6/15/21
Eastern Ukraine — CBS News correspondent Holly Williams hitched a ride with the Ukrainian military, joined by Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, to a corner of Europe where lush pastures have become killing fields. They hiked past decimated villages and through muddy trenches. As they got to within 150 yards of the enemy line, the team were warned that Russian forces could hear them. "They go a little bit forward to see what's going on there and, for example, in May, 2 guys were killed by snipers," the president cautioned. The war has cost more than 13,000 lives since it began in 2014. It started after massive popular protests toppled the previous Ukrainian government, which was friendly to Moscow. Russia responded by sending troops to seize control of Crimea — and backing an armed insurgency in eastern Ukraine. Asked by Williams why ordinary Americans, thousands of miles away, should even care what's happening in Ukraine, President Zelenskyy warned that his country's conflict with Russia, "can be tomorrow in their houses." It may sound far-fetched, but experts say Russian hackers are using Ukraine as a testing ground for what's been described as hybrid warfare, which can include attacking power grids and other infrastructure, before using similar tactics against the U.S. and its allies.
Earlier this year, tens of thousands of Russian troops massed along Ukraine's border for what Moscow insisted were routine military exercises. But Zelenskyy told CBS News that President Vladimir Putin's intentions go beyond that. He said the Russian leader has imperial ambitions for Russia to re-assert control over smaller neighbors that used to sit firmly under the fold of the Soviet Union. President Zelenskyy told CBS News that Ukraine is holding the eastern line against Russia, and that it deserves more support from its friends as it does so. For him, any new cold war between the world's biggest nuclear powers is secondary to the price his country is paying now, in lives lost. "Some people say that it's a cold war between Russia and the USA. For us it's not cold war, maybe for these two countries it's cold war, but for us, it's a hot war," he told Williams. Few Ukrainians have much hope that the summit between Mr. Biden and Putin will change anything on the bloody battlefield that has literally divided their nation.
www.cbsnews.com
