streets, there have been signs of protest on their state media newscasts. i understand that even access through telegram to news from the outside world is starting to contract in that country. but also, you know, you re there. you tell me. i mean, what i have come to understand in the last three weeks about the ukrainian people is that this could have the opposite effect. the emotional targets will deepen the emotional commitment to making sure that russia loses this war. reporter: yeah, there s a reason i m sharing with you the story of this medic, because people are rallying around this. her nickname is taira and free taira is starting to trend here. it is absolutely having the opposite effect. i ordered a coffee, i turned to the person next to me and i said, what do you think about giving up ukraine? she said, after this, nato s going to want to join us. instead of us joining nato, nato s going to come to this country and want to join us because we have the weapons, we re on the f
i guess what is coming through here is this combination of defiance in the unthinkable human horrors that are mariupol and something that is very much to type that some of these peace talks that we d heard about yesterday may, in the view of the ukrainians, be a fakeout from the russians. reporter: yes. and you have, beyond just the targeting of civilians now, you have the russians clearly trying to target specific things like food security and medical help using those as weapons of war. whether or not that is to influence these talks, whether or not that is to force the president of ukraine to make concessions that he otherwise wouldn t, i think it s fairly obvious. these wouldn t be used as weapons of war unless you were trying to influence events on the ground. if we look at cities like kharkiv, and we spent a lot of time talking about mariupol, but if we look at kharkiv, they bombed a marketplace there today, a food market that is now
one recent report focused on low morale and soldiers parking the vehicles and walking off into the woods. joining us now is ali arouzi from ukraine. your reporting brings us back to the reality that this beleaguered and uninspired russian military is capable of doing catastrophic damage to the people. tell me about the day you witnessed there. reporter: that s exactly right. places like mariupol that you just mentioned the situation there is growing increasingly desperate. the russians are brutalizing that city and the civilians bear the brunt of the russian shelling. you spoke about the theater. devastating situation.
watch this. have you operated in a war zone before? we vice president. we have in haiti and venezuela but of course this is a totally different environment. there is also the human factor of this tragedy that is very difficult both for our teams, partners. they are living through this. right? they are they are actively suffering right now. what s it been? like i said your attitude is so positive. but what has it been like to see your country go through this? it s difficult. difficult place. but i really know the ukrainian have this special power. reporter: you have such a big smile on your face in the middle of a war. that is my power. reporter: the smile is the power? anyway, you know, war is one side and if you are all crying you can t do anything.
when our enemy will see our smile i think it s also good for our power, too. wow. reporter: that s yulia, a ukrainian partner of world kitchen. she said the fork and a knife are the weapons against the russians. we have the air raid sirens every day. the last this morning and one of the things i woke up thinking about today is will those facilities be targeted? whether it is here or other cities in this country and richard s reporting proves that fact that they are here in ukraine. i m thinking that this is not part of the humanitarian crisis war story. this is putin s battle plan to destroy the country. to literally starve them. i wonder how that changes if that sunk in to folks that you