‘The Americans Got Shelled… Thank God We Were There’: Free Burma Rangers Give Aid in Ukraine

EASTERN UKRAINE – The Free Burma Rangers is an aid group that rescues humans in distress, focusing mainly on Myanmar where founder Dave Eubank started the group in the 1990s.
 
Eubank told CBN News, “Our mission is to give help, hope, and love to people under attack, where we’re invited. And we serve in the humanitarian gap between the people at the very front line where there’s soldiers or civilians, and then the aid organizations and refugee camps that out of necessity have to be back somewhere where they’re not getting shot at.”

“And so we are in that gap as we’re invited, as we feel God lead us, to stand with people, to treat people medically, to help rescue them if necessary, to just be with them, to pray for them to coordinate food and relief. And that’s our role,” he explained.

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And with the war dragging on in Ukraine, Eubank felt compelled to bring his team here after multiple invitations.

Free Burma Rangers (FBR) Medic Sky Barkley told us, “This war is extremely different from what we’re used to. You have super high-tech war with drones, missiles being launched in all different directions. The lines have stabilized, not the face-to-face fighting. It’s not the jungle wars, not the desert war.”

On the front lines, the team consulted with the military, police, and civilians to identify urgent needs. At a certain point in our journey, translator Katerina explained, “So there is no safe zones from this point on. We cannot guarantee you safety.” 

But the Free Burma Rangers frequently operate in that environment.

Barkley said, “I think the most important thing is coming in and not pushing whatever our own agenda is, whatever we had in mind – is to ask the Ukrainians, ‘What is it that we can do to help you the most?” 

As always, medical training is in high demand.

Barkley said, “They value anything and everything you can bring to the table. These guys are super, like hyper-focused on the war, winning as fast as possible and saving as many lives as possible, ’cause they have lost so many guys.” 

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On our last night in the Donbas region, we got an opportunity to go with FBR on a mission with a recon team from the Ukrainian Foreign Legion comprised of a bunch of American guys. 

We could not film the mission because, number one, there was no light at all. And number two, we wouldn’t be able to show it anyway because of the operational security concerns of revealing critical information. 

But Eubank explained the goal was, “To help them any way we could. To me, mostly it was one, emotional. We love you guys. We care about you. You’re doing the right things. And more importantly, spiritual… We may ask Jesus to help you, but you can’t just say that from a distance. You have to go with people. And then finally, it was physical. Do you have any medics? No, we don’t have any medics for this operation. Do you have an ambulance? No, we don’t have an ambulance. Well, we can help.”

As the team approached their objective, Russian shelling forced them back. Fortunately, when the team made it out. No one required treatment.

Volunteer Christian Hickey said, “We, set up our ambulance, got it positioned, got it ready. And then shortly thereafter, we started seeing, GRAD rockets, cruise missiles. The night just lit up with fireworks and lights from the bombs. And what had happened was that unit, the Americans that we were supporting, got shelled on the way into their infill. And so thank God we were there.”

A Foreign Legion Soldier called “Tiger” told us, “Almost everybody here has been here since the beginning of the invasion or within a few weeks from there. And then most guys fought in Iraq or Afghanistan, Syria, various places around the world. So they have a lot of experience.” 

Why are these Americans doing this?

“Tiger” said, “For me, it’s the most morally justifiable war I’ve ever fought in. I can’t speak for everybody else, but for me it is my country has a treaty with Ukraine and we’re doing some things for them. I think we should be doing more, and as a free private citizen, I can make the decision to come here and do that for myself.”

“I’ve grown to love Ukraine and I’ve seen the, the effort to free their country is justified and it’s just, it’s the right thing to do. They’ve been very gracious,” he continued. 

Despite the short trip, the Free Burma Rangers provided help and experienced the Ukrainian resilience firsthand. 

“We felt, whether it was the rounds going over us or the missiles that came in last night at this town, the destruction or the absolute amazing vitality and resilience of the people fixing everything,” Eubank said. “I thought, oh, I love these people. I wanna pray for them and speak for them.”

We were there for one of those moments as Eubank prayed over a woman in the hospital, saying, “…I ask God to fill you with his peace that pushes out the fear.”

Barkley said he supports the Ukrainians’ battle for freedom as they fight to defend their homes. “If we don’t make a point to stand against Russia, we’re just gonna face them and they’re gonna be stronger. Somebody has to stop Russia, it might as well be here and now,” he said.