OUTFRONT tonight.
30 $500 for your life.
That's at one city
aligned with Russia is now offering
men who sign up to fight Putin's war.
This is it. This is the decree.
We've got it in hand.
It's a decree signed
by the leaders of big inner
city city
aligned with Russia,
technically
right over the border in Kazakhstan.
It establishes.
And let me just read what it says
here in this
decree says it establishes
a lump sum payment to mobilize citizens
as well as persons
who voluntarily expressed their desire
to take part
in the special military operation
and who signed a contract
for military service
residing in Baikonur City
as a measure of social support
and the amount of 260,000 rubles.
So there you go.
You've got the price of a life there.
The price of a life is 260,000 rubles.
That's about 30 $500.
It seems
it may be more of a choice there, though.
30 $500 to die
than it is
in many other places in Russia.
The Mayor of Kuznets in Reston, Russia,
now saying unemployed
men should only be given one option.
He's suggesting the town
shut down
the unemployment center
and instead send
anybody who needs work to war.
His words, quote,
The unemployed must enlist in the army.
If you've nothing to do the defend
your homeland and you'll be paid for it.
Now, the mayor insisting that
this will solve
the city's unemployment problem
and Putin's problems on the battlefield.
It's incredible
to hear this
right and end 30 $500 for your life.
But of course, from the numbers,
we know there's a high chance
that anybody who takes any of these deals
and goes to the Russian
front does not come home alive.
We sometimes share intercepted
phone calls with you.
And tonight
we have one that Ukraine intercepted,
which is of a Russian fighter
slamming his superiors
for a living larger than the enlisted men
who are drinking water out of
dirt puddles on the ground.
And he complains that
his request to come home was denied.
Here it is.
Throughout the show, there are
these centers
who live in three story
cottages in the town.
For fuck's sake.
While you were here lying in the trench,
you sleep in the dirt, eat in the dirt.
You drink from puddles
while they walk around.
So are you going to try to get discharged
Well,
around the new year,
everyone lost their mind
because they had rejected
all of our requests to go home.
I requested all our requests to go home,
and there they are,
stuck in trenches,
drinking from filthy puddles.
Some battalions, as we've been reporting,
are losing about half their men.
You don't have to guess at the morale
because we can actually see
what's happening. Right.
We've got some new video in
to show you tonight and to OUTFRONT.
Okay.
What you're looking at here
are Russian fighters
essentially sitting ducks.
They're taking cover in a trench
and then taken out by a Ukrainian drone
gone.
Some of those lives extinguished.
Those kinds of images are leading.
The chairman of the Joint Chiefs
in the U.S., General
Mark Milley, to say this
Russia has lost.
They've lost strategically,
operationally and tactically,
and they are paying an enormous price
on the battlefield.
Enormous price.
There's another new video
I want to share tonight.
It's also new for us OUTFRONT.
This is a Russian fighter jet
most likely hit by a Ukrainian man,
one of their portable air defense systems
totally damaged beyond repair.
And of course, they want us to see this.
But I can tell you, I've seen it.
Anyone there has seen it.
The Ukrainian countryside
is littered with burned out
Russian tanks and missile systems.
And yet Putin is now upping the ante.
The Financial Times
reporting that according
to intelligence shared
with NATO's allies,
Russia could be on the verge
of launching a massive new aerosol.
And we can tell you that we're starting
to see more
and more Russian assets
on at least two bases
along the Ukrainian border.
On the Russian side,
Belarus, of course,
the same country Putin
used as a launch pad for his assaults
on Kiev tonight.
Fred Pleitgen is there in Belarus.
And David McKenzie is OUTFRONT
live in Kiev.
Let me begin with you, Fred.
As we're talking about
these assets,
you know,
accumulating on the Belarus inside.
This reporting
about Putin wanting
to launch an all out military
air assault. What are you seeing there?
Hi there.
Well, I
think that's a really important point
that you make
and certainly
also a very important observation
as well.
One of the things that the Ukrainians
have been saying
for a very long time is that they fear,
as the Russians
might be preparing
for that very large offensive,
that Belarus could indeed
play a large role there.
And of course,
as you also mentioned,
that first thrust that the Russians had
when the war began
nearly a year ago,
that also came from Belarus.
There were a massive amount
of Russian forces that went into Belarus.
And the Russians
still have thousands of soldiers
on the ground here in Belarus.
They train them here
to then actually go into Ukraine
to fight there through the Donbas.
But however, the Ukrainians believe that
right now there's not enough
Russian ground forces
on the ground here in Belarus.
But the air element,
that really is
the major important thing for them
right now.
There were just massive air
exercises, air force exercises,
with the Russian
and the Belarussian militaries
that just concluded a couple of days ago.
Alexander Lukashenko,
the Belarussian strongman,
he said it was all defensive in nature.
It really doesn't mean anything.
But of course,
we know
that Lukashenko is very dependent
on Vladimir Putin.
And Lukashenko himself
has said that Belarus,
the security would not be possible
without Russia.
Now, there's many believe
that Vladimir Putin
is trying to draw
Belarus more into his orbit
and possibly trying to draw it
into this war as well.
One of the things that we're looking
at, Erin, is that in a couple of days,
Lukashenko and Putin
are set to meet once again.
We're going to wait
and see what happens there.
But certainly
what the Ukrainians are saying is
they've seen an uptick
in Russian air
movements on the Belarussian side.
And also the Russians are using Belarus
as well
to hit Ukraine
with some of those missiles
that are obviously having
devastating effects
on Ukrainian cities Erin. Absolutely.
All right.
Fred Pleitgen,
thank you very much,
live in Belarus tonight.
And of course, on the front lines
in Ukraine, the brutal fight continues
David McKenzie is OUTFRONT
with this report from Kiev.
Thousands of
miles from the front lines,
a cemetery in Russia's Far East.
Two young men
cut down in relentless waves of attack
Off camera, a woman sobs and says,
Our boys lost someone.
She said she's soldiers.
Of the 155th Marine Brigade,
the unit has taken catastrophic losses
in Volodya for weeks.
The coal
mining town,
the epicenter
of Russia's
efforts to break through Ukrainian lines.
But the assault here has been a disaster.
At least 30 Russian tanks
destroyed by Ukrainian mines
and artillery are scrambled.
Chaotic retreat
across this front.
The Ukrainians are well dug in.
Their lines aren't moving.
War
which is filled with artillery, is key.
But the soldier says they are
now ten attacks a day.
There used to be just a couple
to the north.
The Russians are inching
forward around parliament.
And every exit from the
city is extremely dangerous.
The battles here at close quarters,
unrelenting trench warfare
on the edge of the city.
Mr.
Obama needs to keep control
and it's so hard.
The enemy is pushing
from different directions,
says this Ukrainian soldier.
Of all the efforts
our men are making, our priceless
fighters of the Volga mercenary group
paraded their flag
at a village on the outskirts of mud.
But they are being forced to fight
for every single horse.
And Wagner
boss Yevgeny Prigozhin admits, but
do not see a
permit, will not be taken tomorrow
because there is heavy resistance
and grinding
for the meat grinder to work properly,
it is impossible
to suddenly stop festivities
This as Wagner units continue
to endure
heavy losses in its efforts
on the hills around back.
But with our vulnerable
to Ukrainian artillery and drones
Ukrainian officials
now expect another Russian thrust
further north in the forests near Crimea.
There's been fierce fighting
here for weeks.
A Russian advance
here would allow the Kremlin
to claim it's captured
all of the Hunter region,
a key objective of Vladimir Putin's war.
But the Ukrainians are putting up
stiff resistance
and their allies
expect that in the spring
they may be able to
launch attacks of their own.
If they are supplied,
the weapons and ammunition
they need,
we believe that there will be
a window of opportunity
for them to exercise initiative
and then change
we'll continue to to
create the right conditions
on the battlefield there
before that along this vast front.
The Ukrainians must hold off
what they expect
to be an imminent Russian onslaught.
President Zelensky tonight,
Aaron, saying that
the situation
on the Eastern Front
is, quote, extremely difficult.
He said
the fighters are fighting over
inches over meters, as he put it.
But this is an opportunity,
he said, to destroy
the Russian assets there.
There has been a call for more ammunition
and more weapons
that basic things
soldiers need to push forward
and to stave off a Russian assault.
Naito is promising it,
but Zelensky tonight said that speed
saves lives.