Ukraine counting bodies
as it clears
the rubble from one of the deadliest
Russian attacks
since the invasion almost one year ago.
CNN senior
international correspondent
Ben Wedeman is joining us
live from the war zone.
He's got details.
Ben, I understand
the Ukrainian president is calling this
missile strike a war crime.
Give us the latest
Yes, that's right.
In his nightly address,
President Volodymyr Zelensky
described it as a war crime.
He said that
those who are behind this attack
that killed 40 people,
at least 40 people,
there are still 25 people missing.
Those behind the attack,
he said, will be identified
and brought to justice in the meantime.
Battles continue to rage here in eastern
Ukraine.
Near Bermuda's front lines.
Lost souls wander the streets.
Those who can't leave won't leave
or have given up caring.
Why should I put some food on the fire?
I top, some would say Svetlana
and decided to go out for some fresh air
Dimitri
pays no heed to the shelling.
This is my land, he says.
I won't leave you here.
The fighting echoes
through the fog.
As the Russians seem
to be gaining control
of solider north of here.
In the mood,
the fighting seems to be intensifying,
one local resident told us.
Whereas before, mortars
were flying over their heads.
Now it's bullets
Soldiers prepared
trenches inside the city.
New defensive positions.
If the Russians push forward
with a lot of them, sandbags with wood
on top, says Valentin.
And three firing positions of steel
on the ever
so slightly safer
western side of the city.
A makeshift market offers the basics
with no electricity or running water.
Commerce is conducted in the open
market of Business magazine.
My two shops were destroyed, says Denis
So I'm selling on the Street
Brothers to cover.
But this food is only for those
who can afford it.
And said he isn't one of the rebels.
I'm living like an animal, he says.
Ivan returns home
after collecting firewood.
The bitter cold is deadly is the shelling
that you see when you sit
people have frozen
to death in their apartments, he says.
That's right.
On a bluff overlooking Baja.
This artillery
officer nicknamed Pilot,
says they're up against troops.
Many conflicts
with the private military comes back
to throw a body.
We're fighting against
soldiers brought to the slaughter,
he says.
These Wagner guys have no choice.
They're sentenced to death
walking out of town.
That's all of it.
And then the order comes to open a fire
and we are getting some reports, said
one of the towns
to the south of Bermuda
may have been taken by the Russians.
This means, Wolf,
that perhaps in the near future
the city could be surrounded
by Russian forces
Very worrisome development indeed.
All right, Ben
Wedeman, stay safe over there.
Thank you very much.
Let's get an update right now
on our new U.S.
efforts
to try to help Ukraine
fend off this latest Russian assault.
Our Pentagon correspondent
Oren Liebermann is joining us right now.
Oren, I understand
Patriot missile
training involving Ukrainian soldiers
will begin on U.S. soil this week.
Is that right?
That's right, Wolf.
Fort Sill in Oklahoma, where the U.S.
conducts its own
training on Patriots for the U.S.
military as well as for others.
Has announced
that a team of Ukrainians
has arrived to begin training
on the Patriot
missile system,
a system that requires
90 to 100 troops to operate fully.
A training
expected to take several months.
But once that is completed
and the Pentagon
is working to accelerate that
as much as possible,
the Patriot will go to Ukraine
to aid in the aerial defense there.
So that training expected to begin
any day now
with the arrival of the Ukrainians.
And it's part
of what we're seeing from the West.
Take a look at this list here.
Announcements of bigger
and more powerful weapons
going in the U.K.
announced that it would send 12
of its own challenger to tanks.
Poland has signaled a willingness
to send leopard tanks.
Those are German made
and will require German approval.
And, of course, the U.S.
training on the Patriots to begin
there is a key question here.
Could
the Patriot have stopped this attack
on the de Dnipro apartment,
that horrible attack
where the death toll was at 40
and expected to still rise.
It is a question that can be answered
with certainty.
But yes,
the Patriot
missile is a long range
aerial defense
system, meaning its radar
could have picked up
that incoming missile
at a greater range
and its missile
perhaps able to shoot it down.
Of course, first,
that training needs to be completed.
But there's also a key question
for Ukraine
it's getting one
Patriot battery from the U.S.
and another from Germany.
Ukraine will have to decide
where it wants to focus
those defensive systems.
It can't defend the entire country.
A patriot is not capable of that.
So it will have to decide where
to prioritize.
Presumably,
one will defend the capital of Kiev.
And then it's up to Ukrainian
President Volodymyr Zelensky
and the military
on where it will want
to use that other one.
So it's not a simple cover
all system that will defend
Ukraine, Wolf.
It will certainly help, however.
Yes, indeed.
Oren Liebermann at the Pentagon for us,
thank you very much.
Let's get some analysis right now
from CNN contributor on Russian affairs,
Jill Dougherty, and retired U.S.
Army General Wesley Clark.
He's a CNN
military analyst, former NATO supreme
allied commander General Clark.
We have a lot to discuss.
But first, what does it say to you
that Russia used a cruise missile
against civilians
in an apartment building
in what President Zelensky
says was a war crime?
It's possibly a targeting mistake
because this is not
a very accurate missile.
But the point is, he's using that missile
he knows it's not accurate.
And this is a war crime,
along with many other war crimes, Wolf.
And it's a challenge to the West.
We need to take
not only Patriots and Berman there.
We need to indict Mr.
Putin and his team for war crimes.
Will the brutality, Jill,
of this latest attack spur Western allies
to boost support for Ukraine even further
Well, Wolf,
this is a very serious moment.
I mean, this really, even in the Russian
press, is being written
about and reported on.
So it's a very important moment.
It would appear that it would precisely
because of the brutality of it.
However, it happened as a general said,
with all of these people
who were killed and injured.
So you would have to think
that there would be more support.
But I think, you know,
the terrible arithmetic, you know,
the math
that the Ukrainians have to do
is in this area,
if you have a fight like this,
you know, what do you defend
Maybe when we were talking,
that solider, the city that's not too far
from back mount
these
these are the things
that they have to decide.
How much do you put into the fight?
How much do you give up temporarily
in order to protect your troops?
Because we're all talking about
in the spring some type of offensive.
Russians actually talking about it.
And the Ukrainians definitely are.
So there's a lot
there are a lot of,
I think, very difficult decisions
that have to be made here
by the Ukrainians.
There's you're absolutely right.
General Clark,
as you heard,
Ukrainian troops are down here
in the United States.
They're getting ready to train
on the Patriot Air
Defense missile system.
But it will be months
before that makes a difference
on the battlefield.
Does the U.S.
need to provide more patriots
and other weapons to Ukraine right now
to help out
The answer is yes.
And we
need to be training more
for more than one Patriot battery.
But we don't have those extra batteries
or we're
going to be taking it
from somewhere else.
This is this matter
is coming from the school at Fort Sill.
So we need to really mobilize, Wolf,
we need to start producing more.
This is a long term
strategic problem for the United States.
Unless Ukraine collapses tomorrow,
we're going to be in this position
of trying to give them assistance.
Two months from now, four months
from now,
eight months from now,
a year from now,
Putin is not relenting
on what he's doing.
He's mobilizing in Russia.
I think we have to really get serious
and understand
this is a long term problem.
But we can do more right now.
I can challenge your tanks.
Wonderful.
Why not 20? Why not 40?
Why not 60?
50. Bradley Fighting Vehicles.
Why not 200?
We're going to have to accept the fact
that we can't get any package
this assistance
and have it make a
difference for Ukraine.
It's not enough to keep them there
and letting them be bloodied
by these kinds of assault.
We need to give them what they need
to work Russia, push them out of Ukraine.
Very strong words
from General Wesley Clark.
Thanks so much for joining us.
Jill Dougherty, thanks to you as well.