U.S.
President Joe Biden
is on his way back to Washington
after a three day
European trip
designed to showcase America's support
for Ukraine and send Vladimir
Putin a decisive message.
The president wrapped up his visit
to Poland
by meeting with leaders
from NATO's eastern flank countries
where he stressed the importance
of Western unity and resolve.
Coming at a critical moment
today as we approach
the one year anniversary of Russia's
further invasion,
it's even more important that we continue
to stand together.
And I think this is proof of this,
how strongly we feel taking a
That meeting comes
one day after Moscow suspended a landmark
nuclear arms control treaty with the US.
When asked about it is how Mr.
Biden responded,
this president's actions include singling
out Mr.
I don't have time.
You know, time
And we have 5 minutes.
Big mistake.
Mr. President,
while in Moscow, Vladimir Putin
issued a rallying cry
to a crowd gathered at a concert
calling for Russians
to get behind
the country's armed forces in Ukraine.
Before that, Mr.
Putin hosted China's top diplomat Wang Yi
at the Kremlin, where
both sides
reaffirmed support for one another.
I moon urine just showed up.
We want to emphasize here
that the comprehensive
strategic partnership
between China and Russia
never targets a third country.
Hence,
it won't be affected
by any interferences
or instigation from a third country.
We All right.
Let's bring in Stephen Collinson
of all the action
on watching from Washington.
Stephen,
thank you so much for being with us.
Joe Biden address the Bucharest nine.
This is the alliance
that was formed back in 2015
right after Vladimir Putin
annexed Crimea.
And a lot of these countries
are concerned
they're worried that Putin
will take military action against them
if he's successful. In Ukraine.
Just walk us through that.
Right.
And of
course, they
are on the front lines of NATO's
following Naito expansion
after the end of the Cold War.
I think what the president did there is
what he's been doing
for the entirety of this trip,
one of the most significant
presidential trips of recent times,
I think, which is to show
that the United States
is committed
to all of its NATO's
allies, that any encroachment by Russia
anywhere in the alliance
would be met by the United States.
And this is a trip
that's sending a message
to Ukrainians, to
Eastern Europeans, to the Western
allies of the United States
that have been bankrolling
Ukraine's resistance in the war,
along with the US
that he's standing
firm on the anniversary of the invasion.
Having said that, Putin's speech
while the president was in Europe show
that while Biden says the US
will be there for as long as it takes,
Putin is suggesting that
that could be a very long time indeed.
So that will
obviously prolong these questions
about whether the West will stay united
and increasingly
in the United States,
whether there is the political foundation
across both parties for us
help for Ukraine
to linger for many years,
especially for example,
if Biden were to lose
the 20, 24 election.
Right.
Because especially if
it also ends up
being a Republican president,
who knows what's going to happen
on that front.
Let's talk about China,
because China has made
a staunch commitment to Russia here.
What is their long term strategy
in terms of the war in Ukraine?
There was a perception
for most of the last year
that China actually regretted
that no limits friendship
that it reached with Putin a few weeks
before the invasion
just because of Putin's failures
in Ukraine.
And it made China
look bad by association.
But in the last few weeks,
we've had some very interesting
warnings from U.S.
officials privately to the Chinese
and publicly that China
should not think about arming Russia
to help its situation in Ukraine.
Clearly, China looks at this war
through the prism of its own rivalry
with the United States.
And its own interests.
And while I think you would assume
that it wouldn't want its firms,
for example, to face U.S.
sanctions
if it became more
closely involved, in the war,
there is a case
that if the United States
and the West
are bogged down in a long conflict
helping Ukraine in Europe,
that their military supplies
and readiness is all going to Ukraine.
It's not going to their Pacific forces.
It could slow down
the delivery of weapons,
for example,
to Taiwan
and the US might take its eye
off the ball in the Pacific.
So you could see a scenario in which
while China may not want to become more
closely involved in the war,
it does have an interest in this war
going on and preoccupying
the United States and its allies.
And you've
written a comprehensive piece
about this on CNN dot
com that I encourage everybody to read.
Stephen Collinson
for us that thank you so much.
All right.
In an exclusive interview, Poland's
president talked to CNN's
Christiane Amanpour about the U.S.
president's surprise visit to Ukraine,
calling it a powerful show of support
in some quarters.
So the very thing
that a president traveled
to Kiev, that he was there
it sends an incredibly powerful signal,
a political and strategic signal.
It is a demonstration of strength
of the United States. Indeed.
It is
like saying
that the American leader, who,
as a matter of fact,
is the leader of the free world,
is able to travel
even where war is raging,
even to a place
where there is a potential danger.
He is not afraid
because the United States
is strong enough to protect him.
That is number one.
And number two,
he was there and today he is in Warsaw.
He gives his speech to the whole world,
don't he just signal
and he sends a signal
of the defense of the free world
or the defensive
naito of a defense of every inch
of the territory,
as the president said today.
So to us, two poles
at this American signal,
this allied signal,
not only with NATO,
but first of all, a signal
sent by the greatest superpower
in the world,
a signal sent by our friend and
ally today is so significant.
And you can actually watch
the full interview
with our Christiane Amanpour
with Poland's president in the next hour.
That's at 7:00 in the evening
Warsaw time, 6 p.m.
if you're watching from London.
All right.
For weeks
now, Russian forces
have been trying to capture
the eastern city of back loot.
And across
Ukraine, many worry
their town could, of course, be
Russia's next target.
Some lived under
Russian occupation
early in the war
and have now been liberated.
They're living on the edge
as the front lines move closer and closer
and the fighting returns.
Here's Sam Kiley with more
A year into Russia's invasion.
This monochrome
misery is all too familiar.
This is what happened
just three days ago here in Monaco,
in effect, an S-300 missile strike.
Now, that's a missile
used by the Russians
for ground attack,
which actually designed
for bringing down airplanes.
But it carries a massive warhead.
It's pretty inaccurate.
And that doesn't matter to the Russians
because this is all about smashing up
the villages and towns
ahead of what the Ukrainians fear
is going to be a major Russian push
in this part of the country.
Captured on the second
day of Vladimir Putin's invasion
last February.
This is no longer a town
that scares easily.
It was liberated by Ukraine in the fall
and is within mortar
range of Russian troops today.
Yet these teenagers are taking a walk
through what remains of their village.
Why do your parents not insist
that you all leave as a family?
My dad has a farm here.
He's got land.
And we can't just leave it all behind,
she says.
So we just don't want to go yet.
Well, if it gets serious,
then we'll leave it to you.
And how would you define really serious
in most countries,
having a missile
that big land in the middle of town
is already really serious.
No, in serious.
And it's actually very serious.
Is probably
when a lot of houses are destroyed
and civilians suffer.
She explains that in Worldview,
it's the defiance of
Ukrainian civilians
that Russia is trying to crush.
Putin's rockets and artillery
have rained down
on towns
from Kherson to Kramatorsk to copy UNSC
and the northern border
with Russia
along a front line of 1300 kilometers.
That's 800 miles
This latest assault on her son,
another example
of the indiscriminate
shelling of civilians.
This isn't accidental.
It's deliberate.
The areas liberated by Ukraine bear
the brunt of an ever
increasing level of attacks by Russia.
Here in copious province.
Having her son
civilians survive on aid rations.
The mother who said
we don't know what to do
she says houses are shaking.
Missiles are flying.
We just don't know what to wait for
with shaking like chickens.
We don't know what to expect.
Gruesome stuff. So far,
fighting has been most
intense in and around parliament
with a surge in attacks by Russia
on nearby villages.
In a foretaste
of the anticipate to offensive
veterans
like Alex, who captured this tank Kobani
from Russia
last March,
are running low on ammunition.
He says that he
sometimes is in combat
with only ten shells a day.
It's really hard.
We have a lot of casualties every day.
And the problem, he said,
is the fighting moved inside the city
because like we are fighting
like building to building
and the distance is like 25 to 60 meters.
So we cannot use artillery.
Well here.
Civilians place their faith
in Ukraine's forces
to hold off the Russians
and play their part by staying on
and staying alive.
Sam Kiley, CNN, in Munchen.
If.