minister andre. thanks so much for being with us. good to see you again. thank you, michael. now, despite the strong performance of the ukrainian military, how concerning are those russian advances in the east and also the south? of course, concerning. they are collecting substantial forces, actually all they can. and they re trying to advance and take more territory and kill people and capture our lands. so obviously this is their best chances, they think. they put all their efforts, all their best generals, all their equipment, so, yeah. that s a huge challenge. how concerned are you that russia will start to hit those weapons convoy coming into the country. we have seen railways targeted, but are you worried that armed shipments which are so crucial for ukraine might themselves be
telling them not to continue to sending such weaponry. another issue is the u.s. doesn t have an accurate way of tracking the weapons that it is sending across the border into ukraine, how big of a concern is this now for the administration as we expect yet another $800 million package? that s right, bianna, it is not that big of a concern to u.s. officials right now because they are fairly confident that the weapons that are being sent over the border into ukraine are ultimately making their way into the hands of ukrainian forces. of course, ukrainian officials go over to poland and pick up some of these weapons, and so they are overseeing kind of that transport over to ukraine and the u.s. officials are confident that they are getting where they need to go. but a big reason for that so far has also been that the russians as barbara had just discussed have not been actively attacking those weapons convoy, the shipments that have been crossing the border. u.s. officials have been a b
? i think if he was backed into a corner, he might go that far . but right now i don t think he s seriously considering it. and i believe statements we re hearing by the bush administration about chemical weapons are really overblown. but i do believe that putin will use the prospect of nuclear war to keep us out of this conflict, to keep nato from intervening. but i mean, there s some talk that maybe putin would use chemical weapons against cities. i don t think there s any very low chance he would do that because i mean, talk about being a pariah this would cost him any possibility of a negotiated settlement. i think it would cost him whatever support he has from china. and let me come back to you on military supplies from nato countries including the united states. we re getting a lot and obviously president solinsky or once more the russians now saying that they will target those convoys. they hit a weapons convoy
carly: jonathan do you feel this is just an attack on a military facility or is the sending a message to nato? teach you he is absolutely sending a message to nato. we got that loud and clear. the deputy foreign minister yesterday said any weapons convoy being sent by european countries or the us into western ukraine and into the hands of the ukrainian forces would be a potential target. we don t know for sure but it is not a stretch to believe that some of the javelin stand missiles that are funneled into ukraine may have been going through a military base so close to the poland border so yes he is sending a message he will follow through to target weapons convoy is anything he believed is attached to military aid from the last.
ukrainians in the last 24 hours or so pushed them back to 40 to 50 kilometers away. in the north of kyiv what we re seeing the russians take a defensive posture. they are no longer trying to advance they are going back to defense. places in the south you talked about the activity in the black sea but around another town just to the northeast of odesa. the ukrainians have descended forwell they re pushing the russians further away from that town. dana: two questions about two-part questions about getting weapons to the ukrainians. they said they need more and it s slow. i know you will say that we re trying our best and they re getting there but a question on the weapons. but also there are reports that because the weapons have to get into ukraine somehow there is a report the russians are increasingly saying that any sort of weapons convoy is fair game and there was even a suggestion that the possibility that as they are trying to bomb those as they come through