that however and whenever this ends that ukraine emerges as a free and independent country. we can up the pressure if we were able to create a total embargo on oil and gas. that would hasten or certainly weaken fundamentally putin s capacity to wage war. but, again, you want to stop mass killings. if you can t intervene militarily and we won t, and it is hard for me to admit we shouldn t, then we have to give the ukrainians the power and the capacity in every aspect of what making war really means in order to stop russian advances, and ultimately and here is where it becomes extremely sketchy, ultimately to create some kind of end state that preserves ukraine as an independent nation. and that s going to be extremely difficult given war crimes, and
your defensive lines or is this looming as a slower, longer, grinding military operation? and secondly, do you believe your allies are finally getting the message? are they sending you the heavy weapons you need? thank you. translator: if they god forbid occupy something, we ll get it back. it will not be a matter of 10 or 20 years, not a war like we had starting from 2014. we had this for eight years. concerning the armament, if we have enough of it, we ll return it immediately. we ll take our territories back immediately. we see a change, we see this change regarding our western partners. i can see the change in the speed of response, especially in the united states. reporter: president zelenskyy said getting the right weapons will be a big part of his agenda when he meets with the u.s. secretaries of state and defense
relatively set from russian missiles. president zelenskyy summoned the ukrainian and international media deep underground to attend a slickly produced event in one of kyiv s metro stations. there, on one of the platforms, even with the train flying past, took questions on the state of the war, for about two hours. at times he was emotional, especially notably when discussing missile strikes on the city of odesa on saturday that he says killed a 3-month-old child. translator: when the war started, this child was a month old. and the child died. just realize that, grasp it, bastards! what can i say? these are just bloody bastards. i have no other words and i m sorry, but bastards. could you please give us your assessment of russia s plans, but also its capabilities for its operations in the east, in the donbas? will russia or perhaps more importantly can russia launch a large scale push to breakthrough
blockade, and he says that the hope is, of course, that he won t you won t let any flies coming in or out of that azovstal steel plant. that last holdout there and ukraine is being defiant in that steel plant. that is in mariupol. i ll take you slightly west to the southern port city of odesa, we have seen just more shelling today. we have seen one building really collapse today, being hit by intense shelling, looking at some of the images and there have been casualties. eight people killed, 18 wounded. of those eight killed, one was a 3 month baby girl. we have a photo of this baby girl, when this war started, the baby girl was just 1 month old. hearing of the news reporting on the news, president zelenskyy yesterday was so emotional. he was scathing of it.
the table. and the only way to prevent mass atrocity, mass killing, genocide, once it begins, is through the direct intervention with force. no one is recommending, certainly not in the biden administration, it is understandable given as you suggested the risks and the escalatory risks of nuclear confro confrontation. we re left in a twilight zone with mass killings, mass atrocities, and the longer this goes on in eastern ukraine, the more transparent, the more we ll find the human toll has been extraordinary. i just don t think the international community has the will, the cohesion, or in this particular case the notion that the intervene risks war with russia and no one, and again, it is understandable, seems to be willing to do that. but, aaron, okay, here is my question. if they re not able to do it now, what is the endgame,