(NewsNation) — Laura Loomer, a known ally and adviser to President Donald Trump, has a message: Ukraine has a right to defend itself, and the U.S. should keep helping. Loomer shared with NewsNation video and interviews she conducted in Ukraine that show how Russia has attacked Ukraine's energy infrastructure and what steps Ukrainians must take to protect themselves, particularly in the winter when heat and power are necessities.

Loomer is making the video public as she says she feels a “moral obligation to undo some of the damage” she did after she says she was initially influenced by Russian propaganda in the U.S. It was traveling to Ukraine that convinced her Russia is to blame for the war. Loomer visited a DTEK energy facility (DTEK says it is Ukraine’s largest energy investor and power producer) over the summer. She says she had to conduct interviews in bomb shelters because Russia was actively trying to strike the facility, which is also next to a children’s school and playground.

“Russia has made it very clear … that part of the way they terrorize the Ukrainian people and bring Ukraine into a position of surrender is by freezing people to death, by destabilizing their power grid and making it so that people can't have adequate heat, trying to destroy the power supply to hospitals,” Loomer explains. She also believes it’s fair for Ukraine to strike back at Russia’s energy facilities, though she understands Trump is frustrated by that. “President Trump was angered by (Ukrainian President Volodymyr) Zelenskyy because he said that it was increasing the global cost of diesel. But what do they want Ukraine to do? If Russia is saying that they want an end to a war, but … they're deliberately targeting Ukrainian energy infrastructure, what is Ukraine supposed to do? Just sit back and not defend itself?”NewsNation research found that the amount of diesel Russia is immediately selling to the United States would only fulfill about 15 hours of U.S. consumption.

It’s unclear if gas prices would decrease at all. Analysts say that lifting the sanctions would give Putin money that he could then use in the war against Ukraine. “Do I personally think that lifting sanctions on Russia is in the best interest of the U.S.? No. We were just told during a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing about a month or two ago when Pete Hegseth and other Department of War officials testified under oath that they had evidence that Russia was providing satellite imagery to Iran to kill U.S. service members and attack American assets in the Middle East,” Loomer says.

The president has maintained in recent days that Russia has been minimally involved in helping Iran in the war with the United States, despite what his War Department and other U.S. intelligence have said. Loomer says she understands why President Trump is frustrated by the war: “He went into his administration, his second term fresh off the campaign trail with this being one of his campaign promises. …He said, 'On Day 1, I'll end this war.’ And obviously, that didn't happen.”But she doesn’t think Zelenskyy should be blamed as much as he has been.

“Obviously, President Zelenskyy is also frustrated. I would say that (Russian President Vladimir) Putin is frustrated, but he seems to take great pleasure in massacring Ukrainian citizens and doesn't really seem to be coming to the table in a good-faith manner to find a solution or find an end to this war.”U.S. special envoy Steve Witkoff called Putin a “humanitarian” this week after the release of American prisoner Stephen Hubbard. Loomer made it clear she believes Putin is a dictator, not a humanitarian.

She also says Putin has no respect for Trump or his administration. Loomer, who has previously advised the president on matters including which staff members may need to be fired for being disloyal, says she doesn’t know who is advising the president on Ukraine.

Asked whether she thinks Witkoff and Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner are the right people to be negotiating a deal on this war, she says, “They have a unique style to negotiating. I don't want to throw them under the bus completely. … I think that it's been very triggering for some people in our country and also people in Ukraine to hear terms like ‘humanitarian’ be used when describing Vladimir Putin.”According to a NewsNation researcher, Russia has an authoritarian political system, opposition politicians and activists are often targeted and harassed, some have been killed and corruption is pervasive.

Russia has unlawfully deported or abducted over 20,000 Ukrainian children since the 2022 full-scale invasion, although that number is likely higher. And gross human rights abuses continue against Ukrainian prisoners, civilian and military, who were transferred to Russia, including enforced disappearances, unfair trials, detention, torture and other ill-treatment. Loomer seems almost flabbergasted by Witkoff’s characterization of Putin given some of Putin’s recent actions. She notes that the last time Witkoff and Kushner went to Moscow, they did so in good faith and were planning to go to Ukraine in good faith after negotiating a 72-hour aerial ceasefire, but Russia violated that ceasefire.

“You can't actually have U.S. negotiators sitting in front of Vladimir Putin and then say, 'Oh yeah, they're negotiating in good faith when Vladimir Putin is making a power move to give a giant middle finger and a big F-U to Donald Trump and the U.S. government by blowing up the airport that they were supposed to fly into,” Loomer says. Loomer takes issue with the messaging coming from all parties involved. While she’s confident Russia is not an honest broker in the war and negotiations, she also realizes Zelenskyy’s vocal frustration can have a counterproductive result. “I don't think (President Trump) takes too kindly to anybody publicly attacking him,” she says.

She also hopes for more “condemnation from the State Department and also from the envoys themselves against Vladimir Putin” and calls for the Trump administration to appeal more directly to the Russian people to encourage Putin to end the war. Loomer says she is still an ardent supporter of the president and will not undermine him despite their disagreements on Ukraine. She says he’s “aggressively trying to end this conflict.”However, she isn’t sure advisers are showing him “the brutality that the Russians are exercising every single day against Ukraine.”

Loomer says right now it feels like Ukraine is being forced to accept terms that are not favorable to the Ukrainian people or to Ukraine’s sovereignty as a nation. But she also doesn’t think Trump’s current actions would disqualify him from the peace prize he covets, pointing to the other wars he says he’s ended. Ukraine has had success on the battlefield, especially with drone warfare. According to CIA Director John Ratcliffe, the lifespan of a Russian recruit on the front line is just 20 to 30 minutes.

Drones have become so effective that the front lines are basically frozen. But Ukraine needs Patriot missile systems to defend against Russian ballistic missiles that are often directed at areas with civilian populations. Despite previous assurances that Ukraine would get more from the U.S. and would be leased the technology to ultimately make their own, neither has come to fruition lately. “Two things can be true at the same time. You can want Ukraine to get access to Patriot missiles and also recognize the fact that we're not the world's piggy bank and we're also not the world's supplier of artillery and weapons and missiles. We have a serious shortage ourselves,” Loomer says. “I've had many conversations with people at the Pentagon who have told me there is, in fact, a munitions crisis. And we also have a severe shortage of our own Patriot missiles.”

She says Ukraine should at least have the technology to create its own missile systems, although it takes at least 18 months to make one. In the interim, Ukraine is struggling to defend itself fully. Though Loomer says she continues to fully support the president, she appears to struggle with some of the decisions he’s made on this issue. “If Republicans lose the midterms, they lose the House, and they lose the Senate, you can guarantee that they will be blaming Donald Trump. Do I think that the president deserves the blame? No, I don't … he's in a tough position as the leader of our country to keep energy costs low. But at the same time, you know, it's kind of crazy to have the sanctions lifted on Russia before the Lindsey Graham Russia Iran sanctions bill could even take effect.”

Though she says she will continue to encourage people to vote for Republicans, she’s not hopeful about their chances in these midterms and says in “GOP political circles … the mood isn't so hot. And I don't want to give people false hope.”As for 2028, she expects there to be a Republican primary and thinks it’s too early for the president to make an endorsement.