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July 25, 2022 - Uncensored - Piers Morgan
45:38
20220725_piers-morgan-uncensored-in-ukraine
Transcriber: nvidia/parakeet-tdt-0.6b-v2, sat-12l-sm, and large-v3-turbo
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Time Text
Midnight Train to Kyiv 00:12:50
The midnight train to Kyiv.
Not many people want to go to Ukraine at the moment.
In fact, millions have been fleeing for their lives from the invading Russians.
But the world cannot and must not move on from Ukraine.
and that's why i'm going there good evening i'm piers morgan in kiev ukraine
It's been 151 days now since the Russians first invaded Ukraine and the war still rages ever more furiously.
When I first got here and walked around, it felt relatively normal, safe even.
Restaurants and bars are back open, people walk around, but it's not normal and it's not safe because every now and again through the day you hear this.
Those are air raid sirens signaling that the Russians have fired a missile.
Nobody knows immediately where that missile is aimed or where it will land.
And that is why every time those sirens go off, the people of Kyiv feel tense because they don't know if it's going to be their apartment block next.
Ukraine used to be a simple three-hour flight from London, but not anymore.
So I'm on a train that's come from the Polish border.
I can't say where for security reasons, but it's been traveling for a few minutes and now we've just arrived in Ukraine officially.
And I'm on my way to Kyiv, the capital city, at the invitation of the First Lady of Ukraine, Elena Zelenska, who has asked me to co-moderate her big summit for First Ladies and First Gentlemen.
I'm fascinated to see what it's like.
Kyiv is apparently relatively okay at the moment, relatively normal, although they did have missile strikes about three weeks ago and there's always that fear.
So this is not risk-free for anybody who's in any part of Ukraine at the moment, but certainly all the ferocious fighting is down in the southeast, well away from where I'll be going.
But I've come to really meet some Ukrainian people and just ask them about what is really going on here and ask them what more they need from the world.
So this is the train they bring all the so-called VIPs and me into Ukraine on.
It's where Boris Johnson came into Ukraine, the British Prime Minister.
It's where Emmanuel Macron and other world leaders have all used this train.
This is how get in from Poland into Kyiv.
It takes about 12 hours, quite a slow moving train.
It's all pretty dark, it's through the night and you get these cabins which actually not bad.
You get to sleep for a bit and then when I get to Ukraine in a few hours time I'll be then going to the summit itself.
The first lady of Ukraine is of course the person who's hosting this all.
She'll be there in person and making a speech.
It's going to be I think a powerful few hours with one of the most famous people in the world.
I just think if you're going to cover as I've done a war of this magnitude for as long as I've been doing it now since it started back in February at some stage you really need to come here and just find out what's happened to this country.
Thank you.
They just came in and shut the blinds which living in every cabin so that there's no light that comes out of the train which could be picked up by Russian forces.
So a sensible security move but a reminder again you know we're now in a country that's at war and there's nowhere that's completely safe.
Well I'm here in Kyiv which is the capital city of Ukraine and it's a beautiful sunny day.
It's very warm and I'm here to co-moderate the First Lady of Ukraine's big international summit for First Ladies and First Gentlemen, and my initial impression is exactly what I was told it would be like.
It all feels pretty normal, like a normal train station in a normal, thriving democratic city in the middle of Europe.
But of course it's not that I'm in a war zone now.
Ukraine is at war since the Russian invasion and only three weeks ago this city had missiles rained down on it by Russia again, so there's no sense of a war here.
But everyone's aware of the war and everyone's aware that at any moment this place could get attacked again.
And what I want to do is meet the Ukrainian people, meet some of their leaders and try and work out, I guess, what they feel about this war and where it's going.
And ultimately, the number one question, can they win?
That was music from Imagine Dragons, a group who are ambassadors to President Zelensky, and United 24, an organization that provides medical assistance here.
I came in the invitation of the first lady to co-moderate her summit and it turned into an extraordinary six-hour event where I spoke to many of the most powerful and famous people in the world, who all wanted to offer their help, their support and their advice to Ukraine and its people, and I started by talking directly to the first lady.
I wanted to say to the first lady just how inspiring I think the rest of the world finds you and your husband in the way that you have rallied the people of Ukraine.
It's an amazing thing to watch.
Ukraine should not only be the example of struggle, but the example of renovation.
It's about the attitude towards people, their welfare and well-being.
People is the greatest value.
The president of Ukraine, Vladimir Zelensky.
Ukraine has the largest global support in the history of any country.
Dozens of countries are joining the anti-war coalition from Canada to New Zealand, from Japan to US, to UK and to every other country of the friendly Europe.
We've established so tight connections with the countries that allow us for five months to resist the army.
Well, I'm delighted to say we're now joined with a message from the First Lady of the United States, Jill Biden.
The United States remains steadfast in our support for Ukraine.
As a Ukrainian mother named Anna said to me, there are no borders for our hearts.
We're now joined by probably the busiest man in the world in the last two or three years, the Director General of the World Health Organization, Tedros Gebrezis.
I noticed you just started following me on Twitter about 20 minutes ago, so you've probably been busy reading my tweets.
By the way, we have something in common, so I will share with you when we meet.
You can count on my full commitment, dear Elena, to continue to help and support the most vulnerable children and teenagers who have been affected both by illness and by the war being waged by Russia in Ukraine.
What is the one thing, if you could really pinpoint one thing you would most like to come from this summit, what is it?
I will again speak Ukraine and someone has to.
I understand how much the whole world of conscientious people support us.
We're now going to have a recorded message by Liz Truss.
She's the final two candidates to replace Boris Johnson as Prime Minister.
The United Kingdom is proud to have stood strong in support of Ukraine.
We know the Ukrainian people are not just fighting for their future.
They're fighting for the future of freedom, democracy and sovereignty itself.
Americans are devastated by the number of Ukrainians injured and killed.
The images are heartbreaking.
And yet, amidst extreme hardship, Ukrainians have inspired the world with your unwavering spirit and your determination to defend your country and fight for freedom.
President Bush joins me in saying, Slava Ukraine, our glory to Ukraine.
One of the people I spoke to on stage had come from the front line and was going straight back there after the summit.
In normal life, he's a university professor.
I don't think I've ever interviewed anybody who sits on a panel one minute and literally is going back to trenches to fight for his country.
It's an amazing thing.
My duty in peaceful time to teach is my main line of duty.
In the wartime, my line of duty is protecting my family and my nation.
Thank you.
It's amazing.
Well, I want to tell you a little story now, an extraordinary story, a heartbreaking one, actually, a tragedy, salvation, but ultimately hope, like so many tragic stories in Ukraine at the moment.
A six-year-old boy from Mariupol who lost both of his parents.
The two wonderful people from Kyiv adopted him, and they're all here tonight.
So, Ilya, where are you?
There he is.
Come up, come up, come up.
So, Ukraine's greatest ever football player was Andrei Shevchenko.
He was the best, and he was a striker, which is what you want to be.
So, we had a little chat with Andrei, and he has a little surprise for you.
have a meeting and we will play football at the same playground where I was playing as a child 40 years ago.
Well thank you very much to the great Andrei Shevchenko's Ilya.
He's the best player Ukraine has ever had.
I wish he'd played for Arsenal, my team.
Maybe you're going to be Ukraine's next great striker.
Would you like that?
That's a yes, huh?
And thank you to your parent.
What an amazing thing that you did to take this boy in and give him a new life and give him new hope.
And there'll be so many people doing what you do.
It's an amazing sacrifice that you do.
So thank you very much.
Love everybody here, everybody watching.
There were some moments of levity too from some of the world's most famous faces.
I think we have a recorded message now from some footballer, I forget his name.
I cannot imagine what the Ukrainian people have gone through these past five months.
But I do know through my experiences with UNICEF that getting back to routines through education and learning is a great healer for many children.
England football legend David Beckham.
And on the football front, any Arsenal fans in the room?
Oh, there are.
Oh, the First Lady.
Really?
I didn't know that.
Really?
Richard Gere, the Hollywood actor.
You sang in public for the first time in your life at Carnegie Hall in New York.
And you also sold your very rare 1999 Jaguar XK convertible.
And my question for you is: which was more painful for you?
Selling your favourite car or singing in public?
No, no, the car actually was right.
I think it was my 50th birthday.
We're all brothers.
We're now going to have a short recorded message from Ewan McGregor, the actor and UNICEF ambassador.
I wish you good discussions and strong actions coming out of the summit.
Beckham Sings for Ukraine 00:15:04
The children of Ukraine need the chance to be children again.
They need peace so they can return to learning and to play.
Ellie Golding is here.
Ellie, come on up.
Elena, First Lady of Ukraine, I also wanted to come and stand with you today as a mother.
I can't begin to understand the anguish you feel as the childhoods of your children and your nation's children have been ripped away from them.
I wanted to look you in the eye and say that the world must act now to make sure their childhoods are recovered and their futures reclaimed.
This must be our commitment to you.
Uncensored next, I visit the Kiev city centre apartment block that was struck by Russian cruise missiles just a few weeks ago.
If you're wondering why people here in Kyiv are on permanent high alert every time those sirens go off, it's because just 30 days ago, the Russians launched a cruise missile from the Caspian Sea from perhaps as far away as a thousand miles.
And they came with such precision, they were aiming at this factory here, which they'd hit before, which they believed was making some parts for munitions.
And they missed and they hit this nine-storey residential block, causing complete devastation, killing at least one person.
Six more were taken to hospital, including a seven-year-old girl.
Just around the corner here, 200 yards away, is a children's kindergarten, which thank God they weren't in at the time, but it took a direct hit in front of a huge crater, which would have killed all the kids.
And that was literally a month ago, right here in the middle of Kyiv.
And it shows you the Russians can attack with complete impunity from wherever they want, from a thousand miles away.
And they can hit this directly.
Here you've got a dentistry.
And people living here, just old people, young people, it's a very normal residential block in Kyiv.
So that shows you how dangerous this can be.
So when those alarms go off, that's what the people here are thinking.
We next this is around the back of the building You see a lot of the windows still blown out and a lot of rubble around, but you also see this.
It's just a kids' little play area.
I mean, just by sheer good fortune, no children were playing there when this missile hit.
The missile, again, that came from a thousand miles away to hit the building next door, but it hit this one.
That could have been full of kids.
Russians don't care.
They don't care what they hit.
They don't care who they hit or who they kill.
His children, well, collateral damage as far as they're concerned, but it's not, is it?
I think it's only when you get into one of these blown-out apartments, you just realise what's happened here.
This is somebody's life, a family's life, perhaps.
You know, you see a booklet down here, Weekly Planner.
A DKMY purse.
A beauty bag.
Welcome that.
This is just normal stuff in people's lives, but who were these people?
Who was this family?
Are life or lives completely ruined?
Where have they gone?
I don't know what happens to all these Ukrainian people who are being attacked like this.
Some die, some get wounded, and some just lose everything they have.
And this is happening all over the country.
But it's sort of devastating when you're standing in the middle of this.
So I've just bumped into these two young ladies and you're both Ukrainian and you actually have been renting this apartment on the second floor there for the last three years.
But you weren't here, thank God, when this missile attack happened.
Where were you?
We've actually been with our parents staying in Rivni City and we were woken up by the alarm.
So you know this like a yak system, they send you an alarm if something happens to your apartment and there was like fire, fire, fire and then what is that moment like when you see your phone and it's actually fire fire and you know that's your home.
For us it was like oh my god not again.
Because you know there was the first actually there were three attacks in this very region of Kyiv and the second one destroyed this house and killed one woman and the first time our windows were like you know they've fallen out.
So when we woke up first time we already had that alarm and we understood that that was an explosion here.
But we didn't assume it could be that bad.
But if you'd been here that day you might have been killed by the way.
Yeah I mean you know hopefully we're like so if we you know were hiding you know in the back of the apartment probably it we would be safe but you know we've seen that the doors in our apartment they were pushed out pushed out with those explosion waves.
How old are you both?
22?
23.
I mean I can't even imagine what it must be like for you know young people living in what was a very free democratic country.
Amazing city.
Amazing city, beautiful architecture and then suddenly you're attacked by Russia and this is now the new normal for you.
What's it like for you?
It's devastating.
You know we sometimes do not believe that we live in these circumstances.
You know yesterday we spent the whole day in Kyiv too.
We were walking seeing those sights, people and then we hear the air raid siren and you're like okay let's go hide and this is like it's overwhelming it's and it's not fair.
Actually it feels like someone is taking your life and you cannot control, you cannot plan anything.
Literally, we've done like this period of our lives, like 22, 23 years old.
It's when you actually start everything, start planning, start doing the future.
Everything's a whole life ahead of you yes, and then any moment you could be, it could be taken yeah, but we feel like we cannot plan anything because we don't know what we can do tomorrow.
Where can we stay tomorrow?
Will we?
Will we rent an apartment?
Will it be bombed?
Can we stay with our parents?
When you hear those alarms because I heard two this morning I was in my hotel.
It's only a mile and a half away and when I heard it it it does make you feel tense because you're not sure what it means.
Does that mean there's an attack happening?
Obviously, most of them turn out to be false alarms, but you have to never lose alarms, because it's actually alarms that something in the air and there are other regions of Ukraine that are, but that are bombed at the same moment, so they're not false alarms.
In the United States something happening.
You're like sitting and thinking what is gonna be here or in other regions and when you, when you're in Kiev and other region in a region is bombed.
It's not yeah, you're just thinking about your friends, your family, who might get bombed any minute.
So have you lost any loved ones in the war so far?
Uh, thanks god no thanks god, no.
But you know, a lot of our close friends, like really close friends, are fighting right now.
They're in the front line.
Yes yes, and how old are they?
Like we are.
Yeah, they say I'm age 22, 25 years.
And are they professional soldiers?
No, they volunteered and joined the armed forces of Ukraine.
These are good friends of yours.
Yeah, that's very close to you.
How do you feel about that?
Actually, very, very difficult because every day you're texting them and asking, are you alive?
And when they don't answer for like 48 hours and you're like, you know, all these ideas going through your head, what's happening, what's going on.
Kind of hard.
Yeah.
It must be awful.
I can see, I can see.
Sorry.
Well, I'm not surprised.
It must be heart-rending.
These are friends of yours on the front line who are not soldiers.
They've just been fighting for their country and their freedom, right?
And your freedom.
Actually, they're fighting for us being here in Tokyo right now because we should be thankful for them.
And that's the reason we're doing everything we can do, donating and volunteering, and everything we can do little by little in order to at least be somehow helpful for them.
As is human nature, the world is no longer as focused on Ukraine as maybe it was several months ago.
But it needs to be.
The fighting hasn't got less, it's got more.
It's got even more.
What is your message to the world if they're watching this?
Start caring.
We're fighting not only for the freedom of Ukraine, but for the freedom of Europe, for the freedom of the democracy and the rule of law and everything.
And actually, we think you cannot resonate with us.
You cannot feel the same definitely.
But if you just imagine that any minute, even now, it can happen to you, maybe, maybe it will give some more spectrum.
Yeah, perfect.
Well, you know, in London, obviously in World War II, we had the blitz.
Yes, yes.
We had German bombers coming over doing this to our building.
So Londoners with long memories who are elderly, they remember this happening in my capital city.
But the idea of it happening now in 2022 in a European city is just an extraordinary thing that this is happening again.
Yeah, that's why when we were told the word might happen, the full invasion might happen, we did not believe it.
On the 23rd of February, we were just talking and like, no, everything's going to be fine.
We were here, yes.
And we were woken up at 5 a.m. by explosions, explosions around the city, and we're like, what's happening?
And then we start checking, and they're like, yeah, the full invasion.
Terrifying.
Terrifying.
When that convoy was coming nearer and nearer to Kyiv, I remember watching that and thinking, what must it be like to be in Kyiv and seeing the television pictures of this thing coming towards you, 40 miles long?
You even do not understand.
You also scared and do not know what to do.
And the thing is that Russia is doing this not only to get the territories.
I don't know all the reasons they're thinking and the main thing that this is a terrorist state and they're just killing our homes.
It's like 9-11 happening all over again every week.
What do you feel about Vladimir Putin?
I don't think there's a word that can describe this feeling like hatred.
Like we do not consider him a human being.
I don't think he considers Ukrainians to be human beings.
I don't think he cares, does he?
Like, does he care about anything in the world?
He's not in the world.
Yeah.
He doesn't care about Russian people.
I don't want to as well.
Yeah, it might sound weird for me, but he's a psychopath.
Ruling a whole country of people who support him.
Yeah, it's not only his fault, and we do consider that that is a war not between Putin and Ukraine and Ukraine.
A lot of people in his country support him and that also speaks a lot.
Well, they believe he's repressing Nazis and fascists, helping the Ukrainian people.
But we should say that.
He says he's liberating you.
At some point you're like, it's ridiculous.
It's ridiculous.
We've been having an amazing life with a democracy in our country, with a lot of future.
We stayed here.
We didn't go to study abroad, we stayed in Ukraine because that's our country.
This is the only country I know and this is the only country I want to live in.
When we look on from the UK and other countries, the spirit of the Ukrainian people, the resilience, the will to win, the will to repel the Russians.
It's quite extraordinary.
Where do you get this from?
That's in our blood.
It's our nature because that's our home.
And I actually every day I'm wondering with these people who are fighting with our country.
And I even wake up and think, why are we so strong?
How we have this.
But probably this is because our ancestors, they did the same for us.
So we have to do this for our wisdom.
What do you think of your president, Zelensky?
Actually, we're proud of him and we are proud of how he's actually holding the whole thing.
He communicates to the whole, yes, how he unites the country and how he talks to people abroad.
I heard him speak yesterday.
It's magnetizing.
Well, he has a power of his rhetoric and it reminds British people of Winston Churchill and World War II.
Yes, where just through the strength of his communication, he can rally the country.
We have to say that he actually represents our feelings, not vice-averse.
We're not standing behind him.
He is representing our thoughts.
So that's probably the main idea.
Why is he so powerful?
Because he represents the whole country.
Some people think Ukraine should just let the Russians take.
No, way.
We paid too high price for this.
Too many people have died for freedom, so we cannot let them down right now.
So it depends on us.
Do you think you'll win?
We know.
Yes, definitely sure.
I wish you all the very best of luck.
Thank you.
Thank you.
I really do.
We're all right behind you.
Thank you so much for listening to come here and hear your stories is very moving.
Thank you.
And I'm so sorry you've got to go through that.
I have three sons in their 20s, a young daughter younger than you, but I can't even imagine them being suddenly enlisted to go and fight for their country.
Representing the Whole Country 00:02:52
You know, I heard about these stories in World War II, but you just don't imagine it in this day and age.
And the fact you have these good friends in their early 20s who've never had to fire a gun in anger and they're now on the front line risking their lives for all of us is an amazing thing.
Yeah, thank you.
That's the only thing we can say.
Best of luck to you.
Thank you, Elena.
Thank you for talking.
Thank you, thank you.
So that was a very unexpected and very moving interview with these two young Ukrainian women, particularly about their friends, you know, who weren't soldiers and have been enlisted and gone off to risk their lives.
And you could see the emotion on their faces talking about their friends.
But they live in this apartment, which is the second floor with the boarded up windows and the dangling air conditioning machine.
And you've got to think if they'd been here that day and they were possibly going to be here then, and luckily we're out of town.
If they'd been there, would they have survived?
Maybe not.
Other people were killed in that attack.
So I thought that really brought it home, actually, what it's like for these particularly young Ukrainians.
I mean, I thought when she said that they can't plan for anything, they can't plan for anything in their lives.
Because how can you?
You may not be alive next week.
Absolutely desperate situation, but wow, the spirit and the resilience.
Extraordinary people.
It's been pointed out to me just now that there is some interesting lettering on one of these boarded up apartment windows here.
And it's very specific.
So each of those are Ukrainian letters which represent Ukrainian words.
And the Ukrainian words are Putin, go f ⁇ yourself.
Uncensored next, I visit Buccia, the scene of the most appalling massacre of this war so far, and I hear a story of almost unimaginable horror.
I've come to Buccia, which was the scene of the worst massacre of this war so far.
Over 1300 Ukrainians were tortured, murdered, others were raped, nearly 50 children were killed.
And this is just one of those heart-rending stories.
There are so many here from the appalling atrocities that went down.
And this story involves a man called Vlad and his son, Artur, and Artur's girlfriend, Kate.
The Tragedy of Artur 00:03:34
He was only 26.
He had a whole life ahead to him.
And every day I ask myself for what?
He volunteered to help in the start of this invasion.
And the Russians caught him, they tortured him, they murdered him.
And his body was only found a few days ago, months after he disappeared.
And his father finally got to bury him.
And clearly that was a very emotional day for him.
I'm sure it's going to be a very emotional moment for him to talk about this.
But their story, in a way, represents everything that's happened here.
An ordinary family torn apart by this horrific war.
Vlad and Kate, thank you so much for agreeing to see me.
Tell me what happened to your son.
Our last contact was on 11th March when Artur was walking to my father's place.
Artur was walking there to deliver him food and convince him that it was necessary to evacuate.
He called me to tell me everything was fine with him.
After that, he went to his friend's place and after that he was meant to bring food for my father but Artor didn't make it.
On 12th March we tried to look for Artur but there had not been a telephone signal for a week.
On 13th March I joined the army.
Our anxiety was growing and we tried to expand the search for Artur.
We tried to involve more people in the search.
There was an understanding that something was not right.
His telephone was found on the street in Moshon village.
In that area every third building was destroyed.
We asked the Belarus government if they had any information regarding him but no information was available.
It was a possibility that he was dead already.
I received a phone call from the police officer from the Buča police station.
He asked me if I had visited the body recognition session.
I said no I haven't.
He replied has someone told you we have found your son?
I said no nobody told me.
He invited me to body recognition session and I confirmed that it was him.
I recognized him because of his tattoo and scar because the face and the neck area was heavily destroyed.
His arms were tied.
On the body the tattoos were recognizable.
The face and neck were destroyed.
He was the only body found in the area where the cause of death was not provided.
Because his body had been left on the soil for a while, the tissue had decomposed.
It was impossible for that reason to understand the cause of death.
I'm so sorry.
I'm so sorry, Vlad, for what has happened to you both.
Flattened Homes and Grief 00:08:09
This is an appalling atrocity.
I have three sons in their 20s, so I can't imagine anything worse than what you've had to endure here.
What do you feel about Vladimir Putin and the Russians for what they've done to your son?
You have to understand, for two years during my national service, I was in Moscow during the Soviet Union.
I had a duty and was protecting those beasts as a firefighter.
These people are giving advice to their sons on how to rape and kill our soldiers.
And what I wish for them is death.
Not an easy one because that's the only attitude that I can have.
They don't understand that we are fighting for what is ours.
While they are fighting, I don't know for what?
For money, for some fantasy ideas.
These are not soldiers.
These are just rapists and murderers.
Vlad, your home has been shelled.
You can see all the damage.
Your wife and daughters are having to live in another country.
Your son has been murdered by the Russians.
And yet you're still showing such strength.
Where do you find that strength and that resilience, which is what I see with so many Ukrainian people in this war?
We don't have any other choice, actually, because you know, with Ellen, my daughter, who has cerebral palsy, when she found out about Artur, she was not crying, she was wailing for two days, like a little wolf.
And I think it's like a little wolf, and I think that's what Russians don't understand, that all of us will become like these wolves that we will keep fighting for what is actually ours.
And when they say that Ukraine is not a state and they say that Ukrainians are not a nation, I think that what will happen to them is what has already happened to 40,000 of their soldiers who are rotting on our land.
And even my daughter, a child who has this condition when she grows up, she will do everything possible to take revenge for what happened to her brother who she will never see again in her life.
You can occupy our land, but you can never defeat the people who are struggling so much, who do not want to be defeated.
Vlad, I'm going to interview President Zelensky and the First Lady tomorrow.
Some people think he should do a deal with Putin, let Putin keep the Donbass.
What's your message to your president?
It's no, no, and no again.
Because if there is any sort of deal, unless it is about absolute capitulation, there should be no deal of this kind.
It is important for us to make sure that we regain our territorial integrity.
And that would be the worst thing that Zelensky or government could do, because that would mean that we let down so many people.
This is a betrayal, actually, of all the people who are fighting, of our partners in the UK and the US, because even just despite all the saying, such as blackmailing of Europe, we know that it's very important for us to keep doing what we are doing and to protect our land.
I have weapons, I have my backpack packed.
So if there is a need, I will also do what has to be done.
As I mentioned, you can occupy us, but you cannot defeat us, because that is not something that we want to happen.
No, thank you very much.
I appreciate it.
Thank you very much.
Thank you.
Uncensored next, more from our special week of coverage from here in Kyiv, Ukraine.
We've had quite a long, quite heart-rending day in Ukraine, talking to real people about their real experiences.
And where I am now is Porodyanka.
This is the scene of one of the worst air assaults of the war so far.
The Russians basically flattened this place and everywhere you go there are scenes like this.
Completely horrific because of course you keep reminding yourself this is a once thriving European democratic city.
This is just the outskirts of Kyiv here and it's been destroyed.
And if the Russians had got into Kyiv center they'd have destroyed that too and then taken the whole country.
So the battle for the soul of Ukraine, the battle for Kyiv, continues.
And tomorrow I'm going to sit down with the second most powerful politician in the country, Vitaly Klitschko, former heavyweight boxing champion of the world, and his brother, Vladimir Klitschko, who was also a former heavyweight boxing champion of the world.
It's a passionate, powerful, emotional interview with two men used to fighting, but now fighting the battle of their life.
The simplest thing you can do.
There for a country.
You know what's most complicated?
Live for your country.
That means fight.
For those who've never been in a war, what did you see?
What did you see in Bogut?
Like yesterday, we could hear the sounds of artillery explosions.
See the death, see the destruction, see buildings, residential buildings, residential buildings on fire.
Civilians, children, teenagers, tortured, dead.
I can tell you, those images are horrifying.
You see flattened car and with sign on it, children flattered.
You see bodies in that car, flattened by the tank.
There's another story you tell which has a much sadder ending.
met a young boy same age at the station soon after the invasion and he was crying for his mummy and daddy and you were trying to console him one more woman come to me and not so loud tell me sorry this child is this child don't know he's alone the parents was killed it's complicated i would imagine for you about your feelings towards Russian people,
Vladimir, because you have Russian blood, both of you.
I would put it this way, it's a mistake of the history, a repetition.
I was brainwashed.
I didn't understand what was going on.
You see, we can't imagine it, you know, living in London.
We have the odd terrorist attack or whatever, but we can't imagine a war of the kind we had in World War II where the German bombers were coming over and blitzing our homes.
That hasn't happened in the UK for 70 plus years.
To see it happen in a democratic European country like Ukraine is just surreal.
And to hear you say you've lost a number of friends already, the war's only been going a few months and already it's impacting you personally in a way that it is everyone in Ukraine, I guess.
Russian Blood and History 00:03:00
I have some message to Great Britain, for everyone outside of the country, for Europe, for all the world.
If someone saying the war some far away from you, somewhere in Ukraine, this war doesn't touch him personally, his biggest mistake.
This war can touch everyone in European country.
And on Wednesday I sit down with President Vladimir Zelensky and his wife the First Lady, Olena Zelenska, for a wide-ranging and very personal interview at times about what they've been going through and how they have between them managed to inspire this country to fight for its very freedom.
It's an unmissable interview.
These kind of situations, they can make or break a marriage.
Is your marriage stronger, do you think, because of what you've gone through?
I agree with the theory that marriage gets stronger with challenges.
I think in our case it would be the same.
We have become more interested in each other.
I think in our case it will be the same story.
We have got something else to say to each other.
That is why I wish that this challenge can make us more united.
What do you think about it?
My answer wouldn't be different.
You should have your own opinion about it.
When you were next to me, your opinion has priority.
I would say I don't have any other experience.
I've got only one wife and I am happy.
I think my overriding feeling after two days in Ukraine is one of heartache and despair about what they've been going through, but unbelievable admiration for the Ukrainian people's determination, their resilience, their strength of character.
They're not playing the victim here.
They're in a war that they are determined to win.
And if you want to really get to the heart of a Ukrainian, then just suggest to them, as some people have been doing, that maybe they should just give away their land to the Russians after all the bloodshed and the ferocity of their reaction.
No, no, no is what they all say.
We don't give an inch to these people.
We will get all our land back.
And it's incredibly inspiring.
You can see why they've managed to hold off the Russians so far.
So we're going to spend some more time here.
I think as some of the world is drifting away with this focus on Ukraine to other stories, inevitably war fatigue sets in.
We've come here with Piers Morgan uncensored to try and refocus people's minds because this war isn't reducing in its scale.
It's actually getting worse.
And these people have never needed our support more than they need it right now.
So we're going to bring you this interview with the Klitschikos tomorrow, the Zelenskys on Wednesday, and then we'll debate what all this all means with some of the finest minds in the military, in politics, and try and work out how this all gets resolved and how Ukraine builds itself.
No Inch of Land Given 00:00:04
So Piers Morgan Hasensa will be here all week.
Thanks for watching.
Good night.
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