brian stern, thank you for being with us. i very much appreciate your time. >> thank you very much.tsburgh to portland to south carolina, police are investigating four separate mass you're watching "jose diaz-balart reports." g "jose diaz-balart reports. maybe it's another refill at your favorite diner... or waiting for the 7:12 bus... or sunday afternoon in the produce aisle. these moments may not seem remarkable. but at pfizer, protecting the regular routine, and everyday drives us to reach for exceptional. working to impact hundreds of millions of lives... young and old. it's what we call, the pursuit of normal. ♪ ♪ [♪♪] if you have diabetes, the pursuit of normal. it's important to have confidence in the nutritional drink you choose. try boost glucose control®. it's clinically shown to help manage blood sugar levels and contains high quality protein to help manage hunger and support muscle health. try boost® today. >>> an airbnb, a night club, a crowded mall. these were all scenes of mass shootings of a violente holiday weekend. police are still searching for suspects involved.

navy lieutenant commander brian stern joins me now.ks for having us. we started -- we actually started off in afghanistan. and we were doing rescues of americans, and green card holders and afghan partners for months and months and months, starting on august 2021, we had a donor move reached out to us during the buildup in late january, february. and who had basically said, i was happening to give you guys money to rescue americans in afghanistan. but i don't know anyone there. i actually have some friends in ukraine. it's dynamo going there? and i kind of sat back and reflected a little bit, and we remained active in afghanistan, but we realize that we could get ahead of the problem before the war started. so we surged forward. about a new week and a half or so, before the war started, on february 24th, our first rescue is actually done that morning within an hour of the missiles landing in kyiv. >> during this mission, your latest mission which is called operation aquarius, your team rescued at least five pregnant surrogates. how do

brian stern, an american and navy combat veteran here to take dj to his parents, sarah and dustin. fear of the unknown. you don't know if your baby is safe. >> if the surrogate mother is safe. where there is going to -- >> but to me, that pales in comparison to the fear that the ukrainians are feeling. they're fearful for their homes being bombed, their lives. when we put that in perspective, we kind of realized, we have it easy. >> reporter: sarah and dustin traveled from california to poland, and then to the relative safety of western ukraine with the help of project dynamo, the non-profit brian founded. how did you meet brian and come into contact with project dynamo? >> we were able to find project dynamo online. >> so many requests for evacuation and within hours, they had emailed sarah and from that moment, one of our angels. >> baby dj will always have two titos, that means uncle, brian and shawn for sure. >> reporter: brian's in the rescue business, though it's a labor of love. last year, he evacuated afghan americans, green card holders and refugees out of kabul after it f

brian stern, an american army, and navy combat veteran is here to take d.j. dustin. what was that like watching the war start? what was going through your mind? >> fear of the unknown. you don't know if your baby is safe, if -- >> if the surrogate mother is safe. >> how we get to him. but to me that's kind of pale in comparison to the fear that the ukrainians are feeling. i mean, they're fearful for their homes being bombed, their lives, so when we put that in perspective, we kind of realized we have it easy. >> reporter: sarah and dustin travelled from california to poland, then to the relative safety of western ukraine, with the help of project dynamo, the nonprofit brian founded. how did you meet brian and come into dynamo. >> we found project dynamo online. >> they had so many requests for evacuation and within hours they had emailed sarah and from that moment they have been nothing but, like, a blessing, they're one of our angels. >> baby d.j. will always be -- will always have two titos, tito brian and tito shawn for sure. >> baby d.j. eating again. he'

today an update on the story of brian stern, a 9/11 first responder whose nonprofit organization projectussian invasion and helping ukrainian surrogate mothers. back with us now is danielle. thanks for being with us. tell us about brian and what he has achieved now in getting these pregnant women out. >> absolutely. thank you so much for having me. i've been keeping in contact with brian as part of my ongoing coverage on the war in ukraine for "today" parents. he was receiving a lot of requests for international couples for them to save their surrogate babies. unfortunately the surrogate mothers themselves were not getting the same level of concern or media attention. he thought what the right thing to do was instead of leaving them in russian occupied towns and war zones in danger was to transport all of them to one safe location where they could stay, they could have access to food, water, shelter, electricity, anything they needed, medical care. that's exactly what he's done. this is an ongoing operation. they've code named it aquarius. so far they've rescued five surrogate mothers at

no one knows that perhaps better than our next guest, brian stern and army and navy combat veteran whose rescuing people in ukraine is a co-founder of project dynamo. brian, it's always great to talk to you if you will just update on the latest on how hard it is to get people out of ukraine. the situation is definitely changing here on the ground where the volume the volume is not as much as what we saw in the beginning of the wars. in the beginning of the war we did our first rescue on the opening day on the twenty fourth. so whether we were there were the lines at the borders were ten , ten miles long, 20 miles long. we're not seeing that . what we are seeing is people trapped in russian occupied areas and getting them getting him out safely through landmine infested bridges just destroyed villages where there is only dirt roads, that kind of thing. so that's a different kind of operation at this time. from a volume perspective to a safety perspective. brian, i want to get you to speak directly to the situation in mariupol, that city perhaps more than any here in ukraine has been just

words series continues tonight with an american veteran from tampa who's now in ukraine his name is brian stern. he's the founder of project dy dynamo that's a nonflauprofit that res and evacuates people from dangerous situations they have completed more than two dozen rescue missions, saving hundreds of lives tonight we're along for the ride >> we're in the middle of a rescue operation, as i talk to you. the current mission is two buses filled with ukrainians and a couple of other countries. we got them out from kyiv. there was artillery in the city when we left in the morning we'll cross over into the friendly country. it is dangerous, it is scary but lots of things are dangerous this is what we're good at we're very efficient we brought an american baby across to poland yesterday we did a paratrooper that was surrounded by the russians the day before that. we also do busloads of people at the same time. my team is at risk every single day here this is a war zone if i know that i can help and people are asking me for help, i really struggle with saying no, i really do. my family is proud my t