happening now, ukraine marks one full year of bloodshed and brutality at the hands of russian forces. president zelenskyy defiant saying victory is inevitable. i ll speak one on one with the ukrainian ambassador to the united states. also tonight, breaking news, the prosecution rests in the alex murdaugh murder trial after two days of dramatic cross-examination. did the jury buy his story about why he lied to police on the night of the killings? welcome to our viewers in the united states and around the world. wolf blitzer is off today. i m brianna keilar and you re the situation room. we begin our coverage with the latest on russia s war against ukraine officially one year old from kyiv to moscow, cnn s correspondents are covering the conflict from every angle as the war enters the second year. let s get to clarissa ward. president zelenskyy is talking to reporter and has a speech. what s the mood on the ground following remarks? reporter: i think there is provocat
now, it s difficult to see how vladimir putin plans to turn the tide but i think one of the things that we do ascertain especially from the things that he said over the past couple days he is nowhere near backing down and certainly right now there doesn t seem to be much in the way of pressure or public pressure that would be causing him to even consider backing down, brianna. fred pleitgen in moscow, thank you for your report. i want to bring in more experts. general marks, president zelenskyy is vowing ukraine will win this year but top western officials are expecting this will go on longer. what do you make of the daylight between the rhetoric? well, president zelenskyy stated all along all russians need to depart ukraine, whether they can be pushed out or some incentive for them to depart, i think that s unlikely. what the ukrainians have been able to do is quite phenomenal and inspirational but the russians have the law of large
second year. let s get to clarissa ward. president zelenskyy is talking to reporter and has a speech. what s the mood on the ground following remarks? reporter: i think there is provocation today could be attacks. it s been quiet for the first time there is no air raid sirens and the message coming from president zelenskyy today was actually, brianna quite upbeat. he said he believes it s possible that ukraine would be able to win this war this year. others would say that s an optimistic timeline given the state of affairs and how it s grinding away at a stalemate in the east. he gave a long press conference, president zelenskyy mostly to
this is a day of intense emotion for ordinary ukrainians and people looking on around the world. when you think back to the invasion, the aims, these were one year in kyiv we were syruply n simply not expecting to see. still in power and still in kyiv, one year after the invasion that intended to force him out in days, president zelenskyy stood proudly outside st. sofias thanks those responsible. translator: it is you that will decide if ukraine will exist every day, every hour. it is you ukrainian soldiers that will decide it. reporter: a stark contrast to the night my messages for a year now kept hope afloat.
you heard president zelenskyy say they can win the war this year, is that true? they can take human and military effort and there is a big variable, which china might do if russia gets hard pressed. i m skeptical either side will prevail on the battle field. let s talk about china and what they might do. china is pushing for russia and ukraine to negotiate as the u.s. is warning china is moving closer to providing drones and ammunition to russia. how do you see china s thinking in all of this? i wouldn t say quite china is pressing besides to negotiate, they came out with a quote unquote peace proposal that didn t call for russian withdrawal from ukraine so quite honestly, i don t take it all that seriously and again, i think china made a big strategic bet on russia. xi jinping is very much tied himself to vladimir putin. it s china as you know is buying massive amounts of russian oil.