tried to walk back when president biden called putin a war criminal.ee, they tried to walk back when president biden called putin a war criminal., they tried to walk back when president biden called putin a war criminal., they tried to walk back when president biden called putin a war criminal. the they said it wasn t an official statement. but then they said a formal declaration by secretary of state antony blinken calling him a thug, a dictator, a butcher. wouldn t it be approach if somebody who is a buchber, a murderous dictator, a pure thug, a war criminal not be in power? i think fwoo thtwo things ca true. you can hope that putin is not in power but not calling for a regime change. and i think that they have taken great pains not to kind of walk into the narrative often pushed by president putin that this is just the united states pulling the strings here. is this not about oourkukraine,
but a compromise is that we are not leaving ukraine, where he staying here where i am currently. this is close to kharkiv. that we will stay here and we will support our country anyway that we can. wonderful to hear how courageous you are. and russia claims as you well know that this is putin s regime, they claim that they are pro protecting, russian speaker, how do you respond to the claim that they are trying to protect the russian speakers of ukraine? honestlies the words that russian-speaking people that he has used and russians as people russian-speaking people that he has used and russians as people russian-speaking people that he has used and russians as people russian-speaking people that he has used and russians as people russian-speaking people that he has used and russians as people as excuse to invade countries. not only ukraine, georgia, mi
spokesman, stated that it should not be decided by biden, by inference the u.s. and the west. it should only be putin s rue mufl a removal of the russian people. two have a streenlgic ic stra fights. one the fight in and for ukraine. and then to project and push through into the russian federation. and that gets at the core of what the regime fears most, its own people decide to fremove let s talk about the white house reaction to the president s ad lib line. just a week or so ago gee, they
strong citizens. and it is logical that they would try to attack us more once again and again. but i will win. yes, no doubt. so as you can see, there is a bit of confidence here about those territorial defense forces. but they do understand that the gains made so far are fragile and of course there is still very dangerous army at the outskirts of the city. fred pleitgen for us from kyiv, thank you very much. and let s continue you re analysis, joining us, retired u.s. army general, author of pre-putin russia. and what about the white house today, the white house may be try doing some damage control. but president biden said that putin cannot remain in power. those words carrying an dwlee
aggression and war obviously. and thank you so much for joining us. good luck to you and your family. and we re hoping for the best. you are very, very courageous and we re grateful to you for telling us what you feel. thank you so much. and an important note to our viewers as well. for information about how you can help humanitarian efforts in ukraine, go to cnn.com/impact and help impact your world. just ahead, president biden says that putin cannot remain in power. do personal lies agree? i ll ask the french ambassador to the united states.