Eyes on Ukraine

Happy Friday from Cleveland, Ohio.

I am so sincerely appreciative to have heard from so many of you these last few weeks asking where I’ve been since departing the Middle East. I’m currently at my parents’ place in Northeast Ohio, preparing to likely head overseas again.

There is A LOT happening between Venezuela and Ukraine, and the next few days could be rather defining.

Ukraine

I’ve been getting a lot of questions about this one today now that the back channels appear to be highly active in hopes of leading to a deal that ends the fighting in Ukraine.

But the pressure is mounting on Ukraine to agree to a deal that, from its point of view, will inevitably look and feel like a capitulation. Effectively, the entire Donbas region would go to Russia, Ukraine’s armed forces would shrink in size and its pathway to NATO would be halted.

Interestingly, some of the land it would be required to give up in this deal is land Russia has not yet been able to reach by force.

Still, that appears to be the deal “in premise” on the table.

“Now is one of the most difficult moments in our history,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said. “Now, the pressure on Ukraine is one of the most difficult. Now, Ukraine may find itself facing a very difficult choice. Either the loss of dignity or the risk of losing a key partner.”

That key partner is, frankly, the one that matters most: the United States.

You may recall I sat down with President Zelenskyy inside the Presidential Palace in Kyiv a few weeks ago. What he explained to me was that in the Donbas in particular, Ukrainian forces are currently entrenched in strategic heights.

If they give up that positioning, Russia will take control of the heights and be in an advantageous position to launch a third invasion of Ukraine down the road if they so choose. Zelenskyy told me such a setup would make it seemingly inevitable they would be at war again.

On the ground in Ukraine, all of my sources are giving indications it is highly tense, and they do not like where the conversation is going between the Kremlin and White House.

Zelenskyy did speak with Vice President JD Vance by phone today, and it seems as though the timeline we are all working off of is Thanksgiving.

Venezuela

Monday will be a telling day. That’s the day in which the U.S. government will formally designate Venezuela’s Cartel de los Soles a foreign terrorist organization.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio and other U.S. officials have argued that Maduro is the head of Cartel de los Soles. The Venezuelan leader has denied those claims.

Nevertheless, the Pentagon believes such a designation changes the scope in which it will be able to operate.

“It’s just about options, and we plan better than any organization in the world here; we want to make sure the president has options to include doing a whole lot, to include doing, you know, the cartel mission that we’re doing there as well,” Secretary of War Pete Hegseth said of the terrorist designation. “So nothing’s off the table, but nothing’s automatically on the table.”

The Pentagon has already put several key pieces into play, amassing a massive military presence in the U.S. Southern Command Region. That includes the USS Gerald R. Ford, the world’s largest aircraft carrier, which has now arrived in the Caribbean.

Hard to say what comes next on this one — whether it’s a show of force and brinkmanship or if we really are about to see a major escalation.

Asked Monday if he would rule out sending American ground troops into Venezuela, the president said: “No, I don’t rule out that. I don’t rule out anything. We just have to take care of Venezuela.”

Keep an eye on this upcoming Monday.

Update on Lessons on the Front

Hard to believe we have exactly 20 days to go until my debut nonfiction book, “Lessons From the Front: A Rookie War Correspondent in Ukraine and Israel,” hits shelves.

Last week, I was in New York recording the audiobook, which was certainly a “pinch me” moment.

I am hoping you will find this to be the single most relatable and humble book you’ll read on these complex geopolitical events. It’s not written by someone with a military background or decades of expertise but instead by a kid from Cleveland, Ohio, who thought he knew everything about the world … and the world humbled him right back.

I’d like to thank Dr. Qanta Ahmed with the Independent Women’s Forum for writing the following: “Sherman is a vivid and engaging and insightful author who brings the journalist’s inquiry and analysis to the reader with his unique compassion and concern”

I was really hoping the humility and humanity would shine through in this project. I’m glad it has so far.

If my work has meant something to you over the years, it would mean the world if you’d preorder “Lessons From the Front” today. Early support truly shapes the future of a book.

For those interested, you can preorder a copy of my book through Amazon, Barnes & Noble and Bloomsbury.