been called up for the territorial defense, and i ve sort of recommended at that point, look, you get out, i ve got to fight, i might die of staying here. but let s not have everybody die. so these people, it s devastating, you meet these mothers with their children. it s devastating, because they are leaving, they are facing uncertainty, you have the obligation of taking care the loved one in, their kids, maybe their parents. they know they ve left people behind that they may die. that sound you played from zelenskyy s point, because there s a belief that eventually the world will do something, but that something may come a little too late for normal ukrainians to dozens, who have no idea whether face in this translation. it is an absolute tragedy. ali, we look forward to your interview with marie yovanovitch, in just a few minutes. cal perry has been reporting from lviv, ukraine, first, take a listen to some of the people he was met who have made the
because putin is a bully, and he only understands strength. ambassador, i want to ask you, if we just take a quick break, we ve got a lot more of that we want to discuss, with you if you don t mind sticking around, our guest is the former ambassador to the ukraine, maria yovanovitch, we ll have more from the ambassador when we return.
it was ambassador yovanovitch s job, and the policy of the united states government, to push the new ukrainian government to fulfill its promises to end corruption and to practice good governance. of course, a lot of powerful people in ukraine were not interested in reform. marie ivanovich expected to make enemies in ukraine for carrying out her work. what she did not expect was for those animals to have help from washington and, in particular, for the from the president of the united states. because, of course, marie ivanovich would go on to be ousted from her post by president donald trump. and when he was impeached for trying to extort the ukrainian government for his own personal, gain the former ambassador would become a central witness in that impeachment. one thing that comes through in marie ivanovich s book, we re counting all this, called lessons from the, edge is her absolute disbelief at the path that her life was taking as all this unfolded. we now know that president
trump was involved in a multi-pronged effort to pressure the iranian government to manufacture dirt on joe biden and that he ultimately withheld vital money and weapons and a coveted white house meeting from ukraine as part of that pressure campaign. we now know that ambassador yovanovitch was perceived as the impediment to their plans, because she was a stalwart opponent of the corrupt figures in ukraine who were helping trump and his allies manufacture this dirt on biden. we now know all that. but at the time it seemed literally unbelievable. at one point, ukraine s deputy foreign minister came to ambassador yovanovitch s residents to warn her that a corrupt prosecutor that she butted heads with was working with giuliani to spread lies about them. yovanovitch could not believe that her job would be in real danger. she said, quote, i knew that this ukrainian prosecutor was going to try to make life
look at the train here that has been loaded up with people who are on their way to budapest. the train is supposed to leave at 10:05 eastern, in about 25 minutes. we are watching people come out and fill that train up. i m joined once again by the former ambassador to ukraine, marie yovanovitch, ambassador, thanks for waiting, colonel alexander vindman was on the show earlier this week. he said there s essentially a direct line between what happened on that july 2019 phone call between donald trump and president volodymyr zelenskyy, and what we re seeing now. he believed donald trump weakened zelenskyy by withholding a white house meeting, and military aid, at the exact time when he needed the most. two and a half years later, how damaging was that whole incident, in which you also became involved to the standing and potential success of president zelenskyy in ukraine right now?