welcome. mentioned earlier that you wanted to make this trip for awhile now. why now and also, can you tell me me what you think the message you re sending to putin given 24 hours ago you were on the f art behind you and now you stand here with the president? tr translator: thank you very much for your question. as to what is the message for putin, i am standing here in the united states with president biden on the same podium because i respect him as a person, as a president, as a human being for his position and for me, this is a historic moment. i can send messages to president
we started calling our relatives, friends, asking how they are there and people were panicking. yeah. the conditions was pretty bad. so, alex, tell me about the first family that you helped escape? tr translator: he s my childhood friend. we met when we were 5 or 6 years old. i met them, and their daughter was about to celebrate their 7th birthday and at times it is still so hard for them to even tell their story. translator: an explosion wave took out our front door and looters came in and took whatever they liked. we decided that we have to help them get them out from there somehow. they took them 19 days to get from mariupol to the ukrainian border. they had an 8-month-old baby. in the early days of the war, i left with hundreds and thousands
accusing the russians of violating the promise of a truce and preventing the evacuation of civilians who continue to hide deep in bunkers at azovstal. the u.s. and red cross organized the evacuation of one group of about 100 civilians at the weekend. since then, none has left. now, there is hope of another convoy reaching mariupol. as we speak, the convoy is proceeding to get to azovstal by tomorrow morning. hopefully, to receive those civilians remaining in that bleak hell that they have inhabited for so many weeks and months. take them back to safety. reporter: speaking to me earlier, the military governor of donetsk was much more cautious. tr translator: we would like to be frank with all did a respect to the u.n. and the red cross, the conditions that are such
grandmother, and i would like to be back in my town because here everything looks very unfamiliar to me, unknown. it must be tough being a kid and having to go through all this. translator: a bit. reporter: they are, after all, only 11 and 9. but they find themselves having to comfort their much younger siblings. yegor, what do you tell your little sister in the other room when she gets worried? translator: i tell her everything is going to be fine and that it will end soon. reporter: relatively, these children are lucky. thousands of ukrainians, including the nation s youngest, have been killed in putin s brutal war. innocent civilians murdered in their hometowns, in their homes. many more in danger of being next. and that is what motivates soccer club owner oleg. tr translator: i want to change my profession. i bought a rifle. i want to become a sniper.
reporter: a show of solidarity between autocrats as the future of european security hangs in the balance. translator: i m glad to hold the first in-person meeting with president putin in more than two years. tr translator: they are investigation with strategic partnership and have reached an unprecedented level. reporter: meeting as the beijing olympics are getting underway, pledging in a jimmie statement that there are no limits to their friendship and sending an ominous sign. saying both nations oppose further enlargement of nato and intend to have interference by outside forces. they are shifting the spotlight back to ukraine. as russia s military build-up along ukraine s borders only grows. we have our own relationship where we engage directly at a very high level, as you all