From a humanitarian mission in Oleshki to a trip along the entire front line, Irish journalist Kaylin has seen how Russia is trying not only to seize Ukrainian territory, but also to create its own picture of the war. During his journey, he visited cities and villages that Russian propaganda had already declared captured, although in reality there were no occupiers there. He also saw with his own eyes how the war is changing Ukrainian cities, and talked to the military who continue to defend them.
In an interview with Channel 24, Irish journalist and documentary filmmaker Kaylin Robertson explained why Russia agreed to a temporary ceasefire in Oleshki and whether it is worth waiting for such humanitarian missions to be repeated. He also spoke about the situation on the front, the problems with Starlink, and shared his observation that Russia is exhausted and no longer able to advance along the entire front, so the situation is increasingly concentrated around Kramatorsk.
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Why did Russia actually agree to a humanitarian mission in Oleshki?
There was a temporary ceasefire in Oleshki, and people could choose where to go - to the territory controlled by Ukraine or to Russia. Honestly, these contradictory messages confuse me. I read a lot of comments and posts by Ukrainian journalists living in the United States, and they write that Russia and the United States were involved in organizing this operation from the very beginning. Others have the opposite opinion. How do you assess what happened, given that Russian propaganda is now actively creating an image of Russia as a humane state?
Most importantly, people who were held hostage for years have finally returned to the controlled territory of Ukraine. The footage of them get off the buses and are safe is certainly cause for joy. At the same time, we must remember who caused this humanitarian crisis in the first place, because now a large-scale propaganda campaign is being launched, designed to distort the truth about its causes.
The Trump family will be able to claim that they achieved a ceasefire in Ukraine. His audience does not distinguish between a ceasefire in Oleshki and a ceasefire in all of Ukraine. Many MAGA supporters do not even know if the war is still going on.
So Trump got the political picture he wanted. But there was no general ceasefire. 14 people died at the Dnipro train station. People died in Sumy and Chernihiv. There were also strikes on the city where we are now.
Putin also gets the opportunity to spread propaganda. He says, I want peace, I allowed this ceasefire. But we have to remember who caused all this. It was Russia that did not allow these people to leave.
Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch documented how Russia blew up the dam in 2023, flooding all these houses. The residents of Oleshki could not leave because they were used as human shields.
The Russians have stationed FPV drone operators and artillery in the city, shelling Kherson and terrorizing the people. It is in their best interest to keep civilians there, as it makes it harder for Ukraine to return fire. I have worked with drone operators all over Ukraine, watching them make decisions about targets and strikes.
I've heard many times: you can't hit here, a civilian lives here. Or: we know this car, it's a civilian. The Russians are placing their positions in cities to make it harder for Ukraine to hit them.
But what is important is where those buses went. Buses departing from Oleshky were turned towards the territory controlled by Ukraine. Very few went to Russia. And this gives an exhaustive answer to the question of what Ukrainians really want in the occupation. Russia spreads lies that they supposedly want to be part of it, holds referendums at gunpoint, says that these people speak Russian and want the return of the Soviet Union. But the buses went to Ukraine, and that says it all.
Even the White House representatives and Trump's envoy say that these people are Russian-speaking, refer to referendums held at gunpoint, and even Trump repeats these theses. But it's enough to look at where the buses went. These people lived for five years under the influence of Russian propaganda, soldiers could tell them every day: Ukrainians are shelling you, Ukrainians are Nazis and evil. Russian propaganda poured from the TVs continuously, but they still chose to return to Ukraine.
This speaks volumes about this war in general, because the people of Oleshki represent millions of other Ukrainians who are currently living under occupation. If they were given the opportunity, they too would return to Ukraine.
Full interview: watch the video
I read a lot of comments from people living abroad, particularly in Europe and the US. They are extremely happy that these people have been rescued and taken out of the humanitarian disaster you are talking about. At the same time, they cautiously suggest that this may be the first such local ceasefire, which will be followed by other similar operations. Given everything we know about Russia, is there reason for such optimism?
I think it's unlikely. I think it happened because of a certain coincidence. The midterm elections were coming up in the US, and Russia was feeling the pressure. It needed to convince the US that it wanted peace. Everything became very politicized again. Trump was being told that Zelensky didn't want peace and that he needed to be removed.
Putin used this operation as a PR stunt to make it seem like Russia was supporting the peace effort . Trump needed something he could call a victory before the midterm elections, and one of his campaign promises was to save Ukraine. Now you can say: I achieved a ceasefire. In this way, favorable circumstances arose for this operation.
So, unfortunately, I consider a repetition of such a scenario unlikely. It is the combination of these circumstances that explains why it is difficult to count on a repetition. I would not rule it out completely, but Russia will act for humanitarian reasons or for the sake of peace only for the cameras and when it brings political dividends, as it is now.
What Russian lie struck Kaylin during his trip along the front
You made one of the largest working trips to Ukraine – you visited the south and east of the country, both in places you have been to many times and places you visited for the first time. Tell us more about this trip and everything you had to experience? I know that you, in particular, visited Vylkovo. It is called the little Ukrainian Venice because of the water and the houses standing right next to it. I really want to hear about your impressions.
It was incredible. I wanted to do something that I had not seen in the work of other foreign journalists – to visit different parts of the front in a way that would show it holistically, how it changes, how people survive every day and what the fight is really about. After all, this is not just a line between two armies. This is where democracy and freedom confront fascism. This is where the future of security for all of Europe is being determined, and incredible people are holding this line.
To really understand this, I wanted to drive along the entire front . I am still exhausted after this trip, because almost everywhere we were in positions, living and sleeping with the military. It was exhausting, but at the same time incredible. We started in Vilkovo in the south. Before arriving, I knew nothing about this place.
You said you've already been there.
No, but I know that there is such a small city in Ukraine and that it is very beautiful there. At least that's what everyone says. It reminded me of a mix of old Venice and New Orleans. The lakes around, the local nature - everything is very unusual. I also met the ecologists who work there. They talked about hundreds of different species, including rare plants. It has its own amazing ecosystem.
We started there also to show: the front does not only start in Kherson. It stretches from the very southern tip of Ukraine. Russia is trying to cut off the south of the Odessa region from the rest of the country. There are only a few ways to get there. One goes by the sea, but it is constantly being shelled, the bridge is destroyed. And the other is through Moldova. The Russians are shelling this crossing as well, so we had to wait several hours to get there.
The night before our arrival, 35 strikes were fired on Vylkove. They are trying to make this place uninhabitable, because this is where the Danube flows into the Black Sea. The history of these towns and villages is a huge part of European history and trade. When they talk about Ukraine, what they are fighting for and what they are losing, we must understand: we are not just talking about pieces of land. These are very beautiful places with a rich heritage and European history that goes back to ancient times.
From there we headed north along the amazing coast . In some places it resembles the landscapes of Troy, but almost all the way to Odessa itself there are warning signs about mines, people can no longer even relax on this coast. Zarina Zabriskie was with me. We stopped at coastal towns, in particular in Zatoka. There are water parks, beach houses, everything is equipped for relaxation by the sea. But everything is mined and destroyed.
Russia is trying to block Ukraine's vital trade routes to block grain exports. At the same time, it's striking how few places Ukrainians have left where they can be by the sea. Ukraine used to have a huge coastline, and now there's a tiny strip left - only Odesa. And it made me remember my childhood.
I went to Tramore in the south of Ireland and spent a lot of time by the ocean. If I couldn't go to a place like that again, it would be like someone had taken away my childhood memories. That's how I felt. And that's also one of the great losses of this war.
You are right, it is a burning pain for us. We have so few places left where we can rest and recover. And Odesa itself is far from the most peaceful place to relax.
Later we will show some footage that we shot there. Everything there was completely destroyed.
It's really hard for me to watch this. I'm like trying to shield myself from these emotions.
Sometimes you want to keep these places as they are in your memories. Many people want to remember them as they were when they were children. They want to remember how beautiful they were, and they don't want to see what they have become now. I completely understand that.
At the same time, I'm glad we filmed all this, because many people imagine that Ukraine ends in Odessa, and the front passes here. I want to show how big this country is and how much is being destroyed and taken from it. Then we drove further north from Odessa, and I swam in salt lakes. Salt and healing mud. You've probably seen this. Many people don't like it, but I was impressed by this experience.
As a child, we often did this in Crimea. It was very pleasant, and such procedures are popular. They are considered beneficial for bones, skin, and health in general.
Yes, and when the sun goes down, everything turns pink and resembles a Martian landscape. I entered this lake about a kilometer from the shore, and there was still very little water. How is that possible? I felt like I was on another planet, and this was just the beginning of the journey, and we were already discovering such amazing places, as if they were really from another world.
Then we went to Ochakiv . It was a very unusual experience, because Ochakiv has been constantly attacked by FPV drones for years. But we managed to find a moment to look out from behind the bushes and see the entire Kinburn Spit. There is a high hill just by the sea, from where it is completely visible. On the left you can also see the Stanislav Mountains. It was an incredible, almost fairy-tale landscape. The water was sparkling, it was a beautiful day. In the sea you could see ancient fortifications, built back in the days when the French fought for Crimea. And it is simply amazing.
And that's where another front begins. Before that, you see the consequences of daily missile strikes on cities, and here FPV drones appear. You find yourself closer to the Russians. Their closeness is felt physically. Everything inside is compressed. Somewhere nearby there is a border that cannot be crossed. And this feeling begins in Ochakiv.
Then we drove through Mykolaiv and returned to Kherson . There I was struck by something I hadn't noticed before. The city center is completely overgrown. It's starting to resemble Pripyat, another Ukrainian city destroyed by the Soviet Union. Now it's happening to Kherson. It's impossible to even remove the fallen leaves there. Do you see how the entire city is gradually absorbing vegetation? It's extremely strange. Like in one of those TV programs about life after people disappear.
Then we continued to move north, living in positions in Zaporizhia . And it was during this trip that I first began to notice that I was standing in places where, According to Putin, his army is already there . So we began to uncover a whole layer of Russian lies. This happened for the first time in Zaporizhia.
We drove about 6 kilometers to the Russian positions near the Kakhovka reservoir, which has now been drained. I'm sitting with the military, reading the news, and at that moment Putin announces that they have "captured the village" where I am.
I couldn't understand anything, I look around and ask if they saw any Russians here, because I didn't. And the military explains: the Russians are doing this to pass it off as a victory and create the impression that they have advanced further than they actually have. It's very strange.
Then I went further east to Sviatohirsk and saw the same thing. It’s a beautiful city. I’m talking to the mayor, I’m looking at my phone, and there’s Putin saying that he’s captured Sviatohirsk. So I started looking for Russian soldiers, who were supposed to be everywhere. I looked in the garbage cans, in the toilets. All the toilet seats were in place, so the Russians weren’t going there.
I asked the locals. The Russians lie, it's their tactic. And it was like that throughout the trip. Even in the Kharkiv region, we were in cities that the Russians had recently claimed to have captured. That was the first discovery we started to document: how many of the Russian conquests are lies.
This is very important, because if Russia claims that the front line passes in a certain place, and convinces Trump of this, then in the event of a ceasefire, it can be fixed exactly along this line. And then what will happen to the Ukrainians who live there? They can be forced to leave these places.
At the same time, we noticed that in the northern regions, which are constantly attacked by FPV drones, it has become much quieter in recent months. I asked local residents and mayors about this. They did not know the answer. One mayor took me to a hill 4 kilometers from the Russian border. From there, you could see the Russian towers, but it was very quiet there. I asked why it had suddenly become so quiet. They said they did not know.
When we returned to Donbas, I talked to the commanders about it. They explained that the fighting had intensified most in the direction of Kramatorsk. This means that Russia no longer has the resources to conduct fighting along the entire front. To take Kramatorsk, it has to transfer units from other areas, so it became quieter where we were.
This observation suggests that Russia lacks the technology to pressure Ukraine along the entire front line. It shows that Russia is already exhausted in many ways. It seems that Russian soldiers no longer believe that they can capture all of Ukraine, reach Kyiv, or at least the banks of the Dnieper. It seems that both Putin and Russian soldiers have already realized that these goals will not be achieved.
They can’t even take half of Ukraine. The most they can do is take one more city in the belt of fortified cities. That’s where the fighting is currently concentrated. This says a lot about the future of events, and I don’t think the situation will return to the way it was before. In my opinion, everything will be focused on fighting for this belt of fortified cities, and then the Russians will run out of strength.
We heard all this talk about a new mobilization that never happened, about the North Koreans. In general, the pace slowed down. At the same time, in Kramatorsk, the intensity of the strikes exceeded anything I had seen before in Ukraine. Every day, 40 KABs are dropped on these cities. You look up and you see several traces of planes in the sky at once. I have never seen anything like this in Ukraine before. Is Ryanair flying over Donbas? And then the plane turns around, drops a guided aerial bomb, and explosions are heard all around. I watched it from high-rise buildings. The Russians really concentrated their efforts on this place.
Another piece of bad news. Starting November 1, the curfew in Kramatorsk starts at 4 p.m. Most shops and restaurants have been ordered to close. The city is becoming a war zone, a red zone. Now I can't even get there without a special escort. Volunteers are no longer allowed there. This is exactly the situation Druzhkivka found itself in five months ago, and Kostyantynivka about 13 months ago.
I think the reason is that the Russians are getting closer to the city. It's heartbreaking. I love Kramatorsk. All these places are wonderful, but if the Russians do get to the city, I think that's where they'll finally run out of strength and something will change in the war. I don't think they'll be able to advance beyond this belt of fortified cities.
It seems as if everything is heading towards a decisive battle for Kramatorsk, after which, at least for a few years, there may be a lull. That's the feeling I have after traveling along the entire front, when I managed to see how much equipment and strength they actually have left. And they may not reach the city at all.
When I was in the Liman direction, the Russians tried to capture the belt of fortified towns from the flanks and bypass it, advancing from the Dobropillya and Liman directions. The operation in Italy thwarted the attempt to capture from the north. That is no longer the case. But they are still advancing towards the city from the Bakhmut direction. I don't think these towns will hold out. The Russians can capture them.
How Ukraine is preparing to defend Kramatorsk
At the same time, the Ukrainian army is inflicting huge losses on them, which are difficult to replenish. I don’t know how accurate these figures are, but it seems that over the past few months Russia has been losing about 50,000 soldiers killed and wounded every month. At least, that’s the statistics we see.
Yes, they are losing soldiers all the time. Almost everywhere I worked with FPV drone operators and saw images from their cameras. On the screens there were entire roads and paths covered with the bodies of dead Russian soldiers. In some frames, literally hundreds. I could show you them, but I would have to blur the details. The Russians don't even pick up their wounded and dead, they just leave them everywhere.
And they will continue to do so until they run out of strength. They are willing to lose 100 thousand a month to get to this belt of fortified cities.
And the Ukrainians have created extremely powerful fortifications there. New, well-fortified tunnel networks have now been laid under Kramatorsk. The way they are preparing the city for defense is impressive. There are a lot of dragon teeth and barbed wire here, and the Russians are destroying it in the meantime. The KAB has enormous destructive power. If one such bomb fell on Paris or London, it would be talked about in all the news for a month. And here, from 35 to 40 fall on the city every day.
So even if the Russians don't get to the city, they will destroy it. It's very difficult to say. We went there with Zarina. She hasn't been there since January 2023. That was when I first came to Ukraine and filmed my first documentary. And she was with me. Now the scale of the destruction simply stunned her. She said: "I can't believe what they did here." And this is what a person who lives in Kherson says.
But no matter how things turn out, the Ukrainians are doing everything they can to hold on to the city. And I hope they will succeed. There is also a spiritual aspect to it, which is also incredibly impressive.
Why do Ukrainians stay in frontline cities?
There are still Ukrainians who continue to live in frontline cities, as you say, 35 or even 50 guided bombs fall on their cities, but they decided to stay there. I keep thinking how much endurance it takes to survive these barbaric attacks, the horrors of war, and despite everything, stay on your land. What do these people tell you?
Every time I ask if they plan to leave, if they are ready to stop fighting, they look at me like I am crazy, they say it is their spiritual duty . For many years I have strived to convey the spirit of the people of Donbas, but it was only this time that I managed to organize a meeting outside Kramatorsk.
It's difficult, because the military is always in positions. It's not easy to establish contact with the military. I organized the meeting 20 kilometers from the front line in Donbas. In Kramatorsk, there are several obstacles to this.
I meet incredible soldiers from different units who have been fighting since the very beginning of the war. We start talking, the footage is just amazing, sparks fly around. I ask what they are fighting for and what drives them. And their answers were incredible. Many of them are 25 years old, and a quarter of their lives are war.
I even asked them if they wanted to leave all this behind and go back home, to their hometown, to where they grew up. And they said, "We can't go back to normal life until we drive the enemy out of our land." It's incredible that people younger than me can show such wisdom.
The last thing that struck me: the next morning at 6:00 they were supposed to baptize people in a lake near Kramatorsk. It’s dangerous there, but we arrived. The morning seemed quiet and beautiful. The military arrived. They are not very religious, but they consider it their native insurance: if they die and go to heaven, at least they will be baptized. And this also shows their courage.
As they say, there are no atheists in war. When danger approaches, you start turning to God and praying.
This really impressed me. They know that the worst can happen at any moment, but they still continue to fight every day. They take off their clothes, the priest supports them, reads the Bible and at the same time reminds them of their courage and the need to be strong. They go into the water, and come out of it as if they are reborn, ready to go into battle again. It is simply incredible. I think these are the most beautiful shots that I have ever had to shoot.
This was the military side of everything that was happening, and the rest was filming places where foreign journalists had never been before. I even went to the most remote northern regions, where I talked to local residents and mayors. They were surprised that I had come from Ireland. These are border villages in the north, beyond Shostka, far beyond Sumy.
These places amazed me. I searched for information about them every half hour. Some villages had monasteries, ancient tunnels and caves that were hundreds, maybe even a thousand years old. And all around was amazing nature, protected parks, hills, rivers and lakes. I had no idea such places existed. I have lived here for many years and I am looking for beautiful places in Ukraine. This shows how big Ukraine is and how many of its amazing places are under threat.
And when Ukrainians talk about what they are fighting for, they also mean all this amazing beauty of their country. It is not just a territory. If the world sees how incredible Ukraine is and what threatens it, then it too will be able to feel the same connection to it as it is. It was an incredible journey, but it changed me a lot and exhausted me.
At least 7 times I was sure we were going to die. We were that close to dangerous events. All of this will be in the film.
I'm still reflecting on everything I've experienced and editing the film at the same time. But it was an incredible journey. As a child, I dreamed of traveling across America, but this journey will be the most significant in my life.
Will Ukraine be able to develop an alternative to Starlink?
During your trip, another scandal erupted in parallel with Starlink and Starshield. There were certain limitations. We did not have the usual speed of the system, so we could not intercept Russian missiles and high-speed drones. This also prevented the continuation of many Ukrainian operations. Have you talked to the military about this, as well as about possible alternatives to Starlink and Starshield?
This happened when I was in the north of the country, and that's absurd . Starlink was slowing down after 100 kilometers per hour, although it was supposed to work at speeds up to 160. The commanders said that there were problems, although not in all systems, but with Starshield there were problems.
I decided to find out what was going on and listened to Elon Musk. It seems he hadn't even heard of Starlink. He asked Trump what happened, and he hadn't heard of Starlink and nobody knows what Starlink is. He said, don't ask us about this strange technology. Nobody in the US wanted to take responsibility for it.
It was eventually revealed that Musk had deliberately slowed down Starlink, then made excuses that his resources were not intended for war. He didn't want to admit it because he knew what he was doing was wrong. He knew his actions could have cost people their lives, but he only admitted it after a journalistic investigation.
So now Ukraine must do everything possible to develop its own system, independent of Elon Musk and one that no one can simply turn off.
The speed of the service was constantly decreasing. I thought that Starlink should refund the money for the equipment if the company promises a service and then disconnects it at its own discretion. This is actually a poor quality product. No one should use Starlink anymore. As soon as an alternative appears, the equipment should be returned and the money demanded back.
In the next 1-2 years, there will probably be no equivalent alternative to Starlink. We need our own satellites, and Europe turned a blind eye to this for a long time. They knew that their own system was needed, but they did nothing because they are not aware of the Russian threat. Instead, they issue 500 thousand Schengen visas to Russians every day. They accept Russian tourists, not develop an alternative to Starlink. Therefore, they are not interested in it.
But Ukraine will come up with something. The world doubts Ukraine, and it always finds a way out. Ukraine was able to cope even with ballistic missiles and stopped the Russian army. It will also find an alternative to Starlink. And then Musk's products can be thrown in the trash.
How the White House's affection for Putin is evident in words and even children's costumes
Another unpleasant situation unfolded during your trip. It happened when Witkoff sat across from the Russian dictator at a table in the Kremlin and called him a humanist. What were your thoughts at that moment? Maybe you thought it was a diplomatic tactic? I want to hear your thoughts.
I wasn't surprised. Witkoff simply adores Putin. He spoke of him as a former lover he missed. This is a person who is suspected of having assets in the Kremlin. She has no place at the table in these negotiations.
If, according to sources, you have financial interests in Russia, why did you set out to negotiate peace between Russia and Ukraine? It is clear why he is more often in the Kremlin than in Kyiv. That is why I have spoken out against him so many times.
The worst part is that by calling Putin a humanist, you are actually covering up his war crimes and making it clear that everything he did was perfectly normal. Russia launched missiles at Kyiv just as Steve Vitkov was leaving Moscow. And we heard them falling on the city.
I asked myself: The White House called the person who launched these missiles a humanitarian, so this is humanitarian aid? I watched the debris fall from the sky and thought: this is the kind of aid to Ukraine that was being discussed. So this is aid to Ukraine in the form of fragments and debris. Putin didn't even wait 15 minutes after the White House representatives left before launching missiles at residential buildings. This is probably one of the worst diplomatic incidents in history.
The First Lady and President of the United States, Melania Trump, greeted children in various costumes. Shrek, the Grinch, Batman, Spider-Man, and the Ghost. And among the children was a boy dressed as a Russian tanker, and a girl in a "Katyusha" costume, the kind worn in Soviet times. What do you think about this?
Apparently, the children thought that in a Stalin costume they would be welcomed the most warmly, given what was happening. There could be any number of reasons, but it was all political in nature. In 2023, the children were in Ukrainian flags, and one of them was in a Zelensky costume. It was very cute. All these things have a certain political connotation .
The White House is literally obsessed with the Soviet Union and its dictators, and now Putin. It's obvious. This is the same person who rolled out the red carpet for Vladimir Putin. It's interesting that the kids dressed up like that for Halloween. But Halloween is about dressing up as someone you're not, so they got a little mixed up.
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