january of 2024 as everyone, of course, is expressing their well wishes. plenty of that being seen on social media in reaction, hoping that she recovers quickly. and, of course, we'll be watching for not only more information on her condition but also whether there will be more information on plans when she may be able to resume that tour. >> like all of us, we wish her a very, very speedy recovery, only the best for mad onna. erica hill, thank you very much for that update. and to our viewers, thanks very much for watching. i'm wolf blitzer in "the situation room." "erin burnett outfront" starts "erin burnett outfront" starts right now. -- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com "outfront" next, live from dnipro in eastern ukraine, questions tonight about a top russian general who was reportedly in on the coup attempt against putin. where is he tonight, and were

there other top russians who may have helped yevgeny prigozhin? plus, live in moscow where russians are speaking out to cnn. and a u.s. marine vet here tells me why he's risking everything to fight for ukraine, and then preparing for battle. i'm going to take you to a ukrainian training ground where troops are about to return to the fight. let's go "outfront." and good evening. i'm erin burnett. welcome to a special edition of "outfront." we are live tonight in eastern ukraine in the city of dnipro. we are just west of the front lines deep in the country where the brutal war is being raged. now, this is a city of nearly a million people, and, as you can see in the darkness and rain right now, all city lights at night are turned off because of security concerns. and, again, tonight, we heard the sound of air raid sirens. and, with that came this warning from the air force, quote, threat of using ballistic

missiles, weapons, do not ignore the alarm signals, go to shelter. now there are unconfirmed reports of explosions in this and other areas. that warning, though, is now over. and the fears of an attack, constant fears, come as putin is desperately trying to contain the fallout over damning new revelations about the armed insurrection led by his one-time loyal lieutenant in the head of the wagner group, yevgeny prigozhin. questions are now mounting about the whereabouts of russia's former top commander in ukraine surovkin. we have the lead russian investigator for bellingcat. he tells us that his team tried called surovikin and the phone was answered by surovikin's wife. he may be key to a much bigger plot against putin. the russian general had, quote, advance knowledge of yevgeny prigozhin's plans to rebel against russia's military

leadership. keep in mind, this is a man who has been a decisionmaker along with putin, alongside him. so what does it say about putin's standing if someone with such a high rank might've been complicit in the insurrection against him. it also raises the question as to whether there are more people inside putin's military who have aligned themselves with prigozhin. a european intelligence official tells cnn tonight the top russian security officials may have known about prigozhin's plot before it happened, and may have wanted to see how it played out. these are stunning developments and they do suggest that there may be more than just cracks when it comes to putin's hold on power. which may explain this rare surprise appearance by the russian president. today putin traveling to the region of dagastan in southern russia. people cheering him on saying he did not doubt the support of russians during the insurrection. of course, they're putting this video out.

we do want to say, though, dagestan is a region where violent protests have broken out because of the sheer number of men who have been drafted to fight in putin's war and have died. more men there have died in ukraine than from moscow. we also hear the resentment from russians on the front lines. just listen to these exclusive intercept calls from russian soldiers. they are speaking just before ukraine's counteroffensive. listen to this. >> translator: we have nothing to eat. we are starving, honestly. there is no water. we have nothing to drink, nothing to eat. we are at the very front, at the very peak. the ukrainians [ bleep ] us up every single day, three times a day. we are fighting back. but we ask for help from artillery, from mortar men. we call them and ask for help. but there is no help. well, at this very moment, our strip is almost surrounded by

ukrainians, almost. >> translator: the government is bad. >> translator: hmm. >> translator: with the president at the head, they should be shot. >> translator: wow. >> translator: they should all be lined up against the wall, against the wall! >> lined up against the wall and shot. those words from a russian soldier about vladimir putin. just to think about that, that type of talk was unheard of, is unheard of. but you're hearing it. earlier today, i had the chance to travel close to the front lines to visit a ukrainian training ground where soldiers from the 128th infantry brigade have just returned from the front lines a few mile as way. they go there to train for a few days and then they go right back in. you hear the artillery in the background. they told me what they're up against right now. >> translator: yes, we've seen them, but they weren't set by

professionals. if professionals set them, they're impossible to see. >> they're talking about grenade-laid booby traps which, like, litter the forest. plus, a live report from our matthew chance in moscow. i want to begin, though, with fred pleitgen. fred, putin is obviously now still trying to contain the fallout tonight, in fact, the fallout has gotten much bigger, at least from what we're learning. we're learning more and more damning things. did he have any success today especially with that visit to dagestan? >> reporter: well, he certainly tried and i think you're absolutely right. i think that that whole power structure around vladimir putin was deeply shaken by all this. and i think we're seeing that more and more as the time progresses. and of course for vladimir putin he's trying to bring all that in order. and there still are so many open questions. like, who else may have known, who else may have been involved with yevgeny prigozhin in trying to plan all this and see all of

this through. bet there are also other big questions like what happens to wagner now, what happens to prigozhin's other assets. and in light of all that, it certainly seems that visit to dagestan was extremely important for vladimir putin today to show that he's still holding the reins and also to show that the people there still like him as well. here's what we're seeing. russia's president trying to show he's in full control, cheered on by crowds in dagestan. >> translator: i had no doubts about the reactions in dagestan and throughout the country. >> reporter: but the uprise led by wagner boss yevgeny prigozhin still reverberates. the "new york times" reporting one of russia's top generals sergei surovin may have had advanced knowledge, the kremlin trying to brush off the report. there will now be a lot of speculation and rumors surrounding these events, the kremlin spokesman says. i believe this is just another example of it.

>> reporter: while surovikin was quick to call on prigozhin to stop the insurrection -- >> translator: you must do this before it is too late. obey the will and command of the elected president of the russian federation. >> reporter: there is no doubt surovikin and prigozhin are close. while prigozhin continuously ripped into russia's defense minister for alleged ammo shortages during the battle for bakhmut, for surovikin, nothing but praise. >> translator: this is the only man with the star of an army general who knows how to fight. >> reporter: surovikin led russia's war in ukraine for three months last year, just as wagner's battle for bakhmut was escalating. he was also putin's top general in syria in 2017, leading a brutal campaign to crush the opposition to syrian president bashar al assad and working side by side with prigozhin's wagner mercenaries. so far, there's no indication the russians implicated

surovikin in the uprising. but putin has made clear he views those who took part as traitors. >> translator: the organizers of the rebellion betraying their country, their people, also betrayed those who were drawn into the crime. >> reporter: a russian general claiming russian intelligence had advanced knowledge of prigozhin's plans, and, yet, they couldn't stop them. another possible problem for vladimir putin as he tries to show things are back to normal and he remains firmly at the helm. >> reporter: erin, that video that we have there in our report of surovikin calling on prigozhin to just stop, that was the last time that we publicly seen surovikin. and that was published late last friday. so right now it's unclear where he is, whether or not he's in detention or whether or not he's a free man. and, of course, we always have to keep in mind this man is very important for vladimir putin's campaign not just one of those in charge of it but also the head of the air force as well, erin. >> all right, fred, thank you

very much. so i want to go now to the former u.s. ambassador to the russian federation john sullivan. and the russian investigative journalist whose site has been blocked in russia. and the retired u.s. army brigadier peter zwack. so thanks very much to all of you. ambassador, let me start with you with what fred was saying. if surovikin has indeed been detained and they hadn't seen him since friday. his wife says he hasn't come home from work yet today. what will happen to him, ambassador? >> well, if he's been detained because he was involved in what the russians are calling this mutiny, that's not going to lead to very good things for the general. recall that this is a general who as a junior officer was involved in the coup in 1991 against gorbachev. so he's been a political actor

as well in his past. so, if he's been arrested because he was involved with prigozhin and wagner, that's not good news for this general. >> general, i know you've met general surovikin in your time in russia. are you surprised by all of this? >> i mean, there's no really word that describes -- i mean, it's extraordinary. i met him out in the eastern military district with a delegation, a u.s. military delegation in 2012. he was commander of the eastern military district of that time, vlodovostock. i was there, saw him. he was correct with us, but distant. rafune but intelligent. he had, at that time chechnya on his resume, and later on as

reported, he went to syria, and the nickname was the butcher of aleppo. the russian nickname for him as head of the aerospace was general armageddon. so, he's a smart guy, but he may be in too deep, and just don't know what is exactly happening. but he is in trouble, it looks like. >> andre, the significance of this, though, can't be underestimated because this goes right into putin's inner circle. the "new york times" says surovikin knew about prigozhin's plans. and you report that putin trusted surovikin. it's putting those two things together that is so crucial. how could this happen? and what does this mean? putin trusted surovikin. >> yes, i just wanted to remind you of that. it was surovikin who convinced putin to leave kherson last fall

to save the army. and putin trusted him, and he ordered to leave the town. despite all this political consequences of this withdrawal. so, surovikin was praised as someone who saved the russian army against complete annihilation by the ukrainian forces. that is why he was trusted by putin. but now putin, of course, he understands the biggest problem posed by prigozhin's mutiny is not prigozhin himself but the reaction of the army. and if people like surovikin. so he needs to teach a lesson. at the same time, he needs to -- he still needs capable generals. and for him it's a tricky question. and i cannot completely roll out the repetition of the situation of the fsb over the last year when he was punished, sent to jail, and then he got back. >> which is amazing to even think about that. some people go in language wish in prison, solitary confinement.

others are allowed to come back. ambassador sullivan, you of course have met putin many times. is he shocked by how this is unraveling now? he's obviously really -- he's been hit by the stove -- or he's touched the stove and been burned. but is he shocked by this? >> oh, he has to have been shocked by this, erin. if he wasn't, then he's suicidal, because this was a very serious threat. his remarks on saturday night to the russian people reflect that. he invokes 1917, tells the russian people that prigozhin and wagner element have stabbed him and russia in the back. of course, he was surprised by this. >> general zwack, are there more shoes to drop? we hear surovikin. are there more? >> this could be just the tip of the iceberg, what is, i think, informative for all of us that watched it and reported it really well, was this dash by

the wagner forces, almost 400 kilometers through rostov and down to veronish, halfway to moscow or closer than that. and the fact that they moved -- and i know that highway. it's a great highway. but the russian military and the security forces really made no attempt or feeble attempt. and then you saw the crowds, the seeming adulation in places. he is a populist. and i think he struck a chord in an aspect of the russian population. putin saw that. and, so, there is -- in anything that energizes the russian base, if you will, beyond putin is a threat to putin and the regime. and then there is the whole military that must be saying loyalty versus service to the country, complicated. >> and, andre, that's the

question. we just played those intercepts before the counteroffensive, these are russian soldiers, someone saying line putin up against a wall and shoot him. this is them talking about putin. it's not them criticizing tactics in the war. do you think that more in the military support -- if not prigozhin, prigozhin's plan, his goal? >> i'm sorry. >> go ahead, andre. >> it looks like more and more people in the military support if not prigozhin but the language he uses and the criticism he expresses. and i remember calling on saturday my contacts and russian special forces asking them what do they think about prigozhin's attack and his demand to get shoigu and gerasimov. and they told me, we are fond of that, it is absolutely true, our

commanders are absolutely incompetent, which is what is really, really shocking to me. >> i thank you all very much. i appreciate your time. , and next, i'm going to speak to a former speech writer for the russian president. why he believes that putin may soon appoint his successor. plus, a u.s. marine on the front lines here. i'll speak to an american veteran who has been fighting with ukraine since the start, leaving behind his wife and newborn son. he'll tell you why he's doing it. and i'll take you to a training ground just miles from the front line where ukrainians are preparing, once again, to face russian forces. this looks like a forest. and it is a forest except for inside deeply entrenched and embedded really camouflaged are ukrainian troops. and they're all there embedded like this because we're so close to the front lines.

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when you're ready to go but static and wrinkles are like, nooooo! try bounce, it's the sheet. less static. less wrinkles. more softness. more freshness. bounce. it's the sheet. welcome back to a special edition of "outfront" live from dnipro in eastern ukraine. "outfront" has obtained exclusive intercepts from ukraine that appear to show russian soldiers talking about the war and slamming the russian president vladimir putin and the defense minister sergei shoigu. the conversation we're going to play occurred before the insurrection against putin, but it does appear to give great insight into the morale among some russian troops and their feelings towards their country's

leaders. >> translator: they say that they got electronics everywhere, motion sensors, cameras, they've got it all. we've got nothing anywhere. they just kill their people, those [ bleep ], shoigu and putin. they don't even consider people as people. they are just expendable materials. they care more about shells and politics than about people. >> so, how do russians at home view the insurrection and the war right now? matthew chance is in moscow. >> reporter: right. well, i've come to the center of the russian capital to try and get a sense of how this city feels in the aftermath of that attempted military uprising over the weekend. it feels pretty relaxed here. there are a lot of russians, a

lot of tourists that are here taking photographs of these iconic sites. i was trying to get into red square. but you can see there are barricades up. those barricades have been up since the weekend when that military uprising took place. you can just make out the domes. anyway, back to the people. i thought it'd be a great opportunity to have a word with some russians about how secure they feel right now in the aftermath of that uprising. people like 86-year-old nikolai unphased, he told me, by events of recent days. >> translator: russia is its people, he says, not some individual showoffs. and regardless of what they do, russia was, is, and will continue to be strong, he says. >> reporter: but will its leader vladimir putin, sealed off behind these kremlin gates.

you don't have an answer? how many people want to speak to me about putin? but those who would reject the suggestion recently made by president biden that putin has been weakened by the revolt in russia. i think he'll be around for a long time, says ilya, all the country's resources in his hands and there's no real opposition and there won't be any time soon, he says. >> reporter: but now he's in exile the wagner leader who staged and aborted the rebellion appears to be fair game. you speak english, right? >> yeah. >> reporter: great. let me ask you, what do you think about yevgeny prigozhin? >> no, we like it. >> reporter: you do or you don't like? >> no, we don't like. >> reporter: why?

>> i don't know. but he is not good. >> reporter: well, it's pretty understandable, i suppose, that given what's happened over the past few days, people don't really want to talk to us that much on camera because despite what most of them will say to us about everything being fine here, i think there genuinely is a sense of apprehension about what the coming weeks and months in this country may hold. >> and matthew's with me now. matthew, that was riveting just to watch you walking and to see obviously russian tourists there. what i'm curious about also is how it goes over, then, what putin did. he obviously felt the need to do something he almost never does, he goes out and meets with people, surrounded by flocks of people in dagestan where so many young men have died in this war here in ukraine. how rare is such a visit like that for him? >> reporter: really rare, and

very surprising to see this reaction by these crowds in dagestan. they're treating vladimir putin like a rockstar trying to get selfies with him, trying to touch him. he's been in power for 23 years. you think they would have gotten used to him by now. but it also is very reminiscent of the scenes we saw on sunday evening in rostov-on-don in southern russia when crowds were cheering yevgeny prigozhin, the wagner leader. and i think those images of russians cheering this rebel, essentially, really cut to the quick with the kremlin. so this is perhaps their attempt to sort of replicate that or their response to it. in terms of how rare it is, remember, the pandemic, putin is notoriously germaphobic, and he hasn't been this close up to anybody since i can remember. remember the big long table where he kept his distance from world leaders. so this is an extraordinary

scene. >> when you said that, the image of that table and the beginning of the war, everyone that he met with was across such a bizarre length. matthew, thank you very much. just a short time ago, i spoke to one of putin's former speech writers, someone who knows him. and we talked about how much longer he thinks putin can stay in power. this comes as the "new york times" reports that u.s. intelligence shows that sergey surovikin did have advanced knowledge of yevgeny prigozhin's plans to rebel against putin. here's our conversation. >> look, to me this whole matter seems a little bit contrite. i'm afraid now surovikin used to be -- but i think prigozhin was not planning a coup, actually planning a coup. he didn't have any strategy. he just knew that he didn't like the course of events.

he understands the situation of war like nobody else in russia. so he understood that if everything goes like it goes, it will ultimately lead to a defeat, which he hates this idea because he'll end up in jail. and since the system didn't react to his signals, he was trying to strengthen pressure step by step, and definitely surovikin was part of this plan, too. there was no intent of overthrowing the regime. so i think now the security forces of putin, this fsb, they're trying to prove to putin that they're working hard and that they found conspiracy, and putin is ready to listen to them. so they are creating a conspiracy where actually there was no -- originally there was no conspiracy. >> do you think that what's happening with surovikin could

be the beginning of a much larger purge, though, by putin? >> look, on the one hand, yes. if they decided that there was a conspiracy, they would be trying to find new spies, new conspirators. but, on the other hand, there is another incentive. putin is trying to show that the system is functioning well, look at his activity over the last several days. he is grateful to everyone, he is shaking hands with everyone, he is praising everyone. he is trying to show that the system is functioning. but in this case something is going wrong, which contradicts his public stance. >> how much power do you think right now putin actually has in

russia? how under threat is he? >> well, definitely he is weakening. again, everyone understands that this is the system which -- this is a problem which he created by himself. it's not that it's a cia organized operation. anyone can come across a strong enemy and can problems. it can happen to anyone. but this particular case, this is a case of the mortal threat coming from one part of the system to another part of the system. this is just total malfunction of the system. putin is the creator of the system and the chief manager and the owner of the system. so, this is all his fault. the worst thing is that putin understands that everyone understands this. so i think that we might really

see the start of the operation of success. putin has to be re-elected next march. so probably the elites will convince him to just not to try to be re-elected, just to choose a successor and to try to elect him, the successor, to try to change the way the system is functioning because it's not functioning at all. >> thank you very much. >> thank you. "outfront" next, i'm going to talk to a u.s. marine veteran here in ukraine, risking everything to fight in the trenches alongside ukrainian forces. as you can see in his exclusive body cam video here, why did he leave the safety of his own home to come here? plus, we were given incredible access to a training

ground where ukrainian forces along the front lines are preparing for battle. we're just a few miles from the front line. it's a heavily militarized area, and you can hear the thudding of artillery in the background. coming up later, you're going to meet some soldiers who have just returned from the front lines. postmenopausal women with hr+ her2- metastatic breast cancer are living longer with kisqali. so, long live family time. long live dreams. and long live you. kisqali is a pill proven to help women live longer when taken with an aromatase inhibitor.

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and this group that we were with had just returned from the front lines of the counteroffensive, and they're preparing to go back. they're training now for more hand-to-hand combat, simulating trench warfare, laying grenades. they know better than anyone the dangers that they face in this war. but they are still undeterred. about 15 miles from the counteroffensive front line, members of the 128th infantry brigade are here training. they are the ones doing the hand-to-hand front line combat. they train here for two to three days. after that, they go right back to the front line. and then they stay there for three to four, and then they do the cycle again. >> translator: yes, we are ready, we are waiting for this. >> reporter: what you're watching right now is them

actually practicing storming a russian trench. this was what they would do actually going in to take over an enemy trench. some of them are wearing lasers on their bulletproof vests. and when the lasers light up, it means that they're dead. he was working in an online retailer before the war. after fighting the past year, he's now a trainer. >> translator: it's very important, even for defense. you already know the tactics of your enemy what, they will do. >> reporter: the front line, of course, is massive. but most of the fighting is happening in incredibly small spaces just like these along tree lines on the counteroffensive front lines. what these soldiers are doing is actually practicing laying trip wires with grenades on the end. and that is what so much of the combat is right now. both offensively and defensively finding and laying these tripwires.

>> translator: yes, we've seen them, but they weren't set by professionals. if professionals set them, they're impossible to see. >> reporter: with real artillery booming in the distance, these troops are practicing, they come into the forest, they're practicing to see if they can find those traps, and practicing to see whether they'd live or die. you heard the explosion. you see the smoke. that's the practice grenade, something that they're practicing for here, but in just a couple of days on the front line, will be the grim reality. it's a reality that all of these men embrace, men like vlad. he was a history teacher, and he hasn't seen his family in a year. but his commitment is not wavering. >> translator: yes, i miss them, i really want to see them, a

little later after our victory. >> and, still, we see that resilience and that commitment, optimism. "outfront" now with me here in dnipro is the man who is now fighting alongside ukrainian forces. a dark chilly wet night here in dnipro. so, you're just obviously off the front lines nearby as well. and you've shared some footage that sort of shows your perspective as you're gathering intelligence to try to target russian forces. i know you've been here since april of last year, a brief visit home for the birth of your son. you're putting your life in danger to help another country. i think everybody wants to understand what drives you to do it. >> well, part of it is a lot of people aren't aware of this, but the ukrainians sent soldiers to afghanistan after 9/11. they were part of the forces that were there, and they were under no obligation to do so. and, so, to me, they came to us

in our time of need, and i see no reason not to go to them in their time of need as well. this is a very resourced area. i don't want russia to get a hold of those resources and then leverage that to kind of destabilize the world and create more war. >> so, you've made this great personal sacrifice. i want to show some of the things that you've experienced that you're willing to share. this was a really intense confrontation that you had weeks ago. you came under fire and you had to retreat. and i just want to play that part so people can actually see -- get a sense of what it's like in those moments. just listen. [ sound of gunfire ] >> i think we're pulling back. moving! [ bleep ] go, go, go. that was [ bleep ] close.

>> this is not a good spot to be, guys. we got to move. get some counter battery up or something. okay. go! bunker, bunker. you have more room, get in further. >> so, watching that just so people have a sense of that one

moment. what's been the hardest part of the counteroffensive so far? >> well, right now we are conducting probing attacks because we need to figure out where the weak spots are. we need to figure out where the strong points are. and we need to figure out what to do about both of those and how to make it work together. there's been a lot of time since the last offensive. so the russians are very, very dug in. >> trenched positions, lots of lines. >> yes. and in order to dislodge them, sometimes the artillery won't do it because the bunkers they have, the artillery just can't penetrate. so we have to physically go up there and try and dislodge them. >> and you were doing that in one of these videos. you were trying to sneak up on a russian position and they saw you. and they saw you from the air. tell me about what we're looking at. >> yeah. drones, these small commercial available drones are a big problem. it's good for us because the ukrainians have a lot more of them. the ones they have are a lot more capable. but they happened to see us. they weren't even looking in our

area. they just turned and happened to see us, and then basically set up an ambush for us while we were in the middle of a mine field approaching a position. so, that's obviously a continual problem, but it's something we deal with regularly now. >> and do you feel progress? we hear the optimism we just heard from those ukrainian troops, they're about to go right back in, do their training and go back in. is that the same optimism that you hear from the ukrainians, that you feel? >> yes, absolutely. we have a very high degree of freedom within our area of operations. we're not just in one specific spot. we kind of bounce around. so we get to talk to a lot of different units, and their morale is extremely high. and, at the same time, there are russians who are in the middle of the day leaving their gear and equipment and their positions, walking to the ukrainian positions with their hands up and basically saying that they're done, they don't want to fight anymore. it happened about four weeks ago to a position that was directly

next to us. the russian soldiers just walked over to the ukrainians, and they're, like, we're done, please give us food and water, and we'd rather be a prisoner than continue fighting. >> wow. garrison, thank you very much. i appreciate it, and garrison is operating on the front lines here. and we very much you being here with us tonight. >> thank you for having me on. next we're going to see how the forces are getting pushed back. >> the counteroffensive is just over -- [ sound of gunfire ] so far the ukrainians are only inching forward. plus, i'll talk to the ukrainian soldier who's been on this show several times and was at the restaurant in kramatorsk when it was hit yesterday. the death toll there going up. what is his response to the kremlin saying they were targeting an army command post?

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bakhmut, bakhmut, bakhmut everywhere. so, they took over a building there and [ bleep ] what? what's the population of bakhmut? 7,000 people. >> ben wedeman is "outfront" tonight in eastern ukraine. >> reporter: in the woods outside the russian occupied town of bakhmut, the ukrainian crew of a soviet-era self-propelled gun prepares to open fire, cleaning the barrel, getting the grounds ready, and then the order to fire comes over the radio. this counteroffensive is just over -- so far the ukrainians are only inching forward, taking a small village here and a slice of territory there. here it's still a grinding war of attrition for the troops of

the 57th motorized infantry brigade. small advances followed by russian counterattacks. but most of the time they hunker down under cover and wait. >> translator: when we have targets, we fire fast and precise, says this gun commander whose call sign is diesel. we hit infantry tanks, vehicles, but, most of all, infantry. they're targeting the brigade's drone operators. this shows a successful strike on russian troops on the edge of bakhmut. but these eyes in the sky can fall victim to friendly fire. troops trying to shoot down their own drone. here, they heard about the brief mutiny led by wagner boss, yevgeny prigozhin, and shrugged

it off. i said from the start, it's a lie, said this drone operator. it was theater. their more immediate concern, getting enough ammunition. crates of freshly manufactured 152 millimeter rounds from pakistan are strewn about near the gun. the battery commander says he'll believe there's a counteroffensive when he sees it. [ speaking non-english ] until he take a major town or g, there is no counteroffensive, he says. here, believing is seeing. the war goes on. the troops we have spoken to on the front line are practical and down to earth. all the talk about a weakened putin and disarray in russian ranks doesn't mean much to them. they face the same enemy and the

same dangers every single day. erin? >> ben, thank you. and coming up on "ac 360," the legendary reporting duo of woodward and bernstein join anderson for their reaction to the recording of trump. next here, "outfront" we're going to be speaking to roman troek mets. he was with his sister when that drone hit today. they were injured. we'll see how they are doing totonight. my a1c was up here; now, it's down with rybelsus®. his a1c? it's down with rybelsus®. my doctor told me rybelsus® lowered a1c better than a leading branded pill

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live from i dnipro, ukraine. scores are injured, including children. children are dead as well. ukrainian authorities say that a missile hit a pizza restaurant. and that's the reality. it hit a pizza restaurant in the center of kramatorsk in eastern ukraine. my next guest is roman trokhymets, who has been on this show several times. he was at that restaurant with his sister, lila. you're looking at graphic video that lila took, where you see a severely injured woman. and i spoke with roman earlier about that experience. >> roman, i'm so glad to be speaking to you again. i know you and your sister both suffered concussions from the attack. you were actually hospitalized because of the injuries you sustained. how are you doing? how is your sister doing tonight? >> thank you very much for asking.

i was pretty lucky. we survived, lucky because some people with us, they died. >> the restaurant where you and lila were, your sister, is popular for everyone, popular for soldiers, popular for civilians, popular for journalists. and in some of the video your sister filmed, we see the chairs, the tables spread around that outdoor space, just spread around, what you would expect at a restaurant. it's a pizza restaurant. but i know you know, roman, the russian defense ministry is claiming the missile strike hit a temporary command post. that's what they say, that they hit a temporary command post. what do you say to them? >> okay. long story short, there were so many foreigners -- i write about it in my social media. there was guys from colombia, spain, australia, u.s., canada.

and many people who was there, they filmed, they videoed, they do an interview. so, there's so many different foreigners exist on secret base camp is first of all. second, how it's possible on military base camp children die or civilian die? it's impossible. so, most victim is regular civilian who were just victim of this lying. that's the fact of different people and different cameras. >> i want to play some more video of what happened. this is what your sister, lila, filmed. i want to warn our viewers who are watching tonight that what i'm about to show, as we're talking here, roman, is graphic. and what we see is you, others, helping a woman who is severely injured by the missile strike. she's at the restaurant, missile strike.

she's severely injured. there's chaos, confusion. you're trying to gently lay her down, sort of, on a banket at the restaurant. can you describe to me what you were thinking in those moments immediately after the strike? >> i heard lots of scream. people start screaming because there was almost all of them were civilian. they didn't know what to do. we realized we should handle this because me and a few other guys was calm and also soldiers. so, we take under our control and try to help the most badly injured first of all. and people start organize so fast, my sister called emergency. and mark, my friend with australia, also help us to grade

people and to help them. first it was chaotic, but then it was organized. >> you were there, roman, because you were just taking a break from the actual fighting on the frontlines. this is supposed to be your leave. of course you're fighting amidst the counteroffensive here in ukraine. and there's competing claims about exactly how it's going. ukraine saying some success. russia saying ukraine is suffering heavy losses. just from your perspective, what you're actually seeing yourself on the frontline, roman, what can you tell me? >> from the front line, i can only say that we have way less forces. they outnumber us. but we storm their position and take it. of course it's tough fight, but we're highly motivated and we were well prepared. still, we paid the price. it's obvious. but our motivation and our

counteroffensive is -- i can say it's successful because step by step, we show results when no one, not the commanders, say it's possible. no one say it's possible. we did really impossible things. when we had 20 soldiers, they had 100 soldiers, and we successfully take their position in such cooperation. that's why we are motivated. and you can see the result on the map, you know? it's the best fact. >> roman, thank you so very much. i appreciate your time, and i hope that you continue and you quickly feel better. all right. that was roman trokhymets joining us, of course, from near the front lines. thanks so much for joining us. thanks so much for joining us. "ac 360" begins right now.