i don t think this is a big secret. the people from the u.s. are coming to us tomorrow. i shall be meeting with the state secretary, mr. blinken, and the defense secretary, and we will be waiting for the time when the security situation allows for the president to come and talk to us. in fact, a high level visit to a country at war would be deliberately kept secret until after the aroorival. it is not clear why zelenskyy chose to share this information. today, here in ukraine, orthodox easter sunday. right now, a curfew is in effect across several regions as officials warn of increased attacks during holiday celebrations. in the south, at least eight people are dead, several other injured after russian forces struck residential buildings and a military facility in the kyiv port city of odesa. and in mariupol today, russian troops thwarted again civilian evacuations from the city. this as we re getting new video from inside the steel plant reportedly showing ukrainian sold
What more did the ukrainian president have to say? it was a huge surprise, jim. i think one that not a lot of reporters in that room thought was coming. you and i have been having conversations over the past week talking about when and if we would see senior u.s. leadership come to kyiv like we have seen so many other senior leaders from europe come here. now it appears it is going to happen on orthodox easter sunday, which is now today, in kyiv. zelenskyy talking about what he expects in the meeting, saying he will lay out exactly the kinds of weapons he says he needs in order to immediately start a counteroffensive, basically trying to retake all of the territory russia has taken from ukraine. he acknowledged the change in pace at which u.s. weapons are being delivered. i see the change min the sped of response on the part of the u.s. and if the speed is increasing as we are promised and if the steps coincide with
Has been turning on the gas already, been accelerating security assistance. it s probably just a reflection of the pressure that he s under with as we saw, bomb attacks on odesa. people being killed. the extraordinary, extraordinary siege of mariupol with 100,000 civilians trapped and the russians fully intent on starving them out. this is the kind of pressure that president zelenskyy is under. but i do think that the u.s. is providing the kind of support now that will make a fundamental difference. before we go, tell us with russia s new focus on the east and the south, new focus not just attention, but military assets. how does that war go now? because of course you have the u.s. and nato trying to back up the ukrainians for a new kind of battle in the east. armor on armor. artillery on artillery battle. how does that play out in your view? right. we can t forget just how poorly
Upgrade today. right now, president zelenskyy doubling down on his willingness to meet with russian president putin. zelenskyy says he does not have the luxury to be afraid as his people stand tall in the face of russia s continuing invasion. joining me now to discuss, a former chief economic adviser to putin. he resigned in 2005 and has been a critic of putin since. good to have you back, sir. i do want the begin with the
Through the hands of the ukrainian army. as i mentioned, counter battery radar and long range fires are necessary to remove the russian strength of indirect fires. we also need to and ambassador volcker brought up navigation. the navy, nato s naval forces need to be brought to bear to influence military outcome. i m not saying attack. i m saying that they need to deny free access. they need to deny the fact that the russians think black sea is their lake. final question before we go. you ve heard that president zelenskyy has released the information that secretary blinken, secretary austin on their way to kyiv perhaps as soon as today. if you were advising, when you were in iraq, you had high level visits and that information kept