Caolan Robertson

I’ve been so excited to share this video with you and show you what my wonderful friend Zarina and I have been up to over the last week.

There’s so much bad news in the world right now, especially when it comes to the war in Ukraine. And I think this story comes as a nice change.

Last week, I received a tip that a delegation would be arriving in Oleshky, days before the news became public.

I immediately called my close friend Zarina Zabrisky, an American investigative journalist living in Kherson, and we got to work. We started writing articles, preparing videos and warning people about what we believed Russia was planning.

We had a pretty good idea of what was coming. We’ve seen similar propaganda tactics in Bucha, Mariupol, Chechnya and Syria. We expected Russia to accuse Ukraine of shelling civilians, harming innocent people and causing a humanitarian crisis that Russia itself had created.

And Zarina went so much further than I could ever have imagined.

She brought the story to one of America’s most influential magazines, The Atlantic, and got some incredible people, including Anne Applebaum, to help spread the warning. Before long, the story was reaching audiences around the world.

Then, just a few days later, almost like clockwork, the Russian cameras arrived.

Only this time, people had already been warned about what was coming. The narrative they had hoped to sell had already lost much of its momentum.

I think there’s something really lovely about what happened here.

Journalism is in quite a difficult place at the moment. There’s so much competition, so much fighting over exclusives, and sometimes it feels like they are all working against each other.

But I really believe that when journalists work together, when independent reporters and major publications share information and help each other get important stories out, some genuinely great things can happen.

It’s something I’ve always believed in, and this past week has reminded me why I love doing this job so much.

I’m incredibly proud of Zarina and grateful to everyone who helped spread the word. It’s been a real privilege to be part of it.

Thank you so much for watching. I really hope you enjoy this one, and I hope it brings a little bit of good news to your day.

And thanks to my amazing Patreon community for making all this possible

And please stay tuned, because I’ve got a huge series of videos coming from our recent road trip across the front lines of Ukraine. I can’t wait to share them with you.

Have a wonderful day, and thank you as always for being here. ❤️🇺🇦

If you’d like to help me fund my trips one off, my links are here 🫡❤️🇺🇦

https://linktr.ee/CaolanRobertson