Russia claims gains in eastern Ukraine as NATO defense ministers meet in Brussels

Welcome back. Russia says its forces broke through two defensive lines on Ukraine's eastern front. And this comes as NATO defense ministers hold talks in Brussels to discuss any more weapons and military aid to keep. So earlier US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin addressed the importance of giving Ukraine greater capabilities on the battlefield. What we're seeing from Russia is, Russia continues to pour large numbers of additional people into the fight. And those people are ill-trained and ill-equipped. And because of that we see them incurring a lot of casualties.

And we'll probably continue to see that going forward. That's their strength. They have a lot of people. Our goal is to make sure that we give Ukraine additional capabilities so that they can be not only be marginally successful, they can be decisive on the battlefield and their upcoming offensive. The CBS News Senior Foreign Correspondent Charlie Dagda is following all of this from Ukraine. Thank you so much for joining us, Charlie. So first thing, I just want you to give us sort of the lay of the land, how things are going in this war.

Russia says that they've made some gains on the front lines. Ukraine has not confirmed that in any way. But quite frankly over the last several months it really just seems like a stalemate. I don't know if these battle tanks are in service or not, but it seems like no one's going anywhere. There are no wins or a lot. Well, a lot of losses and no wins. Yeah, it's a messy picture along the front line.

It's a jagged edge. Russia has been making gains. There are some arrows on that battlefield, then most of them are red, showing Russian advances. But they are modest gains and they're costly gains. You talk about Bakhmut that we're aware of when we went east of Liman, which is in Donetsk, in Luhansk. The Ukrainian Defense Forces have said there's been fighting and Russia has launched offenses all across that battlefield. So it has definitely stepped up.

There's been an uptick in the number of strikes, mostly artillery, and they are flooding troops into those areas. And yes, it's not very effective in terms of sustainability because they are losing thousands of men on the battlefield. But it is effective to a degree because the Ukrainian forces that we've spoken to, they can be overwhelmed. And certainly when it comes to artillery, they're facing a huge battle out there. It is almost nonstop. So it's very cold here. It's exhausting and the fight is relentless.

So yes, it's a stalemate to some degree, but it doesn't mean it's an inactive front line. They're fighting there constantly. Charlie, I want to ask you about the strategy here. Can you explain why on a geographical level capturing Bakhmut would be a gain for Russia? What do they hope to do with that region? Well most importantly for the Russians and for President Putin, they want to see a victory of any kind because a Russian victory has been a long time coming. And there's been a lot of attention on Bakhmut recently because it has become, as the Ukrainians call it, a meat grinder for both sides. The Ukrainians have suffered a lot of casualties there too. Now strategically, we were in Bakhmut just a few months ago.

They're actually staying there as the Ukrainians were making gains against the Russians. Yes, it is a transportation hub. But more importantly, taking that area, because it's in the middle of a sort of crescent ahead of some planes, it puts other important cities within reach because if they can advance their artillery, right now Bakhmut is just about on the edge of where their artillery can hit. But if they go into places like Kramatorsk, that is a major strategic city still held by the Ukrainians, but it puts that into artillery reach. Not only that, but places behind. And already there have been strikes inside Kramatorsk and actually to the south and west of that to show that the Russians are advancing. Yes, they're using long range missiles S-300s, which are anti aircraft missiles so they can reach, grad missiles can reach.

But if they're able to take Bakhmut and hold it, they can then advance the front line, which makes other cities in front of it more vulnerable. And that is why it's strategic. So, Charlie, we know that one of the things that Polatomare Zalinsky most recently asked for from world leaders is fighter jets. Is this something that's going to be discussed at the NATO meeting in Brussels? Undoubtedly, it already has been discussed. And most NATO partners are really pouring cold water on that, including Britain, who sort of entertained the idea and said that they'd be willing to train fighter pilots. But I have to tell you, we met with the Defense Secretary, Alexei Resnikov, just a few days ago. And I said, are you serious? Do you really think you're going to get fighter jets? And he said, look, we started asking for javelins, those handheld anti-tank weapons, and they got them.

They started asking for artillery, and they got those. They asked for more ammunition. They got those. They asked for tanks, which seemed like a bridge too far. They got those. And that's him telling us. He said, I have a wish list that, as he said, he's got his Christmas list to Santa.

Every single thing that he's asked for, they've got. So is he asking for jets? Yeah. And does he expect to get them? Yeah. And remember in the beginning, NATO partners in the United States and allies alike were saying that they were going to provide, just about a year ago, non-lethal aid to Ukraine. Well, most of what I just listed there is pretty lethal. So it may seem like a bridge too far in terms of NATO allies. But President Zelensky and the Defense Secretary here have every hope that those aircraft are going to arrive.

And the reason it's important is because we're talking about this Russian offensive that may have started already. But when it starts on a grander scale, what they need to do is to knock out anti-defense systems. So they need to knock out Russian air defense systems in order to control the air over Ukraine. And that is imperative because if there is a large-scale launch, an counteroffensive from the Russians, it's likely to come from air. And that's where the Ukrainians know that they're found lacking because they're just vulnerable to Russian air power. The only thing, Charlie, is every time the Ukrainians get what they want, before that there is much discussion and ringing of hands and concerns about how Russia will respond when Ukraine is saying, we need this stuff and we needed it yesterday. Charlie Dagoda, thank you.

Thank you.

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