separatists in the east of the country. so in all these diplomatic phone calls talking past each other, it seems to be the case, and the kremlin in all of these calls as well making the point that they haven t had their core issues addressed. those core issues being denying ukraine to be able to have membership of nato, and nato to go back to its 1997 lines and membership positions. so the kremlin just staying in their current position. i think one takeaway certainly from the phone call with president macron and the phone call that secretary of state antony blinken had as well, both trying to sort of get russia to commit to a track of diplomacy. but by saying to get to that track, de-escalate the forces around ukraine. show that you re committed to moving forward with diplomacy. that s the way to go. really trying to just test and see if russia does actually have an intention to try to talk this through or are they really just building up their forces as a
consequences of an invasion would be. not just on ukraine, obviously, but how it would have implications for other regions as well. walk us through what those might be. reporter: if you had a russian invasion, an unprovoked invasion that is an invasion caused by a desire to prevent, technically speaking, publicly the motivation would be to try to prevent nato getting a foothold here in ukraine. now ukraine can t join nato while it hastert that is disputed. so that means the illegal seizure of the crimean peninsula would prevent, ultimately, until that issue was resolved, ukraine joining nato. but what that would also mean is a russian invasion here would bring the front line, if you like, of russian influence right up against the borders with poland, the baltics, very close to the baltic states, romania. it would fulfill, to some extent, the kremlin s stated ambition, to return the european
security architecture to pre-1997 when so many formerly eastern bloc countries joined the european union, joined nato, and became part of that western democratic bloc. and it s that western democratic bloc i think that ultimately is the existential threat seen by vladimir putin and ultimately covertly, in a sense, his motivation for invading ukraine. it would also mean that the international rules-based order is ripped up by at least a former superpower, a nuclear power, would demonstrate that it is possible without a great deal of severe military consequence to invade a neighbor in an unprovoked, nondefensive action. something that would be catastrophic in terms of the signals it would send, the basis upon which certainly since the cold war but even during the cold war, international relations have been conducted. it would mean that china would take a look at what was going on
supply weapons, the united states has promised more military aid, but how do you confront the fact that the fighting will be done by ukrainians themselves are not by others? ~ ., , ukrainians themselves are not by others? ~ . , , ., others? ukraine is being done by ordinary ukrainians others? ukraine is being done by ordinary ukrainians and - others? ukraine is being done by ordinary ukrainians and i - others? ukraine is being done by ordinary ukrainians and i want i others? ukraine is being done by| ordinary ukrainians and i want you to understand that ukraine appreciates the unification of the civilised world but this is not only for ukraine and it is actually the unification against russia. we appreciate the humanitarian aid and the finances and the military support that has been provided by the people from around the world, it is really very important, but right now we have people dying every day and our army shows that it is a very strong army because we have started implement
is up to nato standards. and should note here, wolf, it is very significant just how long ukraine s military has been able to last in this fight. it is not something that the west had anticipated. defense officials were telling us before the war began that they expected kyiv to last a matter of days before the russians were able to run it over. of course, they have lasted a month now, they have actually put the russians back on their heels, the russians are not gaining the kind of ground they have wanted to because of that fierce ukrainian resistance. and what we re seeing now is the ukrainians telling the western leaders please keep it up, please keep your support up to us so that we continue, we can continue to maintain this momentum against the russians because right now it is becoming increasingly difficult for them to get the kind of ammunition and anti-tank missiles, air defense systems they need in order to successfully push the russians back, wolf. you re absolutely right. u.