In this exclusive edition of In the Shadows, Scripps News correspondent Jason Bellini travels halfway around the world for unprecedented access to Americas most secretive warriors the U.S. Special Forces as they prepare for a conflict no one wants, but everyone is training for: a potential showdown in the Pacific.

We embed with U.S. Special Forces in Australia during Talisman Sabre, the massive 19-nation war game testing how quickly allies could respond if China moved on Taiwan or its neighbors. Then, aboard the AC-130J Ghostrider, the flying gunship that protects elite teams below, we witness a rare night mission precision, power, and restraint fused at 10,000 feet.

Back in the United States, Bellini is granted exclusive access to the Armys new unmanned warfare course, where Rangers and Green Berets are learning to fight with drones lessons drawn directly from Ukraines tech-driven battlefield.

U.S. Special Operations Command, a 70,000-person force built for the shadows, is shifting from counter-terrorism to great-power competition. In a region where Chinas military expansion and drone dominance are reshaping the balance of power, Americas quietest warriors are racing to adapt from the skies above Sydney to the forests of North Carolina.

From midnight boat raids to thermal imagery and the thrum of the Ghostriders guns, this episode captures a military in metamorphosis evolving to out-think and out-fight in a world where wars begin with signals, sensors, and seconds.

Russia is closing in on the eastern Ukrainian city of Pokrovsk, a strategic hub that Ukrainian forces have defended for more than a year under heavy bombardment. Military analysts say that if the city falls, Moscow would move significantly closer to capturing Ukraine's last major strongholds in the Donetsk region.

Pokrovsk has long been viewed by Ukrainian commanders as the hinge point for what happens next in eastern Ukraine. For months, Russian forces have attempted to pound the city into submission, using glide bombs, massed infantry assaults and suicide drones to chip away at its defenses.

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This week, new battlefield footage offered the clearest indication yet that Russian units have pushed deeper into the city's northeastern districts. Analysts tracking the front line say Russian troops have exploited small fractures in Pokrovsk's defenses, widening those gaps into narrow thrusts cutting through parts of the city center. Several blocks are now considered contested territory.

Ukrainian intelligence units recently released video showing members of the "Timur" special unit conducting a helicopter insertion aboard American-built Black Hawks. The low-altitude flight into drone-patrolled airspace underscored the risks Ukrainian forces say they are taking to keep the city from falling.

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Ukrainian troops say the balance on the ground has shifted in recent weeks as Russian forces intensified their use of first-person-view attack drones. Fiber-optic cable seen strung across fields near Pokrovsk is evidence of the massive number of guided suicide drones Russian units are using to strike Ukrainian defensive positions, clearing a path for small teams of infantry to advance block by block.

Ukraine has publicized some of its own battlefield successes. Videos posted by Ukrainian units show FPV drones targeting Russian infantry, which Ukrainian officials say reflects the high casualties Russia is willing to absorb in the fight for the city.

Ukrainian troops report pushing back into the local city council building, describing the battle as "highly dynamic" as fighting continues street to street and room to room.

Despite these counterclaims, the overall momentum remains uncertain. Both Moscow and Kyiv appear to be paying an escalating cost for every block of contested territory.

For now, Pokrovsk remains a city on a knife's edge a place where Ukrainian officials say every soldier, every drone strike and every hour of resistance could determine the future of the war in eastern Ukraine.