Reporting from the Front Lines of the War in Ukraine: Kristaps Andrejsons

Kristaps Andrejsons, Host and Creator of The Easter Border podcast

Since 2017 I have been listening to a podcast from Latvia, The Eastern Border. I began listening because I had been reading Russian novels for several years and learning Russian. The podcast alternated between current Russian politics and Soviet history--and how they seemed to be coming together.

In 2019 I was in the Riga for a few days. I contacted Kristaps and visited him in his hometown of Ludza, the easternmost town in the European Union in continental Europe. (Reunion Island is in the EU and further east.) Ludza is just a few miles from the Russian border, so Eastern Border is a good name for the podcast. I wrote about the 2019 visit here. 

Then on 24 February 2022, the format of the Eastern Border podcast changed. In the past twelve months Kristaps has traveled to Poland and Ukraine many times. He went from history podcaster to war reporter. I listened to Ukraine War Episode 136 just tow days ago.  

Kristaps has been to Kyiv, Kherson and within a few kilometers of the front line of the war.  Last week he was talking to Russian journalists who fled their country when the war started and are in Latvia.  He has talked with combat troops, journalists and leaders in Ukraine and with refugees in countries throughout Eastern Europe.

He knows soldiers from many countries, including the US, who have volunteered to fight in Ukraine. He told me about a guy who had served in Iraq and Afghanistan and came to Ukraine to fight in a war where the good side and evil side were very clear--and he is on the good side. 

Although his plans are always guarded, he may be returning to Ukraine soon with a major German publication as a translator, guide, and expert on the war.  

If you want a ground-level view of the war, Kristaps is a great reporter.  He also has deep knowledge of Russia and sources within Russia so he can decode and interpret Russian propaganda.