Program. A country thats been at war now for almost 600 days. I have an exclusive interview with the countrys president zelenskyy. This week, he fired his Defense Minister, visited the front lines, and welcomed Secretary Of State blinken. I asked him about all that and more. Ukraine will never go back, go away from our land. Then as it awaits f16 fighters, ukraines best weapons up in the sky are drones. The countrys socalled army of drones has been a game changer with surveillance, dropping bombs, and kamikaze missions. I talk to the master mind behind the program, the countrys minister of digital transformation. Finally, the children of war. Last september, i introduced you to some amazing kids in kyiv who had just gone Back To School for the First Time Since the war started. This week, we went back to see them again. To see how theyre holding up after another year of strife. After all this dark times, you want to live the best life that you can. But first, heres my take. The overnight train ride from poland to ukraine is a reminder of why this land has been so hotly contested over the last century. Ukraines soil is the most fertile in the planet. We passed vast fields of wheat and other crops dotted with small farmhouses. Some of them still using horses to plow the fields. As we approach kyiv, the landscape quickly shifted to urban. Despite the war, ukraines railways continue to be clean, comfortable, and efficient. My train rolled into kyiv right on time. That might be a phrase that says a lot about ukraine. Despite the war. Kyiv is now almost normal. A year into the invasion, roughly half of kyivs population have fled but many people have since returned. The city had about 3. 9 million residents in 2021 before the fighting started and its back to around 3. 6 million today local sources tell me. The Older European strategy annual meeting is also still being held despite the war and it has been for nearly 20 years. Locate located in yalta then in kyiv. The organizer told me the struggle for ukraine is the most important struggle in the world right now and we need to keep the worlds attention focused on it. Most here are trying to keep life as normal as possible. Stores and cavesfes a bustling. Air raid sirens went off when i was having dinner at a friends place, but no one stopped eating. Billboards scattered around the city that mourn ukraines lost heroes sandbags and roadblocks. Everyone is exhausted and sober. Ukraines losses have been terrible. In cities destroyed and soldiers and civilians killed. As a german friend who lives in kyiv put it to me, theres a growing understanding of loss as part of normalcy. People are adjusting to the reality of knowing more and more people who have been killed or wounded. Its a tough, sad condition. But exhaustion does not equal surrender. No one i spoke with believed that ukraine should stop fighting to get back its territories. They were disappointed that the counteroffensive is not going better. But it only reminds them that this will be a long struggle. Were they to make a premature peace, he said to me this would only be a temporary pause. The russians would come back and they would simply have pushed the burdens of war on to the next generation. When you speak with people at greater length, their views are more nuanced. No surrender is the mantra but some said it was possible to imagine a cease fire with ukraine never legally endorsing the legitimacy of russian rule over parts of the donbas and crimea in change. As one ukrainian politician who wished to stay unnamed told me, its easy for us who have not been in the fighting to refuse to compromise. The real question is what are the attitudes of the soldiers in the field and those who have returned . They might have more nuanced positions but they will have to articulate them. The dominant worry is not about russia but the west. They have reason to be worried. Support for ukraine is losing strength in some european countries. An election in slovakia could bring into power a Prime Minister who is pro russian which would give Hungarys Viktor Orban a useful ally in trying to change policies. In the u. S. , support for ukraine is slipping. More crucially, more observers believe the russians are determined to stay the course until the 2024 election hoping that donald trump would be elected and he would quickly hang the ukrainians out to dry as he searched for a deal with putin. That would be a disaster. Legitimizing naked aggression and emboldening dictators like putin and xi who want to disregard norms and rewrite the rules of the international system. The jungle as robert kagan calls it, would return to life. They fought alongside allies who were not deeply committed to their own cause, let alone the larger cause of freedom. From afghans and iraqis to the South Vietnamese and even the south koreans. The ukrainians are different. Utterly committed to their independence but also to the values the west holds most deeply. Ukr ukrainians understand they are in for a long war of attrition. They understand they are up against a formidable foe. Russia is almost four times ukraines population and about 15 times its economic size. They are ready to persevere. But they worry that their allies are not. Go to cnn. Com fareed for a link to my Washington Post column this week and lets get started. President zelenskyy is almost always working but this week seemed particularly eventful and busy for him. Last sunday, he announced he was replacing his long time Defense Minister. A day later, he was visiting troops in two of his nations front line regions. Then on wednesday, he received Secretary Of State blinken in kyiv just three weeks after washington agreed to finally send f16s to ukraine. And on thursday, zelenskyy introduced the world to his new Defense Minister. I sat down with zelenskyy on friday at his president ial offices in kyiv. Mr. President , pleasure to have you on again. Thank you so much. Everyone is wondering about the counteroffensive. There was a sense that it was slower than expected. Now there is some hope that it is speeding up. Can you give us a sense how is it going . Many direction on many cases and issues. How to speed up counteroffensive, but remember we need to resolve. Resolve, we need. We have to get our land. We have to get the land and its also not about the land. Its about the people because the pros in war is not the peace. We want to take our country, to destroy families, houses, because if he understands why, he understand that ukraine will never go back. Never go away from our land. Well never do it thats why he has to kill us. He want to do it. Thats why when we speak about counteroffensive, it depends on many cases. Of course, we get a lot of time for rations. We gave a lot of time to prepare, to put the mines on the field. So you see the three depending lines. Thats because you were waiting. For the weapon. Thats why i said, yeah. What i said, it depends on many issues. We, look. We waited too long. Im thankful to partners, the United States, eu, other partners. Im thankful very much. President biden and to congress but we have to understand because we waited too long, they put mines. Then when we been ready from the point of you our partners because the decision to give us for example kind of weapon, the decision, it doesnt mean the result. You dont get them immediately. Of course you dont. So, something still on the way. Till now when were sitting, speaking about it, counteroffensive, a lot of different people say its too slow, its still on the way. Do you feel as though when you go to europe and the United States and you make these demands, you have these lists of weapons. Do they listen to you . First of all, what we need Long Distance weapon systems. Long distance. Artillery rounds. Systems, et cetera. Everybody about terms. Everybody talks about the jets for example in the sky. Its very important. We have the decision. Lets start from the attack. I hope and i will speak with President Biden. For me, its very important. His thoughts and his support in it. I think he can change this page and this war. Once, he did it. It was very important. So its about attack, i will speak with President Biden again. Its not the first dialogue. So we are moving. I hope well get it in autumn. For us, its very important not to do the pause in this counteroffensive and i need it very much. The second speaking about the jets. And i sat before the counteroffensive with our partners that they have to know and to recognize that we dont control the sky. How to control or even to compare with the power of russia in the sky, all of us want to have success and happy end. First of all, its not a movie. Its not one hour. Its about counteroffense. We lost a lot of people. No happy end. We have to recognize it. Victory thats only one thing that can bring the occupation of our land. It means none to give possibility for russia to attack other countries both in poland and then to bring all of us back by this aggression back to ussr. We dont want. Thats only position for this. Victory is not happiness. Victory is only one possibility to a life. And people have to recognize it not our common values. Not our war. Common war. We pay the highest price. And i dont want to repeat this. Every know this war but they cannot only know, people in the west have to feel it. And you can choose. Feel it when your familys under attacks. You really want it. You really want to try it. I cant recommend it. Next on gps, Will Zelenskyy seek compromise with putin at the Negotiating Table . Should he . Ill ask him. 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There has to be some kind of negotiation. We cant go on like this. The president of brazil has said ukraine needs to get out of a cold war mentality and compromise and even understand that some territory will have to be given to russia. Im paraphrasing but i think thats roughly speaking the kind of view. What do you say to people like the president of brazil . First of all, he has his own position. Its his right. Im okay. People are free and they can give their position worldwide. I think he doesnt understand that the position of putin, not just of the war, that his position to continue, his position to continue the war, his position is to divide europe. His position is not to have strong european continent. One Prime Minister told me, and its true, one of friends. My question is why you support us . And she said people who understood putin. You support ukraine or you support russia. There is no other variants. Really. No space in between. No space between. The question of the time. The question of the time, when you will recognize it and understand it. It means that if lula dont support us, he will, if he doesnt support us, he will support russia. Even he doesnt want. Thats why lula maybe he said i dont know what did he mean, but he said it about, we have to stop the war and we have to find compromise. Compromise we have always with the people who are ready to compromise. Who are comp mystic to other issues. Did you see any compromises from putin . Did you see . Did somebody saw . Did somebody see . With chechnya . With georgia . He occupied it all these countries. He divided all these nations. Do you think putin is stronger today or weaker after prigozhin . My thoughts that the real face of him, that is real face. There arent answers. How he see his life, the lives of people, how he see tomorrow. How he control. And you will find in one case, with prigozhin and even lula, he can also find for himself such partners, but all the others to see the way he handled prigozhin. How putin handle everything, he control only people minds but he doesnt control whats going on in the country. Then when he understood that a little, a big part of Society Supports prigozhin. What he did. He killed him. But before he killed, he gave him promises that territory of belarus, gave him new locations. The africa issues and businesses. A lot of different things. So he lied to prigozhin. Yes, of course. Thats, and that is the answer when you want to have compromises or a dialogue with somebody, you can do it with a lion. Next on gps, i asked president zelenskyy about why he fired his Defense Minister about how he plans to weed out corruption in his country. Versus 16 grams in ensure® high protein. Boost® high protein. Now available in cinnabon® bakeryinspired flavor. Learn more at boost. 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Theyre a sign of bacterial infection. Crest gum detoxifys antibacterial fluoride works below the gumline to help heal gums and stop bleeding. Crest saves the day. Crest. Meet the future. A chef. A designer. And, ooh, an engineer. All learning to save and spend their money with chase. The chefs cooking up firsts with her new debit card. Hungry . Uhuh. The designers eyeing sequins. Uh no plaid. While mom is eyeing his spending. Nice. And the engineer . Shes taking control with her own account for college. Three futures, all with chase. Freedom for kids. Control for parents. One bank for both. Chase. Make more of whats yours. Zelenskyy announced his plans to replace his long time Defense Minister. The move came amidst ongoing Corruption Scandals relating to the military. But thats not the only part of the Government People point fingers at. In one recent poll, 89 of ukrainians said that aside from the war, corruption was the countrys most serious problem. Further afield politicians from donor countries like the u. S. Have grown concerned that continued Financial Support will not serve the war effort and instead line the pockets of corrupt officials. More on that now with president zelenskyy. Back at home, you are fighting corruption. You fired the Defense Minister. Youve put a new Defense Minister in place. This is something as you know people in