Let's begin on the ground in
Ukraine tonight
where Ivan Watson is OUTFRONT.
He's in Aparecida this evening.
And Ivan, what is the latest there?
Erin, Ukrainian authorities
say at
least two people were killed in Ukraine's
northern Sunni region
after Russian warplanes
fired guided bomb aims
at towns and villages there.
And they say another three
people were killed
in an eastern town called Konstantinov
by a Russian missile attack.
That is just up the road
from the embattled city of Baku, scene
of more than seven months
of deadly warfare.
Russia's war
machine appears to be losing momentum
in back Mut,
where Ukrainian commanders now exhibit
optimism
after hurling themselves for months
against Ukrainian defenders
in this city on Ukraine's eastern front.
Russian troops and mercenaries
have made only incremental gains
and suffered staggering losses.
Russian forces
in back moves are depleted,
says one of Kiev's top generals.
And the Ukrainian counter
offensive could soon be launched
and harder to judge.
The enormous
sacrifice Ukrainians have made
in their costly defense
of this embattled city.
But while Russia's efforts have slowed,
they haven't stalled.
Ukraine claims
the area has been hit
with more than 200 strikes
in the last day alone.
And Russia
is sending in backup
to compensate for the growing losses
of Wagner private mercenaries.
With Russian
airborne troops
now playing a greater role
in the fighting around Berkut,
according to the Ukrainian military,
I live here
just because
I want to say
that the situation in the south
has not improved in such a way.
We can talk about some kind of victory
or anything like that.
On the contrary,
the enemy is applying even more pressure.
President Volodymyr
Zelensky earlier
this week paid tribute
to the defenders of Buk Moute
visiting Ukraine's eastern
front to hand out awards
at the deadly grudge match over Obama.
That is far from over.
The Ukrainian
military says
it's using the front lines of bark
to bleed and exhaust the Russian army.
But how long can Ukraine afford to fight
a bloody war of attrition
against its much larger, stronger enemy?
Aaron, amid all of this
grinding fighting,
we've gotten
word of an exchange of sorts.
The Ukrainian authorities say
that the Russian military
handed over the bodies
of at least 83 killed Ukrainian soldiers
and that Ukraine handed over
an undisclosed number
of very seriously wounded Russian troops.
The Ukrainians are not calling
this a prisoner exchange.
Rather, they're calling it a repatriation
that they say
they have to do according
to international law.
Just goes to show that amid the carnage
and the killing
that is going on day
and night on the front lines,
there are still some areas of cooperation
between Kiev and Moscow Aaron.
Ivan, thank you very much, from
Zapp Arena tonight.
And I want to go now to Elina Polyakov,
a Russian foreign affairs
expert and the president
and CEO of the Center
for European Policy Analysis,
along with retired U.S.
Army Major General James Spider Marks.
And General Marks,
I just want to begin with you,
Ivan, talking
about this fighting and back moot.
Russian forces
clearly are depleted there.
You're not just hearing that from Kiev.
It's visible on the front lines.
So we understand
Russia is sending more
of these airborne troops
and that they're going to put them there.
Now, I know you've
had a lot of experience
dealing with Russian airborne troops
in your time in Europe.
So does what does that say to you?
Well, the Russian
airborne troops, are they
they paint themselves
just like American airborne troopers
as a pretty elite group.
And let's be frank,
it is it's an additional step,
but it's an additional qualifier
that's required
in order to join that unit.
But once that unit is planted
on the ground,
their capabilities
are not dissimilar to other units
that would be there.
They just, in many cases, would get there
by jumping out of the back
end of an aircraft.
In this case, in part,
they won't do that.
They'll deploy by trucks or by
other means or they'll walk in.
But what I think it demonstrates
is that with the airborne troops there,
it really is a reinforcement.
I don't see this as a relief in place.
In other words,
that the Wagner group
is going to withdraw
and then that the airborne troops
are going to take their place.
That is a very
although it seems very simple, it's
a very complicated military operation.
So you don't create
gaps in vulnerabilities.
But I think what the Russian forces
are trying to achieve
is that this is where they want
to make a stand.
These airborne troops are there
and this is where they intend to fight.
And we've seen what the images look like
and we've seen what the reports
in terms of losses on both sides.
Absolutely.
And obviously,
you know, the incredible loss
that this has been ferocious
if they're putting in more elite forces.
I mean, what that says in all ways.
We also saw,
of course, Elina, the recruitment video.
Right. A promotion put out.
And, you know, in this context,
anyone who is now opposing the war
in any way, we're seeing more
and more response to it.
Right,
whether being in prison or poisonings
or falling out of windows.
And I want to play more
of what Elvira told us about how concerns
for her safety
worry her and even for her parents.
Here she is
absolutely guaranteed.
I have
absolutely no guarantee for my safety
from an objective standpoint.
The most important thing is
that there are two hostages
in this country.
My own parents,
they're in a completely different city.
There's a rather broad range of actions
that could be applied to them.
I know a lot of people who don't
share the Kremlin's views
and they have no guarantee of safety
because the repression
machine is rolling
along with maddening speed.
And of course, Elina, you know,
she says that they were able to confirm
that there were four
and a half milligrams
of this poison in her system.
I mean,
what does this say to you
about how bad things are for
anyone who speaks
out in Russia right now?
Well,
a worst case is certainly, you know,
absolutely heart wrenching.
But unfortunately, it's not unique.
As you reported
many times on your program,
Erin,
the list of those
who speak out against the regime,
who call Russia's war
in Ukraine, exactly what it is,
which is a war
now face really increasingly brutal
consequences is
harassment of your family.
Nothing is really off the table.
Children are being taken
from their parents
in the case of that in Russia
as well,
of a little girl
who drew a picture at 12 years old
of a Ukrainian flag
with the word war in the picture.
And she was
basically taken from her father.
It's really approaching
a state of repression, sensitive ship
and just, you know, really deep,
I think, dictatorial type tactics
that look very much like a place
like North Korea or Belarus.
I mean, this is what Russia is today.
And the risk of speaking out
is incredibly high.
And General Marks
and Alina talks about repression
of Yara,
also told us about
how bad the repression has gotten.
As she sees it,
they're talking about
what they will do to track down
any critic.
Here's what she said about that
before they come to.
Some people have for when
they come to do
searches, knocking down doors
with sledgehammers,
they ransack,
turning the whole house
over in an attempt to find some documents
discrediting the authorities
or I don't know,
to find some opposition signs.
I mean, General,
this is what they're spending
time doing day
in and day
out, knocking on doors for
and with sledgehammers.
Doesn't sound
much like a republic, does it?
It sounds very much like
the Soviet Union
that we grew up with for 40 to 50 years.
Look, there's criminality
across the board
in terms of what
the Russians are doing in Ukraine
and to their own people.
There's no form of dissent.
And then when you take this
to a military perspective,
what young man or woman,
what young man in the Russia case
would want to fight
for this type of an autocratic regime?
Whether it's feckless leadership,
it simply is a matter of following orders
and not understand.
The purpose
of what you're trying to achieve
is blind loyalty,
which is very, very dangerous.
And Elina, the context here
is there's now some reporting.
This is from Bloomberg
that the US is ramping up
its investigation of Swiss banks
that they say may be helping
Russian oligarchs evade sanctions.
So we're more than a year into this war
and you've still got Swiss banks possibly
essentially assisting oligarchs.
If this is how this pans out,
we know
Switzerland is long a playground
for Putin's inner circle.
The reported home of his ex-wife,
Lynn Mila, was there right within.
You could see it from Davos, where
the world's elite
met recently.
The Wall Street
Journal says that Putin's girlfriend,
mother of his children, Elina
Biver,
lives in a high walled mansion
near Geneva,
or certainly has at one point.
And Switzerland
even acknowledged nearly $50
billion of Russian money in Swiss banks.
That's what they're acknowledging.
How how big is this?
I guess the safety zone, Elina?
Well, exactly as you said,
I mean, Swiss
banks in particular have a reputation
and they've been quite notorious
because of the kind of anonymity
they provide to their clients
in being known as a safe harbor for
dirty money, money
that is being laundered, money
that is stolen in this case
from the Russian people.
And it's been a known fact
that many Russian oligarchs
who are trying to stay safe, basically,
and keep their money out of the hands
of their own country, of the hands of Mr.
Putin in particular,
have been hiding it in Europe.
But particularly in Switzerland,
unfortunately,
there are many Western
financial institutions
that are likely involved in this.
Switzerland is really the hotspot for it.
But I think
what's really different now
is that the Department of Justice
is taking this very seriously
in a way that we haven't seen before.
And to the extent to which they're also
investigating Western wealth managers
for potential wrongdoing.
It's going to be interesting
to see what happens.
Right, and how serious
these sanctions are.
More than a year after this invasion.
Thank you both so very much.
I appreciate it.