All out winter warfare.
On the eastern front.
We're in a trench
with Ukrainian paratroopers
They fire on Russian positions using
AK's and a US supplied Browning
heavy machine gun.
They're searching for weak spots
in our positions
as the commander callsign ghost.
They want to see if we fight back.
We show strong resistance, though
they don't advance
And this is what strong resistance
looks like.
Bull through
the Russians are only about 400
yards away, hidden in the snow and fog,
but constantly
firing at the entrenched Ukrainian
Then the enemy uses all kinds of weapons,
Bogdan says.
Small arms, heavy machine guns,
artillery, mortars, rocket
launchers and aviation as well.
But so far,
the Ukrainians say
they haven't
lost an inch of territory here.
The Ukrainians say the situation here
is reminiscent of some of the worst times
in World War Two,
where they're not only fighting
a strong adversary, but
the elements as well.
The snow the mud
and the cold
make fighting here even tougher.
And Ukraine's leadership believes
the Russians will soon escalate even more
after mobilizing hundreds
of thousands of men
for a likely spring offensive
But this gunner, who goes by the name
deputy, says
the paratroopers are ready to drive off.
It will be hard, he says.
It will be tough,
but we will hold
because we stand here for our land.
If we don't do it, nobody will move.
There's a visceral hatred
towards Moscow's leaders among these men.
Verses are of them in Russia.
They have a terrorist,
dictatorial regime, Bogdan says.
So now the civilized world
is fighting against this wild
medieval dictatorship.
As we prepare to leave,
incoming grenades explode above the sky.
And this,
the men say, is a relatively quiet day.
They expect much worse in the months
to come.
But their motto is, If not us, who else
And Aaron,
that is the
reality on the ground there
and in so many other places
on Ukraine's eastern front.
You were mentioning
the Ukrainian defense minister
saying he believes up to 500,000
people could already
have been mobilized by the Russians
in every single place
that we've been going to.
On the eastern front here in Ukraine.
They have been telling
us, the Ukrainians,
that they believe that the Russians
have already beefed up their forces.
And certainly the Ukrainian government
today said
that they believe
that the month of February
and the month of March
are going to be extremely tough
for the Ukrainians on the ground.
They obviously say
they need more Western weapons
to hold their ground.
But they also say, of course,
they are not going to give up
an inch of their territory
without a fight Erin.
Fred, thank you very much.
It's an incredible report.
And I want to bring in now
to talk about it
a Caterina called Jacuzzi.
The news director and anchor for TV Rain,
which is an independent
Russian language television
channel, shut down
by the Russian government
at the start of the war.
Also with me, retired Army
Brigadier General Mark Kimmitt,
a former assistant secretary of state
for political military affairs
Thanks to both.
General Kimmitt,
let me begin with you,
because you hear, Fred,
the Ukrainian troops he's speaking to.
You know,
they say today was a quiet day,
a quiet day,
as we just heard, the nonstop
right artillery in the distance,
the grenades exploding overhead
as he was leaving.
And the defense minister of Ukraine
is saying that Russia's already
mobilized 500,000 soldiers,
that they're seeing them amassed
on these borders again.
Do you think that we're about to see
a big change in this war?
Well, I really don't.
I think
we may see a big change in this war
in a couple of months.
But as the soldiers
said, this is very much like World
War Two note.
In fact,
this is like World War One,
the trench warfare in France
that went on for years and years.
Unfortunately,
I think
in the near term,
we're going to see much
the same
for the next couple of months
until one side or the other prepares
for a counteroffensive.
That's why we got the tanks.
That's why we're bringing in the tanks.
So the Ukrainians have a chance
and the Russians
may have plans on the road.
But I certainly hope
we're interdicting their lines
to make sure the majority of these troops
never show up.
Ekaterina, you pointed out to us
that sound byte we played of sort of the
the most prominent
Russian state media, television anchor.
Right.
Threatening that if the Russians don't
win, it's nuclear World War three.
And you're pointing out
that a lot of the Putin TV
commentators on state
media are backing more action.
They really are upping the rhetoric
right now.
Let me play how another prominent TV
host put it
not clear, not talk
about this without a third.
Why would our state build up a stockpile
of strategic
and tactical nuclear missiles that you.
Why
start
just to be afraid of using them
carrying?
What do you read into that?
And what does the Russian
public really think at this point?
This was Vladimir Solovyov,
one of the biggest
since Russian propaganda, Erin.
Actually, the situation right now
is dangerous for Vladimir Putin.
As we can see, they don't have any other
any other tools to use
for the Russian public
and for the Western world,
except for the threats.
They are threatening the world
with this World War
Three with the nuclear weapon,
because this is the last hope
that they can catch right now
and all over the world,
the attitude of people in Russia is
is fear,
actually,
that society is terribly depressed.
People understand
that this is the war, actually,
that this is not a special
military operation,
how they called it before.
Vladimir Putin is already calling this
a war.
And Sergey
Lavrov, the minister for foreign affairs
and others,
they're not hiding anymore that this is
a very
serious situation
and people
are understanding it right now.
So this is the new stage
for Russian society.
And they can hear this words
about the nuclear weapon.
I know that people are scared to death.
They don't want this nuclear war,
of course,
because they don't want to die.
They want to
raise their children
and so on and so forth.
So they are looking for some kind of,
you know, maybe a kind and soft moment.
There are looking forward
to maybe freezing this this war
because this is the only way to survive
for Russian citizens.
They don't know how to see the future
without Vladimir Putin
because he has built
a terrible, repressive state
where no one
has the right to think freely
or to talk freely, as you know.
So, General Kimmitt,
you know, a well-known
and highly respected
Russian analyst
said this about the current state
of the Russian military
in the context
of what Ekaterina just said.
Here it is.
Both Charles and I believe that
by the start of the mobilization,
our airborne forces lost 40 to 50%
of the staff.
Look, it's an
incredible admission, right,
happening on one of those
very same programs. General.
So I do want to emphasize that.
But to say something like that.
But nearly half of Russia's
airborne forces are gone.
I mean, it's stunning
but then I think about what
the Ukrainian defense minister
said today,
that Russia has 500,000
more soldiers coming.
General, what is the real picture here?
Well,
I think the real picture is quantity
has some quality all its own.
If they are going to be pouring
500,000 troops
and that's going to make
a significant difference,
no matter how many tanks we give,
no matter how much artillery they have.
But I wouldn't put too much stock
in what the defense minister said.
There's an old saying military
The first report is usually wrong.
And that seems like
an awfully large number
to anybody
that's been following this for some time.
It certainly does.
I mean,
you heard it today and said
wait a minute,
it wasn't
the math that we'd heard
of the mobilization or anything.
But but it is a stunning number.
Ekaterina, you have extensively covered
Putin. Opposition Leader Alexi Navalny.
He is in the news today.
His lawyer
saying that he is being transferred
to even harsher solitary confinement.
He, of course, is the opposition
leader in Russia
and was poisoned by Putin's men
and then put into a penal colony.
Sometimes he's able
to pass messages to his team
and then they post them on Twitter today.
That happened
and this was posted quote,
When something like this happens to you,
you realize how important it is
to fight this unscrupulous regime,
how important it is to do
just about anything in order
to throw the yoke of these scoundrels
off Russia.
And dispel
the illusion that they have planted
in the heads of millions.
Let us try to remain strong
and do all we can every day.
And yet he physically seems weaker
every time we get an image of him.
Ekaterina,
as I said
today, going to even harsher
solitary confinement.
What happens if he doesn't survive
it's going to be a huge problem for him
because he has already tried to kill him,
and we know that.
But it was a different time right now
when the level of fear
and depression
in Russian society is so high
when everyone is at the edge,
when mobilization is
something that people ask cared
very much.
And, you know,
we know that because we can see how that
how many people watch us
and millions of Russians
are asking questions
about mobilization in particular.
So Navalny, his death,
if it happens, I mean, it's terrible.
But if it happens, can be a huge trigger
for Russian people
to go out on the streets and to protest
and to change something.
I don't want this to happen, of course,
and no one wants this to happen.
And Putin doesn't want it to happen.
So that's why
they're not killing him in jail.
This is the only good news
for Alexei Navalny
and for the
for the civil society
of Russian Federation.
Which survives
out of Russia, unfortunately, right now.
So, yes,
he's in a terrible circumstances.
They're trying to break his personality.
His stamina
but he is proving every single day, Erin,
if you look at him
and if you look what he says,
what he writes,
what he tweets
with the help of his lawyers,
you can see how strong this person is.
And I am sure that he survives, actually.
Catarina, thank you very much.
General Kimmitt, thanks to you.