ukraine is still independent, and has fought russian invaders to a standstill. at the cost, which is almost unimaginable, or was until february 24th six months ago. it changed so much for ukraine, europe, superpower relations, and the nato alliance. for people living worlds away of the fighting, vladimir putin would prefer we pay less attention to it all tonight. instead, because of just how important it is, that is where we begin the broadcast. reminding you again, showing you again, the moments of savage brutality, and the moments of hope over the past six months. we are all here, our military are here, citizens in society are here. we are all here defending our independence. our state, and it will remain so. glory to our defenders, glory to our women, glory to ukraine. that is volodymyr zelenskyy just hours into the invasion. not fleeing the country or evacuating to lviv, or eastern poland as some had expected. standing firm, as alleys today, the former actor and com
poland as some had expected. standing firm, as alleys today, the former actor and comedian spoke to the un security council to the which tried to demand that he appear in person. he began his remarks that a russian strike on a train station in eastern ukraine had taken at least 16 civilian lives. the death toll still stands at 22. if the last six months have shown anything, it s that targeting civilians is not merely a regrettable accident of russia s war, it appears to be central to it. the video you re about to see is from early march. it was taken during the evacuation of irpin, outside of kyiv. a family, a, mom her two children, and a friend who is helping them flee, killed in a mortar attack. [speaking foreign language] [noise ] stay there!
civilians. we want to warn you that the video, some of it you re about to see is disturbing. we consider it important to show because this shows the evidence of what is happening on the ground in this war. this particular video captured by drone operators who have been able to see those crimes or evidence of those crimes from the air. they re also using the technology to help the ukrainian army fight back. cnn s senior international correspondent frederik pleitgen reports from outside of kyiv. be careful. reporter: it is like a scene from the gates of hell. the dead lay strewn across this highway west of kyiv, some still next to the wreckage of their vehicles, as the dogs roam around looking to scavenge. this is what russian forces left behind when they retreated from here. they organize over there. reporter: oleksandr tells me these were civilians, gunned down from this position, where the russians had placed a tank. you
and gas that is the real big ticket item. that put a lot of pressure on the european union. we don t know what the divisions are internally. we know for some countries gas is something they russian gas is just not something that they can do without at the moment. the eu made a commitment to cut down russian gas by two-thirds this year. however, they are targeting other things like russian banks, russian shipping, can t use european union ports, high tech items, not to be exported to russia, like rare semiconductors. the issue facing the european union now is to try to find that agreement. and it seems to be going more slowly than anticipated, we re told the decision could come today, it could come tomorrow. european commission president is in kyiv tomorrow. you would think they want to get it done before then. nic robertson in brussels, thanks so much. we re getting new evidence today, hard evidence of russian troops directly killing
fueling the very fierce resistance that they re putting up. but as you say, this is something that going to be in the memory of a whole generation of people. this is going to change ukraine as a country. if after 2014 the war in donbas made a nation, this is going to milw make a state. and while in kyiv, today, you look outside and things are superficially getting back to normal, there is something which seems to change since not since the days of shelling, of course, things have changed since then. things have calmed down in kyiv, but since the start of the war, and i think this will realry shape ukraine, whatever it becomes as a nation, these days we re seeing now. you know, before we go, i just want to tell our viewers about this fascinating interview if they haven t read it that you conducted with president zelenskyy about two weeks ago in kyiv, and among the things that he told you, two weeks ago, was