it is hard to get into his mind. that is for sure. but think you just ticked it off, willie. ukraine has won this war. okay. when the historians write it, because of all of the things that you just said, did he not achieve any of those things. putin was caulking about ukrainians as russians with accents and he was going to reunify them and denazify the kindergarten demiltize and that is failed and now he s pivoted to donbas. i don t want to trivialize that fight. that battle we do not know who will win the battle of donbas and it is hard to predict what will be the peace settlement given that it could be a stalemate for a long, long time. but on the major objects he s failed and many russians realize that. and even on russian television, on state controlled television, you re starting to hear little
and, of course, the battle for the white house in the year 2000. pete will still be reporting for us through july. we know he ll be busy. we want to congratulate him, though, right now on an incredible career. my gosh, pete williams, i i congratulate him and i thank him. he s always been a wonderful supporter throughout the years for anyone who comes to nbc and is trying to learn the ropes. you just touched on it, mika. not only is he the very best that has ever done what he does, which is covering the justice department and covering justice in america, but he s also one of the kindest people you will ever meet. one of the most generous people you ll ever meet. you see that in tributes to him online. since his announcement was made, young reporters, veteran reporters saying what he meant to them and how he changed their lives of and careers. he was, mika, you ll agree with me, when there was breaking news, there was the person you wanted on the screen with you. pete s here, he s go
the ukrainian morale, fighting tenacity, delivering weapons through the coalition of the willing has started to pay off. this battle has swung clearly in favor of ukraine in the longer run. it really is an astounding turn of events, including, general, the scene playing out right now at the white house where the president of the united states is meeting with the leaders of sweden and finland as they now are on the doorstep of joining nato, something unthinkable just a couple of months ago. but another of the failures of vladimir putin to expand nato, including finland, which shares a large border with russia. you ve seen a lot in terms of the shifting of the balance of power over the years. what is the significance of this move, assuming it does happen, these two nations joining nato? it s monumental. to go back to the disintegration of the ussr, which has motivated a lot of what putin is up to, it
long. they managed to distract a large amount of russian forces away from other vulnerable areas such as the donbas region, such as donetsk, luhansk, pulling them away and allowing union forces to prepare for the battle in the east, the battle of donbas. that s a big part of why they re now seen as heroes and is a big part of why president zelenskyy is vowing to get the ukrainian fighters out alive that remain in that plant. erin mclaughlin, thank you very much. clint, let s take a look at the big board and see how the battle is under way at this hour. yeah, so, jose, that plant right here, in mariupol, its essentially absorbing a lot of the russian, what we say, combat power that would essentially be pushed to donetsk. donetsk is the southern access. it s very clear that the russians would like to advance here out of the south. separately in the north, that s where we re seeing the major russian advances at current.
declare some victory, or does he announce mass mobmobilization? this is a special military operation, not all-out war. if he decides on mass mobilization, russia can pour in i mean, this is already a meat-grinder for them. they can pour in thousands upon thousands of conscripts into this thing. look, the ukrainians are doing quite well. this battle of donbas, which has been under way, we re not hearing so much about it because it is largely stalled. the russians are bogged down here. so, yes, a war of attrition, but if the ukrainians have a technological superiority, thanks to nato and its partners, they certainly have the willpower. morale has yet to diminish. if anything, they now are more optimistic they re going to win this thing. is it really going to be attrition so much on both sides, or is it going to be mostly attrition on the russian side? they think they can push the russians out of the country, at least parts of the country that have recently been occupied. u.s. officia