CNN's Nick
Paton Walsh
is in the war zone for us in Ukraine.
Nick,
tell us about the newest Russian attacks
and whether this is an attempt
by Moscow to get revenge.
Yeah, well,
we don't have much information
or evidence
about the Russian accusations over
the Kremlin.
There are no doubt
of a wave of drone attacks
over the past days
across all of Ukraine
with missiles, often with them as well.
Specifically, Kiev
tonight saw an incident
which appeared, in fact, to have been
a mis functioning
Ukrainian drone,
still part of a series of indeed drone
attacks flown by Russia
that have been hitting the capital
and also the south of the country
in Odessa as well.
A lot of air defense
taking those drones out on the way,
but significantly worse results in have
on a city recently occupied
by the Russians
where 24 people were killed
by shelling
across the country tonight
concerns, sirens.
Certainly we just heard them here
in Perugia.
Many worried
that what happened around the Kremlin,
whatever indeed it
was, and the looming
Ukrainian counteroffensive
is going to lead to an uptick in yet
more indiscriminate Russian
bombing of civilian areas.
Here's what we saw
on the front lines today
out here.
Moscow is losing, but never kindly.
A shell flies into the old position
this artillery unit used to sit in
just ahead of us.
This unit of Ukraine's Marines
keep moving,
keep the Russians guessing
every time they fire.
There is a risk
they will be spotted and hit back.
All about increasing pressure
on Russian lines
as their counter-offensive looms
and that crackle
in the distance of small arms fire.
Ukrainians trying to take down the drones
being used to spot them.
Well, something rare is happening here
over the hills,
far into which these shells land.
It's indicated by the unusual sight
of Russian jet trails in the sky.
One launching a missile here.
Russian forces are being pushed back
from around the town of DPKO,
we are told,
from positions
Russians have occupied
for about nine years
before last year's war even started.
If you saw Bradley
Manning under the watch of it,
they would leave long overdue.
So it is borrowing, you know, kilometers
the auditor
general manual
was denied possession
with call it what you would call it
silly.
Only mention mentioning the embassy.
So even if they want to save it, hold it
for this
is a weak spot in Russia's lines
or the counter offensive in action.
We do not know.
But this push back in the east
is something these troops
from the 128th
Territorial Defense Brigade
training furiously
hope to replicate in the south,
where the counteroffensive
will likely focus.
There is little shortage
of ammunition here.
Quite the opposite.
And they say the Russians already
seem to know something
from Ukraine's coming
in to try to move in there.
Believe me,
it's just a lot of allies and positive.
What the temperature
when they think they can catch up to.
WALLACE
The loss of the last couple
of opportunity with a three square
network chance of the more
economically it possible
is that as Nick Cannon
realized, for all the simulation
and noise,
the reality on the
front has been ugly, brutal.
They show us this video
taken from a dead Russian
that shows his tank trying to escape.
The Ukrainians know this horror to
the way we saw you was you don't get it.
But it's always nice up to area
if they show nuclear
bombs crashing through,
didn't they dodge called the bicycle
can I show you
it will be real again all too soon
heavy losses fueling their steps forwards
right
now, Wolf, we can't tell you everything
we see here
owing to Ukrainian military
reporting restrictions,
but there are certain definite,
clear signs
that the counteroffensive
may well be getting under way.
So vitally strategic for Ukraine to use
the NATO's
support, training and vehicles to inflict
proper damage on Russia's
position in occupied areas
here and liberate more territory Wolf.
Nick Paton Walsh in surprise high.
Stay safe over there.
Thank you very much.
And joining me now from the White House,
the National Security Council coordinator
for Strategic Communications,
retired Rear Admiral John Kirby.
John, thanks so much for joining us.
Some of the drones
shot down over
Ukraine today
had rather ominous messages
written on them.
One of them
had, and I'm quoting now for Moscow,
another head for the Kremlin.
Does Ukraine need to brace right now
for further Russian retaliation?
The Ukrainians have been bracing
for continued air assaults from Russia,
whether it's cruise
missiles
or drones, such as some of the drones
that you just talked about, Wolf.
And that's
why we've been prioritizing air
defense capabilities for them.
And look,
just look, over the last 24 hours or so,
the Russians killed almost two dozen
or actually maybe more than two dozen
Ukrainian.
Some of
them were
just shopping in the supermarket
through these cruise missile
and drone attacks.
So, look, it's been a constant barrage
that Ukraine has been under.
Whether the Russians
want to use
this alleged drone attack
as some sort of pretext.
I can tell you that
the Ukrainians
are going to want to be
and they will be ready.
The former Russian
president, Dmitry Medvedev,
is actually calling for what he said
would be the elimination
of the Ukrainian president.
Zelensky has the U.S.
conveyed to the Kremlin the consequences
if Russia were to carry out
an assassination of the Ukrainian leader?
I don't know
that we've had direct conversations
with them about Mr.
Medvedev's comments here,
you know, just recently.
But we have clearly sent
strong messages
publicly and privately to Russia
about what they're doing in Ukraine.
It's illegal, it's unprovoked.
It needs to stop.
And in the meantime,
we're doing everything we can
to make sure
that President Zelenskiy
and his armed forces
can continue to defend themselves.
But look, the Russians have made no bones
about the fact
that they don't
that they want to decapitate
the Zelenskiy administration.
They've made no bones about the fact
that civilians are certainly
in the realm of the possible
in terms of their targeting.
And they've made no bones about the fact
that they don't believe
Ukraine should even exist
as an independent state.
I know you've slammed
Russia for, quote, lying
that the alleged U.S.
that the United States
allegedly directed
that drone strike on the Kremlin.
But what tools does the U.S.
have right now to find out
who was actually behind
that alleged drone strike?
Well, I don't think we're going
to try to investigate this, Wolf.
I mean, this
whether it happened or not, it's
not the kind of thing that I think
we're going to invest a lot of time
in investigating.
Clearly,
we'd like to learn more about that
and we'll continue to do that.
And talking to the Ukrainians and
and trying to do the best
we can to piece it together,
but we're not on a big fact
finding mission here.
What we are on a mission to do
is make sure that Ukraine can continue
to defend itself,
give them the tools, the capabilities,
the training that they need
as they get ready to conduct
operations here in the spring
when the weather gets better.
Would Russia
have an incentive of John to stage
what's called a false flag
operation
just ahead of its annual victory day
and the expected
Ukrainian counter-offensive
that everyone anticipates will begin
in the coming in the coming days?
Well, we can't rule out that
that's not part of their calculus.
I mean, it's certainly
right out of the Russian playbook
to do that kind of thing.
But I want to stress, Wolf,
we do not know what happened here.
We're not speculating.
We're not hypothesizing.
I'm not calling it
a false flag operation.
We're clearly look,
the Russians have conducted
false flag operations in the past.
It's a playbook.
It's a play from their playbook that
that we could expect
that they might want to pull on again.
But I mean, again,
I want to go back to what I said before.
I mean,
they continually fly
cruise missiles and drones
at civilian infrastructure
inside Ukraine. It's not as if Mr.
Putin needs to go find an excuse
to try to visit
violence on the Ukrainian people.
He's been doing it at an accelerated
rate over just the last few days.
Does the U.S.
accept Ukraine's denials about this?
Because as you know,
some of those leaked classified documents
show Ukraine had previously planned
to attack Moscow.
And there's been
a string of recent attacks
on Russian soil.
Well, look, the
Ukrainians spoke very plainly about this.
They did deny that.
We'll let them speak for
for you know, for themselves.
And certainly we noted
that they came out
very, very quickly
and said
that they had nothing to do with it.
Again, we're not
you know,
we're not going to conduct
an investigation here.
What we want to do
is make sure that Ukraine
can defend itself.
That's where the focus is.
John Kirby over at the White House, thank
you very much.