acting as number one. this is what we are seeing right now, because tomorrow when putin is giving the speech, he is reacting to what president biden did, to the actions that happened, and to the military assistance that we have provided, and of course, for our country, it is critical to note the date of the visit, because today, exactly ly nine years a the offensive started and we are glad that everybody remembers it. you bring up president putin, and so i m curious what you think that he was thinking when he saw the visit today? well, putin plans to have raid on the streets of kyiv and not only that kyiv has not only been captured, but also the president of the united states
how do you think all of this might affect putin s speech? i think he s going through his speech right now overnight with a red pen and will make that language even tougher, even more about this being a fight between russia and the u.s. you know, i also expect that there s a high potential that we will see another missile barrage attacking kyiv because these folks on his right flank, on putin s right flank are really upset. it was all over the russian tv today, pictures of biden and zelenskyy hugging and walking around. it s infuriating them. i think putin has to show that he s a tough guy. colonel, to that point i was in lviv in ukraine last march when president biden was speaking over the border in poland and russia conducted air strikes right before president biden was set to speak. you had the sense they did it so that all the cameras that we
kherson back, and then get the missiles, and the tanks, and now it was absolutely impossible that the president of to united states would come to the war zone, and it happened. so then it means for us that the victory is possible, too. it is possible for us to be living in a peaceful and liberated country as the winners of this war. what did it mean for the ukrainian people to see the american president walking side by side with ukrainian president in a war zone? for me, it means that finally the president of the united states is taking the upperhand, the first hand. over the last year, we are seeing that our lives were quite reactive to what putin was doing. he was doing the first step and then a reaction. we were saying that the turning point in this war which happened when the western leaders started
the wagner chief has been cleared to blame that on putin s generals and everything on putin s generals. he called it a monstrous military bureaucracy every time he gets the chance. you call him an important clown. how come? of course they are mostly ex- inmates drafted to the wagner group. they play a really significant role on the front line. you are completely right. we, russian journalists, who are familiar with the activity inside russia. we called him the important clown. in the sense that, of course, he is an important and rich person and close to putin to some extent but his influence is greatly exaggerated mostly by the western media.
the balloon and the analysis by that julie woodruff and telemundo. the president seemed to blow it off as far as its significance. you talk to intel officials and they say this is significant that china is this bold. it s pretty brazen. i mean, it s not exactly a surprise that china spies on us and we also spy on china but for them to float a balloon over the sensitive military bases is pretty extraordinary. and i think we do take it seriously. we don t know a lot. there is a lot we don t know about this. we know this is blowing up u.s. china relations. the effort to move toward more cooperative relationship. that is over for the moment until we figure this thing out. bret: i want to turn to ukraine as we look at this map. russia offensive is developing and we are seeing more movement by russian force forces into ukraine and some serious battles in the eastern part of the country. here is john kirby on putin s