William: Exactly 100 days ago,
Russian soldiers launched a
full-scale invasion of Ukraine,
aiming to overthrow a
democratically elected
government.
Ukraine won the battle for Kyiv,
and has achieved military
success.
But the war has killed tens of
thousands of Ukrainian
civilians.
Tens of thousands of Ukrainian
and Russian troops, and at its
peak, drove close to 14 million
Ukrainians from their homes.
That is one third of the
country.
Nick schifrin takes stock of
this moment and talks to
Ukraine's ambassador to the
United States.
Nick: This war's horrors have
become household names.
Our UTIL, a city destroyed.
A theater shielding people.
This week, president zelenskyy
admitted pressure controls 20%
of Ukraine.
Ambassador, welcome back to the
newshour.
Can you give us some perspective
on how destructive these 100
days have been?
>> Yes, this 100 days of the war
that goes on for eight years,
but this 100 days were
especially brutal with
full-fledged war returning to
the whole of Ukraine.
The devastation has been huge.
More than 40 million square
meters of residential areas
destroyed.
And the majority of people live
under constant threat, and get,
-- and yet, we are fighting, we
will be fighting, and we still
can win.
Nick: Looking forward, how do
you define winning in this war?
?
How do you define victory?
>> Just getting our country
back.
Having control over all you to
-- overall territory of Ukraine,
have recognized borders, with
Russians getting out from our
territories, stop shooting at
us.
Then we can start returning to
rebuilding our country,
returning to some kind of normal
life, which is going to be very
difficult.
But first, we have to win.
It means we have to defeat
Russians in Ukraine.
Nick: You are suggesting Russian
forces need to be evicted not
only from the territory they
seized since February 24, but
also charity -- also territory
in the donbass and crimea.
Is that what -- what your site?
>> Since Russia illegally
attacked crimea and illegally
attacked part of donbass and
luhansk, not only Ukraine, but
the whole democratic world and
never agreed or recognized that
act of aggression and the
illegal annexation.
Yes, crimea is Ukraine.
Since 2014, we had all of the
rights to retake crimea through
military operations.
But we never did it and we never
planned to do it.
We still are open for any
diplomatic solutions.
Russia crossed the border again,
and it is a very black-and-white
situation.
We would like to retort --
restore our sovereignty with our
borders.
Nick: Some senior Ukrainian
officials I spoke to have doubts
about whether the military can
re-seize territory that Russia
has occupies, not only since
February 24, but over the last
eight years,.
Does that not mean that this war
is headed for a stalemate, and
Ukraine will struggle to
re-seize that territory?
>> We can all have doubts or we
know it is going to be very
difficult.
Even today, we hear Russian
officials and others essentially
saying the separation has to go
on, that they are still on
target, which is really a brutal
thing to hear.
We are up against a much
stronger power, very brutal
power, a power that has no moral
restrictions or the red lines
that they would not cross.
We know it is going to be hard.
But at the same time, there is
no other alternative.
We cannot reach peace unless
Russians are out from the
country.
Anything else, any stalemate on
Russian terms, would be an
illusion of peace.
Unfortunately, we know what
happens on the territories where
Russia occupies and we are not
ready to leave our people
behind.
Nick: This week, the Biden
administration authorized the
most advanced rocket system to
Ukraine, the high mobility
advanced rocket system.
But the Biden administration did
not provide the longest range
ammunition, and basically capped
the ammunition rage -- range
providing at 45 miles.
Is that good enough?
>> We are very grateful to the
American people, to the
administration, to president
Biden, to congress.
Russia is not motivated but they
have so many weapons.
That is why we need more and
more support from the U.S., but
also from other allies.
We never asked boots on the
ground.
We never asked other countries
to help us fight the fight.
We will fight this fight.
It is our fight.
We need as much artillery and as
much ammunition to this new
capabilities that we will be
getting as possible.
Every face of the war requires
different weapons.
We are in discussions and I
really hope that we will see
more support.
Nick: Some of the main fighting
is in a city which is the last
Ukrainian held city in luhansk.
British intelligence today said
that they fear luhansk could
fall entirely in the next two
weeks.
Do you fear that to be the case?
>> Is a full-fledged war and I
know our armed forces do
everything possible and
impossible.
And I'm positive, as well as all
Ukrainians and our armed forces
and our president, that we are
fighting for our land and we are
fighting for our people.
And we will be able to retake
everything.
The question is how long it will
take and how many of us, the
best of us, we will lose.
Nick: President Biden wrote in
the New York Times op-ed, he did
not use the word Ukrainian
victory or Russian defeat.
He said specifically that the
goal is not to unseat Vladimir
Putin.
Do you fear that so -- that so
long as Putin remains in power,
the threat to Ukraine will
remain?
>> Believe as long as pressure
remains in this mode of
thinking, the threat not only to
Ukraine but all democratic world
will remain.
Russia in its present form is a
threat to global security, is a
threat to full security after
blocking Ukrainian ports in the
black sea.
They are a threat to any
democracy.
Because again, Ukraine did not
provoke this war.
We did not do anything to cause
this aggression.
And we just wanted to live in
our own country is enough reason
for a large country to attack
you, the nobody is safe.
Nick: President zelenskyy said
overnight that 200,000 children,
Ukrainian children, have been
forcibly moved to Russia.
He said half a million
Ukrainians in the past have been
forcibly moved to Russia.
Is that an example of Russian
genocide?
>> It is one of many.
Yes.
Half a million people who are
forcefully deported to Russia,
many children which were killed
in Ukraine, people put in
infiltration camps.
These are the Nazi techniques
that we saw 80 years after the
world said never again.
Yes, it is a genocide, because
we are being targeted and killed
only because we are Ukrainians.
Nick: While we talk about all of
those atrocities, at the same
time, the U.N. Says they are --
there are credible allegations
of treatment of Russian soldiers
by Ukrainian forces.
Are you investigating those
examples and taking steps to
ensure that Russian soldiers in
your custody are being treated
humanely?
>> We already have shown how we
treated the captured soldiers.
We are recording everything,
where they have access to
everything.
We are giving them the
possibility to call their
relatives, regardless of the
crimes they have committed.
Yes, we take very seriously, and
our armed forces are doing
everything possible in order to
stick to all the rules, why we
are defending our country and
why we are defending our people.
Nick: Thank you very much.