Now to a CNN exclusive.
Ukraine has a network of secret agents
working inside Russia
and helping to sabotage Russian forces.
That is according to U.S.
intelligence services.
And we're also told
that Ukraine is arming
these agents with drones.
U.S.
officials believe
these pro-Ukrainian agents inside
Russia may have been behind
this drone attack in Moscow earlier
last month.
CNN's Natasha Bertrand.
Joins us now
with this exclusive reporting.
First of all, great job on the reporting.
Second of all,
what do we know about these cells
that are set up to sabotage Russia?
Yes.
So what we're learning from U.S.
officials
who describe the intelligence to us is
that these cells are basically made up
of pro-Ukrainian sympathizers,
as well as agents
who are well trained in this style
of warfare.
And what we're told
is that these attacks
really have become a lot more brazen.
Over the last month.
There have been a steady drumbeat
of strikes against Russian targets
over the last year,
including including fuel
depots, railways, pipelines.
But since that May 3rd strike
on the Kremlin, that drone strike, U.S.
officials have really noticed
an uptick here.
And they do attribute
that drone strike
to these pro-Ukrainian partizans
who are working for
the Ukrainians
to carry out these strikes inside Russia.
It is unclear
whether all of the drone strikes
that we have seen
over the course of the last
several weeks
can be attributed
to that,
those sabotage cells inside Ukraine.
But it's also really interesting
because we are told
that they are
being given drones by the Ukrainians.
And we know that Ukraine
has a very sophisticated and well-honed
drone manufacturing industry
that they are really ramping up.
And so it is unclear
how they're actually getting those drones
into Russia.
However, we are told
that there are pretty
well-practiced smuggling routes
between Ukraine and Russia
that may have allowed the Ukrainians
to give these drones
to the partizans here.
So it really is an interesting window
into just how Ukraine is bringing the war
to Russia directly. Sara.
Natasha Bertrand,
thank you so much for that reporting.
Appreciate it, John.
All right. New this morning,
Russia claims
it has thwarted what it calls
a large scale
Ukrainian offensive
in the southern Donetsk region.
That is in
was in the eastern
part of the country there.
The Russian defense
ministry released video that it says
shows a skirmish with Ukrainian forces.
Moscow says Ukrainian troops
tried and failed
to push through a front line
area with tanks and armored vehicles.
Ukrainian officials say
they have no information on the incident.
Ukraine has been signaling
a major count as offensive for weeks.
But in a new video
circulated on social media,
Ukrainian soldiers are urging
everyone to stay quiet.
You can see that, say the soldiers.
CNN's Frederik Pleitgen is in key for us
this morning.
So, Fred,
the Russians are making sounds now
that some kind of
Ukrainian effort has begun.
Is this
could this be the counter offensive
Well, it's very, very
difficult to say, John.
But certainly you're absolutely right
that the Russians came out
actually late last night
and put out that video
that you were just showing.
They were just talking about
as well as saying
if they had thwarted
a large scale attack,
as they put it,
by the Ukrainians,
they claim that they took out 16
Ukrainian tanks,
also a bunch of infantry
fighting vehicles
and a bunch of Ukrainian
soldiers as well.
I think they were talking about
around 250 Ukrainian soldiers,
as you said.
So far,
no information whatsoever
coming from the Ukrainian side.
Quite interesting though,
because earlier today,
in fact, not long ago,
another Russian official from that area
where all this is going on,
he claimed that there was
another Ukrainian attack
that happened this warning,
this time larger in scale.
And he claims that the Ukrainians
are trying to advance
through Russian positions
and get all the way down
to the Sea of Azov.
Now, of course,
they are
very far away from making that happen.
But if they did manage to do that,
it would be a huge breakthrough
for the Ukrainians
because then they could cut off
the land
corridor that the Russians have
from Russian territory
all the way to Crimea again.
Right now,
all this seems to be in the early stages
if it's something
that is actually going on.
And of course,
we have that complete radio silence
there coming from the Ukrainians.
You just showed that ad.
That certainly was something that caused
a lot of chuckles here in Ukraine
over this weekend when it was released.
The message of that, by the way, is plans
love silence.
John plans love silence.
So, Fred, over the last
several weeks,
there's been a lot of focus
inside Russia in the Belgorod region,
which is just north
of the Ukrainian border,
not far
from the Ukrainian city of Kharkiv.
What's going on there today?
That same
same stuff still going on
and the Russians still not being able
to come to terms with it.
In fact,
just a couple of minutes ago,
the governor of that region, he came out
and said that overnight,
some 600 projectiles were fired to buy,
as he put it,
from the Ukrainian side
towards the territory,
which is around the town of Quebec,
which is right
next to the border between
Ukraine and Russia.
Now, that, of course, includes
various munitions, can include mortars,
that can include artillery,
but also bullets as well.
But certainly there is a lot
going on there.
And those pro-Russian fighter
other those those Russian
fighters, anti-Putin, Russian fighters
who have been on the ground there,
they claim that they're still in
part of that area.
Very difficult to discern.
But one of the things
that certainly seems to be the case
is that the Russians are on the back foot.
Look, one thing
that is also for certain,
there has been an uptick in activity
across the region.
Frederik Pleitgen in key for us
this morning, Fred, to keep us posted.
Meanwhile, the top U.S.
military officer
saying Ukraine is well-prepared
for a counter-offensive.
General Mark Milley, chairman of the U.S.
Joint Chiefs of Staff,
had an exclusive interview
with CNN's
or Lehman
in France ahead of tomorrow's
79th anniversary of D-Day
and joins us now
from Normandy to see
what you discussed on
Max, this was
a wide ranging
interview that first covered
why we're here in Normandy.
79 years after the D-Day invasion.
We certainly talked some about that,
his personal feelings
his professional feelings being here.
He's been here before,
but the significance
it still has for him.
We certainly talked about China
as well as some of the domestic issues
in the U.S., the military faces.
But of course,
much of the interview itself
focused on Ukraine
as we anticipate
this counteroffensive here and wait
to see when it begins.
He is closely
watched this war
for the last year
and a half or so, really
ever since it began and even before that.
Our question to him
was, are they prepared
and how do you know
they will be successful?
He was very careful in his answer here,
worrying not to predict
how battles play out
because of how complex that is to know.
Here's what he had to say.
So I think it's too early to tell
what outcomes are going to happen.
I think the Ukrainians
are very well prepared.
As you know very well,
the United States and other
allied countries in Europe
and a really around
the world
have provided training
and ammunition and advice,
intelligence, etc.
to the Ukrainians. We're supporting them.
They're in a war
that's an essential threat
for the very survival of Ukraine
and has greater
meaning to the rest of the world
for for Europe,
really for the United States,
but also for the globe
And speaking about current operations,
what we're seeing,
what you just talked about, Max,
we also ask about the attacks
we're seeing inside Russia.
And does that escalate
or risk the possibility of an escalation
with Russia?
You acknowledge that, yes,
it could risk an escalation
with Russia and it's up to Russia
how they choose to respond.
Something the U.S.
is watching very closely.
But then he made a distinction here.
An escalation of Russia in Ukraine
is one thing.
The U.S.
has been watching this
and knows how to handle this,
taking it as it comes
and keeping an eye
on the different dynamics
there in that situation.
But escalation outside of Ukraine,
whether that's in another part of Europe
against Naito in the Middle East,
that would put this
in an entirely different
ballgame completely, he says.
Max
what about tensions between
the US and China?
So we certainly spoke about
China as well,
especially days
after an encounter between the U.S.
and the Chinese navies
at sea in the Taiwan Strait,
one of the most sensitive areas
for China.
We focused
on the question of communication.
Where are they on reestablishing
communications between or at the higher
levels of the military
is between the U.S.
and China.
For him,
he simply stressed
the need to resume communications
and to keep that going
because it is
the ability to have dialog, especially,
especially with tensions high
as we're seeing them now,
that makes sure that the relationship
between Beijing and Washington
stays in the realm of competition
and doesn't veer towards conflict Max.
Okay. All right.
Thank you for bringing us that.