Lower Thirds: 
0:20	Report by Misha Komadovsky
0:20	Seattle, Washington, USA
0:32	Karla Webber | Mother of American volunteer
1:23	Karla Webber | Mother of American volunteer
3:25	Karla Webber | Mother of American volunteer
3:40	West Palm Beach, Florida, USA
3:51	Misha Komadovsky | DW Correspondent
4:04	Donald Trump | US President
4:30	Karla Webber | Mother of American volunteer

Script: 

((NATSOUND))
I wanna go to Ukraine. I want to go right where — the spot where Andrew and Lance went down. And that’s one of the reasons they cannot give that territory back, because so many people have died — not just our guys, right? But I mean, even considering giving that territory away makes me…

LOCATION: Seattle, Washington 
Karla Webber’s family lives 10,000 kilometers away from Ukraine. For them, the war was distant — until 2023, when her son Andrew joined the Ukrainian Armed Forces.
((SOT))
C0315-sd-sound
From 06:06

 Karla Webber 
If you knew Andrew — I mean, it’s just… that’s the kind of stuff he did. It wasn’t surprising or weird to us. People ask us all the time, like, “Why did you let him go?” I’m like, well, number one, he’s 40 years old. Number two, I have no answer for that, because — why are we not stopping him from going to Afghanistan or Iraq?
 I mean, he saw it the same way, right?
((NARRATION))
Andrew dreamed of being a soldier from a young age. Graduated from West Point Military Academy. Served in Iraq and Afghanistan. Was awarded a Bronze Star and Purple Heart. After the military, he became a lawyer and helped refugees escape Afghanistan after the US army withdrawal. Then Russia invaded Ukraine. ТУТ ПАУЗА: МОЖЕТ БЫТЬ, ДАЖЕ ВЗРЫВ В УКРАИНЕ, ПОПАДАНИЕ РАКЕТЫ He walked away from everything — and went to the front line.
((SOT)) 
21:23
And he said, “I’m in this training camp, and I am the only person in this entire camp who, number one, has ever been in combat. Number two, no one really knows how to teach combat.
And then he wrote me a text and says, “I feel like what it must have felt like during the Civil War, when officers were standing back and just sending kids in to get slaughtered day after day.” You know — day after day.
 He said, “That’s how I’m feeling.
I showed it to his dad, and I said, “You need to call him somehow, because he’s going to jump into this. He’s not going to — I can tell you right now — he’s not going to just stay at a training camp. He’s headed out with whoever these kids are.”

 And that’s exactly what he did. Went right to the front and became, of course, squad leader in 10 seconds.
((NARRATION))
His squad carried out multiple successful operations in Eastern Ukraine. And even then, he always found a way to stay in touch with his mother.
((SOT))
Karla Webber 
 26:20
We had a thing where we played Wordle every day. But even if he couldn’t play, he checked in, so I’d see a check mark — and I knew he was okay, right?
((NARRATION))
On July 29th, 2023, Andrew didn’t check in. Karla soon learned why — a Russian drone had killed her son.
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Karla Webber
28:56
I just, like, fell on the ground. I just, like, started screaming — and I mean, like, the neighbors came, okay? It was that bad, and I couldn’t make myself stop.
 And finally, Jamie helped me out of it. And he just, like, picked me up. He’s big, you know, and he just picked me up, and — and I just… (sighs, cries)
((NARRATION))
The US Army isn’t fighting in Ukraine. But nearly 100 Americans have died there — most as volunteer soldiers.. For Karla, Ukraine’s future is personal  — a message she wants US President Donald Trump to hear as he seeks a deal with Vladimir Putin to end the war.
((SOT))
Karla Webber 
35:45
If you give a man like him an inch, he’s going to take a mile. Do you really think he’s going to stop with that small piece of territory when he has a whole country he’s trying to conquer? I don’t think that you appease people like Vladimir Putin. 
((NARRATION))
LOCATION: West Palm Beach, Florida
ТУТ ПОКАЖИ, КАК ЗАХОДИТ ТРАМП И ЗЕЛЕНСКИЙ В ЗАЛ, ГДЕ Я ТОЖЕ ПОПАДАЮ В КАДР

From Seattle, we traveled to Florida, where President Trump held another round of peace talks with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. With Karla’s message in mind, I asked President Trump—
((SOT))
Misha Komadovsky
 DW Correspondent
You’ve said multiple times that you want to stop the killing, and nearly 100 American citizens have died on the battlefield in Ukraine. What’s your message to their families, whose loved ones died fighting for Ukraine?

Donald Trump 
 U.S. President
Well, look — I mean, the message is so obvious. It’s what a shame they died in a country, a foreign country. And some are celebrated people — they’re very celebrated — but it’s so sad that a thing like that would happen.
((NARRATION))
After this, Karla responded to DW:  “We don’t want or need sympathy. What we need is action and the kind of bravery these men and women have shown fighting tyranny.”
((SOT))
Karla Webber 
34:27
Andrew said to us — he said, “The Ukrainians can win this war if they just have the right stuff. They don’t need Americans. They don’t need anybody else. They just need the right equipment, and it would be done and over.”
 And I firmly still believe that.
((NARRATION))
ПОКАЖИ ТУТ ФОТО КАРЛІ В ДИСИ: 
That’s why Karla and other mothers of fallen Americans come to Washington again and again — to remind US lawmakers what their sons and daughters gave in the name of democracy and freedom.

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