Seizing Crimea News Today

invasion of ukraine. a spokesman for the u.s. air force called the actions reckless, unsound and unprofessional. lets bring in natasha bertrand and melissa bell live in kyiv, ukraine. melissa, what are we hearing today from ukrainian and russian officials ans about this inciden the black sea? >> reporter: what we are getting from the russian ministry of defense is a direct contradiction to what the united states has said so far. what the russians are saying is that there was no contact...

Ukraine. this is one of the things that hes referring to, because back in 2014, when then congressman ron desantis was reacting to russia seizing crimea, here is part of what he had to say. >> we in the congress have been you remembering the president, i have been, to provide arms to ukraine. they want to fight their good fight. theyre not asking us to fight it for them, and the president has staedeadfastly refused and think thats a mistake. >> he also criticized what he called obamas weak polic...

Children for human rights violators. >> the human rights council has been a problematic body in recent years because the very countries you would think it would be examining are the ones running or at least participating in the council. its always been problematic. the united states has always viewed it with a great deal of skepticism. its one more step in isolating russia from the rest of the world. weve seen that hasnt changed their calculus. back in 2014 when they started this, by seizing cri...

Continues to do so. 100,000 troops, most recently, including forces deployed to belarus. that would give russia the c capacity, some president putin so chooses, to attack ukraine from the south, from the east, from the north. and weve seen plans to un undertake a variety of des destabilizing action, some of them short of the overuse of force, to destabilize ukraine, to topple the government, a variety of things. so as i said, this is not on the basis of a motion. its on the basis of fact and als...

Atms. three friends, all from donbas in eastern ukraine, in maidan square, where ukraine turned its back on russia in its 2014 revolution, showing support for their country. >> we are not afraid. we are ready to defend our country. >> reporter: marichka padulko is a morning news anchor in ukraine. tonight, her husbands at war, and her children hiding in safety in the west. >> i think its the worst scenario that we could have expected. i never expected it to be so bad, but i never expected ukrain...

And as that was continuing year after year -- by the way, largely, again, as a result of his actions and alienating ukrainians by seizing crimea and invading the separatists of the donbas. as that was happening, it no doubt got to a point where he thought if he didnt do something to change the dynamic, it was just going to happen. >> it feels like your meeting with sergei lavrov this week, if it happens, it means no war. if it doesnt happen, it means war has begun. is that the fair way to look a...

His state of mind to do it? does it smack of desperation? >> i think its less desperation than this is what he has up his sleeve to respond to the escalatory spiral and its his response to the western response to his war on ukraine. you remember russia has the worlds largest nuclear arsenal. its an obvious card to play. weve been here before. he threatened to use them against western countries who meddled against russias war in ukraine. and in 2015, he was talking about the annexation of crimea ...

Including that. >> i want to ask you about the fighting thats taking place at a mir tear airfield 20 miles from the capital of kyiv. do we know who is in control of that airfield tonight and is it possible kyiv falls in the next 24 hours? >> im not in a position to comment on exactly whats going on on the ground at this moment, but what we do know and part of the russian plan has been to put kyiv in danger, to assault the capital, to go after other major cities. were seeing forces come in from t...

We have been here before. he threatened to use them against western countries who meddled against russias war in ukraine and in 2015 he was talking about the annexation of crimea the year before, and he gave a similar order in case everything went wrong and the west in his mind tried to stop russia from seizing crimea from ukraine. this is very much in pattern with him making threats and the nuclear doctrine. >> president zelenskyy does not say im too confident, and if it achieves anything its w...

Offices, fleeing to russia in 2014. putin was not happy. he had lost his puppet president, there are huge pro democracy protests next door. this was a seismic moment for the russian president, you can see that in three brazen geopolitical moves afterwards. first, seizing crimea from ukraine. almost immediately after those pro democracy protests in ukraine, he sent his little green men, no flags on their uniforms, they occupied russian government buildings that russia hopes to control. it was at ...