all right Happening Now Ukrainian President Vladimir zielinski is meeting with leaders
across Europe hoping to bolster support ahead of this highly anticipated spring offensive zielinski
met with the British prime minister Rishi sunak this morning following meetings with the leaders
of Germany France and Italy now this follows a remarkable 24 hours that might have seen the
Downing of four Russian aircraft in one single day now what happened inside Russia in Russian
territory right here in the briosk region you can see this is Ukraine this is Russia the details of
this are murky but one Russian media Outlet said that there were four different aircraft
involved this is what we're looking at here two Russian Jets the su-34 and the su-35 and
two Russian military helicopters the mi8 with us now is CNN military analyst retired army General
James Spyder marks General thanks so much for being with us we have video that might show one
of these helicopters being shot down it really is remarkable imagery if in fact
spider four aircraft in one day in one region what would that tell you how significant
suppose very significant John and again thank you for having me today what that tells you is
the Ukrainian forces clearly have a very robust now increasingly sophisticated air
defense capability ground launch capability to go after and across the Russian border so
to go after Russian targets and across into Russian airspace that's very significant if
the ukrainians want to be able to achieve this level of operational success on the ground again
bear in mind what we've seen to date is incredible creative tactical successes by the ukrainians if
you want to increase that tie those tactical successes together force the Russian's hand
force them back you've got to strike deep into Russia you've got to go after military targets
not civilian targets not Villages go after those areas that are now currently in sanctuary and put
those military Russian forces under the fire of Ukrainian forces this is a great example simple
I just want people to get one more look at this in case they haven't seen it again this
is video that purports to show one of these helicopters apparently being struck inside
Brian's you were talking about these strikes that are happening inside Russian territory we
have a map here of some of the sites where there have apparently been strikes on Russian Holdings
now spider there was also a report this weekend from The Washington Post that intelligence from
months ago was suggesting that Ukrainian president zielinski he wanted to Target even deeper inside
Russia even maybe take some Russian territory on the ground how is this and these strikes how is
this different from what the Washington Post said Celeste might have been asking four months ago
so let's see if we can square these two if as you've described on the map those
strikes are going after military targets fair game makes perfect sense keeps the
Russian forces off balance which is exactly what you want to do if in fact any of these
strikes are going after civilian targets or could there could there could be some
collateral damage or there could be the pushing of Ukrainian forces on the ground into Russia
that's that's a form of escalation that's not essential at this point what zielinski and his
forces need to be able to do is as described is to decrease the amount of Russian forces
that can assemble can refit and then be pushed across the border into Ukraine if you could do
that and disrupt that you've really taken the you've taken the initiative out of the hands
of the Russian forces so again we continue to hear about this fighting that's been going on
for 11 months now in the eastern city of bakmut and the ukrainians are claiming some success
at taking back small amounts small amounts of territory spider is this the spring offensive
or when will we see the spring offensive President zielinski says it's coming soon
yeah I think what we're seeing right now this this is the beginning stage of a larger offensive we
must hope we have to assume and the the key thing in my mind is let's stop talking if we're in the
for the ukrainians let's stop talking about the spring offensive let's get about the business of
the spring offensive and it's not a shot from the Canon it's not like a bunch of forces are
suddenly going to Surge and have these great sweeping motions in the vicinity of Bak moot
or elsewhere what you're seeing right now are the initial phases that's where you strip the enemy's
ability to see you you strip his eyes away you then conduct your own reconnaissance you feel
your way to where the advantage can be and then you load up with fires you master forces and
You Begin a penetration that's how it has to take place so that is not an immediate kind of a launch
that is a very gradual a very aggressive and a smart use of intelligence and fires to achieve
that type of success General James spider Mark spider always a pleasure to see you thanks so much
and the Russian Ministry of Defense announced on Sunday that two of its commanders had been
killed in combat in eastern Ukraine it was a rare announcement confirming the deaths of high-ranking
military officials as several have already been killed since the War Began in 2022. the
ministry did not specify when they were killed saying only that it was in the Donetsk region
meanwhile Ukraine's Deputy defense minister announced its forces captured more than 10
Russian positions near bakmut he also said Ukrainian forces continue to move forward
in the suburbs of the city and the head of Russia's Wagner mercenary group has
accused Russian defense leaders of lying over what he calls moscow's deteriorating position
in bahut he was responding Friday to his statements from the ministry of defense
that Russian forces had redeployed to quote more advantageous positions CNN sportpliken reports
after months of brutal fighting the battle for bahmoud may be pushing
Wagner boss yevgeni pregosian closer to the edge
standing in front of the bodies of his dead Fighters he launched
into a rant against Russia's military leadership blaming them for the deaths we
life
other lives you think because you have warehouses full of ammunition that you have that right
for months pregosian and Vladimir Putin's top generals Sergey shoigu and valieri gerasimov
have been mired in severe infighting but now the Wagner boss's tirades are becoming more
vicious and more frequent accusing Russia's defense minister of withholding much needed
ammo instead of using a shell to kill an enemy and saving one of our soldiers lives they are
killing our soldiers in a country where thousands have been jailed for criticizing
Vladimir Putin's war pregosian is getting away with his Tantrums that's because Putin
doesn't fully trust his own military and needs Ferguson Russian investigative journalist Andrei
saldatov believes he's extremely paranoid about control and political stability pregosan is a
tool to if not to keep the middle train check at least to keep them off balance
fighting seems to be costing Russia both lives and momentum Ukraine's Army now says it is
making gains in Bahamut and while Ukrainian President Vladimir zelenski says his forces
long-anticipated counter-offensive has not yet started percussion today once again accusing
the Russian army of cutting and running hit City Authority those territories that were liberated
with the blood and lives of our comrades every day progressed by dozens or hundreds of meters during
many months today are abandoned almost without any fight by those who are supposed to hold our flanks
was supposed to be a much-needed win for Vladimir Putin but now it could ring in
major problems to come Andre soldatov says I think he is nervous which alone
but he cannot trust completely what his people are telling him
and that was fret like a reporting for you and there are reports that four Russian
military aircraft were shot down on Saturday within Russia's own territory if confirmed
the incidents would Mark a significant victory for Ukraine social media videos geo-located by
CNN show at least one helicopter crashing near a town in Russia's bryansko region 50
kilometers from the Ukrainian border the governor of ryansk confirmed that a helicopter had crashed
and injured one civilian but gave no details on the cause another video showed a massive column
of black smoke after an aircraft came down in the same region Ukraine hasn't confirmed that
it was involved in the reported downings but says the aircraft quote ran into some trouble