happened in places where russian troops have occupied towns like bucha, irpin, and mariupol. in mariupol, according to local officials, tens of thousands of ukrainians were killed just in that city, soldiers and civilians. so, ukrainians don t really have the option of showing fatigue of giving up on this fight because if they give up, they give in, and they lose this country. it is tiring, of course, but there are still places now in ukraine, because they have pushed the russians out here to the east, where they can have a somewhat normal life. if you are in kyiv, you can get a little are in our, you can take a break from the frontlines and replenish and refresh yourself and then come back into the fight. so, the entire country right now is still threatened. but the entire is not an active combat zone. richard, stay safe. thank you, as always, for bringing us the story from the front. richard engel is our chief foreign correspondent.
especially in kyiv. i very much appreciate that, and i think everybody appreciates your being there. i m gonna start with saying that today, we saw bravery of two presidents, of the president of the united states, and of ukraine. and what we will see in the future, in the nearest future, is a brazen approach by putin who would bet on his nuclear threats and his abilities so far to bombard ukraine from the center because ukrainians don t have long range missiles to answer. so that is very, very unfair situation. but hopefully, it would be corrected.
wallace asked me earlier, how did the white house keep this under wraps? you had to coordinate with all of those agencies you are talking about, but also with the ukrainians and as you have been reporting, there were months of planning that went into this thing, how do you do that not have the week? you are absolutely right, you know as well as i do that it s hard to keep secret about anything. this was kept in a small circle as possible, inside our governments. i think inside the ukrainian government. that said, there were of course a significant amount of people who had to be involved and apprized to pull off an operation as complicated as this one was. people did their jobs and they were professional. they managed to keep the aaa secret until the president was on the ground which was a huge part of the plan for keeping it safe and secure. john, congratulations for a well executed mission. john finer at the white house. there were only two journalists
defend their country. now they have another fight on their hands because russia has launched a new offensive out here in these. that is why they continually ask for weapons. i know people in the united states have grown tired of hearing it. all the canyons keep asking for more weapons, as if they are stockpiling them or selling them on the black market or something. they are using them. they are using them every single day out here in the east. we see it when we are with troops, they tell us they don t have enough ammunition, they don t have enough tank rounds. we spoke with the ten commander who said that he basically can t fire his tanks on to russian troops unless he can see them with his eyes. he can t fire over hills because he doesn t want to waste the precious ammunition. there is a real fight going on here and this moment for many ukrainians encapsulates how far they ve come in this war, and how force they still need to go. richard, the ukrainians are asking for more stuff, t
men and more killer which is what they want to kinds of weapons, higher mobility, longer range weapons, even planes. richard, i want to ask about results. this country has lost an estimated 30,000 civilians. for a country that did not want war, ukrainians were not part of this war. they are not in the civil defense over the military have died. and yet, i am not seeing a weakening in resolve, compared to when this war started a year ago. again, you are closer on the front, and have been much more often closer to the front. what are you sensing? they don t have the option to have a weakening of resolve. they are fighting for their survival here. if you could imagine, or if any viewer could imagine that the united states was taken over by a much larger adversary, you don t have the option to quit when foreign troops are coming to take your home, to occupy your country. and what we ve seen what s