president biden joining other world leaders at this hour to mark this milestone anniversary of d-day the allied invasion of continental europe during world war ii hello, two meters, zelenskyy, the wartime president of ukraine, had this heartwarming moment and a hug with one of the americans who fought at normandy. president biden also met with a handful of the last surviving us veterans who stormed those beaches are parachuted behind enemy leinz as very young men. today, they are all around 100 100-years-old making this anniversary, especially poignant and moving as the world's pays tribute to the greatest generation the man who fought here became heroes not because they're the strongest and toughest herb or fiercest although they were but because they're given an audacious mission knowing everyone in the new, the probability of dying was real but they did it anyway they knew and beyond any doubt there are things that are worth fighting. >> and dying for hi, joining us now from the american cemetery in normandy, cnn's chief international anchor, christiane amanpour, also with the historian douglas brinkley, retired brigadier general mark kim. >> it is with us as well. christiane, you and i have covered these milestone anniversaries since 1994. i remember when we were both there sure how much do the current global tensions underscore the poignancy of today's ceremonies honestly, wolfe, i think that's what it's all about, as well as celebrating the heroes that have fallen and who are laid to rest and also those who have survived. >> and you've come back again. i spoke to the 101-year-old jake las and we'll have a little little clip in a moment, but really everything today was framed, whether it was an interviews, whether it was in the speeches by president biden and macron and the secretary of defense and the others in in the current crisis, because who would have thought that 80 years since d-day itself and the liberation of occupied territories, that would be facing a raging ground war in europe is just unbelievable. what's going on. it's just unbelievable that in 2024, this is happening after all the sacrifice and after all the years of this international world order that was created by the united states and its allies. in any event, i want to play for you a tiny soundbites from jake larson which sort of sums up the courage, the commitment the heroism of those who did actually fight. he landed on omaha beach 80 years ago today today, it's 80 years since what you all did. so heroically think ours i hero. >> i was just like anybody else we are all in this together i'm never i'm never here on my people keep calling me hero i changed that word i took you off on my hero i t over there and that people who say, well, what shaw here too. i says, i'm here to tell you that heroes are up there. they gave their life they gave her life so that i could make it my gut i had i got a wife, i got children, i got two boys and a girl. i got nine grandchildren. i got need 11 great grandchildren i've got a grandson that's his grandfather and i'm still going crazy. will you come back again? >> oh god, yes. i'd come back again just jiang are all laws that gave their life so that i could be here jake las and thank you well, thank you. christiana well we'll firstly at 101, nearly 102, he is as sharp as attack and remembers everything and knows why he was there, knows why he's here today but, i think most moving about what he said is not a question of survivors guilt in terms of the heroes of those who've already given their lives. >> but what he already said in those words was what they all did for all of us, so that we could have the normal lives did he was describing and the freedoms that many of our generation take for granted. i think what he said was just so remarkable and just so on-point it's so amazing christiane, because what 80 years ago these an i'll call them heroes. these heroes were 118, 20-years-old and now those who have survived all these years, they're approaching 100 or a little bit more than 100-years-old has so moving to see these few remaining veterans. and there are fewer and fewer obviously every year does this year's events feel different for you it feels different. >> nodes in the way we commemorated them celebrated and reported on them together because it's the same really as these wonderful people you come back to together to remember the camaraderie, to remember the unbelievable feats that they undertook. and two end to remember what it did and what it led to and for how many decades it led to stability and peace on the european continent. it's not that so much that's different and not the speeches so much. but it's the knowledge that actually we are witnessing and we are caught up in this terrible war. there's unprovoked invasion by russia on a country, ukraine that simply wanted freedom and democracy and by the way, who's freedom was guaranteed by the united states? and by russia when ukraine willingly gave up its nuclear arsenal to russia after the fall of the soviet union. >> and so i think that is what is really the difference this time and to know the democracy doesn't come cheap, to know that history is not linear, to know that we cannot take literally anything for granted, even, even, even though i've spent my whole career taking it for granted, that it would go in a straight line that the more we fought, the more that we sacrifice, the more would eight attention this is democracy and freedom would just grow and grow and grow, but no, it really is at risk right now. >> and i think everybody understands that unless ukraine is one than the entire project that these people fought and died for will, will be at risk. i'm not going to say it would be for nothing because clearly that's not the case, but will be for risk and demogrant proceed will only survive if we fight for it your steak clearly right now, are enormous. >> christiane, thank you very, very much. i want to bring in their story and douglas brinkley and retired us army brigadier general mac commit to discuss what's going on. i couldn't help but notice general commit when we heard that veteran more than 100-years-old speaking, christiane, it was so emotional for me and but especially three, you tell us why. well, i think it's emotional for all of us. what was particularly poignant was having him say what he did in behind him were those rows and rows of graves that were american soldiers who went across the beach that day and he called them the heroes. >> he said he was just doing what everybody was doing, but he was a hero. as far as i'm concerned as well. and it's it was really powerful just to hear his voice 100-years-old. and he was speaking so beautifully. >> well, i think he was encouraged he and it's a sad commentary about america, is that so many are not encouraged. but this is a man that new and he fought for knows what he has today so looking forward to his family and his future. >> yeah. so some powerful i want to bring in the presidential historian douglas brinkley right now. douglas are president biden is tying russia's war in ukraine, the largest groundwater in europe since world war 22. the threats allies, space, what, 80 years ago during world war two, do you agree? okay. with that parallel i agree to it to a certain degree. look, president biden gave very appropriate remarks. i think what history is going to remember about this 80th anniversary. it's really one of the last times the world media is getting to say, thank you to the the hundred-year-old veterans, but also just what's going on in the ukraine it's right there. i mean, in france, you're going to have biden meeting with zelenskyy. how do you stop that war? how do you prevent russian aggression of the most heinous kind? and its curious when listening to biden because in one one way with you're going to write a history of nato he's been a president big time promoter of nato is whole light. p is almost mr. atlantic alliance. as precedent, you had nato enlargement, sweeten just recently being added. yet the specter that nato could be unraveled all that you might have. a more isolationist american president, meaning donald trump, who sees nate to is for suckers. so there's a tension here, but biden is coming trying to reassure or western allies were reassured, nato certainly do by lateral relations with france. and also try to convince people but don't make the assumption that trump's coming in and nieto's on the decline interesting your general kim and what are your reflections on this day well, i think like every other soldier and hopefully every other american, the tremendous sacrifice that was made that day. but i think there's one other issue and it's brought a both by christiane and mr. brinkley, which is allies matter. i'm wearing flag of the british parachute regiment. they were side-by-side with us on d-day, jumping out of the sky along with our canadian allies, we cannot do this by ourselves and anybody that believes an isolationist america is stronger i would challenge that and i think d-day proves that you certainly if you're talking about trump i'm talking about america that believes we're better off. isolation as an impartial the international community because he threatened, as you know, to leave dado if nato allies don't pay what he considers to be enough, as far as defense expenditure there's are concerned. well, that's true, but at the same time, if you take look at the expenditure increased that was done during the trump pier and immediate after every president since beginning of nato has said our allies don't pay enough whether its techniques and its process of doing that was the right way to do it. >> the fact is they're now doing it. and i think we're stronger in ukraine because of it. >> this tie you that you're wearing, it's a beautiful red tie. tell us a little bit more who gave that time? >> the british parachute richmond, it is maroon tie emblematic emblematic of there the colors. it's actually read the british jumped side-by-side with us. i actually did an aerosol into an area that it's now known as pegasus bridge. they were on the ground very shortly before we were we could not have done our job the 82nd airborne hundred and first airborne if we didn't have the british blocking those routes to prevent other equipment, other tanks, and mechanized vehicles from coming and in slaughtering or troops not only in the fields, but also on the beachhead there we had a lot of allies who are working together with absolutely. >> it wouldn't have worked without those allies as well. things work now, that's where we need those allies and general kept me. thanks very much. douglas brinkley, thanks to you as well. also taking part in today's d-day ceremony, the us defense secretary lloyd austin this morning i had a chance to speak with him about the anniversary in the crisis. the world faces right now, including the war in ukraine on russia's war in ukraine right now, mr. secretary, president biden just said that putin is, and i'm quoting him now, is not a decent man. he's a dictator when defending his decision to let ukraine strike russian territory with us weapons only near kharkiv not far from the border with russia. what is the red line in ukraine right now? how far is the us willing to go in letting kyiv strike deeper into russia with us weapons when demon necessary well, if our policy using long-range strike a weaponry to go into a russia as hasn't changed but what we have done is provided ukraine the ability to fire the fire back at those those russian troops that are firing at them. >> and to be able to take out their artillery batteries as a firing at the ukrainians. and i think that's going to prove to be very, very helpful to the ukrainians going forward. >> i suspect you're right that president biden is expected, as you know, to meet with ukrainian president zelenskyy during this trip to europe after there were some serious divisions here in the us which caused a major delay in supplying desperately needed weapons to ukraine so how can the president promised that us support is ironclad, which he of course did today when support for the war is waning domestically here in the us well, as i have engaged members of congress on both sides in both parties i i have seen throughout strong support for ukraine and even though it took a while to get the legislation through, i was confident that that the right thing, what's going to happen because anytime you see that type of support on both sides of the aisle for a college. congress will find a way to get things done, which is what they did in this case, because it's the right thing to do and ukraine matters. wolf is, as you know, not just for ukraine ukraine's purposes alone we're europe alone, get matters for us. and it matters to the entire globe. so we have to make sure that that putin doesn't have the ability to trample ukraine because there's a president said there's a good chance almost certain that putin wants stop there. he will continue to move forward. in other facts of aggression and you can watch the rest of it. >> yes. special interview with the defense secretary at 6:00 p.m. eastern later tonight. in the situation room right here, of course, on cnn. and we'll be right back. >> the increase in wildfires is exponential unpredictable. uncontrollable with holes we consequences, they need to do something is urgent to fly with earth. would we have dry burdex and good night on cnn? >> hey, you seeing this hi everyone. >> you're telling me you can get direct tv, good stuff, and you're only a satellite dish i used to love doing my business on those things won-sik pigeon, then dishes kept the rain off our beaks. we just have different prices we already satellite free directv. never thought i'd see the day or lifespans are quite short, extreme directtv without a satellite dish, you 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welcome back, leaders and veterans from around the world are gathering in france today to mark this the 80th anniversary of d-day, the allied invasion of continental europe in world war ii, changed the course of the war. >> off the coast of normandy, seen as melissa bell is joining us right now, melissa, the historic invasion was actually delayed by some bad weather the choppy waters and low visibility would have made the amphibious assault nearly impossible today, a much different picture clearly set the scene for what the allied forces faced that day. melissa this is, as you say, wolfe, an extraordinary de that we have out here. as you can see, people have come in huge numbers to pay their attributes on the beaches themselves where there's crucial first battles with they've come out with their jeeps, their amphibious vehicles like the one we're standing on now, one of the ducts that front in resupplying the allied front lines as the men moved in. but on that day, very different conditions. in fact, this was a d-day that should have happened on the june. it happened to sound the sixth because of the inclement weather as they came on shorts, almost unimaginable. what the men would affect hey, so and in fact, the extraordinary losses of the americans on omaha beach, some 2000 men lost in those first few hours on that features dewey's to where we are. now. this is elbow gold beach speak to the horrors of what they would have been facing. and i think what we've seen at the heart of these commemorations that we've seen today. for this, what is most pointedly wolf, one of the law i'll commemorative events around d-day were any living veterans are likely to be able to make the trip given their age. what we've seen this a great deal of remembering it's about the extraordinary logistical operation that was operation overlord. remember that beyond those first few troops who took those first staggering steps up towards the liberation france and europe. there were all of these vehicles that you see here gathered on the speech, not least, this duck that i'm standing on that allowed until the artifacts you support that you can just see the remains off off the coaston normandy there just to see 570 hectares of artificial port that were built in those. first few weeks. again an external well dream fish of coordination between the 12 armies that took part and chill that could be built. it was vehicles like this that allowed the allies to come in and out bringing it freeman from the ships that were off offshore all the way up onto the beach and straight to the front lines. and really that is part of what allowed operation overlord to succeed as it did against the odds. and despite the losses and with that coordination between allies at its heart when you look back now at what was achieved that day it seems all motion actual folly that it was undertaking tool and what you, when you speak to historians about what unfolded here, what they tell you is that had it failed, it would have taken prob