David McKenzie joins us live now
from a city in western Ukraine.
So David
Zelinsky was in jeopardy
where he met with the head of the IAEA.
What more can you tell us
Well, then it's certainly
an important meeting with Russia,
the head of the IAEA.
There has been long
nervousness over
the state of the zapper
is a nuclear power plant.
In that part of the country
which has been occupied
by Russians and run by Ukrainians.
The IAEA have had
people on the ground there
since at least September
But the head of the Atomic Energy
Agency said
the situation is still precarious.
So it comes at an important moment.
And it's significant
that President Zelensky has been meeting
with injured soldiers
in different parts of the front line.
Excuse me.
The impact
on the
Ukrainian military of this war
has been very severe indeed.
But it's not just
the military impact, those lives lost
and those injured,
but also the psychological impact.
And we took a rare look at soldiers
trying to get back on their feet
The video diary of a young
Ukrainian volunteer
callsign, Akula, or Shock
he signed up
on the very first morning of the invasion
ready to defend his nation.
In the beginning,
he says he didn't feel the burden of war.
But then Akula was sent
to the eastern front
in legislation.
When was a when he.
This was the most difficult
time in my life, he says.
It's impossible to describe it
with words, most of which is critical
where words fail him.
These images tell his story, the story
of thousands of young Ukrainian soldiers.
Akula says he's suffered
severe concussions from artillery
and rocket strikes
He's now
at a mental health rehabilitation center
near Kiev.
Did you think the conflict would be
anything like you've experienced
when you volunteered that day?
Just the young ones of those, you know.
To be honest,
I did not expect such a war, he says.
When I went to war,
I thought everything would be different.
And when you get there,
it's not what you think.
Now.
It's scary.
Cold, hungry and lonely.
Will not
box.
Akula says it's peaceful here.
At the Forest Glade Center.
Soldiers get up to a month of treatment,
but even Nikola took the hardest decision
for them is to send them back to fight
and perhaps die. Do
you know?
Is that the
most important thing now
is that they survive and stay alive?
Says the head of Mental Health.
After the war,
we will help him with the health
and socialization in this country.
Now, every decent
man should join the war.
Young and old.
Their job is to save Ukraine tomorrow.
Do you you think.
You think you
Today that office is there.
And Ukraine
is urgently calling for volunteers
like these.
Oh, obviously
they don't release casualty figures.
But a senior
US official estimated months ago
that perhaps 100,000 soldiers
had been killed and injured.
That figure undoubtedly higher now
Just weeks ago,
many of these recruits
hadn't held a rifle,
but their commander,
a trained psychologist,
carries a Ukrainian flag on his back
to raise above liberated towns.
Not at the moment.
At the moment,
I feel less afraid for myself
and for my fighters.
Says Lieutenant confessed.
Some of my team have not seen combat,
and I have a great responsibility
to lead them forward.
I just want people to clearly understand,
says a cooler,
that the guys have been there
since the beginning.
I'm not going to stand
forever, immediately
He says he isn't physically
or mentally ready,
but in a few days
he could be sent back to fight
somewhere, principle
and settle with them.
This is my job, he says.
And I have to do it.
Who else?
If not us,
And you look
at those psychologists, psychiatrists,
the neurologist.
We spoke to Zan,
and it's so different from
a normal peacetime situation
where you would let people
relax, slowly recover.
And you heard it from the heard
there very directly.
Their aim is to win the war.
And they will think about these issues
when and if they win the war.
And right now,
there are many,
many soldiers like this
that I've met in our time in Ukraine.
That are struggling
with the realities of conflict
and what it does, not just to the
body but to the mind, then
have the
mental health aspects of all of this
should not be forgotten.
David McKenzie, live for us there.
Thank you so much.
We will definitely win.
That was the message
from President Volodymyr
Zelensky today
to troops
during a visit to the front lines
in Ukraine's separate series Region
while he was there.
Mr.
Zelensky also met with the head
of the International Atomic Energy Agency
to discuss the safety
of the nuclear power plant
there and its staff now.
Monday has been a violent day across
southern and eastern Ukraine,
including an attack on Slovyansk
that killed at least two people and left
dozens more injured.
CNN's senior
international correspondent
Ivan Watson brings us the very latest
from Ukraine's capital.
It has been an active and violent day
in the Ukraine war
with a number of strikes and attacks.
Reporter guardedly carried out in russian
occupied ukrainian cities
in the south of the country.
Some kind of strike in the center
of the russian occupied
town of city of nearly topple
which hit a building there.
We're still waiting to get details
on potential casualties and then what
russian state media
has described
as an assassination attempt
in the russian occupied city of Mariupol,
apparently targeting
the car of the city's
police chief
The Ukrainians would look
at this individual
as basically a collaborator
for working with the Russian occupation
forces.
We've seen images of a car damaged there
The Ukrainians are saying that
there are resistance forces
in these occupied towns
and that they argue
there is nothing wrong with them
targeting the Russian
occupation administration in these cities
as they vowed to liberate them
sometime in the future.
In the meantime,
there have been very serious
Russian missile strikes reported
by the Ukrainian authorities
against two eastern Ukrainian cities.
That is Sloviansk.
And the town called the Russian Kefka.
The Ukrainians say
that Russians used S-300 missiles.
These are supposed to be surface
to air missiles,
but they've been repurposed
to attack
targets on the ground with huge impact.
The Ukrainians are saying
that the administrative
center of Sloviansk was hit.
Serious damage to buildings
there at least two people killed,
dozens reported wounded.
And also in Kefka as well,
damage incurred there.
Meanwhile,
the flashpoint
towns of Dufka and Paramount are also
the scenes of intense
fighting with authorities in of
DPKO telling
civilians to
evacuate and
warning that utilities will be cut off
as the Russians
continue to press their offensive
to try to capture that town.
Ivan Watson CNN chief.