Judging Freedom - LIVE from Ukraine - MATT VAN DYKE, Sons of Liberty Int_l

Episode Date: April 6, 2023

Resolve to earn your degree in the new year in the Bay with WGU. WGU is an online accredited university that specializes in personalized learning. With courses available 24-7 and monthly start dates, you can earn your degree on your schedule. You may even be able to graduate sooner than you think by demonstrating mastery of the material you know. Make 2025 the year you focus on your future. Learn more at wgu.edu. Hi, everyone. Judge Andrew Napolitano here for Judging Freedom. Today is Thursday, April 6, 2023, Holy Thursday in the Christian world, the first full day of Passover for our Jewish brethren. Matt Van Dyke joins us from Kiev, where I guess it's about six in the evening. It's noon here on the east coast of the

United States. Matt, always a pleasure. We know what you go through in order to be with us. Thank you very much. Just to remind you, Matt is the founder and the head of Sons of Liberty International, a group mainly of American military veterans who devote their time to assist in the training of troops in Ukraine. So Matt, since last we were together, you yourself were involved in military activity. What can you tell us about it? I did a contract with the Ukrainian Armed Forces. It was a special one mission contract to go on a special forces mission. I can't talk about the details of the mission. It was obviously in Eastern Ukraine at the front. I participated in combat. I was almost killed as well, machine gun fire and sniper fire. The Russians had us outgunned. There's Russian helicopter, Russian

tank, lots of artillery. The war is how it's been depicted, in a trench. But I made it back. Were you firing at Russian soldiers? I did fire rockets at Russians, yes. Okay. Gary, can you put up some of the stills that Matt sent? Now, that's you, is it not? Yes. And what is that? I assume that's your gloved hand what are you holding there uh that's a polish made gun called a grot uh it's the weapon i was issued for the mission and and what is it what is it fire it's it's an automatic weapon of some sort or a semi-automatic weapon is it like a uh an ar-15 or an AK-47? It's similar to an AR.

It's NATO standard, 5.56 round. It's compatible with the other weapons in the NATO arsenal. It's an okay weapon. When you were there, it appears over your right shoulder that we're looking into a trench. Is that what we're seeing? Yes, this was taken inside a trench. And that trench appears to be what, deeper than you are tall. So is it what, about eight feet deep? No, I was sitting when I took that picture. Okay, so is this trench warfare? Is this almost like World War I, where each side builds trenches and tries to push the other side to the rear of its trench area? You absolutely need trenches in this war.

It's an artillery-heavy war. Artillery flies overhead from our side and their side constantly. How do they dig those trenches, by hand or with construction equipment? Shovels. Well, if there's trenches that are farther back off the line that are made for defensive positions, those are dug by heavy equipment sometimes. But trenches like this that are right up near the front, those are hand dug with shovels. Okay. Gary, can you put that picture up again? When you were there, Matt, were you wearing, I can't see what you have on, it looks

like some sort of a protective gear, but is that a military uniform or a military headgear that you're wearing? Yeah, that's my helmet, body armor. And by what military authority, if any, is that issued or did you pick that up in a military surplus store in Manhattan and bring it over with you? That's my own equipment that I use for solely missions. The, I mean, it's, it was all authorized by the Ukrainian government. It was a legitimate military contract. It just happened to be for a particular special mission for a special purpose. How many, how many Americans, if any, were with you on that mission? I can't talk about that. Okay, but there were other Americans with you. I can't talk about

that. Okay. Gary, let's look at the video. You sent this video. I can't talk over it, so when I stop talking, Gary will run it. This appears to be, you can describe it, of a Ukrainian military official thanking you and others and writing your name and others on a missile destined for Russia. Watch this. Hello, everyone. On behalf of my friends, Matthew from the US, Jose from Israel, Gia from Mexico, Brandon from Canada, Neil from the US who helped the SO, me and my brothers from the Legion will give Russian pigs such a gift. So the Matthew from the U.S. with your name spelled phonetically, that's you, is it not? Yeah, that was Alex.

He's a Georgian who's from the country of Georgia who's been fighting against Russia for much of his life. He worked for me as a solely trainer in the fall and winter. And now he's in the georgian legion which is one of the units here in ukraine so he he did that for us and then he fired it i also have the video of him firing it but he said don't show that one um so yeah he referred to the russian forces as russian pigs is that standard terminology amongst those fighting for the Ukrainian side? Probably more popular is orcs. What are orcs? That's not an English word, is it?

It's like a Lord of the Rings reference. They've been calling Russians orcs since the beginning of the war. Got it. But generally, they're just called Russians. Okay. Gary, I think we have a few more still photos from Matt. What is that, Matthew, from U.S.? What are we looking at there? That's a rocket that landed in someone's yard in a village.

A Russian rocket? Yeah, an explosive rocket. That one, I believe, still has some explosive in it it so we have to excavate it uh there were about 23 i think in the village last time we checked we cataloged all of them marked the locations and have to go back to do the excavation i see a dog in the background i think when you and i have chatted off screen i've told you how much of a dog lover i am are there a lot of stray dogs because of all the owners of the dogs that have been killed there Are there a lot of stray dogs because of all the owners of the dogs that have been killed? There are a lot of stray dogs, but Ukraine is unique among countries I've been

in with this. They actually take the dogs, give them free healthcare, put a little tag in their ear, and the dogs are allowed to free roam. So a stray dog here is very well behaved, has no medical issues. It's really odd. I mean, it's a great thing, but they're stray dogs, except it's different than stray dogs anywhere else. Got it. Gary, do we have another still, or is that it? Here we go. What are we looking at there? Are those your fingers? No, that's one of my UD guys. That's a grenade that we found near the minefield. That wire on it is a trip wire. It was a trap, a booby-tra a grenade that we found near the minefield. Um, that wire on it is a trip wire. It was a trap, a booby trapped grenade that the Russians had set.

Is that live in your colleague's hands? Yes. And then what do you do with it or what did he do with it after this picture was taken? Well, we're the ones who put the zip ties on it to secure it. Um, And then it's put in a pit and disposed of with the landmines. Got it. Got it. Gary, any others? There we go.

Now, is that a cemetery? I see the crucifix there, a pretty graphic crucifix by American standards. Yeah, it's a monument to a church that the Soviets destroyed in Ukraine. And the local village people wanted to be able to go to the monument. So they asked if we could clear the area around the monument and check it for mines. So you said Soviets, did you misspeak or do you mean Soviets as in 30 years ago? Soviet as in 30 years ago. Yes. Okay. So that's a monument, the church attached to the monument or on whose grounds the monument was, was destroyed, but the monument is

still there. Is that somebody looking for landmines, Gary, if you can put it up again? Yes, that's one of my team looking for mines there. Why would they mine an area in front of a crucifix unless they wanted to blow people up when they genuflected and prayed in front of the crucifix? Yeah, Russians mine civilian areas all the time. They drop mines that are specifically intended for civilians. They've put mines in fields to kill farmers. That's just what they do. They want to make the cost of the war high on the Ukrainian people in addition to

Ukrainian soldiers. Is the cost on the war high and how is the war going? In the U.S., everybody believes that Bakhmut has fallen. We were told by our military people that the Russians took their time capturing Bakhmut because they wanted to draw in and kill as many Ukrainian soldiers as they did. And they ended up killing more soldiers than President Zelensky should have used to defend the city which he lost. Do you accept all that? That's a partially accurate

assessment. Whether Bakhmut was worth it is something that historians will debate. We're not going to know that until we see the outcome of the rest of the war. It certainly has been high in casualties. It was given attention instead of a Ukrainian counteroffensive in the winter. But I think that Russia isn't pushing an offensive because Putin's game is to wait it out, similar to how Assad in Syria just waited until the world lost interest. I think that's Putin's playbook for this. Does he still have massive numbers of troops ready to enter Ukraine and is holding them back? A good number of the troops are already there, but I think a lot of them are going to be used for defense against the Ukrainian counteroffensive than used in a Russian offensive. What's your observations in general, big picture, Matt, as to how the war is going at this point? I think it's going to be a slow grinding war, a lot of attrition warfare.

Maybe the Ukrainians can punch through on the counteroffensive. I'm looking to join another unit, so I'll probably be part of that counteroffensive. So hopefully it goes well, but we are, I think everybody's prepared for this to be a long a long war why are you joining another unit why are you risking your life you were almost killed once in Libya more than once you were almost killed in whatever you just did that we all respect you can't tell us in detail in eastern Ukraine why would, a young kid from the U.S., do this? I fight for causes I believe in, and I believe in this cause. This is about the freedom of a democratic country that was invaded by a tyrant and by Russia. To me, it's a pretty black and

white situation. So it's something I believe in, something I'm going to do. I'm not just training people to go fight if I'm not willing to go do it myself. Tell us about the Americans who are there boasting falsely about their military exploits and this stolen valor problem, which is a big deal back here when we read about it. Right. This is a problem that the New York Times recently exposed here. It's a problem that a lot of us have been aware of for a long time. There were some volunteers, one in particular, who lied about his military record in America to impress people here and then hung around with units and lied about what he was doing here. And an organization used him for fundraising. So, you know, it's a problem.

A lot of people are afraid to call these people out because of the backlash, because these people build up large followings on Twitter and elsewhere. And even when some people would tell journalists that this guy wasn't legit and the journalists would just ignore it because they liked the story. So it's a problem. It's a problem that's being sorted out, though. And, you know, the more of these characters that get exposed, the better. How dangerous is it in Kiev, or how much normalcy is there in Kiev?

Kiev is quite normal these days. I think we had one power outage the entire month. Life's mostly back to normal. We haven't been in Kiev that much recently. We've been out east. Our demining work is out in the east. But even there, it's a little more missile strikes and so on, but it's not too dangerous. Life is returning to normal in a lot of Ukrainian cities that are off the front line. How many Americans do you see, either stolen valor Americans or legitimately self-sacrificing Americans like you? Can you give us a handle? We're talking about 5, 10, 50, 500, 5,000. I'd say I've met about a dozen total. I don't hang out in those circles as much. There's definitely more than a dozen. If I had to put a guess on it, I'd say maybe 50, 100 here still. But most of them are well-intentioned. The experience level that they have when they come here varies greatly. But for the most part, I mean, their heart's in the right place and they're fighting for a cause they believe in as well. How many of them are these fraudsters that are either fraudulently raising money or fraudulently boasting about dangerous military activity, which they claim to have engaged in but did not?

Do I have that right? Right. Only a couple. Only a couple. And one of those are- It must get under the skin of the rest of you. Oh, certainly. The one that was exposed by the New York Times had garnered a large following. A lot of attention from media. Meanwhile, there's guys who are risking their lives every day, getting repeatedly wounded. Some have given their lives, who are actually out there fighting while this character was being a Twitter warrior.

How, is he still there? No, we don't know exactly where he is. We think he's in Poland with a girlfriend hiding out. Okay, okay. What do the next six months look like for you? Our EOD team is doing really well. We've been asked to go and do more work. That's the team that discovers unexploded devices and neutralizes them. Right. Clearing minefields and unexploded ordnance. We also, we did military training this week,

so we're still training Ukrainian forces. I'm searching for a unit to join. I have some options, a unit that will allow me flexibility to still run the organization and get a lot of things done. Yesterday, the Pentagon announced, and it wasn't with much fanfare, you really only saw it not in the mainstream media that it was releasing another 2.8 billion with a B in military equipment, mainly HIMARS, to Ukraine. Do you ever see, come across, touch or operate equipment that originated in the U.S.? I rode an MRAP that came from the U.S. once when we were out training forces and our vehicles couldn't get through the mud. So, I mean, that, yes. Other than that, I mean, you see equipment some, but mostly what you see is the Russian equipment that Ukraine had or Ukraine captured so far. I think a lot of the American equipment is being rolled up in preparation for counteroffensive, but we haven't encountered

too much of it yet. Okay. Will you be back with us in another week or so, or are you going to do something clandestine that we aren't supposed to know about? No, this next week is pretty normal for me. Okay. Well, a happy and blessed Easter to you and your friends. Thank you very much for joining us, Matt. Stay well. Thank you. You too. More as we get it.

Scott Ritter, 1 o'clock Eastern today. Judge Napolitano for judging freedom.