing pressure on Russia’s fuel
ROCKET HIT 1KM FROM OUR HOME | Voices From The Front & The Wire Tap
This week, Chris Sampson and I are back with Voices From the Front & The Wire Tap, looking at the war from where we actually sit: inside Ukraine, under the air-raid warnings, and increasingly under Russia’s expanding long-range strike campaign.The biggest issue this week is brutally simple: Interceptors.Ukraine is facing an increasingly serious shortage of the missiles needed to engage Russian bal
THE INFLUENCER WAR | Voices From The Front & The Wire Tap – Loomered Edition & Wildberries
This week, Chris Sampson and myself return from the frontlines with first-hand observations from Sumy, Dnipro and Mykolaiv, where Russian attacks continue to shape daily life just miles from the border.We discuss what it’s really like spending nights under drone attacks in Sumy, meeting Ukrainian defenders and international volunteers, and why the reality on the ground is often completely disconne
MEIDAS DEFENCE | Weekly Update, 22JUL26
This week I joined Ken Harbaugh on the Meidas Network to discuss one of the most consequential weeks of the war in Ukraine.We examine President Zelensky’s decision to replace General Oleksandr Syrskyi with General Mykhailo Drapatyi, why the protests in Kyiv, Dnipro and across the country mattered, and what they reveal about Ukraine’s democracy in the middle of a full-scale war. I also explain why
LIVE | with Phillips P. OBrien and Shaun Pinner
Ukraine has entered one of the most politically significant weeks since the full-scale invasion began.Following the dismissal of Defence Minister Mykhailo Fedorov, nationwide protests erupted, culminating in the appointment of General Mykhailo Drapatyi as Ukraine’s new Commander-in-Chief. But what does this change actually mean for the war, and has public pressure genuinely altered the course of e
UKRAINE'S POLITICAL CROSSROADS | Protests, Reform & the Fedorov Fallout
This week on Voices from the Front & The Wire Tap, I join Chris in Mykolaiv to discuss one of the most politically turbulent weeks since Russia's full-scale invasion began.We examine the growing protests across Ukraine following the dismissal of Defence Minister Mykhailo Fedorov, why so many Ukrainians see it as a self-inflicted political crisis, and what it reveals about the ongoing struggle to m
FROM DEATH ROW TO FREEDOM… SORT OF | An Interview with Former Ukrainian Marine Brahim Saadoun
From death row in occupied Donetsk to freedom... but not quite.In this exclusive update, I sit down with my former Ukrainian Marine comrade, Brahim Saadoun, four years after we were sentenced to death by a Russian proxy court and a year after our first chats since those days. While I returned to Ukraine, Brahim remains trapped in Morocco—unable to obtain a passport, unable to travel, and still fig
MEIDAS DEFENCE WEEKLY | SIT REP with Ken Harbaugh & Denver Riggleman
This week on the Meidas Defense Weekly Update, I join Ken Harbaugh and former Congressman and intelligence officer Denver Riggleman for a wide-ranging conversation on Ukraine, Russia, Iran and a geopolitical landscape that appears to be shifting by the day.From Ukraine, I give my latest assessment of the war as Russia continues its missile and drone campaign, Ukraine struggles with the shortage of
INDEPENDANCE MATTERS | Special - Voices from the Front & The Wire Tap
🎙️Voices from the Front & The Wire TapAs America marks Independence Day, we ask a much bigger question: what does independence really mean when a nation is fighting for its survival?In this special episode, Chris & myself, Shaun Pinner explore the latest developments from Ukraine, Russia and beyond, discussing why the prospect of peace appears further away than ever. From Russia’s escalating miss
WHAT GIVES YOU HOPE? | Diplomatic Speak with Cormac Smith, Former British Diplomat to Ukraine
What really shaped Ukraine before the full-scale invasion? How has Russian propaganda evolved, and could diplomacy ever have prevented the war?In this in-depth conversation, I sit down with Cormac Smith, former British diplomat to Ukraine, to discuss the war from the perspectives of diplomacy, strategic communications and firsthand experience.Together we explore:* Why Russian propaganda remains on
THE LOGISTICS WAR | Where Can Russia Escalate Next?
🎙️Voices From The Front & The Wire Tap, In this episode, Chris Sampson and myself, Shaun Pinner, examine the growing signs that Russia’s logistics network is coming under increasing pressure. From fuel shortages in occupied Crimea and disruptions to the southern corridor, to Ukraine’s long-range strike campaign and rapid drone innovation, we explore how the battlefield is changing.Drawing on firs
THE KREMLIN CAN'T GET ITS STORY STRAIGHT | Moscow's Lid Flip, Crimea & Putin Under Pressure
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MOSCOW LID JUST BLEW OFF | Voices From The Front & The Wire Tap
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RUSSIA'S ORESHNIK THREATS | Voices From The Front & The Wire Tap
Russia is escalating.Ukraine is escalating.The weapons packages are becoming larger, more complex and increasingly capable.Yet despite the threats, missile launches and endless nuclear rhetoric, one uncomfortable reality is emerging for the Kremlin:Russia appears to be running out of options.In this week’s discussion, filmed after my interview with Ukrainian drone warfare expert Dimko, Chris Samps
JUST CALL ME DIMKO | An Ordinary Man at War
🎙️Voices From The Front | In this episode, I sit down with Dimko Zhluktenko, soldier, author, drone warfare expert and founder of DzygaspawKnown for his insights into modern warfare and Ukraine’s drone revolution, Dimko reflects on a journey that began far from the battlefield. From the digital nomad lifestyle and running one of Ukraine’s most successful volunteer initiatives, to serving in unifor
AZOV WAS NEVER NAZIS | Live with Former U.S. Congressman Adam Kinzinger & Shaun Pinner, Former Azov & Ukrainian Marine
AZOV WAS NEVER NAZIS | Live with Former Congressman Adam Kinzinger & Shaun PinnerIn this episode of Voices from the Front, I sit down with former U.S. Congressman Adam Kinzinger for a wide-ranging conversation on Ukraine, modern warfare, Russian propaganda, and one of the most persistent myths of the war: the narrative surrounding Azov.Drawing on my own experience serving with Azov in Mariupol bet
MEIDAS | Weekly Update from Ukraine w/ Ken Harbaugh
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URGENT UKRAINE UPDATE | w/ Ken Harbaugh
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CRIMEA UNDER PRESSURE | Is Putin's Southern Corridor Failing? - Voices From The Front & The Wire Tap
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CAPTIVITY TESTIMONIES & AIR RAID SIRENS | Voices From The Front & The Wire Tap-Sunday Edition-Missile Attacks
🎙️Voices From The Front & The Wire Tap – Sunday Edition – Missile AttacksIn this powerful Sunday Edition of Voices From The Front & The Wire Tap, Shaun Pinner and Chris Sampson broadcast live from Ukraine as air raid sirens, missile threats and Russian drone attacks continue across Kyiv and Dnipro.The episode covers the reality of life under bombardment, including discussions surrounding Russia’s
THE KREMLIN'S BIGGEST PROBLEM NOW | Voices From The Front & The Wire Tap
🎙️In this episode of Voices From The Front & The Wire Tap, Shaun Pinner and Chris Sampson, we break down the growing reality that the war in Ukraine is not slowing down, it’s escalating. Using frontline experience, on-the-ground observations from Dnipro & Kyiv, and analysis of recent Russian strikes, we discuss why claims of an imminent peace deal or Putin is considering quitting, are detached fro
RAINING ON PUTIN'S PARADE | Voices from the Front & The Wire Tap
🎙️Ukraine’s war is no longer confined to the frontline. In this explosive episode of Voices from the Front, Shaun Pinner and Chris, The Wire Tap, break down how Ukraine is now putting unprecedented pressure on Russia ahead of Putin’s Victory Day Parade, with drone strikes, airport shutdowns, burning oil infrastructure, and Moscow scrambling air defences across the country. From Rostov-on-Don to Cr
VICTORY DAY IS A LIE | Voices from the Front & The Wire Tap
🎙️Voices from the Front & The Wire Tap |Three days travelling back from Canada… straight into drones over the train station and air defence firing above our heads.This is the reality of Ukraine.In this episode of Voices from the Front & The Wire Tap, we break down what “Victory Day” has become, not a moment of remembrance, but a stage for propaganda. From firsthand experience, including being held
IT'S NOT JUST ‘A FEW KILOMETERS’ | The Reality From Ukraine
🎙️ Voices from the Front & The Wire Tap | Live from UkraineIn this episode, we break down what’s really happening on the ground, far beyond the headlines and political spin. From the streets of Kyiv to life in Dnipro, this is the reality of a country entering its fourth year of full-scale war and why so many still don’t understand what that actually means.We cover the growing disconnect between We
RUSSIA'S WAR STALLS YEAR 5 | How Russia's spring offensive is failing...... failed?
🎙️Voices from the Front & The Wire Tap Russia’s long-promised spring offensive has stalled — or is it already failing before it’s even begun?In this episode of 🎙️Voices from the Front & The Wire Tap, we break down what’s really happening on the battlefield as the war enters its fifth year. From the ground in Ukraine, the picture looks very different to the narrative still pushed in parts of the in
TRUMP'S CAPITULATION | What It Means for Ukraine, NATO, and the War Ahead
🎙️ Voices from the Front & The Wire Tap | Trump’s Capitulation Last Friday on Voices from the Front & The Wire Tap, Shaun Pinner and Chris Sampson broke down one of the most consequential weeks in the war in Ukraine — a week defined not just by events on the battlefield, but by political decisions that may shape the war’s outcome.Broadcast live from Ukraine, including updates from Kyiv and near th
CAPTIVITY | What is the breaking point?
🎙️Voices From The Front & The Wire Tap | In this episode we have a deeply personal conversation about capture, survival, and what it means to endure captivity.⚠️ Warning: The following contains graphic descriptions of torture that some viewers/ listeners may find distressing.As someone who went through SERE training in the British Army, I talk about what that preparation is designed to do, and mor
CHEAP DRONES & EXPENSIVE WARS | Voices from the Front & The Wire Tap
🎙️Voices From The Front & The Wire Tap | Ukraine War Analysis: Drones & Expensive WarsThank you Lexie Reid, Dann, Mary Boudreau, Lisa Ruiz-Buchwalter, Martin Zeilig, and many others for tuning into our live video. In this episode of Voices From The Front & The Wire Tap, we break down one of the defining realities of the modern battlefield: cheap drones versus expensive military systems. As the Ru
RUSSIA ISN'T BENDING, IT'S BREAKING | Voices From The Front & The Wire Tap:
🎙️Voices from the Front & The Wire Tap — Episode 3/ Part 2 (Sunday Bonus)Frontline Reality vs Political Spin | Ukraine War Analysis | Trump, Witkoff & Russia’s Narrative ShiftIn Episode 3 of Voices from the Front and The Wire Tap, we cut through the noise and examine the widening gap between battlefield reality in Ukraine and the political narratives forming in Washington and Moscow.Four years aft
THE WAR IS TURNING, RUSSIA IS LOSING | Voices From The Front & The Wire Tap
🎙️ Voices from the Front & The Wire Tap | Episode 3Ukraine War Update | Kremlin Propaganda Failing | Putin’s Shrinking Options | Global Power PoliticsThank you to Naomi Walsby and everyone who joined us live for Episode 2 of Voices from the Front and The Wire Tap. Your engagement, questions, and support help keep these conversations grounded in reality rather than spin.Four years into Russia’s ful
THE SOVIET PLAYBOOK | have you tried turning it off and on?
🎙️Voices From The Front & The Wire Tap | SOVIET PLAYBOOK - have you tried turning it off and on?Another great chat with Chris in Kyiv discussing the weeks shenanigans. In this week’s Voices from the Front & The Wire Tap, Chris & myself break down the biggest developments from Ukraine in a no-nonsense review of the week, recorded live with our audience. +140 and growingWe dig into Lavrov’s latest K
PUTIN’S DESPERATION - Voices from the Front & The Wire Tap
🎙️ Voices from the Front & The Wire Tap — On the Ground in UkraineEvery Friday, journalist Chris Sampson and former British serviceman turned Ukrainian Marine and journalist Shaun Pinner sit down to talk honestly about Ukraine, the war, geopolitics, Russian propaganda, media narratives, and life on the ground.This isn’t studio punditry. We live and work in Ukraine. We see what’s happening, we deal
WHO ARE THE PROMISES REALLY FOR? Trilateral Theatre & The Promises
🎙️Voices from the Front - Trilateral Theatre & the PromisesTalks in Abu Dhabi could mark the first time Ukrainian, Russian, and American delegations have been involved in negotiations at the same table since Moscow’s full-scale invasion nearly four years ago. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has described the negotiations as being in the “last mile.” Yet despite that optimism, deep divisions remain,
PUTIN'S 3 DAY LIE - Where will he get his win?
🎙️ Voices from the Front — Where Will Putin Get His Win? Russia’s so-called “3-Day Special Military Operation” has become one of the greatest strategic failures of the modern era. The SMO has now outlasted the Soviet Union’s own defining war. The Great Patriotic War against Nazi Germany ran from 1941 to 1945. What was sold in February 2022 as a lightning campaign has dragged on far longer, and, cr
"RUSSIA WANTS UKRAINE TO SUCCEED"| w/ Cormac Smith, Former UK Diplomat
🎙️ Voices from the Front — Russia Wants Ukraine to Succeed?This weekend, Donald Trump made a claim so detached from reality it caused more than a few people to spit out their tea:“Russia wants Ukraine to succeed.”That statement didn’t land in a vacuum. It came while Russia was actively launching missiles, drones, and artillery strikes across Ukraine — hitting civilians, critical infrastructure, an
THE POWER SHIFT
🎙️ Voices from the Front | For far too long, coverage of the war in Ukraine has been trapped in map-watching, false balance, and the lazy language of stalemate.This piece breaks that frame.The most important change in this war is not measured in kilometres gained or lost.It is measured in tempo, cost, and who is being forced to react.That dynamic has changed.I’m not suggesting Ukraine is about to
BREAKING WAVES The First Ukrainian Woman to Graduate Britain’s Naval Academy
🎙️Voices from the Front | Oksana Pechenyuk is a Ukrainian naval officer cadet and a trailblazer in modern European military history.She is the first Ukrainian woman to graduate from the United Kingdom’s Royal Naval College, marking a historic milestone in UK–Ukraine defence cooperation and women’s leadership in the armed forces. Born and raised in Ukraine, Oksana chose a military path shaped by du
LIFE BETWEEN SIRENS
🎙️Voices From the Front — Why Ukrainian Resilience Will Outlast Putin | Report from DniproUkraine keeps going, even when the world isn’t looking.In this new episode, I take you to Dnipro, a city that isn’t officially on the frontline, yet lives with the war inching closer every month. Despite ballistic attacks, drone swarms, rolling blackouts, and the constant hum of generators, life continues. Pe
POKROVSK | Where Putin Smashed His Teeth
🎙️Voices from the Front — Pokrovsk: Where Putin Smashed His Teeth 🪖 The battle for Pokrovsk isn’t just another frontline update, it’s the moment Putin’s invasion hit a wall. After four years of full-scale war and over a million Russian casualties, Moscow’s so-called “second strongest army in the world” is grinding itself into the Donetsk dirt.When I was there a year ago, the Russians were eight ki
BEATING THE LIES INTO YOU | Alex Drueke on captivity, coming home & the propaganda that followed him.
🎙️ Voices from the Front — Former POWs reunited, raw truths from the frontline of Ukraine.In this powerful conversation, I sit down with Alex Drueke — a U.S. Army veteran & former POW captured by Russian forces in Ukraine. Alex and I were exchanged together. He is a very humble man and funny guy, with a clear understanding of what Russia is.Today, we speak openly about: Why an American volunteered
BELIEVERS, KILLERS, & THE RUNAWAYS
🎙Voices from the Front — In Believers, Killers & Runaways, former British soldier and Ukrainian Marine Shaun Pinner unpacks one of the most misunderstood aspects of the war in Ukraine — the foreign volunteers who came to fight.Who were they? What drove them — conviction, adrenaline, or survival? I separate myth from reality in this bite-size episode, exploring the chaos, courage, and controversy
TRUMP, ORBAN & PUTIN: Sanctions, Summits and the Strongmen with Cormac Smith - Former UK Diplomat to Ukraine
🎙 Voices from the Front: “TRUMP, ORBAN & PUTIN” | with Cormac SmithThe week Europe blinked — sanctions, summits, and the strongmen who want to shape the world.In this powerful episode of Voices from the Front, I sit down with Cormac Smith, former UK Government Adviser and Communications Strategist, to dissect a week that sent political shockwaves across Europe and beyond.Trump’s Sanctions: What do
THE ONE THAT ALMOST GOT AWAY | Vjekoslav Prebeg, Mariupol Defender tells his epic escape & evasion story.
🎙️ Voices from the Front — Prebeg is a Croatian veteran and Ukrainian Marine who became one of the most high-profile foreign POWs in Russia’s war against Ukraine. A former soldier in the Croatian Army, Prebeg joined Ukraine’s 36th Marine Brigade in 2020, serving in Mariupol when Russia launched its full-scale invasion in February 2022. During the brutal siege of Mariupol, Prebeg and his comrades
PUTIN'S PRESSURE COOKER: With Cormac Smith — Former British Diplomat to Ukraine
🎙️ Voices from the Front — Russia’s war against Ukraine is entering a critical phase, and Vladimir Putin is under immense strain at home and abroad. In this powerful interview, I sit down with Cormac Smith, a former British diplomat and expert on international affairs, to break down the forces shaping today’s conflict and where it might all lead. Cormac brings a rare insider perspective on diploma
SENTENCED TO DEATH | Part 2 of my interview with Brahim Saadoune, former Ukrainian Marine & Mariupol Defender.
🎙️Voices from the Front - In Part Two of my conversation with Brahim Saadoun, we go deeper into what happened after the headlines faded — the months in Russian captivity, the mockery of justice that followed, and the psychological scars left by a system designed to break the human spirit.Brahim opens up about life inside a Russian prison, the so-called “trial” that sentenced him to death, and the
SENTENCED TO DEATH | My interview with Brahim Saadoune, former Ukrainian Marine & Mariupol Defender.
🎙️ Voices from the Front — with Brahim Saadoun & Shaun PinnerA powerful conversation between two former prisoners of war, united by survival and purpose. Shaun Pinner and Brahim Saadoun share their first-hand experiences of captivity under Russian forces, their reflections on resilience, and their mission to expose the truth behind Putin’s war. Honest, raw, and deeply human, this is a dialogue abo
