What I do: the exchange fund, interviews, and what comes out of them
Updated July 30, 2026
It all starts with a conversation on the record — one that can be listened to again and checked afterwards. The rest follows from it: help for families searching for their own, the exchange fund, testimony in criminal cases. How I came to this is written separately.
Formats
Several episodes come out every day. All of them sit in open playlists — the figures below are counted from those playlists rather than typed in by hand.
Counted from the channels’ playlists, updated once a day. Figures as of 09:30, September 25, 2026
- 1,251 long-form episodes
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145 conversations with those who came over to Ukraine’s side 3 playlists
- 38 episodes of “POW Exchange” POW Exchange
- 132 episodes of Apostle’s Thoughts Apostle’s Thoughts
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235 podcasts and calls to russia 2 playlists
- 1,186 hours of recorded conversations that is 148 working days of 8 hours each
A conversation is always voluntary. I promise nothing in return for answers, I do not ask questions whose answer could cost a person their life, and I do not release a recording if the person has changed their mind. The episodes themselves are gathered in the “Video” section. Conversations with those who came over are sorted by unit: the RVC, the Freedom of Russia Legion and the Siberian Battalion.
How the search work is set up
If you are looking for a particular person, a separate page sets it out step by step: where to write, what to send and what happens after that. This section is about how the work itself is arranged.
Since 2022 I have worked alongside the Interior Ministry project “Search for Your Own”: identifying captured and killed russian soldiers and putting their families in touch. I wrote the software for that work myself — it makes it easier to check what is said on the recording against what is already known.
Since the beginning of 2023 I have worked with the state projects “I Want to Live” and “I Want to Find” — projects run by the Coordination Headquarters. Through “I Want to Live” russian soldiers surrender voluntarily; “I Want to Find” tells their families whether the man is alive, held prisoner or dead. I answer myself, usually within a day.
Fragments of my interviews are published in the “I Want to Live” Telegram channel — that is how they reach the people they were recorded for: families on the other side.
What I cannot do
The search is free — always and for everyone. What I cannot do — timelines, guarantees, any influence on the exchange queue — is set out on the search page.
Exchange fund
Since August 11, 2022 Volodymyr Zolkin and I have run the “Dmytro and Volodymyr Exchange Fund”. The idea is simple: the exchange fund has to keep growing so that more Ukrainian defenders come home. The fund lives on donations and advertising; there is no state money in it.
The procedure itself — who draws up the lists, why nobody can sign up for them and what the order depends on — is set out separately. The fund has nothing to do with those decisions and no influence over them.
Results
Four things that came out of these conversations and that can be checked by date. How the media wrote about them is in the “Press” section.
- April 22, 2022After one of the episodes russia admitted its losses for the first time and requested the return of the bodies.
- Early 2024Sources inside a russian drone manufacturer handed over about 100 GB of design documentation, including the specification for the Orlan. All of it went to the Defense Forces, free of charge.
- May 2025I published a list of the 205 prisoners of war of the 64th exchange, by name, and after it the lists of defenders who came home.
- OngoingThe recordings are used as evidence in criminal proceedings, and I appear as a witness.
Support
Filming, equipment, travel and the team’s work are paid for out of donations and YouTube advertising. The channel has no other source.
For sponsors and patrons
If you want me to talk about you on the channel, write to me on WhatsApp or Telegram with the phrase “I want to be a sponsor.” I answer myself.
Money from direct sponsorship does not stay with me: it goes to the exchange fund or to Ukraine’s Defense Forces. The channel’s own work is paid for by donations and YouTube advertising — that is different money, and I do not mix the two.
I do not say yes to everything. If I do not like the product or the person, I decline and say why.