the investigation of the new york city subway shooting. they believe he rented the uhaul van whose keys were found at the scene. police are investigating whether he has any connection to the shooting and have not named him as a suspect. anyone with information on this person of interest or the shooting is encouraged to call 1-800-577-tips. the uhaul van was found blocks from the subway station. the van was rented monday afternoon in philadelphia, and frank james who has used a wisconsin license with a milwaukee address. stay with cnn for the latest on the investigation. the news continues, so let's hand it over to jake tapper in lviv in western ukraine and cnn tonight. >> john, thanks so much. i'm jake tapper. this is cnn tonight, and i'm live from lviv, ukraine, with breaking new developments on the putin invasion of ukraine and also that mass shooting back at home in a new york city subway. the gunman who opened fire inside a crowded subway car and

detonated two smoke grenades remains on the loose tonight. he shot ten people and injured 13 others. at the height of the morning rush hour. police have identified and released a name of a so-called person of interest this evening. we'll bring you the latest on the massive manhunt live from the scene shortly. but first, for the very first time, 48 days into this russian onslaught in ukraine, president biden used the word genocide to describe the atrocities that putin and his troops are committing here. listen closely to his remarks in iowa today. >> the ability to fill up your tank, none of it should hinge on whether a dictator declares war and commits genocide half a world away. >> that is significant because until that speech, both biden and the biden administration have avoided using the term genocide, which is defined by

the united nations as acts committing with intent to destroy in whole or in part a national ethniccal, racial, or religious group. and president biden doubled down on that tonight. >> i called it genocide because it becomes clearer and clearer that putin is just trying to wipe out the idea of even being able to be ukrainian. and the evidence is mounting. we'll let the lawyers decide internationally whether or not it qualifies, but it sure seems that way to me. >> that is yielding some high praise from ukraine's president this evening. he posted on twitter, quote, true words of a true leader calling things by their names is essential to stand up to evil. we are grateful for u.s. assistance provided so far and we urgently need more heavy weapons to prevent further russian atrocities. meanwhile, vladimir putin

resurfaced today to try to somehow attempt to justify the terror that he's ordered and claimed peace talks are at a dead end, although ukraine says otherwise. he claims russia was forced to invade ukraine to help people, putin said. seriously. he's actually calling his invasion, quote, noble. he declared again he is saving ukraine from naziism. i remind you once again, the leader of ukraine is jewish. many of zelenskyy's relatives were wiped out in the holocaust. it is russian actions now being compared to those of nazis by many in ukraine, including the mayor of the devastated city of mariupol, who refers to the siege there as the new auschwitz. zelenskyy has estimated tens of thousands of individuals have been killed there. fierce fighting is still ongoing in mariupol. for control of that southern port city. you can see plumes of smoke from

shelling in residential areas above a shipping yard. you can also see russian-backed military forces moving through streets near mariupol in the dunet sk region, and as for reports yesterday of a possible strike involving chemical substance of some kind in mariupol, there has been as of now no confirmation of that from either the ukrainian government or the united states, but secretary of state tony blinken did say this earlier today. >> we had credible information that russian forces may use a variety of riot control agents, including tear gas, mixed with chemical agents that would cause stronger symptoms to weaken and incapacitate entrenched ukrainian fighters and civilians as part of the aggressive campaign to take mariupol. so this is a real concern. it's a concern that we had from before the aggression started.

>> president zelenskyy warns that the possibility of chemical weapons should be taken seriously. he also warns russians have left tens of thousands if not h hundreds of thousands of unexploded mines and other munitions after pulling out of northern ukraine. fred pleitgen saw many of these mines up close. he joins us from the country's capital of kyiv. fred. >> hi there, jake. and of course, the talk of the town here tonight is the fact that volodymyr zelenskyy praised president biden for those words as you noted saying they were, as he put it, true words from a true leader. one of the reasons why the ukrainian president says that were some of the things we have seen over the past couple of days, as russian forces have been expelled from the areas north of kyiv. where we have seen a lot of dead bodies being pulled out of destroyed houses and also of course saw that big mass grave

in the suburb of bucha where so much killing took place. now, i was able to speak to this country's prosecutor general at the edge of that mass grave because this country is currently launching a massive campaign to try to prove in courts what president biden says he believes is already shaping up in his opinion. and we do have to warn our viewers that what you're about to see is extremely graphic and very disturbing. >> even as russian troops mass in eastern ukraine for what the u.s. believes will be a huge offensive, authorities in kyiv continue digging up bodies. painstaking work that goes hand in hand with investigating russia's attack on kyiv and possible crimes committed by vladimir putin's invading troops. prosecutor general is leading the charge. she spoke to me at the edge of a mass grave in the kyiv suburb of bucha. >> for us, the best motivation is justice.

and of course, we understand that all ukrainian want fast justice. true and fast justice. that's why we do everything to document all evidence, all facts of war crimes that we have here in ukraine. >> french forensic investigators are now also on the scene. not because ukraine lacks expertise, but because kyiv wants to be as transparent as possible in the face of russian disinformation efforts. >> we want to do our job absolutely open. with standards of international humanitarian law. it's very high standards. that's why when we're here we have our international colleagues. we understand they can see everything. they can see real situation here, real graves, real dead bodies. >> after ukrainian forces managed to expel russian troops from around kyiv and some other areas they had occupied in

ukraine, authorities have discovered scores of dead bodies. today, another six found in just one basement outside of kyiv. the prosecutor tells me they are collecting evidence in thousands of cases. >> now, we start more than 6,000 cases. it's cases, crimes, war crimes. crimes against humanity, aggression crimes. and we started on the first day so we started the case about genocide. >> all this as russiana still claims ipts forces that invaded ukraine have not harmed any civilians. on a visit to a space port with belarusian strong man alexander lukashenko, vladimir putin again claimed his forces are fighting against would-be ukrainian nazis in what he calls a, quote, special operation. the goals are absolutely clear, and they are noble, he said. i said is from the beginning and

want to draw your attention to that. >> there are some in the u.s. at the top level who have spoken about a possible war crimes trial against vladimir putin. is that something you think could ever be possible and something you're working towards to provide evident for? >> of course, i think that everyone understands who is responsible for this war. that's why we do everything to fix, to document evidence. but we are here in ukraine actually understand who is responsible for all of this. >> the investigators' work is complicated by the fact the war is still going on. and they can't reach many devastated areas like the encircled city of mariupol where ukraine's president says tens of thousands have been killed. but irina says no matter how long it takes, she will press on. >> it's actually extremely important because if we will be successful as a prosecutor, i am sure that we can stop such

aggressions in the future. >> and jake, just to give you an idea about some of the things the russians have put out there to try to discredit some of the things the ukrainians are doing, that investigation, they said that the bodies there are fake. obviously that's a false claim, and theyulse said all the people were alive when the russians left and were probably killed by the ukrainians even though satellite images show the exact opposite to be true, and today, vladimir putin at the rocket plant you saw in the report, he also said he believes all of the images coming out of bucha are fake as well. jake. >> the russians also said they were never going to invade ukraine. fred pleitgen in kyiv, thank you so much. >> for more on this, let's now bring in ukrainian prosecutor who is working with the prosecutor general that you just heard from in fred's report. yuri oversees the department that investigates torture and so-called enforced disappearance. thank you so much for joining

us. so as we talk about the various crimes that your office is investigating, i want to ask you, and just first, i want to remind our viewers how these crimes differ, because there's war crimes, which are violations of international humanitarian law carried out during armed conflicts. there's crimes against humanity, which are widespread or systemic attacks against civilian populations, and then of course, there's genocide, that's the intentional destruction of a people in whole or in part. now, obviously, some of these crimes overlap with one another. but talk to us about why the distinction among these different crimes matter and what it means for how you do your job, how you gather evidence. >> thank you so much. so we'll start from the point, i'm investigating the torture. i'm dealing with torture for many years. before war started, we mostly were focusing on law enforcement, ukrainian law

enforcement who abuse their power. for many years dealing with torture, we never thought that the situation could be so bad, because the torture cases we are facing now which have been committed by russians, so they're just like for terrible moves, i don't know, because we never thought that people could be so cruel. in ukraine, you know, we just are facing the clear evil of what they do. that's why investigation is different, because first of all, too many victims. a lot of them were tortured until they would be killed. children, women, men, older men, they tortured anyone who they saw, i think. sometimes because torture always has a purpose, one part of the

investigation, you should prove what the purpose was. mostly to get information. but here, in this situation, they tortured people maybe just because of fun, i don't know. sure, sometimes they wanted to torchen someone to show that they're superior over them. but during the investigation, what is different for war crimes, we see the tortures and enforced disappearance is part of the policy. it's not just actions of one soldier or two soldiers. we see that they do it deliberately. we see that their bosses, their heads of units, they knew what their soldiers were doing. and we also understand that the torture is, again, it's a part of russian policy in ukraine. how to suppress the population and how to follow them to obey r russian rules. >> so the prosecutor general told fred pleitgen in that piece that just ran that there are already more than 6,000 cases, war crimes cases that have been

opened. this is just based on the areas that you have been able to access, such as bucha. other areas around kyiv. that does not include, for example, mariupol. is that right? >> yes. just in kyiv, it's in some other regions also. mostly kyiv region. but we could imagine how many cases would be in mariupol because as the president says, as we know officially more than 20,000 people were killed in mariupol, but no one knows right now. they just killed people. how many people would be tortured or how many kidnapped or however many of them were forcibly moved to russian territory? we just couldn't imagine. it's thousands and thousands of people. >> we're hearing also of these thousands of mines and unexploded shells that the russians apparently left behind. they're being recovered in the north. zelenskyy calls that a war crime. explain that, if you would.

>> the war crime is mostly, there are so-called rules of war. it means that if the two countries, or one country there's a conflict and two sides are fighting with each other, they should follow definite rules. first of all, they shouldn't for any reason injure civilians. what has been done in kharkiv, for example, where they just bombed houses, where people live. not military camps. not military units. just according to their so-called rules of war. but to bomb civilian houses, to send rockets in front of, those are a war crime. in kharkiv, which is in eastern ukraine, they just bomb with so called different types of mines and mines are everywhere there. they use special parachutes when they bomb just dropping down to

cars, to streets. they are lying on the concrete, with children walking around. they could find these bombs because children do not know what is that. this is definitely a war crime. any killings of civilians during the war is a war crime. different definitions but just to give you the idea. violations of rules of war, and injury of civilians, it's different than war crime. what type of injury could be. it could be occasional, inoccasional torture, deliberate injury of the population. >> all right. yuri, thank you so much for your time this evening. best of luck in your investigations there. we're going to have much more from ukraine this hour. but up next, the breaking news in the united states. that manhunt is still under way for the subway mass shooter. police in new york city are now asking for your help in finding

a person of interest. have you seen this man? a live report from the crime scene and we will talk to someone who was in the subway car. that's next. [singing] oven roasted cooold cuts cooold cuts asya agulnik md: st. jude was founded with an understanding that no child should die in the dawn of life. to work with many partners all over the wor, nothing stops in the way of us achieving thamission, not even war. marta salek md: when there a need, people stand up and do what is right and ensure that they restart medical therapy as quickly as possible. carlos rodriguez-galindo md: any child suffering today of cancer is our responsibility.

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welcome to a new chapter in investing. [ding] e*trade now from morgan stanley. we'll continue our war coverage live from western ukraine in just a moment, but first, the breaking news in the united states. new york city police this evening naming a person of interest as they search for the gunman in this morning's mass shooting at a brooklyn subway station. police say this man, frank james, rented a uhaul connected to the shooting. the key to that truck was found at the scene, which led officers to the van this afternoon. james has not been named a suspect. police say the gunman was captured in eyewitness cell phone video. other witnesses and other witness video shows the chaos after police say the gunman threw smoke grenades before

firing shots at new york commuters. then his gun jammed and he fled the scene, we're told. ten people were shot. five are in critical condition this evening. our shimon prokupecz is on the scene tonight. what's the latest? >> yeah, police revealing tonight, jake, that the suspect, the gunman here, fired 33 times into that crowded subway car with people trapped inside after he threw a smoke grenade to distract many of the riders. then he started firing, trapping many of those riders. we have also learned that police were able to identify him through this uhaul key that was left. sources also say there was a credit card left behind that linked this person to the scene. so they're out trying to find him. no word on where he is tonight. police out here looking for him. there's a massive manhunt here all across new york city, as they search for him. but also the nypd stepping up security all across the city and

also the mayor because they're concerned over social media posts, that this person of interest posted about the mayor and being unhappy with some of the mental health programs. as a result, the nypd said they stepped up security for the mayor along across the city as the manhunt continues for the shooter. and also, jake, this person of interest they have identified. >> shimon, thank you so much. now, i want to bring in someone who was on that subway car. you can see him actually right here on the screen rushing out of the train, looking a bit dazed. his name is arman, and he joins us now. thanks so much for joining us. i know you weren't physically injured, but that is a traumatic event to have lived through. how are you doing? >> thanks for having me. i'm good. and as you mentioned, i'm one of the lucky passengers who didn't

get hurt. and for those passengers who were injured, especially in critical condition, i want to wish them a full and speedy recovery. >> yeah, we all are sending our prayers and best wishes to those individuals. take me back to this morning when the subway car began filling up with smoke and then you heard gunshots. what do you remember? what did you think at the time was happening? >> well, sure. it started as a regular morning. i took my train to work, and i was standing next to the end door of the subway car, the one you can pass from one car to another. as we were approaching the 36th street station in sunset park, and we were still in the tunnel, i look at my right side and notice the train began to fill with smoke. and people started running towards me. first i thought it was probably one of those electrical fires under the track. because i couldn't see the

shooter, i was just seeing people running toward me and there was smoke behind them. and i was kind of trying to calm them. basically, they probably saw the guy with a gun, but in my mind, it was just a fire. so i was like, don't panic. it's going to get worse if you panic. but i didn't know what was going on. and then probably 20, 30 seconds later, the shooting started. at one point, i realized i'm on the floor. i don't remember how that happened, probably i got pushed aside. but i was still confused, and i didn't know what was going on because it sounded like fireworks. so i thought maybe somebody doing a prank or something. and again, however, i was very shocked from the scene where people were hurting each other in the chaos that followed the shooting. especially when i saw a lady with a small girl trying to escape. that keep was really horrible. and i wasn't thinking about shooting, it wasn't on my mind. people just really hurting each

other by panicking. the shooting felt like it lasted -- go ahead please. >> no, no, you, i'm sorry. >> yeah, the shooting felt like it lasted for nearly two or maybe three minutes. and at one point, i realized one of the guys who were next to me on the floor, his leg was all covered with blood. i asked him, is this your blood? are you bleeding? he didn't say anything. then i realized the floor, like the floor entirely was covered with blood. then i got it, somebody is shooting. but at that point, we were lucky, the train was very close to the next stop. we were also lucky because we were also having trouble to breathe. at one point, i realized i can't breathe. but thank god the doors were open, and again, we were very lucky we were that close. it would probably take -- the whole thing took like two minutes.

>> well, we're so glad you're okay. arman, thank you so much for jour your time this evening. get some rest. it's been a horrible day. >> back to the war in ukraine. we're going to shine a light on a small town that fought off the russians any way townspeople could, and they won. ed lavendera joins us to show us some of the good that is happening there now. that's next. your heart isn't just t your. protect t it with bayer aspirin. be sure to tatalk to your doctor before you begin an aspirin r regimen.

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welcome back to lviv. here's a story that really exemplifies the bravery of the average ukrainian. residents of a small farm town took on russian troops who had attacked civilians in their town. and they won. it's an incredible story of resilience and resistance. ed lavendera talked to the residents and joins us now live from odesa. ed. >> hey, jake. this is a story of one small town that they might have had a success in fighting back the russians but you also learn in this war, when you're near the front lines, the fighting to save lives never really ends. one look at these massive craters in the small ukrainian

town near mykolaiv, and it's not hard to imagine the horror inflicted by russian forces bombing this neighborhood. the town's mayor brought us here. he says the russian plane that dropped the bomb circled over these homes several times before unleashing the explosive attack. this is a simple peaceful town, he says, with just ordinary people. no military, farming is what we do here, to feed the country and the world. there was a 70-year-old man in this house peeling potatoes when this bomb struck. what happened to him? god decided not to take him away, he tells me the man survived. for more than a week in march, this little town of 12,000 people fought off the russians any way it could. town council member vitale put out a facebook plea that if anyone knew how to fire a canon,

they should race out to help. a humble force of about 100 people pushed the russians out. more than 170 buildings were damaged. the chars wreckage was left all over town. but the mayor tells the story of one fighter who became an instant legend. a 78-year-old man who was told he was too old to fight. instead, he made a molotov cocktail and threw it at a russian artillery system, blowing it up. we have asked to speak with the man, but we're told by city officials that they're protecting his identity to keep him safe. the town might have won the battle, but this war never ends. the town is now a frontline refuge for thousands of ukrainians hoping to escape. every day at this church, buses drop off refugees fleeing russian occupied areas just a few miles away. this woman says she left the city after enduring weeks of bombardment with her two children and nieces.

>> translator: they break into people's homes every night, drag people out, beat them up. my neighbors were beaten up. thank god they're still alive. they're probably doing that to scare people so they're always in fear. >> translator: it was horrible there. every day, people are going crazy to be honest. it's intolerable. the children, the tension is terrible. you don't know if you'll wake up alive. >> escaping alive is a dream, as we found closer to the front lines. the nearby village has endured weeks of shelling. you can see the munition and the shrapnel. you can see this building over here peppered with holes. as we meet with the village head man, it's clear the fighting isn't over. yes, they are firing, he says. he tells us russians fired cluster artillery at a group of young people charging their

phones in this spot. they do it on purpose so people will panic, he tells me. we understand there was a refugee 17 years old who came here to try to escape and she was killed. lydia couldn't escape the russian strikes. a young woman trying to reach the town, her mother says she was studying food production and shared these photos so her daughter cannot be forgotten. and jake, i want to point out assee were reporting the story, we kept hearing about this 17-year-old who had been killed by russian strikes, but nobody knew her name or where she was from exactly. and we tried real hard, i asked our fixer in translator to do everything he could to help us track down the family of this young woman. and after working the phones, he did. costa was able to reach his mother, and that is how we were

able to bring to you this young woman's name, a picture of her, and all of that. when we called the mother, she sobbed as she told us her daughter's name and what had happened to her. you know, it's important to put a name and a face with all of the innocent victims of this war. jake. >> so many of them. ed lavendera, thank you so much. appreciate that. >> president biden vowed last month that the u.s. would respond, quote, in kind, if russia were to use chemical weapons in ukraine. so what happens if those new as of now unconfirmed reports of chemical use turn out to be true? i'll discuss with a former secretary of defense. that's next. hide my skin? not me. dupixent helps keep youu one step ahead of eczema, with clearer skin and less itch. don't use ifif you're allergic to dupixent. serious allergic reactions can occur that can be severe. tell your doctor about new or worsening eye problems

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. continuing now from lviv, there are growing concerns this evening that russia may have used chemical weapons in its bid to take over the southern port city of mariupol. and while u.s. and other western officials say they cannot confirm these reports as of now, the pentagon says it's not out

of the realm of possibility that russia would turn to riot control agents to try to mask their use of chemical weapons. >> this could be a tactic they might employ, which is to try to mask a potential more serious chemical attack with riot control agents. again, it comes from a mosaic of information we have gleaned. the russians have certainly proven more than willing to use chemical weapons when it suited them in the past. >> let's discuss this with william kohn, a former secretary of defense under president clinton. before that, he was a republican senator from maine. secretary, good to see you. what do you make of these reports on the use of riot control agents, which could theoretically include, as secretary blinken said, tear gas mixed with chemical agents?

how would that disguise a more serious achemical attack and how do u.s. officials go about confirming if this is true? >> well, zwe have to gather the evidence from the people who have been affected by this or destroyed by this. it's going to take time to do that. i think what the administration is doing is trying to have a pre-emptive strike so to speak on preparing people that this is what we know putin has done in the past, he's used chemical weapons in syria and elsewhere. we know he's used it on his political opponents. so i think we have to gather the evidence. but in the meantime, we have to recognize one man has disrupted the economic wellbeing of the world. he's created a humanitarian disaster on an unprecedented scale. and i think he has set the rules of the game that we have to abide by. so i think what is taking place is more and more evidence of his coming out of the plundering in

which he's engaged in, i think it's going to change the rules of the game, i think, for us i would hope for us, and when president zelenskyy says give me the weapons, i need words, yes, but i need weapons more. i think this changes the calculus. it should change the calculus on the ground where we provide president zelenskyy with air power, something he has called for for some time now, and hopefully, that would do something to change events on the ground, and the only way we're ever going to see any kind of negotiation if possible is if we change the calculus on the ground where putin is losing and zelenskyy is winning. >> so the air power discussion a few weeks ago that i think the americans quashed was that the polish government was going to give the ukrainians these soviet era migs that the ukrainians know how to fly. but the pols wanted them to take off from the nato base, the u.s.

base in germany, i guess, so it would have some sort of nato sign-off, and the u.s. wouldn't do that. you are saying that you think the u.s. should. >> i have come to that conclusion, yes. the fact that putin can say i am going to destroy this country but you can't, you have to play by mew rules, which means no rules for him and rules for us in terms of what weapons we can provide zelenskyy, president zelenskyy to fight this war that's been waged against him. so i think there has to be a change of the rules because putin has indicated there are no rules for him, just for us. >> so a senior defense official says that the u.s. will send more weapons systems to ukraine, but they are weapons systems that will require additional training. can that be done? can you train ukrainians to use a tank or any sort of other complex weapons system in the

middle of a war? >> it's very difficult to do. i think we are training as much as we can on ukrainian soil and elsewhere. but there may be drones that we can train them rather quickly on that would be suicide drones and so forth. so i think that we're capable of giving them a level of capability they don't have now that they could be trained rather quickly, not immediately, but at least it would increase their morale. they're getting more, they know that they can now win this battle. they proved they can defeat the russian soldiers, and this is what is really at the crux of this. this is really not a war between combatants. this is a war of terror, of annihilation being waged against the ukrainian people. so for president biden to call it genocide, it's that. and secretary albright, late secretary madeleine albright and i co-chaired a task force to say

how do we prevent genocide? one of the first things we said is don't get hung up initially on definitions. we know what genocide is. here are the elements it comprises. i think there's no question what putin has done is genocidal. there are other crimes he could be charged with. you went through crimes against humanity, war crimes, and gordon brown, the former prime minister of the british said, well, why can't we charge him with the crime of oppression. he has clearly conducted aggression against a sovereign independent country. and that's something that can be proven very quickly. the issue is, he'll unlikely to be prosecuted until he's out of office, and that's going to take the russian people to turn him out of office. >> former secretary of defense and maine senator william cohen, thank you so much. good to see you again, sir. >> coming up, current u.s. forces are staying out of ukraine. but american veterans are

increasingly choosing to come here on their own dime, on their own initiative, to help train ukrainian soldiers. a retired marine colonel on why this fight feels different than any other war he has known. that's next. we need to reduce plastic waste in the environment. that's why at america's beverage companies, our bottles are made to be re-made. not all plastic is the same. we're carefully designing our ttles to be 100% recyclable, inc. ey're collected and separated from other plastics, so they can be turned back into material that we use to make new bottles. that completes the circle and reduces plastic waste.

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five professional benefits. one simple step. totally effortless. styling has never been easier. tresemme. do it with style. as russia begins its offensive strike on eastern ukraine. the united states has provided $1.7 billion in military aid to ukraine, but as the number of civilian casualties rises, will this be enough? i speak to a retired u.s. service member who stepped into this fight. current u.s. service members are not in ukraine. but u.s. veterans, they damn sure are. at an undisclosed location in ukraine a retired u.s. marine, veteran colonel andrew milburn, is training ukrainians to fight

the russians. milburn knows what it's like on the front lines. an american who grew up in the uk, he has serve inside somalia, libya, afghanistan, and iraq. >> i went through the battle of fell uj a. i would rather do that again than confront, you know, 12-hour barrage of russian artillery like the one we're seeing. >> reporter: having retired from the u.s. military in 2019, milburn runs an organization that brings in other former special forces members to assess the needs of various militaries. after losing the battle of kyiv leaving behind devastation and evidence of astros tease, the russians are now turning to the eastern flank of ukraine to what will likely be a series of large-scale battles. >> ukrainian military at large is more adaptive than the u.s. military. i think i feel qualified to say that. >> this more open, less wooded terrain in the east could be more challenging for the

ukrainian military. which was able to rely on guerilla tactics and calling in targeted strikes in the north. >> it is going to be a significant challenge. the russians are much stronger in the defense. >> milburn trains ordinary ukrainians to fight in the resistance as well as training more elite ukrainian special forces like nikola. ukrainian successes are because of help from the u.s. other nato countries and individuals like milburn. >> also, because of your help, we were successful with the first attack. so russian leave our territory not for their own wish. they lost a lot of troops, a lot of tanks, a lot of armed vehicles. we were using modern europe and american anti-tank missiles and they lost a lot. >> he knows what's to come will be tough. >> we need more.

now you're right, it doesn't mean that war is stopped already. >> milburn agrees. the ukrainians still need a great deal. >> they need drones, right. they need drones with a range longer than the dj-1. they need secure radios. those are basic things. they need medical equipment. >> even upgrading the basic equipment they already have could make a big difference, he says. >> a lot of times they are coordinating by cellphone or by just, you know, kind of regular motorola radios, which can be intercepted, geolocated, jammed. >> anyone in any western military would be astounded. >> reporter: but weapons and equipment are not the only thing. training, he says, is key. >> they like medical training. evidence of that if you talk to ukrainian medics, there are horror stories out there. so injuries that would be easy survivable in iraq or

afghanistan by uk or u.s. soldiers, ukrainians are dying from here. >> reporter: milburn is proud of his time in uniform. he is proud to be a marine. but there is something purer about this fight, he says, than the others he has fought. >> but, frankly, serving in iraq and afghanistan, especially afghanistan after the debacle back in, you know, august, there is always a kind of moral ambivalence. there is a feeling of being an invading army, right. even at the sfbeginning of thos don flikts when we thought our causes are good. there was always that dissonance between the idealism that pulled you into the military and what you found yourself doing. here there is no such thing. you have one sovereign nation being invaded by another. it is evil, good versus evil. this time i feel very squarely on the side of good. >> and our thanks to cnn producer, for help with that

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watching. i will be back tomorrow night at 9:00 p.m. eastern for cnn tonight again live from ukraine. before then, see you tomorrow afternoon on "the lead" which begins at 4:00 p.m. eastern. "don lemon tonight" starts right now. hey, don. >> having said that, i feel guilty about keeping you but i want to know this. the veterans you spoke with who are going to ukraine, are they going against the wishes of the biden administration? >> i asked a veteran about that. not the one in the piece, but a different one. the answer was one of the great things about living in a free country is that he is no longer in service, he can do whatever he wants to do as long as he is abiding by the law. so he trained ukrainians. when he came