*Note that this was recorded the evening of Tuesday November 25 (Kyiv time), for publication the evening of Thursday November 27 (Kyiv time)

Will we have a ceasefire/peace deal soon?
How did they create this 28 point plan, and why now all of a sudden?
Is the revised 19 point plan better?
What is Russia's view of things?
And if we get no deal soon, then what?

I did my best in an almost stream of consciousness way to answer the above questions. Alot of unknowables, and alot to be frustrated about but also alot to be encouraged about.

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https://missionmatters.com/author/Mark-McNamee/

*Apologies for the minor disruptions in the podcast as we were cut off by power outages in Kyiv.

In light of the annual commemoration of the Holodomor on November 22, 2025 (always the 4th Saturday of November), I spoke with Dr. Iryna Skubii, the Senior Research Fellow at the University of Melbourne. Her work focuses on the social history of the 1932–1933 famine, the Holodomor.

Listen in to hear:

• Why should we consider the Holodomor a genocide?
• What was it like to live through the Holodomor?
• How did people survive?
• How did the world find out about the Holodomor from inside Stalin's oppressive Soviet Union?

Dr. Iryna Skubii, is the inaugural Mykola Zerov Fellow in Ukrainian Studies and the Senior Research Fellow at the University of Melbourne. She is also a researcher with the Ukrainian Global History Initiative, where her work focuses on the social history of the 1932–1933 famine, the Holodomor. She is a historian of Ukraine and the Soviet Union, specialiazing in environmental history, material culture, and history of famine.

She obtained her PhD in History from Queen’s University, Kingston, Ontario (Canada) and a Candidate of Science Degree in History from V.N. Karazin Kharkiv National University (Ukraine). She has taught and held research positions in Ukraine, Germany, Poland, Austria, and Canada. Recognized by the American Association for Ukrainian Studies for the best article in Ukrainian studies, she is working on two books on the famines in the Soviet Union.

You can find her website here: https://irynaskubii.com/

Dr. Skubii's Publications:
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/00220094231186089
https://www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/oa-edit/10.4324/9781003205364-13/shrink-eating-carrion-rebecca-manley-iryna-skubii

And useful and scholarly-verified online resources on the history of the Holodomor: https://holodomor.ca/

I find it ironic in the US we have Thanksgiving in the same week, on the 4th Thursday of November, though in the US case marking a holiday of abundance and freedom. In Ukraine’s case, they commemorate the millions of victims of starvation and repression at the hands of Russia, in hopes of finally gaining their freedom.

Please listen to this podcast to remember that this current genocidal war is not the first time Russia has conducted a genocidal campaign against Ukraine. And Ukrainians know it won’t be the last unless the West wakes up and stops Moscow.

It’s a tragedy itself that this tragedy is not well-known in the Western world.

Please reshare to keep up awareness of this tragedy and the suffering and strength of the Ukrainian people amid this ongoing war.

To learn more, visit:

https://ubn.network/

Listen to more episodes on Mission Matters:

https://missionmatters.com/author/Mark-McNamee/

Is Pokrovsk going to fall, and if so what does it mean for Ukraine?

There have been lots of doomsday scenarios arising about the loss of Pokrovsk and how it could lead to a collapse of the front for Ukraine. But is that true?

Pavlo Narozhnyi, Founder of Reactive Post, an NGO that provides lethal and humanitarian support to the front since the war began in 2014, with a focus on long-range artillery brigades. Pavlo also provides timely insights and advice to political and military leaders in Kyiv based on his understanding of dynamics at the front. He is often interviewed in Western media, including by the Financial Times, Wall Street Journal, and Bloomberg, as well as by Ukrainian media on a nearly daily basis.

To discuss this - and help dispel some myths - we had back on the show my friend and renowned military analyst Pavlo Narozhnyi, who can provide the latest from the front and offer his prediction about what the pending loss of Pokrovsk means in the months ahead.

To learn more, visit:

https://ubn.network/

Listen to more episodes on Mission Matters:

https://missionmatters.com/author/Mark-McNamee/