Page 38 - May 9th News Today

Weapon systems here. the russians have telegraphed what is coming. we are in a quick race of suspicions to get the weapons in the hands of the ukrainians. and there are no better weapons in the world than those of the united states and their nato allies. full stop. and the number, three jonathan, is the diplomatic piece of this. which is going to continue to push back against the russians. when i put it all together, despite the fact that russia still has immense combat power, it is very concent...

Youll see is the center of the map, and around that area, 40,000 to 50,000 ukrainian troops defending in more than 180 degrees of direction. so the russians want to hold the troops in position and then cut in behind them, isolating, encircle them and destroy them. this would permanently cripple or for a couple years cripple ukraine. so this is a really tough fight that has to be waged. and thats whats going on there. mariupol, on the other hand, is a political objective now for russia, because w...

Ukraine. combined with our recent draw downs, it will ensure a steady flow of weapons and equipment into ukraine over the next few weeks. president zelenskyy is praising the west for finally sending the ukrainians the type of heavy weapons it needs to defeat the russians. volodymyr zelenskyy said, quote, well be able to show the occupiers that the day when they leave forced to leave ukraine is approaching. thats in response to president bidens announcement of a new $800 million package of mili...

Work. however the calculus is, you can say putin, in his mind, the regime has to win. and how to define that, first and foremost, for his own people. and so when you think about it in that context, hes had -- they launched an -- an undefendable -- excuse me, an awful offensive that -- nothing that weve seen in europe since 1939. so, yes, he wants to win. hes playing to win. theres going to be very, very little. hes got to eke out a success. youve mentioned may 9th. victory day. thats going to be...

Day, until may 9th actually and yesterday seen the minister of defense of russia reported to putin that mariupol is totally captured but its not the truth, actually. because we have still the fightings in the region of the metal plant, asovstad and its a huge territory, its like a city in a city and the russian forces, they are trying to take their main forces north to help their main forces to capture another city as weve said previously, in your stories. >> listen, and adding, really, insult t...

Win ahead of that key date? >> i think that is unquestionably the case. its -- its a -- every russian soldier will understand that. but they will also understand that its -- some of these attacks are just suicide attacks. they are aware of the -- of the incredible casualties that the russians are taking. and by the way, the ukrainians are likely to mount a counterattack of their own on may 9th. >> so david, you know, the thought of taking mariupol that has been encircle now for weeks on end, if ...

Soviet victory in the second world war. it is a huge holiday in russia. and its really the sim bowl of the regimes strength and legitimacy. so if their -- the reason why i think they have decided against a storm of the steel plant is simply because they are afraid of the sim bow he lizm. during the second world war, in stalingrad and the tractor factories and other factories in stalingrad against the nazi invaders. any depiction of ukrainians fighting against russian troops in that steel complex...

He wants victories on the battlefield now, that he can present to his people and make russians believe that his "special military operation", as he calls it, is going according to plan. so what does he do? he comes out today and he claims victory in mariupol, even though we know some ukrainian fighters are still at the steelworks. now, president putin will be acutely aware that, in two and a half weeks, russia will celebrate victory day, a big national holiday here, where russia marks the defeat...

Then tisty of the recording. ukraine says previous sp intercepted where soldiers and civilians as we told you at the top of the hour are holed up. lets dig deeper now into russias plans for ukraine. we are joined by former-mots cow correspondent and russia scholar at the hudson institute. david, thanks is very much for joining us. let me get your thoughts on really the latest moves by the russian forces that we were explaining there in mariupol. president putin as you probably heard in the las...

The 90s are happening here. >> susan, whats the conversations about this major humanitarian crisis in ukraine? >> it affected the conversations in the white house and the country. you know we can only imagine what the atrociies are on the ukrainian people. for americans watching these pictures of mass graves and thousands of bodies dumped in them, it raises questions whether the u.s. and western responses are big enough. we saw president biden yesterday announced a new aid package, promised to a...