that number, a trillion dollars, 1000 billion dollars. that number is what s driving putin to do everything that he is doing today. that money should ve been spent on public services, health care and so on. instead it was spent on yachts and villas and private jets. as a, result people have become angry over the last 22 years. and anything, any small thing, could have set them off. and i believe the reason why putin invaded ukraine is not because of nato, not because of a grand mission of the soviet union, but because he needed to stay in power. and the best way for a dictator to stay in power is to distract its people, his people, and start a war. and i think that s what this is all about. that also, then, informed us about how we have to deal with this guy. it s not like we can just give him non-nato involvement of ukraine and that s going to solve the problem, he needs to be at war. let me ask you something.
risk. le pen, who has defined a foreign presence in france for two generations, is notoriously anti immigrant and nationalistic. she has been the face of the national front political party, which used to be viewed as extreme, belligerent, and unpalatable. well outside the french mainstream. but just like america, france is experiencing a shift in politics and identity. and now, in le pen s third bid for power, she is trying to soften her image a little bit. focusing on issues like the economy in the white rising cost of living, which has paid off since the war in ukraine has led to an increase in the price of fuel and other goods. but this popular s shift in economic policies does not mean that le pen has let go of her extreme ideas. she is still the same anti immigrant nationalists that she has always been. but there is a burgeoning political right in france, who does not seem to mind. and it seems like a relevant time to remind you that marie
jermaine starr. who has become a new best friend itv. it is a very surreal situation. we are on the road to lviv right. now a trip that would normally take six hours. or if it was a charade, which is about 12 hours, is taking several days now. we have arena here who we are taking. she is undergoing cancer treatment, and so the hospital where she was getting treatment asked her to leave because they needed to make room for people who have been wounded during the war. coming again on the show, arena is safe and sound. and doing this. one of the things that i am learning about the refugee crisis is the people with disabilities, for example. it is very difficult for people who are mobile, people who were wheelchair bound, to get forward or hospital they, are
kremlin s attempts to fully capture the city that you re looking at, the key port city of mariupol. russia resumed its assault on the latest ukrainian defenders. they are hold up in a giant steel plant. as of stall, it s called. they say putin s army was not able to breakthrough. joining me now is an applebaum, a journalist for the atlantic. offer author of red famine and twilight of democracy, the seductive lure of authoritarianism. and other, bucks all of which you should read. and has been a stalwart help to us understanding this war, but then something changed, and. you are there, you went to lviv, you spoke with this enigma of a man, volodymyr zelenskyy. who the war was who the world was unclear about, whether he would be up to this task. and he has been leading ukraine to this war and leading the west and understanding the
it s really an existential, war it s not just about territory, it s not just about a few pieces of land. it s about whether the country can exist and whether people can continue to live in some kind of not just democracy but some kind of, with any kind of freedom, with any kind of sovereignty. with any kind of identity. his second task, and this is what he s been surprisingly good at, is explaining to outsiders what ukraine is. it s a country that was, didn t have a state, it s been a nation and has had a sense of identity for many centuries, but it didn t have a statehood until 1991. it s been a colony of other countries, of the soviet union, of the russian empire. and more and more, particularly over the last several decades, its national identity has become bound up with the ideas of democracy and the idea of european integration. the idea of personal freedom. zelenskyy, who is a former