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one year later. almost exactly a year ago missile attacks against the capital of ukraine, kyiv. to most this was a surprise attack and invasion. the ukrainians didn t see it coming, nor did the europeans. the one consistent voice cautioning that an invasion was likely, the u.s. intelligence community. another surprise for the world, the intense resolve about entertainer turned president volodymyr zelenskyy, unlike others in his position he didn t flee but only left the country a handful of times to plea for guns and ammunition. and for the last year he s faced off from across the border with vladimir putin who has ruled russia for more than two de decades. the key player who is not a participant in the war, the united states of america. it is the country that has organized the sanctions against russia, it is the country that has been the single biggest provider of military and nonmilitary assistance and tonight on this special program, you ll hear from two top officials ....
In their tracks so they couldn t roll over kyiv and anti-air systems like stinger missiles to shoot down the helicopters that were bringing in paratroopers to try to take over the city from the air. in the second phase of the war, ukraine really needed artillery in the east to stop the more traditional advances of the russian military. as we head into the spring, what ukraine really needs is armor. infantry fighting vehicles and, yes, tanks and we re providing those. the president was advised by his military abrams tanks, the american tank doesn t make sense for this fight. what they really needed were leopard tanks, german tanks that a bunch of countries in europe own but the germans said we won t provide our tanks unless you, the united states provide your tanks and president biden said, if me providing aobamas tanks even if it s not the most sensible military move will help unlock germany tanks to get to the front lines and also will ....
Out there in his reasoning for going to war that do resonate with a lot of russian people. there are a lot of people here in this country who believe that the east of ukraine is essentially russian territory. historically russian territory, there s a lot of people who believe that territory was infringed upon by the united states, by nato and that somehow this conflict now is one between russia and the west and specifically between russia and the united states, so right now there s no public pressure on vladimir putin to end this war and it certainly doesn t seem as though he s inclined to do so any time soon, fareed. fred, what is life like day-to-day for russians? do they feel the war in any sense? reporter: that s an extremely important question. i m really glad you asked that, fareed, because i think a lot of people would be very surprised to see what life is like here in moscow. there s till a lot of western products on the shelves, card payments are possible, electronic payme ....
In the dark for a ten-hour trip overnight to arrive in kyiv the following morning. and as you said, the united states didn t control the airspace, didn t control the ground, we were entering a country at war heading to a capital at war, a country that has been subject to routine and repeated bombardments by the russians and without any of the normal security capacity that would usually accompany a president so we were heading into the unknown because this was unprecedented. the president was up much of the night not so much worried about his safety as he was worried about making sure that he was going to maximize his time on the ground in kyiv, that he was going to have the kind of conversations face-to-face with president zelenskyy that would allow us to move forward in our support and most importantly that he could stand up and say to the world from right there in kyiv as you just heard clarissa say that a year ago people were bracing for the fall of kyiv and ....
I mean first let me say that the reflection of how much commonality americans do feel with ukrainians is the flow of support that has been sustained over the course of this last year. it is the bipartisanship in a town that isn t famous for it anymore, but ukraine has been not only a galvanizing issue, but a uniting issue for our own country which has been very divided in recent years and that s as recent as the end of last year where an enormous new appropriation was given to usaid and to other parts of the u.s. government to be able to support schools, to be able to support keeping the lights on, rebuilding the pipes, providing generators, boilers as putin seeks to weaponize winter and i wish someday that you d be able to travel to the united states and even when the war is over you ll probably see the remnants of the blue and yellow flag ....