Morning Wire - Sunday Wire: Finding Hope in Ukraine

Episode Date: March 20, 2022

Daily Wire Correspondent Kassy Dillon just returned from Ukraine. She brings with her a collection of stories highlighting the hope and humanity of those fleeing the war zone, as well the bravery of those stepping up to provide humanitarian aid and support. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Russia's military invasion of Ukraine is now raged on for more than three weeks, and the human toll is mounting. For this episode of Morning Wire, we talk to Cassie Dillon, who has been on the ground in Ukraine to document the growing humanitarian crisis. I'm Georgia Howe with Daily Wire editor-in-chief John Bickley. It's Sunday, March 20th, and this is your special edition of Morning Wire. This show is brought to you by Good Ranchers. Over 85% of the grass-fed beef sold in stores and online is important. from overseas. You're paying a premium for imported goods that don't even get USDA graded. That's why you should get all your beef, chicken, and seafood from Good Ranchers. They sell beef that's USDA Prime and Upper Choice, chicken that's better than organic and premium seafood. Good ranchers deliver steakhouse quality to your door. These are real American people trying to help

real American businesses. You can do good while you eat good. So head on over to goodranchers.com slash wire or use code wire at checkout to get their biggest offer ever. $30 off your first order plus free express shipping. Visit good ranchers.com slash wire today. Since Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24th, millions have fled the war-torn country, while others have crossed continents to help. Joining us now is Cassie Dillon, our correspondent who recently returned from assignment in Ukraine. We're going to spend this special episode hearing what she and the team she led for Daily Wire documented. Welcome, Cassie. Thank you, John.

First, what is your big takeaway having gone there and now back? It's a bit surreal being back here after experiencing what's happening there in the ground. I mean, I met so many courageous people from Ukraine who are either looking for a place to say and take refuge or are preparing to put their lives on the line for their country. There are so many stories to tell and so many more that unfortunately will never be told. Well, I want to start with your story. You landed in Warsaw and you quickly made your way to the border of Poland and Ukraine. How did you actually manage to get into Ukraine? Shortly after landing in Warsaw, we made our way right down to a border city called Prishemeshil,

where the Polish government and NGOs have set up different refugee centers where they're processing people coming from Ukraine to Poland. And then from there, they go to Poland or anywhere in the EU that they would like to go. So as we were walking around, we were approached by this very excited Polish man who saw our cameras and started talking to us. What is your name? My name is Bartek. And where are you from?

Yes, I am from Skirniewicz, from Poland. This is my girlfriend, Oksana. She's a Ukraine, beautiful woman. And what are you guys doing here today? Oh, right now we cheat the system because right now the Ukraine people are not above the truck drivers. We're repacking to the buses because they can cross the board. Bartak then told us how excited he was about what he was doing.

So what's in the bus? Oh, my goodness, everything. to the eat, eat, to the children, the medicine, the medicals, the sleeping bags, everything what is necessary on the war. These goods are from Germany. Thank you, my Germany, friends. Thank you very much with the big herds. I love you.

According to Bartek, trucks are not allowed across the border, but buses are. So, on the Polish side, they fill the buses with supplies with humanitarian aid, and then they bring it to Ukraine. So once the buses are unloaded, they actually fill their buses back up, but this time with refugees to return to Poland. So after we spoke with him, he invited us to come along to Ukraine with him, and we immediately agreed. If you want to have a great material, you can go with us to the Ukraine. Come on. I would. I really would.

Oh, you want it? Yeah. Come on. So what was that like? What happened when you crossed into Ukraine? About an hour after leaving the border crossing, we reached the city of Lviv. Now, Lviviv is a really large city in Western Ukraine. It has something like 700,000 people. So similar size to say Boston or D.C. That's right.

And once we got there, one of the volunteers' cousins, an English teacher, was there. And she offered to give us a tour of the Lviv Railway Station, where refugees are received before being processed elsewhere. It's a really beautiful historic building. But right now, the building is surrounded by many tents with food and medicine for the refugees. The station is like a central hub where people can meet up and help each other. Here's how the English teacher, Ola, explain the situation. So, well, the trains are crowded, and everyone tries to get on the train. And this is not that easy because people are very exhausted.

They're scared and they're angry. And they are just fighting for their place on the train. And some people just need to wait hours and sometimes days to get on the train in the and this is awful. I later talked with one woman who was traveling with her 13-year-old daughter. I'm looking around this bus, and I see people who are very brave and people who are keeping their spirits up. Can you explain where that comes from?

We have this very popular poetess. Her name is Lesia Ukrainka. And she had a poem. She said, I laugh not to cry. So it's like probably it's our position. We laugh because we want to hide our tears. It's amazing. And obviously you're staying strong for your daughter. Yeah, of course.

Even though, honestly, I've been a weak person for all of my life. But for me to leave the country was a very, very hard choice. I've been spending nights crying, thinking how it's going to be. You think it's going to take one week, maybe two, maybe three. But now, what can I do? I have to think of her future. Can you talk about how hard it was to leave your husband? Well, we were crying because you are going into nothing.

You don't know what's going to happen next, whether you can see him again, hug him again. And I don't even have words to put to you the way I feel. It's like I left my heart with him. I feel empty inside. Hard to imagine going through that. that it's heartbreaking. Tell us a little bit more about what happened over the next few days. I began to see beyond the refugee crisis. I saw Ukrainian citizens mobilizing to defend their country,

and I saw people preparing to defend the city of Leviv. This became very real for me when I was awakened by the police at an apartment we were staying at in the city. It's 742 in the morning. I just was woken up to banging on the door and air sirens going off. I immediately got up and woke up our videographer about the air sirens to grab the camera. But before he could even get the camera, I answered the door and was greeted by four guys with AKs, asking me who I was, where I was from, and why we had cameras. I guess somebody called them and told them that we were videoing outside, and that must have alerted them. So they had a lot of questions about who we were, what we were doing. Once we told them we were media, they,

We're nicer. So people are on very, very high alert here. Shortly after that, we went to a brewery to start our day. And I just have to describe this place to you. It was like a venue out of a hipster neighborhood and maybe L.A. or Miami. They have festivals there in concerts and bars and restaurants. But now it's being used for different purposes. These are Molotow cocktails which we prepared. A lot of people came here willing to help to bring some bottles, to bring some materials. So volunteers came and brought bottles and materials. Yeah, but mostly there were guys from our brew team who were doing that. And we prepared in three days, I think more than 2,000 cocktails. And it's quite a lot. We distributed it on the points of the local defense group on the territorial defense. And we shipped some to Kiev.

So really an example of somebody turning their business into the resistance effort. Exactly. And, you know, he was the PR guy for the brewery, and now he's the PR guy for the war effort. He told us that they're currently brewing a special beer and sharing the recipe with breweries all across the world. So when Ukraine is victorious, as he says, everyone will be able to celebrate. I'm sure a lot of people across the world would gladly lift a glass. Absolutely. From there, we unexpectedly ran into celebrity chef, Jose Andresen LeViv, who was on the ground with his nonprofit,

cooking thousands of meals of rice, chicken, and soup for those in need. And he told us that he stands in strong solidarity with the Ukrainian people. And what we do is try to organize everybody. So it's not them. It's not the others. We are one. We are all Ukrainian now. His organization, the World Central Kitchen, has been working with Ukrainians on the ground

to provide more than 40,000 meals a day. We try to hire a local. We partner local. We are very big team because we are working together. And everybody, that's what they know. They know LaViv. They know who. Ukraine. I don't know Lavi, I don't know Ukraine, but I know a lot about feeding in conflicts.

We become so much powerful together. He made it very clear that his organization has no plans to leave until this conflict with Russia is well over. And they're providing 40,000 meals a day. It's incredible. Who else did you meet? I met one very interesting young Ukrainian man who actually makes backpacks, wallets, and purses for living. But right now, his business is put on pause as he makes vests to hold body on. armor. He told us, through a translator, that it was his duty. I feel responsibility to help the way I can. Some people went with the military and fight on the front lines, but we here in the back, we must help with everything we can.

I used to, I wanted to make, like, sewing clothes, and I never would have imagined that My first piece of closings that I saw would be a body armor. We also met up with an American in Leviv. The man's name is Harrison, and he actually quit his job as a Chicago police officer to travel to Ukraine and help. And now his team is either helping out with humanitarian missions, helping fix military equipment, or being processed by other groups to fight on the front. I am one of the founders of an organization known as Task Force Yankee, Ukraine.

and what we're doing is sending vetted Americans from America, getting them over here to help any way they can, safely and securely. I asked him why he thought that this war was worth American veterans risking their lives. I think most of the Americans can agree that the way that we withdrew from Afghanistan was a failure. And in that sense, I don't want to see the same thing happen in Ukraine. And I also lost a very dear friend of mine, Staff Sergeant Ryan Canals. in Afghanistan in the Kabul suicide bombing. So I don't want to see that to happen to.

Anybody doesn't have to happen to. Well, so this is on one level personal for him. Absolutely. And that's what's influencing him to grow his organization as large as he can. I would love to see an entire American division come from my organization, 10,000 strong. And slowly but surely we are getting there. From here on out, things began to get progressively more intense.

in the city. It's 3.35 in the morning. I was just woken up by air sirens going off in the distance. I'm in the city of Lviv, Ukraine still. You can hear the sirens blaring and there's noise going with the sirens telling you to get the safety. They are putting the air sirens on because there is either a drill or there is bombing somewhere outside the city or within Ukraine. When we woke up again in a few hours, there were more sirens, and we found out that it wasn't a drill. The Russians bombed a military training base, just a short drive from the city and very close to the Polish border. Okay, so the Russians attack outside Lviv, how did people react there? Well, it caused chaos because Western Ukraine was, for the most part, untouched by the Russians.

But this was Putin telling the Ukrainian people that you're not safe, and you're not even safe in Western Ukraine. It caused another rush. Right before we left, we interviewed a man who was about to go fight, but our interview was interrupted. How does your wife feel about you heading back down there? She's scared. She's scared. Anyway, she's reading the news. She understands the situation. She's scared of this? Yes, of course. Why is nobody running to the bomb shelters right now? Because people get used to it. Will the Ukrainian people ever accept Russian occupation?

No, definitely no. Despite Russia moving in, the young people of Ukraine have managed to stay really positive. It's really incredible. There was one moment that I still cannot stop thinking about. I was on the bus heading back to Poland, and I was talking to a young college student and asked her to describe what was around her. I was expecting her to mention how cramped what the bus was or that people were getting car sick, but that's not what she said. Tell me where you are right now and what you see around you. Right now, I'm in a bus headed to the volunteers.

volunteer center. Around me is a beautiful sunset, honestly. Today was a very beautiful day and just some cool nature and cool people. I was terrified, obviously when the war started, I was terrified when I was thinking about it, but the moment I got to do things like I have a task, I have to back my things, I have to go to the railway station, I have to find the train. As long as I have these little tasks, the fear just, it doesn't exist because I can concentrate on those little steps. And right now I can tell you I'm calm as long as I don't start thinking about the future. And now it's fine. I'm not scared. So we're wrapping up now. Last question. What was your takeaway from this entire experience? You know, it was just really remarkable to meet so many people

that are stepping up to help. You know, the volunteers are coming from all around the world. I was with somebody from Saudi Arabia, people from Poland, France, all over the place, just wanting to help. Only time will tell the Ukrainian people's patriotic attitude or the Russian war machine will be victorious. Well, the courage of the Ukrainians has been truly inspiring for the world and it was great to hear from a lot of them. Thank you so much, Cassie, for documenting all of this and thanks for talking with us. Thank you. That was Daily Wire correspondent Cassie Dillon, and this has been a special edition of Morning Wire. Thanks for listening to Morning Wire. We created this show to bring more balance to the national conversation.

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