Amid a barrage of missile and
drone attacks in Kiev overnight,
Russia is making a major claim
that it targeted
and destroyed one of these.
An American made Patriot
air missile defense system.
A U.S.
official tells CNN
it was likely damaged but not destroyed.
Ukraine is not commenting,
but it says that its air defenses
worked against the large scale
attack, intercepting
all 18 Russian missiles launched,
including some of the most advanced
in the Kremlin's arsenal.
CNN's Nic Robertson is live for us
in eastern Ukraine.
Let's go there now.
Nic, bring us up to speed
on what we saw overnight in Kiev
and if Russia's claim is true.
About this
Patriot missile defense system.
Put that into context for us.
What's the significance
Russia has always wanted
to target Western equipment
coming into Ukraine,
and nothing would give it
greater satisfaction
than to take down the air defenses
that Ukraine has put in place
around the capital, Kiev.
They've been very effective.
The Patriot
missile system is the epitome of
of the strength of that defense.
So Russia wants the target.
Indeed,
Vitali Klitschko,
the mayor of Kiev, has this evening said
that he believes
that this is what the Russians
were trying to do,
target that defense system
and that was the analysis
last week as well.
Russia gave the defense systems,
the air defense systems
in and around
Kiev an extreme test,
six hypersonic
missiles
fired from aircraft
to the north of Kiev, nine
cruise missiles fired from ships
in the Black Sea,
and three of the Russia's largest
as 400 missiles
fired to the east from Russian territory.
Now, these hypersonic Kinsale missiles
go ten times the speed of sound.
So put it into context.
Ukraine has said that it managed
to defeat
all the attacks on the city last night.
This is a significant accomplishment
given what was fired at it.
However,
we don't have further details yet
on the damage
such as it may be to the Patriot system.
Nick, we also want to get an update
from back moved
because the head of the Varner
paramilitary group,
Yevgeny Prigozhin, is making
claims on social media that a U.S.
citizen was killed in fighting. There
We know that the fighting is
very intense.
We know that
the fighting there continues.
We know that the death count and casualty
count for both Ukrainian
and Russian troops
in that city is very high.
We know that there are foreign fighters,
including American citizens
among them, who have joined and supported
the Ukrainians.
Prigozhin, who has a track record
for propaganda and less than full
truth, has said
that he has the body
of an American citizen.
It's not clear if that is correct.
He has said, though,
that this citizen
will be returned to the United States
with with respect.
He said that there will be a coffin,
that he will be draped
in the American flag.
And that is because Prigozhin,
he says, respects
the fact that this man died
fighting not sleeping in a bed.
Yeah.
U.S.
officials have made it clear that
citizens, U.S.
citizens that are
there are at their own risk.
And it is exceedingly difficult
to confirm
whether they've been killed in battle.
Nic Robertson from eastern Ukraine.
David, saying it is a CNN
political and national security analyst.
He is also White House
and national security
correspondent for The York Times.
And author of The Perfect Weapon.
David, welcome back. It's been a while.
Great to see you again, Jack. Okay.
This is quite the diplomatic
tour de force by Zelinski
He got new commitments of military aid
from Germany and France,
as well as the U.K..
And he also got this. Here he is.
This is the one thing we will be doing,
starting actually
relatively soon
is training of Ukrainian pilots.
But before we have open the door
to training, the pilots,
training can start right now.
Is this kind
of the
precursor to actually getting the jets
to sign the French?
Britain will supply the F-16s
because they don't operate F-16s.
But they you know,
they're willing to train them up in this.
And the U.K.,
once we part of this fighter
jet coalition,
which is a group of nations
committed to getting the F-16s
for Ukraine.
That's right.
And even if he doesn't
ultimately get the planes,
there is a psychological aid
in making the Russians
think that that could well be imminent.
The fact of the matter
is that the long pole in the 10th year
has always been
that if he did get planes, he wouldn't
necessarily have anyone around
who could fly.
Remember, the United States
and NATO
allies
are not putting their own personnel on
on the battlefield gear or in the air.
So it was critical that he kept
this going,
even if those planes don't get delivered
until next year.
So why is the F-16, the Ukrainian
fighter jet of choice?
Well, it's their
jet of
choice
because it was designed
to take on the Soviet
and then Russian militaries
more really the Russian military, given
the age of of the plane.
But the concern here is
that at some point,
this will move from being a trench war
and an artillery war
to back being an air war.
And all of this
right now
is building towards
this Ukrainian counteroffensive,
which seems to be imminent.
It's been imminent for a while now.
And on that, here's President Zelinsky
We really need some summer time.
Not too much.
We'll be ready, you know, in some time.
I want to be very honest with you.
I can't share with you.
Some days I just don't want to prepare.
Not not for our friends.
There are no secrets from our friends.
But there are some secrets from Will,
from our neighbors.
Last week, he said they were
waiting for more weapons,
more ammunition.
Even taking that at face value.
I mean,
is there a risk here
of drawing this out for too long?
There is some risk in drawing that.
There are some people who believe, John,
that the counteroffensive
has already begun
in a small way
as the
Ukrainians test
some of the Russian lines.
There is some belief
that they have to figure out
whether or not they're going
to really try to retake that mode,
which right now
is 90% control by the Russians
or whether they really focus
their effort elsewhere.
There are a lot of American
military officials who believe
what was the long fight
for them to expend energy.
But I think
the real question underway here is
can he mount a counteroffensive
that moves the needle enough
that it actually does
force the Russians
to consider
a negotiation to end this war?
This is a remarkable
sort of diplomatic tour for Lindsey.
You know,
Paris, Rome met
with the pope
at the Vatican of the checkers
in the U.K.
He's also in Berlin.
And here's the Ukrainian
president speaking on Sunday.
Those are two people,
all of whom I would like to
thank you, all of you.
Totally, sincerely to the German people.
For every save Ukrainian life
due to your support
And he was thinking Germany
for its biggest ever
military aid package, almost $3 billion.
That's a long way from the 5000 helmets
which Germany donated in the lead
up to the war.
So what does this aid
package say about the role
Germany wants to play now
in terms of European security
as well as resetting relations with Key?
Well,
the Germans would like you to believe
that this was a fundamental
turning point,
and in many ways it was for them.
They made good on their commitment to
shut down
any imports from Nordstrom one and
Nord Stream two.
If
if the war broke out, if
Putin went ahead and invaded Ukraine,
they did that.
Then they got through this
quite remarkable amount of aid.
The question is,
do they now
use that moment
to go rebuild their military,
something that the Germans themselves
have an allergy to?
But the rest of the West
does not seem to be as concerned about.
And of course, that goes back
to all war lessons from World War Two.
The other question is
whether or not the Germans
get aid fatigue, something that here in
Washington is being discussed as well.
You have the far
right of the Republican Party
and the far left of the Democratic Party
agreeing for very different reasons
that they do not
want to have significant new
commitments to
to Ukraine.
And we
just don't know
whether or not that's
going to continue or not.
It has been a lot of military aid,
a lot of financial aid over the year,
a year or so.
David,
thank you so much for being with us.
Appreciate it. Great to be with you.