Filmmaker Harry Stourton joins Mark from Kyiv, the morning after a heavy night of Russian strikes, to describe a war that has changed almost entirely since 2022. Stourton has produced feature films and documentaries, including Pizza Under Fire, which follows international volunteers who drive a converted truck into Ukraine’s eastern frontline villages to cook and hand out free pizzas. The film won Best Feature Documentary at the Sydney Liftoff Film Festival in 2025. He has been embedded for a year with a foreign FPV drone team for a new film. His reporting on foreign volunteers recruited for their gaming skills appeared in The Independent and a recent piece about Chernobyl appeared in The Spectator “Wilderness and war are changing Chernobyl forever” Episode 79.
References
Harry Stourton: Pizza Under Fire (Journeyman Pictures) · Where to watch · IMDb · “These gamers are now fighting for real in Ukraine’s war against Russia,” The Independent via AOL
Bridges: Drones hit Kyiv’s Southern Bridge on October 1 and 2 and the Northern Bridge on October 3, the first strikes on the city’s Dnipro bridges of the war. Sources: Meduza · CNN meduza
Jet-powered Shaheds: Russia has produced three jet versions, the Geran-3, 4 and 5. They fly at up to 6 to 7 km altitude, and monthly launches rose from 350 in June to 2,800 in August. Sources: IEEE Spectrum · Euronews · Militarnyi, on Ukraine’s interceptor tests ieee
Nova Poshta: A January ballistic-missile strike on the company’s Kharkiv terminal killed four employees. Sources: Interfax-Ukraine · NV, August strikes interfax
Gas stations: Energy ministry data count more than 300 stations attacked since the current wave began. Sources: Euromaidan Press · Kyiv Independent euromaidanpress
HESCO barriers (the “H” word Harry was reaching for): developed by former coal miner Jimi Heselden, who founded Hesco Bastion Ltd in 1989. Source: Wikipedia Wikipedia
Air-raid apps: “Air Alert” (Povitryana Tryvoha), launched in 2022 by Ajax Systems and Stfalcon, has more than 46 million downloads. Sources: Radio Moldova · war-monitor live map radiomoldova
Timothy Snyder: His Yale course, The Making of Modern Ukraine, is free on YouTube and as a podcast on Apple and Spotify. Sources: Yale course page · Yale News yale
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