Published by the International Legion of the DIU (HUR), this interview has Matthew Sampson — a U.S. Marine Scout Sniper and Legion veteran — recount the story of his combat service with the unit and explain why it remains important to keep supporting Ukraine.

In this April 2026 interview, Matthew Sampson assesses Ukraine's recent battlefield movements and argues the Russian command did not anticipate them. Speaking as a U.S. Marine Scout Sniper who spent 635 consecutive days commanding a GUR/DIU International Legion team, he frames the gains in operational terms rather than headlines.

In this April 2026 War & Politics 24 interview, Matthew Sampson assesses why Russia's continued offensives are failing to achieve significant gains, and how Ukrainian forces are holding the line from well-prepared defensive positions and extensive trench systems.

In this April 2026 interview with the Ukrainian outlet 24 Kanal, Matthew Sampson — a U.S. Marine Scout Sniper and volunteer with Ukraine’s International Legion — addresses head-on whether Ukraine could ever give up the Donbas.

He argues that Russia has been unable to hold the territory despite years of fighting, and that the soldiers he served alongside on the front line are unwilling to surrender it — pointing instead toward a restoration of Ukraine’s 1991 borders. He notes that entrenched fighting in the region dates back to 2014.

Reported in Russian by 24 Kanal; summarized in English.

In this April 2026 interview, Sampson connects events on the battlefield to the politics of the Hill, telling viewers that "Your strikes on refineries are captivating the Capitol." Drawing on more than 3,000 days in war zones across Iraq, Afghanistan, and Ukraine, he describes how Ukraine's deep-strike campaign against Russian energy infrastructure is registering with lawmakers he meets as an advocate.

In this November 2025 interview, Sampson contends that Russia's ability to sustain the war is eroding and that the Kremlin is hiding the real toll from its own public. He points to the scale of Russian recruitment bonuses — reported in the $20,000 range for some recruits, and far higher in Moscow and St. Petersburg — as evidence of mounting manpower strain.

In this November 2025 interview with the Ukrainian outlet 24 Kanal, Matthew Sampson — a former U.S. Marine Scout Sniper — describes commanding a multinational special-operations team inside Ukraine’s military-intelligence (GUR) International Legion, the grinding fight for Bakhmut, and the shrapnel wound that nearly ended his war.

He told 24 Kanal he spent more than two years on the ground, from May 2022 to February 2024 — what he calls the longest continuous U.S. combat deployment of the war — operating across the Zaporizhzhia, Kharkiv, Mykolaiv and Donetsk regions, with extended time in and around Bakhmut through 2023.

“This was a piece of shrapnel that hit me near Bakhmut. Fortunately it passed through trees and bushes first — otherwise it would have killed me.”

Sampson said his team drew on 20 to 30 nationalities “from every continent except Antarctica,” and that getting foreign and Ukrainian operators onto the same tactics took work: “We had major disagreements between foreigners and Ukrainians about the correct way to enter a room.” His read on the enemy was blunt — that the Russian army is “so weak because it has massive corruption, no accountability and discipline.”

Interview conducted in Ukrainian and Russian by 24 Kanal; quotes translated to English.

Charter97 reports on what most surprised Sampson when he moved from Iraq and Afghanistan to the Ukrainian front: real trench warfare and pervasive mining. "We don't train in the trenches at all in the U.S. military. The closest thing we have is training in corridors, but they usually have doors," he told the outlet. He also described the difference in clearing tactics: "The Russians were mining much more than we had seen in Iraq or Afghanistan. There we tried to clear buildings with as many people as possible. But in Ukraine it's the opposite, because everything in the rooms can be mined."

Speaking to UNIAN, Matthew Sampson — a former U.S. Marine Scout Sniper who volunteered with Ukraine’s International Legion (GUR) after arriving in May 2022 — explains how the fight in Ukraine bears little resemblance to his earlier combat tours in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The biggest shock, he says, was trench warfare: U.S. forces don’t train for it, drilling instead on clearing rooms and corridors — “but they usually have doors.” And where American units expect overwhelming firepower, the Ukrainian front is often a near-even fight.

“The American approach usually has plenty of resources. But here there are almost none — the forces on the front are often roughly equal. Honestly, we’re not used to that.”

He describes hard-won lessons working alongside Ukrainian operators, including disagreements over the right way to clear a room — where, he concedes, the Ukrainian method often made more sense given how little margin there was for error.

Reported in Russian by UNIAN; quotes translated to English.

In this October 2025 interview, Sampson lays out his reading of Putin's plan and warns European audiences against complacency, while arguing the Ukrainian army has grown stronger than ever over the course of the war. The conversation draws on his years embedded with the GUR/DIU International Legion.