Ukraine is taking credit
for the drone attack attacks,
I should say, in Moscow overnight.
An official says
Clinton's Ukraine Defense Agency
was responsible for the strikes.
The Russian military says
two attack drones
crashed into buildings
after being intercepted
with electronic warfare.
One of them hit
a Russian defense ministry building
that houses the military's orchestra.
The other reports, no injuries there.
Ukrainian President
Volodymyr Zelensky
had vowed retaliation
after a week of deadly strikes
on the city of Odessa.
That's where we find Alex
McCarthy is not only in Odessa.
He is inside a historic cathedral
that was badly damaged
from those strikes.
Walk us through what you're seeing
Well,
first of all,
that is a remarkable claim
of responsibility
by Ukraine
for that drone attack on Moscow.
And it does come
after these incredibly intense strikes
for basically the past week on this city.
And so much of the damage
has been here in the city center,
the historic center of Odessa,
which is a unique World Heritage site.
Some 25 different architectural monuments
have been damaged.
We are in
the with the main
cathedral, the biggest cathedral,
Orthodox cathedral in Odessa.
It has been significant, severely damage
this is the length of the cathedral.
You can see back there
some blackened area.
We understand
electrical fire was started after
the missile strike.
Workers are
have been working around the clock
since the strike
to try to clear the debris from here.
We're trying to stay out of the way.
That's why we're wearing these hard hats
that they've asked us to wear.
And I'm going to ask
Scott McQueen,
my committed to just hang up.
You can see these beautiful ceiling
where frescoes have been destroyed.
And then up in the dome there,
the windows have been blown out
just extraordinary damage
to this magnificent cathedral.
And if we come around this way, up
there is the altar.
You can see there
the pillars are on their side
or leaning over.
And we're not for that wall there.
That entire thing
likely would have collapsed.
And then finally, over here
in this corner, this is where most of the
taking place.
On the
sky pouring through
because there is no more roof.
That is where we understand
that the rocket came
crashing through,
going down at least two floors,
this hard marble floor
completely pockmarked by debris
that carved out these pockets
in that marble.
Guys, this really does speak
to what we've heard from
Ukrainian officials
calling for more air defenses
in the wake
of these extraordinary strikes in
in Odessa, President
Lynskey himself saying what is needed now
to fend off
this Russian terror is a full fledged
sky shield.
Guys, before you go,
some of these strikes,
Alex, are coming very close
to the Romanian side of the Danube River.
And that begs the question,
what does this mean
as the war
inches closer and closer
and closer with these Russian
strikes to NATO's territory,
Well, there was a strike earlier today
by Russian drones
against what
we understand
to be a green infrastructure
right along the border
with Romania, that down to that
that border between Romania
and Ukraine is
they are separated there
by the Danube River.
And it is
it is remarkably close
to NATO's territory.
We have seen some of the fighting
spilled over
into Poland there before
Ukrainian air defense missile
falling in Poland.
But this is a Russian missile
coming very close to NATO's territory.
It just speaks to the fact
that this fighting is all across
the country.
We're here in Odessa,
which is nowhere near a front line.
And yet Russia has been pummeling
this city.
They've been hitting Lviv,
which is near to Poland.
And now this area, this border area near
near to Romania,
it certainly is going to raise the alert
level of NATO's countries.
We're going to hear some discussions
about Article five of course,
if Russia were to decide
to strike a naito country.
And we're very far from that right now.
But if that were the case and of course,
the Naito Article
five means
that other Naito allies
would come to the defense
of that country.
So this is an extraordinarily
close strike to Naito territory.
It really is.
It really is. Alex, thank you.
For giving us that perspective.
We appreciate it.
Alex Hancock reporting for us
live in Odessa, Ukraine, this morning.
Let's get some expert analysis now
from retired Brigadier General
Steve Anderson.
General thanks so much for being with us.
Let's start
with a map of the region,
because this is essentially a tit for tat
with drone strikes,
some in Moscow, some here
near the border of Crimea.
Yes, the hits just keep on coming.
Boris, for Vladimir Putin,
I mean, to be able
to hit all the way up here into Moscow,
hundreds of miles into Russian territory.
I mean, what
message does
that send about the air
defense systems of Moscow?
I mean,
that means
that attack struck
within two miles of the Kremlin
right in the middle
of their Ministry of Defense.
So it's a huge, huge blow,
I think, to
Vladimir Putin
strategically now operationally.
The hit down here at this ammo dump,
that is huge
because it's right remember,
they hit the Kerch Bridge here last week
and this is right
on the same logistics line
into the southern part of the Don Bosch.
And that's incredibly important.
So what's that showing
is that the Ukrainians
now have a deep strike capability.
They're not doing very well
in the counter-offensive.
But if they can continue
to set conditions
by taking out logistics hubs
like this
ammo dump and command
and control headquarters,
that's a huge win for the Ukrainians.
Yeah,
it does strike me
that in the attack on Moscow, Ukraine,
actually took credit for it,
which is something
that they had not done previously.
What does that signify to you?
Well,
I think that that shows
that the counter-offensive
isn't going very well.
And they're trying to get some good news
to the Ukrainian people.
That's really what it means.
So now they're taking credit for this
and for the ammo dump.
And they you know,
hopefully they will continue
to turn things around.
But right now,
the counteroffensive is just not going
like they want
and they need some good news
for the Ukrainian people
to keep focused on the fight.
Yeah.
On the other side,
the damage in Odessa
specifically to this grain store,
Russia's destroyed
some 60,000 tons of grain
since they got out of the Black Sea
grain deal.
What do you make of this
tactic using food
as a weapon, essentially?
Well, there's really only three levers
that Vladimir Putin can pull.
He can pull the nuclear lever.
And, of course,
we don't want him to do that.
And oil is something he has
that influence
of the international community.
The third is food.
And what he's trying to do
is just make it painful as possible.
He's trying to take out Odessa
addresses a seaport vital to moving that
that grain all the way down to Istanbul.
He as we just had
reported,
two other ports were hit very close
to Romania.
Those ports
have to do with access to the Danube,
which is the backup.
You know, it's very,
very difficult to move grain,
you know, cheaply.
You don't want to do it in a truck
or train.
You want to do it in a ship or a barge.
And if Vladimir Putin knows
if he can make it very, very painful,
the Ukrainians, to move their grain,
if he can take out all that port
infrastructure in response
to this attack and others
President Zelensky
has essentially argued
that the West
should further empower
Ukraine and bolster its air defenses.
We have a list of weapons
here, beginning with this chopper.
Walk us through
what you think
Ukraine needs in order to do that.
Well, they need a lot of help.
Right now,
there's two patriot systems up in Kiev
that are working very, very well.
But unfortunately,
they just don't have enough air defense
artillery.
Now, they just approved
the Biden administration
for these systems,
but that's going to take six
or nine months.
What I'm saying right here is patriots.
We have 1100 of these launcher systems.
So we could
we could send over at least
150 or 200 systems,
I think, to totally overwhelm,
to just do
what President Zelensky wants to do.
He makes complete air coverage
of the entire country.
The other thing I would tell you
is the Syrians,
the Patriots are good
at taking out missiles,
but the CRM is good at hitting anything
bigger than a soccer ball.
I use these systems
when I was in Afghanistan.
They're unbelievable.
They'll hit anything.
And that's what you need
against these Iranian drones
or the smaller ones.
You got to have the sea ram capability.
So I say we got 53 systems,
the United States Army right now.
Let's send as many as we can over there
to help them out
because they're not being used right now.
They came out of Afghanistan, in Iraq
for our concern.
We need to put them to work.
And in Ukraine
now, we'll see what the White House does.
General Steve Anderson, always great
to get your perspective on these matters.
Thank you, Barbara.