We Funded our own ATV! (Back from Ukraine until Jan.)

I am back in the United States! Since I last posted for all of you who are backing me and my work, I have safely traveled out of Ukraine to Poland, then Miami to speak about Ukraine at Liberty Con, before coming back to my home of Maryland. Before I talk about that thought, I want to talk about my time filming in Kharkiv.

I rode traveled to Kharkiv by train from Kyiv in September. I went to the city to interview locals and film the damage the city had taken, especially a friend of mine named Ana who is pictured on the ATV. She is the woman with the colorful hair, and the man behind her is a fmr. soviet solider who is now a Ukrainian aid worker risking his life doing deliveries to the front. 

You can watch my already released interviews with Ana here: https://youtu.be/lRqhIrEYQVg and https://youtu.be/mh6IPjd42SA

And Igor's interview here: https://youtu.be/W-tLMEz9Blw

Note: I will be releasing another interview with Ana in the future about how the Russian military murdered her father. I really appreciate her trusting me enough to share her story with me and all of you.

The ATV that Ana and Igor are sitting on was actually paid for by our and Destiny's community, which is why Ana printed out our and Destiny's logo and put it on the vehicle which will be used by the Ukrainian military around Kharkiv. We have also raised money for quite a few sets of body armor for aid workers risking their lives on the frontline of the war (shown in second picture being held by Igor). Our community has also helped raise money for medical equipment, medical dressings, vegetable cutters, and kitchen equipment for locals who make thousands of meals for local residents. I am very happy that you guys have been so supportive of the people suffering from the Russian invasion that I cover, and really made me feel like my coverage has accomplished something. We hadn't saved the world or ended the war, but we had helped some people that were hurting. 

While in Kharkiv I interviewed soldiers who took part in the Kharkiv counter offensive (can't talk about this too much yet), school staff who had been present when the Russian's bombed local playgrounds/schools, aid workers, filmed destruction the city had suffered, and even filmed some of the audio from the Russians targeting local energy infrastructure which continue to leave local Kharkiv residents in the dark and cold. I was able to film so much so quickly due to the fact that Ana had let me stay with her for about a week, and had helped guide me around the city with Igor. They seemed both primarily concerned with making sure that the story of Kharkiv gets told, and that the world does not forget what local residents have to suffer through every day. My favorite photo I took while in Kharkiv was of a child's toy bear in a swing set in front of an apartment that had collapsed after being hit by Russian shelling. This is in an area of the city has been hit by the war pretty hard, and local residents had left a sign on the rubble that you can see in the 5th picture attached. It says "Russia is a terrorist state".

After finishing up filming in Kharkiv, I headed back to Kyiv to spend some time with friends while gathering my thoughts. I then gathered a few things before getting on a train and then bus out of the country. The day after I had crossed the border over into Poland the Russians had started a new wave of bombings across Ukraine using Iranian supplied drones, missiles, and more often than not less and less accurate weapon systems. The Russians are running lower and lower on accurate weapon systems due to a combination of sanctions and heavy use of more accurate weapon systems. This leads to more civilian casualties, especially since the targets for these attacks are often areas of major cities that are civilian in nature. In fact many areas of the city that I often spent time at was heavily hit. I am very thankful for my continued health and safety given the many close calls I have had, and will likely have again in the future. My mind is often taken by how close the Russian strikes were in Mykolaiv, and how others were injured and killed not far from me by those very same strikes, and its impossible to not ask why some died while others lived. My thoughts have been particularly dominated by this question since I have arrived back in the United States. While I don't think I can answer the question of why some live and others die, but the closest answer I could arrive at was that they died at random and pointlessly. You can learn all the safety protocols and wear as much gear you want, but you can't be prepared for everything. If it hits you directly, there is often nothing you can do. 

When I finally crossed the border from Ukraine into Poland, there was no big moment of relief really. There was no feeling that I had finished the job either. The only feeling I really noted, outside of my slight annoyance at the buracurecy of the border crossing, was my complete lack of a reaction. It felt more like an Arc had ended, like I finished a smaller part of a bigger puzzle.

I flew from Poland (Warsaw) to Miami. I was there because I was invited to speak at Liberty Con, which is a libertarian convention organized by Students for Liberty. I had presented at another event under there banner before a year earlier at Freer Future Fest. That time though I was moderating a debate between Vaush and Bastiat. This time though I had topics to discuss of my own. I was mainly there to talk about the cost of Russia's invasion, and a second smaller talk about political extremism. While I was hesitant to go originally due to the reputation that Libertarians had on the Russian Invasion, even if I do enjoy the occasion rhetorical scuffle, I was pleasantly surprised when I saw that the panel on Ukraine they wanted to host would be made up of people who are either from Ukraine or had gone to Ukraine to cover the war. The panel was great, it will be posted on my channel in the future, and here is a clip from it that I have already posted where I tell the story of Ana's family tragedy: https://twitter.com/DylanBurns1776/status/1581816075762937856

Most of the reaction I got was very positive, which was fantastic since I thought it could possibly be a tough crowd for the issue we were trying to raise awareness about. There was a few people who were eager to tell me about Russia's perspective, but just 2 people maximum. Genuinely was a good experience overall. It was also nice to have men clearly and openly flirt with me, even if they were a little looney.

Now I am home with family. I am spending time with loved ones and trying to plan next steps for the channel, and trying to rest as much as possible while still streaming my schedule. My main priority right now is getting the footage I took in Ukraine out to you guys as quickly as I can while preserving the quality of the film taken. I hope you can all appreciate that this shift from being a normal streamer to preparing footage from a warzone has been a big jump for many of us and is taking a little bit more time to prepare than I would like. But once we are on the other side of this we will have a grass roots media machine pumping out on the ground journalism that can only be funded by people like all of you. I plan to go back to Ukraine in January or February, so this is not the end of my time in Ukraine. Just the end of one Arc, and the start of another. 

Sorry about the lack of an AMA and personal calls, I have been busy trying to get home. Now that I am settled, this should start up early next month. I appreciate your guys continued support, and I want to make sure that is communicated :)

See ya later space cowboys,

Dylan Burns