madam ambassador, and some say look, here we are almost a year and ukraine has been able to take back some cities, but haven t been able to fully expel russians from territories like eastern ukraine or crimea, for that matter. what is your reaction when you hear that? well, let s go back to 24th of february when a lot of people thought ukraine would not stand this fight for more than three days, and just to remind that russia attacked us in 2014, and that was after a long rule of russia-led financed corrupt, pro-russian government in ukraine. the past nine years we ve made significant reforms. for the past nine years we ve used all diplomatic tools to restore our territorial integrity and sovereignty and a not to allow them blitzkrieg and eliminated the eastern, and
griff: joining us now in studio, ambassador to the united states. oksana markarova. madam ambassador, thank you for being here. i d like to pick up where trey left off, there s a request now for fighter jets, f-16 s. what can you tell us? we re discussing all capabilities with our partners and especially with the united states. for this past more than 11 months now, we have been effectively fighting in ukraine, but it s very difficult and the war is not yet over, and it s clear to us that in order to not only keep the line, but also liberate our territories, because again, it s about people, it s about ukrainians being tortured raped and killed on a daily basis everywhere and our cities being destroyed and the missiles attack everywhere in ukraine. so the more capabilities we can get and the faster and also integrate them all together it s a result warfare, the faster our defenders can liberate all of ukraine. griff: you mention liberate,
is not charity, this is an investment, an investment in american values and just as important and investment in american security and global security. and i think he made a very compelling case for that. i think the last thing that he was trying to accomplish and also did a really good job on was to try to create that personal connection between himself and the president, between himself and members of congress, and also the american people, you know, making the case, you know, the political, the strategic case but also describing what christmas is going to be like in kyiv and in other places in ukraine. it s going to be cold. it s going to be dark. there s not going to be any water. temperatures are going to be freezing or below. but ukraine still stands. madam ambassador, you heard, like i did and some of the others heard the best of the bright test when putin began his
righteous might will win through to absolute victory. the american people in their righteous might will win through to absolute victory. zelenskyy invoking the words of franklin delano roosevelt during his address to congress last night. now let s bring in former u.s. ambassador to ukraine marie yovanovitch. she is the author of the memoir lessons from the edge, in which she discusses her 33 years in foreign service. madam ambassador, i remember you testifying before congress, and i remember mika and me looking at each other going, we could have never imagined that we would have gotten here as a country. i must say, now we fast forward how many years, two years, three years, i could have never imagined what we re seeing now