One year of war in Ukraine: Ali Velshi on the latest in Kyiv
Volunteered to take people into their homes and there are there's an ability. Oh, I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I don't speak English This train station the name of this train station I Will This train station name David. What's the train station name here? Niyati station Niyati station Niyati station Niyati. That's correct. Niyati station.
Okay Good luck Ali Velshi a national Treasure the last thing before we go tonight one year of war in Ukraine this time last year We watched Ukrainian families fleeing the Russian invasion Tonight the Ukrainian army is more determined than ever to defend their nation as they fight back against a new Russian offensive We have relied on our reporters on the ground on the front line in Bombarded cities to bring you important stories from Ukraine like my dear friend and partner right there Ali Velshi Almost a year ago. He's in a train station in Hungary reporting for us and helping refugees at the same time Tonight he is back in Eastern Europe still covering a war one year later this time from Kiev Yes, Stephanie. We are one year into the actual beginning of the war 365 days ago At this point we already had air raid sirens. We had people evacuating Kiev we had We had actual explosions here in Kiev the attack had begun and remember that the the the Russian tanks Were as close as the eye can see to the center of Kiev they occupied several Kiev suburbs in fact So a lot has happened in the last year But a lot of that has not been good for Vladimir Putin and we expected this week to be a big week for him because there are Land gains that haven't been made since October that we were thinking they might make a push for there's the towns around Bakhmut that have not been taken by the Russians Which is a curious matter given the amount of resources and and soldiers that they're throwing at this whole thing But what ended up happening was this week was about Joe Biden and NATO and Vladimir Zelensky So it was a very unusual development this week in that It didn't turn out the way it was supposed to that said today's the actual anniversary. It's Friday here. It's Friday morning People are not going to school today. People are not going to work They're working from home because there is an expectation that something will happen There's been an expectation all week and something hasn't happened all week There's a little bit of action in the south and the east so it's not that the Russians aren't doing anything But it's certainly not that grand offensive that people had been predicting for some time However, this is just a date.
It is the one-year anniversary A lot of Ukrainians will tell you this is the ninth anniversary of the Russian invasion of Crimea They remain as determined and as resolute to see this to the end Our friend Ali Velshi takes us off the air tonight.
Stephanie Ruhle