is needed like a leader from zelenskyy. the russians are not going to be able to take kyiv. i think that the ukrainians are going to continue to repulse these inroads. i mean, the russian forces, as you pointed out, 7,000 dead, twice that many injured, and with the devastation of a lot of their forces coming in, they are a weakened and bloody force. and this is a conscript force, and we have a lot of reports about russians who are surrendering, who are just abandoning their vehicles and going into the forests. and so, i think the russian the ukrainian people know, and the ukrainian forces know that they are humiliating not just the russian military but vladimir putin. and i think that gives them, in fact, the type of energy that they need to continue to fight to the bitter end, and i do think that the ukrainians are going to prevail over time, and the longer this goes on inside of ukraine and the bloodier it gets for russia, the more difficult it s going to be for vladimir putin, com
this is what our people have clearly demonstrated. here it is. let me play this. if kyiv falls to the russians, does the entire country of ukraine fall to the russians? translator: well, our people are unconquerable. and this is what our people have clearly demonstrated. you can conquer the city. you can break the heart, but you won t be able to force anyone to love someone. that is why the heart will always remain with ukrainians. i mean, it s poetry, director brennan, and also is the articulation of a never-ending insurgency on the part of president zelenskyy there. well, the ukrainians know they re fighting a righteous war against this invading russian force, so therefore, it has given them the wherewithal and in terms of the inspiration that
audiences and speak to the people. i m guessing that you acknowledge the showmanship doesn t show up something that isn t there and what s spl there is a man that refuses to leave kyiv, like magnetically drawn to the troops. giving them medals. that s right. there s no faking that courage and bravery. if people had any doubts. ukrainians did have doubts about his abilities as a leader before this invasion started a few weeks ago. the approval ratings were not good and dropped throughout the time in office but i think when he made that decision to stay and just taking enormous risks putting out the videos in rooms where we meet for interviews and
i guess what is coming through here is this combination of defiance in the unthinkable human horrors that are mariupol and something that is very much to type that some of these peace talks that we d heard about yesterday may, in the view of the ukrainians, be a fakeout from the russians. reporter: yes. and you have, beyond just the targeting of civilians now, you have the russians clearly trying to target specific things like food security and medical help using those as weapons of war. whether or not that is to influence these talks, whether or not that is to force the president of ukraine to make concessions that he otherwise wouldn t, i think it s fairly obvious. these wouldn t be used as weapons of war unless you were trying to influence events on the ground. if we look at cities like kharkiv, and we spent a lot of time talking about mariupol, but if we look at kharkiv, they bombed a marketplace there today, a food market that is now
obama s mistakes there and setting red lines they weren t sure how to enforce. and it s terrible to think how much worse it could get and what the u.s. response would have to be. i m glad i don t make those decisions but i think rushing ourselves into steps and making hard commitments before those things have happened is a recipe for unintended consequences. i think a lot of people starting to understand that while you all are eyes and ears and the government is proactive what they can and want to tell us there are things happening on the ground that we don t know about. i will ask you both to stay and switch gears to some of my colleague s reporting feeding ukrainians on the front line. nbc news inside a facility with meals to those trying to flee