the changes a necessity . we re going to take you now to the front line of the war in ukraine where soldiers are engaged in fierce trench warfare reminiscient of scenes the commander of ukraine s ground troops has claimed they will be launching a long awaited counter assault very soon and that russia s winter offensive around the key city of bakhmut in the east of the country is losing steam. further south, around the town of velyka novosilka, continuing attacks by russian tanks and armoured vehicles have resulted in heavy losses for moscow s forces, with almost nothing to show for it, and months of battles have turned the area into a virtual wasteland. our correspondent, quentin sommerville, and video journalist darren conway have spent time with a ukrainian tank brigade on the front line of the war. i should warn you that viewers might find some of the images contained in their report distressing.
with the leading presidential hopefuls right now trying to show some distance from the ukraine war. on friday, despite ukraine s request and a growing bipartisan course in congress, president biden has made it clear he is ruling out providing f-16s for now. 200,000 casualties, eight times higher than the u.s. casualties in the two decades of war we waged in afghanistan. moscow s winter offensive has so far delivered just minor territorial gains. the only potential beneficiary of a protracted conflict may be china, which offered a peace plan, by the way, which ukraine did not reject out of hand. the u.s. did, and it is still leveling accusations that china is considering providing legal aid to russia. u.s. officials tell nbc news that intelligence suggests that aid includes artillery and ammunition, but as u.s. officials sound the alarm, on friday president biden downplayed the threat from china. i don t anticipate we haven t seen it yet, but i
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migs over there. we ve had a lot of time for training, and if there is more training that needs to be done, we need to start it this afternoon. and we need to make sure that we can get them what they need to win this offensive in the spring. one thing i m concerned that the american people don t realize is that vladamir putin has failed miserably in this late winter offensive. he may have gained a meter or two in a small town. but it has not succeeded, and is not likely to succeed. what it has done is, it s resulted in a huge not just casualty rate, but the mortality rate. most of the problems they have had have been fatalities among these prisoners and these conscripts who are not ready to fight. and no matter what china gives them, they will never be ready to fight a war like this.
Biden, in his trademark aviator sunglasses, and President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, in green battle fatigues, walked side-by-side to a gold-domed cathedral in Kyiv on a bright winter Monday morning pierced by the sound of air raid sirens