ukraine. it is 5 pm. it s been nearly one year since russia s unprovoked invasion of this country. i was in ukraine last spring, in lviv, in the west of the country. i am back now to see what s changed, what s stayed the same, and what is next for this war and for this country, and for the global fight for democracy. the ukrainians what the rest of the world to know it s a critical part of this fight. one thing that remains the same as russia continues to rain terror from the skies in the form of missiles, rockets, airstrikes, and drones, both near the battlefield in the east and in places far from the front. in places like lviv, and right here in the capital, kyiv. it is something that is very evident. the air raid sirens have become a part of everyday life here. there have been multiple air raid sirens each day, and while most ukrainians have come to live with them, they hear, they acknowledge, them and they largely continue on with their day. for my team and me on the grou
short on. matching its rhetoric, with the kind of support ukrainians to win this war, not just for ukraine, but for the u.s. and u.s. national security. we re gonna watch then very closely, president biden arrives in the region on monday. he will be delivering an important speech on tuesday. we ll see if any of that changes. colonel, may we not be talking about this and a year, or at least be talking about it as history, retired lieutenant colonel alexander vindman, is the former director of european foreign affairs at the national security council. he s the author of the important book, here right matters. an american story. should, ahead more on the war in ukraine as we approach the one year anniversary another hour of velshi, live from kyiv, begins right now. begins right now good morning to you, it is saturday, february the 18th, welcome to our new home. a 10 am and 11 am eastern, our show is celebrating three years on the air this weekend. we thank you for watching u
russia had paid for his political rise and for his political party. they had worked to install him in power. they totally controlled him. he was their guy. that was how russia controlled ukraine. they controlled the ukrainian president. they installed him in power and told him what to do and he did it. and russia, of course, didn t want ukraine to have better economic ties to the west. they didn t want ukraine to have any ties to the west. they wanted ukraine to only be tied to russia. and so when ukraine had the opportunity to sign on to this pro-european trade deal, russia didn t want him to do it and russia s guy in ukraine, this very corrupt, very compromised pro-russian president said he wouldn t sign that trade deal with europe. he said instead he would sign a knew one with russia. people in ukraine did not want that. they wanted to stop looking east. they wanted to look west instead. so in response they started protesting. in november of 2013. and a few months into it,
here. it is presidents day today, february 20th. presidential historian gonna be with us tonight. she s gonna be with us here live very very much looking forward to that conversation. but it was on this date, which won february 20th in 2014 when the group they call the heavenly hundred was killed. it was actually 118 people, call them the heavenly hundred. the youngest of them was just 16 years old. the oldest of them was 83 years old. it all happened as the culmination of protests that had started the previous november, people were protesting in ukraine. because the government of that country had had the chance to sign on to a big trade deal with europe. a deal that was expected to have big economic benefits for ukraine, it was definitely something that would bring ukraine closer to europe. closer to the west. people in ukraine frothy war, really looking forward to. it this is a popular thing they very much wanted it. but the president of ukraine at the time decided he was
at the very least, it s of course there s a lot of court intrigue going on in american politics and a small percentage is public. one day you wake up and kamala harris is the vice president. how did that happen, you wonder? nobody will say. you can be sure there s a story there. here s the latest example of unexplained weirdness in the news. mike pence of all people has swooped in to save joe biden. yes, mike pence. a man so pure he won t have dinner with ladies not his wife. mike pence had secret documents in his house just like joe biden. bet you didn t see that coming. it wasn t so long ago that pence was on television who said he was sure he had no classified documents in his possession. then he sent his personal attorney to search his home in carmel, indiana for classified documents. if he didn t think he had classified documents, why would he send his lawyer to look for them? it s entirely possible and likely that mike pence was asked to to this by federal prosecutors w