♪ this is "nightline." >> tonight, $965 million verdict. conspiracy theorist alex jones ordered to pay nearly a billion dollars in damages. >> we, the jury, have reached our verdict as to damages in this case. >> an emotional moment justice was served. >> the truth matters. >> the infowars host, who called the sandy hook shooting a hoax, doubling down on his torment, lashing out. >> they actually believe they're getting this money. it's like they believe their own stuff. plus russia's retaliation. vladimir putin unleashing. targeting parks and playgrounds.

residents pulled from the rubble after an explosion rocked the bridge connecting russia and crimea. we speak to the sister of an american killed fighting for ukraine. >> he had a spiritual conviction that he couldn't deny, and he went valiantly. and larger than life. 21 portraits honoring 21 victims lost in uvalde. >> i love it. i feel like she's glowing. >> the art and the artists celebrating life to help a community heal. >> we come here, and it's nothing but joy. liz, you nerd, cough if you're in here! shh! i took mucinex dm for my phlegmy cough. what about rob's dry cough? works on that too, and lasts 12 hours. 12 hours?! who studies that long? mucinex dm relieves wet and dry coughs. age is just a number. and mine's unlisted. try boost® high protein with 20 grams of protein for muscle health. versus 16 grams in ensure high protein.

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saving kids from nicotine addiction. vote yes on 31. ♪ thanks for joining us. we begin tonight with the hard truth for a man who made his living telling lies. conspiracy theorist alex jones ordered to pay the families of sandy hook victims nearly a billion dollars for the damage he inflicted for nearly a decade. his reaction, on brand. here's abc's eva pilgrim. >> reporter: tonight, a connecticut jury punishing alex jones for years of lies with a staggering verdict, ordering the conspiracy theorist to pay nearly a billion dollars in damages to the families of sandy hook victims. as the verdict was read, some of them in the courtroom, like robby parker, weeping. >> while the truth is being said in the courtroom, he was

standing right here lying. >> reporter: lawyers for the families showing how just hours after the massacre that left 20 first graders and six staffers dead, the infowars host claimed it was all a hoax, and the grieving parents, actors. jones mocking them on his show. >> classic acting training. laughing and joking and they say, hey, we're live. and he goes, oh, boo-hoo! >> reporter: in gut-wrenching detail, eight families and an fbi agent recounting nearly ten years of abuse. death threats from jones' followers. parker, who lost his 6-year-old daughter emily, testifying how he was verbally attacked by a man on the street. >> he had so much venom and so much hatred for who he thought that i was. >> reporter: even as the parker family prepared to lay emily to rest, they worried about the threats. >> what if someone came into her

funeral, what if -- people started yelling or protesting, came inside? like every little thing we did, i was paranoid. >> reporter: today's verdict comes two months after a texas jury awarded another sandy hook family nearly $50 million in damages. in this trial jones was defiant, telling the court he was done apologizing. >> i won't apologize to the parents over and over again. i don't apologize to you. i don't apologize to you. >> reporter: lawyers for the families argue jones built a lie machine for profit and needs to be stopped. >> even now, he's still doing it. >> reporter: jones has filed for bankruptcy, claiming he has no money. last year, he was found liable in four defamation cases, and lawyers for the families say he has recently moved $62 million out of his accounts to hide his assets. >> so as a result, he's going to have to portray himself as totally broke. and that's not that easy to do. >> reporter: tonight the families say the verdict sends a clear message.

>> the truth matters. and those who profit off of other people's pain and trauma will pay for what they have done. >> our thanks to eva. now to russia's retaliation as vladimir putin seeks revenge for a humiliating bull's-eye on a very high-profile target. civilians are among the dead as ukrainians recalibrate. but putin's latest escalation has only seemed to harden their defiance. bombed-out playgrounds. craters in the street. neighborhoods destroyed. this, the fresh round of havoc wreaked across ukraine after russian missiles rained down, targeting critical infrastructure and civilians. this family miraculously survived when their apartment building in zaporizhzhia was hit. the ukrainian emergency services releasing this footage of their rescue. the whole family pulled from the pile of rubble.

on the battlefield, dane partridge, american volunteer fighter from idaho, killed yesterday in the donbas region in the east. >> he needed to always be working in the line of service no matter what he was doing. >> reporter: his sister, jenny partridge corey, said her brother died fighting for what he believed in. >> he wanted us to have peace. he wanted us to know he loved us and it was all for us. >> reporter: more than a half dozen americans are believed to have been killed since the russian invasion, despite being warned by the u.s. government not to go. the eight-month-long war has escalated to new heights in recent days. the attacks seen as retaliation for this massive explosion on the kerch bridge which connects russia's mainland to crimea, which russia illegally annexed in 2014. >> the kerch bridge is a strategic target because it is, frankly, one of those prestige projects. it's a big blow to russia's war effort, especially if they're able to take it out. >> reporter: russian president

vladimir putin personally opened the bridge in 2018. today, it's still badly damaged from the attack. russia announcing that eight people were arrested in connection with the bombing. >> pressure has been building on putin over the course of the past several weeks, certainly since the beginning of september with these massive reversals on the battlefield, lots of territory being liberated by the ukrainian armed forces. and growing pressure, growing calls from national forces, growing calls from the right-wing, from the hawks, to take some sort of action. >> reporter: defense secretary lloyd austin calling out russia's deadly missile attacks on ukraine's cities. >> putin has given us all another grim preview of a future in which the appetites of aggressive autocrats outweigh the rights of peaceful states. ukrainian troops reclaiming more territory again today, but many towns in liberated areas look like this. a hellscape. my colleague, ian pannell, was

in drobashev near donetsk in the eastern part of the country yesterday. >> for so many ukrainian towns and villages, this is what liberation looks like. yes, it's now in ukrainian hands, but most of the population has fled. when they come back, this is what's left of their hometown. >> reporter: the police in the donetsk region in the east saying they found 35 burial sites in liberated areas. three are mass graves, like this site, as more than 120 bodies are recovered, revealing the full horror of russia's war in ukraine. >> there are a lot of new graves here, and many of them are clearly unmarked. investigators are working down the hill. we don't know who's here, we don't know how many, we don't know how they died. but what seems safe to say is that all of them are dead as a result of russia's invasion. >> reporter: in the capital kyiv, the fragile sense of normalcy shattered by the russian bombardment. ♪

in kyiv's subway, these residents singing ukraine's national anthem as they huddle in safety underground. ♪ >> they are trying to make a genocide. they're trying to get rid of this country and this people as a nation. >> reporter: alexander pak feeling the impact of the russian bombs in kyiv. >> i'm not seeing them as an honorable enemy. they are like parasites. >> reporter: alexander has lived in kyiv throughout the war. we first met him in february. >> you're feeling anxiety all the time. you're feeling tired all the time. because you're not sleeping. we just don't want to die. >> reporter: the trauma of war has weighed heavily on both alexander and his wife. >> we have this odd reaction to every single loud sound on the street. even if it's a motorcycle or something like this. you just do this. you know? >> i felt big, physical fears when i listen rocket.

>> reporter: irina and her 4-year-old daughter moved from kyiv to denmark after the country-wide russian invasion started in february. >> denmark is a safe space for me, for my daughter. >> reporter: but being apart from her husband sergey was difficult. in september irina made the seemingly unthinkable decision to return to kyiv. >> i feel i need to come back. i hope kyiv can be the place where i can be here with my family. because my daughter grew up long time without father. >> reporter: their first morning back, they woke to russian missile strikes. irina sheltered in the bathroom and her daughter played with toys. >> she doesn't understand the full context. >> reporter: despite the terrifying reality of living in a war zone, irina says she'll

stay for now. she admits if the war takes a heavy toll on her daughter, she will be forced to escape once again. >> the life of my daughter is more important in this situation. and if i feel scared, if i'm physically afraid, i will decide to go. >> reporter: life goes on for alexander and for the rest of ukraine. >> i believe that we'll win. i am 100% confident in it. we will try to survive this. we will stay confident that ukraine will win this war. up next, how the lives lost in uvalde are being honored and helping the community heal. like the tens of thousands of people who were diagnosed with certain hpv-related cancers. for most people, hpv clears on its own.

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♪ uvalde, texas, may not ever be the same but if you look around the city, you'll be reminded how beautiful life can be. abc's maria elena salinas continues our reporting from uvalde. ♪ >> reporter: cindy ochoa is the model of an artist at work, braving the heat and the heights to capture the spirit of this girl almost two stories high. her name was makenna lee elrod, only 10 years old when she became one of the victims of the

robb elementary school shooting in uvalde. >> every detail in this mural is to tell the story about makenna. this is makenna's life, very much. i find it storytelling, romantic, girlie-like. she'd love it. >> it's not just a face, it's not just a name. it's her own personal story? >> yes. >> reporter: colombian-born, sylvie ochoa is part of a group of muralists who came from all over texas to paint 21 murals in honor of those 21 victims here in uvalde. infusing each work of art with intimate detail offered by those who remember them. >> it's a beautiful little girl. >> yes. she's gorgeous, yes. yeah. >> reporter: the project envisioned by local artist abel ortiz, who has worked to capture latino culture on canvas. he started planning it the day after the tragedy. >> i needed to do something. i was like, i can do a mural project on my building. and maybe take it from there,

right? and at that point, i thought maybe that's not good enough. it has to be 21 murals across the town. there had to be a monumental effort. >> reporter: a local nonprofit took on the project. their main goal, to elevate latino artists in the community. for kimmie flores, the project is personal. she grew up here and went to robb elementary, just like 9-year-old jacklyn cazares. her friends and family called her jackie. before starting, kimmy creating the mural in miniature. jackie's parents, javier and gloria, helping as creative partners, suggesting precious details from their daughter's life. >> could you put "i love you to the moon and back"? that would be beautiful. i really wanted to incorporate this necklace.

i saw the little angel. >> reporter: even scaled down, gloria taken aback by seeing her daughter's face. >> thank you. oh my gosh. that's gorgeous. >> reporter: kimmie working day and night with javier and gloria by her side. until the morning of the final reveal. >> wow. >> it really, really pops out. the way you caught her eyes. her lips. >> i know this doesn't necessarily, like -- it's not a band-aid over anything. but i just hope that it helps with the grieving process and just celebrating that she lived.

when somebody looks at this mural, i hope that they see that she was somebody's daughter. she was somebody's baby. she meant a lot to a lot of people. >> reporter: part of the mural is tribute, carefully painted details offered by each set of parents. the clothes they wore. the sports they played. and the things they loved. >> the five butterflies are for her siblings that are surrounding her. we have the heart with the basketball and softball. he also requested the pi symbol because she loves math. it's beautiful. >> reporter: the bright purple dress amerie jo garza recently wore at a family celebration. >> i remember that day when i had her put it on. i took her outside, and i made her take tons of pictures because she looked so pretty that day. >> reporter: thanks to abel, monica, and the muralist, sandra torres now has a place to visit and talk with her daughter eliahana.

>> the sunflowers she loved so much, it's amazing. her eyes are amazing. come by and look at her eyes. >> reporter: as the finished murals bring bittersweet solace to families, the artists find themselves changed as well. though sylvie will never meet makenna, she feels she knows her. >> i see that you're very passionate about your work. >> oh my god, i am. >> what does this particular project mean for you? >> it's all about healing. it's about giving her mom a moment of rest. a moment of rest. a moment of where she's smiling and thinking, remembering the love, enjoying all the memories that she has with her daughter. >> reporter: for kimberly and felix rubio, seeing their daughter lexi is part of that healing process. >> when we visit the gravesite

or her memorials, we go to be near her, but there's always a bit of sadness in these places. we come here, it's nothing but joy. >> reporter: with the project's vision fulfilled, the uvalde community can now see the 19 children and two teachers as their families do -- happy, kind, and larger than life. >> our thanks to maria elena. stay with abc for continuing coverage of "uvalde 365" as we focus on the texas community and how it forges ahead in the shadow of tragedy. up next, america's newest national monument. i prep without pills. with apretude a prescription medicine used to reduce the risk of hiv without daily prep pills. with one shot every other month, just 6 times a year. in studies, apretude was proven superior to a daily prep pill in reducing the risk of hiv.

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♪ ♪ finally tonight, america the beautiful. president biden was in colorado today to designate the newest national monument at camp hale, continental divide. it's a world war ii-era training site nearly two miles above sea level where u.s. soldiers and the 10th mountain division prepared for battle in the italian alps. biden also wants to honor the indigenous people who came before, saying these treasured lands tell the story of america. and that's "nightline" for tonight. watch all our full episodes on hulu. see you back here same time tomorrow. thanks for staying up with us.

good night, america.