up our defence to support ukraine. for the past year and a half, president biden has been clear that we will support ukraine for as long as it takes. i want to commend the tireless efforts of the department, our allies and partners in delivering this level of assistance. throughout the kremlin s vicious war of choice, the ukrainian forces have leverage assistance and shown outstanding bravery and skill. ukraine s fight is a marathon, not a sprint. we will continue to provide ukraine with the urgent capabilities we need to meet the moment, as well that needs to keep itself secure for the long term. 0n that needs to keep itself secure for the long term. on a personal note, as i enter my last week as of defence for policy, i want to thank the hundreds of patriots and professionals across 0st policy. i believe they are the finest national security organisation in the business. forall that security organisation in the business. for all that they have done to support ukraine, strengthen our
what is prigozhin doing? i don t know where he is at. it definitely adds an element of instability. it s worthing th inoting that p lied, it wasn t what he was telling the people, it was a war of choice, that it means there s going to be internal conflict in rush russia for some time to come. thank you. thanks. appreciate the chance. next, more trouble for trump s longtime attorney rude rudy giuliani. he could be barred from working as an attorney. questions grow over why the secret service investigation is taking so long into the cocaine found at the white house. space-x investing millions of dollars into a small town that s home to the launch pad. why do some want him to take his rockets elsewhere ?
favor of putin again? that seems highly unlikely. above all, this utter chaos is in russia is unprecedented. at some point it s likely we re going to see it filtered down to again remind people how catastrophic their performance in this brutal war of choice has been, wolf. good point. nick payton walsh, thank you for that report. let s discuss with the former u.s. defense secretary mark esper. mr. secretary, thanks very much for joining me here in the situation room. i just want to get your quick reaction, first of all, to this latest deadly russian strike on this civilian area right in the city center of krematoris, killing, injuring a lot of people. no military targets nearby. just trying to create terror and havoc. it s horrible, going on for 16 months. in the early days of this conflict, putin was bombing maternity hospitals and daycare centers, executing people in the streets. there are war crimes that have been committed, continue to be committed.
and loyalty of at least enough of the elites. i want you the listen to the u.s. secretary of state anthony blinken on how he sees the bigger picture here for russia and putin. 16 months ago, russian forces were on the doorstep of kyiv, ukraine, thinking they were going to take the city in a matter of days, erase the country from the map. now they had to be focused on defending moscow, russia s capital against mercenaries of putin s own making. so this raises lots of profound questions that will be answered i think in the days and weeks ahead. so this coup d etat may have been a win for putin in some ways. overall works you say this war of choice in ukraine has been the biggest disaster of his presidency and just keeps getting worse, and u.s. intelligence putin will have if any military victories in ukraine. how does this play into presidential elections which are scheduled for next march?
though they didn t give exact numbers. it was a limited tactical success. the much anticipated counteroffensive has yet to hit its stride. i m ben wedeman, cnn, reporting from zaporizhzhia. live again to london, and an adviser to the ukrainian president joins us. timothy, thank you for taking the time to speak with us. thank you. it s been what, 4 99 days since putin began his war of choice in ukraine and most of those days have gone from bad to worse. as you watch these events unfold over the weekend, just tell me what were your thoughts? yes. it is dramatic for ukrainians to see that russia has lost control over its own military forces, and it just underscores again for us that, you know, the