Tonight, Russia
is being rattled
by attacks on its own territory,
as well as a key port city
in occupied Ukraine.
Our senior
international correspondent
Sam Kiley is joining us
live now from eastern Ukraine.
Sam, Russian officials
trying to reassure
residents living under Kremlin control,
but these attacks are really intensifying
they are intensifying attacks in addition
to the one
you referred to there in Berlin.
There was a drone attack in Smolensk
on an oil refinery or some similar
type building.
And of course, there have been ongoing
incursions and attacks
much closer to here.
Just north
on the border between Ukraine and Russia.
And it's those,
I think, that have really shaken
the Russians up
here.
A Ukrainian strike in
Russian occupied by the UNSC
last summer
in Gloucester, Kharkiv.
It's heating up across several fronts
in Russia.
The governor of Belgorod
Province struggles to reassure
a rattled population.
To be honest, kokrokoo.
I heard that the armed forces
of Ukraine continue to show our territory
more than 2500
people are staying
in temporary
accommodation facilities in Belgorod.
There are many questions
that residents of Shevchenko
and border villages are asking.
Starting with Who will pay my utilities?
What about our property?
Who is watching over it?
Ukrainian backed Russian
dissident soldiers claim
to have raided Russia a second time
over a slow in a stunt
that could have been filmed anywhere.
One fighter
displayed a fridge magnet
from Belgorod on social media, soon due
to will be able to walk in free Belgorod
and then across all Russia.
He said.
Vladimir Putin has stepped in to steady
the national nerves
She wouldn't let a commission move
across a museum.
Today,
we will also address these issues
in relation
to ensuring Russia's security.
In this case,
domestic political security.
Considering the efforts,
our foes are still taking
and stepping up
in order to destabilize the situation
inside Russia,
we must do everything
we can
to prevent this from happening
at any cost to
the US.
Setting out some grim truths for Moscow.
When you look at
President Putin's long term
strategic aims and objectives,
there is no question.
Russia is significantly worse off
today than it was before
its full scale invasion
of Ukraine militarily.
Economically, geopolitically.
That's certainly
the message that Ukraine's
trying to deliver to Russia
and now by force,
And I think that message
has been forcefully delivered
once again with a partizan attack
claimed by Ukrainian supporters inside
the occupied
town of Melita Poll
with the bombing of a car
killing one so-called
collaborator
and injuring at least three others.
And we are seeing a lot
more of these sorts of events,
particularly close
to that southern front,
where both sides, both the Russians
and the Ukrainians,
have been pounding each other
ever more frequently with artillery.
Alex, really a remarkable escalation.
Sam Kiley in Kiev in eastern Ukraine,
thank you very much for that report.
Let's discuss all this
with CNN contributor of Russian affairs
Jill Dougherty
and retired
Colonel Cedric Leighton, a CNN
military analyst.
Thank you both for joining me
this evening.
Jill, I'm really struck by that soundbite
that Sam just played
from Vladimir
Putin there, assuring his population
that we will do everything
we can to prevent this
from happening at any cost.
He's really having
to tell the Russian population
this will be okay.
What do you think he's going to do?
How can he follow through on that?
Promise? I don't think that he can.
I mean, these attacks are coming.
They seem incapable of stopping them.
I mean, if they could, they would.
But they continue
And then you have the drone attacks
just a few days ago in Moscow.
So I think he's got a real problem in
a lot of
the way he approaches his don't
talk about it,
you know,
but the fact
that they have that quote today,
he is trying to tell people it's okay,
as he always says,
it's under control,
but it's not under control.
And those residents certainly feeling
that it's not under control.
And Cedric,
some some dramatic language
Ukrainians saying that the gates of war
have now been opened.
Clearly, these attacks inside Russia are
putting the Kremlin off-balance there.
They seem to be rattled as well.
But do you see any downside, any
any risks to this?
Well, there certainly are.
Alex, I think one of the key things
that the Ukrainians
have to watch out for
is attacking
too many civilian targets in Russia.
I you know,
right now
they're on the moral high ground right?
They own all of that
because the people
that are actually attacking
civilian targets are the Russians
for the most part.
And that has given Ukraine
a lot of support in a material sense
in a diplomatic sense
and certainly in a military sense.
And it risks you know,
Ukraine risks
something very big here
if it does something that does not impact
the military objective directly.
In other words,
if they go into the civilian
side of things,
so they have to be very careful
to concentrate more on the military side.
And yes, even on the political side.
But the one thing that they have done
very well
is so distrust
terror
in the minds of the Russian population.
The White House has said very clearly
they would rather
they not see Ukraine
striking inside of Russia.
Jill,
it is now very apparent
to the Russian citizens themselves
that these strikes are taking place.
You have these attacks
against smaller
border towns
in the western part of Russia.
But you also have
these recent drone attacks
near Moscow, including in and around
a neighborhood
that is where some of the elite live.
So to what extent
do you think the Russian sentiment
about the war is changing
and changing more against it?
You know,
I think an interesting part of this
is that
when it's been happening in that town
that we just saw the video from Shabake,
you know,
I mean, that's been hit for months
and nobody really talked about it.
The people out there feel, hey, you know,
you don't talk about it
until it happens in Moscow.
So I think what you're seeing is
the class differences, the elite versus
the average people
being affected by the war.
And,
you know,
a certain
amount of kind of pushback,
even the mayor looks in
not very comfortable
about what's going on
significantly Putin
actually got on the phone
and called him yesterday
and said, what do you need?
Again, you know,
trying to reassure people.
Colonel, we only have a few moments left,
but we are all waiting
for this counter-offensive,
of course, to start in earnest.
Once it starts
with all of the new training
they've gotten, all of the new weapons
that they have gotten,
what are the challenges
that they are going to face in terms
of breaking through that Russian line
and taking back
Russian occupied territory?
So during this period
that we've been waiting for,
you have all of these tank traps
that have been built.
You have all of the different
emplacements, all the trenches,
every type of thing that the Russians
could throw at this.
They have thrown at this.
So they have a very strong
defensive line.
Now, that line is only as strong
as long as the people in the Russian army
band.
That line,
if they're not there, if they defect,
if they retreat,
if they do anything like that or desert,
then it's going to be a major mess.
And the Ukrainians can very much
exploit that.
All right.
Well, we're still waiting for this
to start from Clayton.
Jill Dougherty, thank you very much.
Always appreciate your thoughts. You bet.