>> pauley: i'm jane pauley. "face the nation" is coming right up. please join us when our trumpet sounds aga in next "sunday morning." ♪♪ [trumpet] ♪♪ >> brennan: welcome to "face the nation." as we come on the air, the russian war strategy appears to have undergone a major shift. two weeks ago, the russians were focused on surrounding the capital city of kyiv. now they've upped their assault in the eastern and southern parts of the country. just this morning, russian missiles have struck an oil refinery in odessa. and there are reports of new explosions in the russian border town of bethruof. it has been a horrific scene since day one, but the atrocities of war are escalating. we warn you, some of the

images you're about to see are disturbing. we begin today with holly williams reporting from nepro, ukraine. >> reporter: russian forces have pulled back from around ukraine's capital kyiv, and ukraine says it has retaken more than 30 towns and villages. but what the russian troops have left behind is shear horror. in the town of butcha, the streets are littered with bodies. some with their hands tied behind their back appear to have been executed. others are buried in a mass grave. more than 300 residents were killed, according to the mayor. this person survived it, but the trauma of what he witnessed is written on his face. he calls the russian soldiers dogs and says he took cover in his cellar for two weeks. they are removing the dead with caution, fearing they could be booby-trapped

with explosives. these images show the naked corpses of at least three four women. despite the devastation, it seems vladimir putin's original battle plan has failed in the face of ukraine's resistance, and russian forces are shifting their attention to the east of this country. hostamal airport, where russian paratroopers landed on the first day of the invasion, is also back in ukrainian hands. a visiting ukrainian politician is upbeat. >> we will rebuild our country. we will rebuild our dreams. our country will be beautiful, prosperous, and russia will pay for everything they did. >> reporter: but many parts of this country are still occupied. ukraine says russian forces opened fire yesterday on civilian protestors in the city of anargadar. and in the besieged city

of mariupol, bombarded for weeks by the russians, around 100,000 people are thought to be trapped. evacuation efforts are ongoing. the united nations believes thousands may have died in mariupol, but the true number can't be counted while the city is cut off and under russian assault. a ukrainian official said yesterday that a meeting between president putin and ukraine's president zelenskyy was likely to happen soon, but today the russian negotiators shot that idea down. margaret? >> brennan: holly williams, thank you. we go now to ukraine's president, volodymyr zelenskyy, and he joins us from kyiv, the capital of ukraine. good afternoon, sir. >> good afternoon. >> brennan: mr. president, russian forces appear to be withdrawing from the north of ukraine. do you think this means putin's calculus is changing?[speaking through

interpreter] thank you for this question. you know, margaret, we -- they have pulled out from some localities, and others, they are redoing the redeployment because the situation is difficult. there were some communities that they were trying to take several times, and this is a tragedy because our army had to take back as well. so the city of chernihiv, nine times they attempted to take it over. but we think this is the redeployment, in our opinion. they are changing the tactics now. they were trying to take kyiv and some cities in kyiv region. some of them have been occupied and they destroyed everything. the civilians, the houses -- they were

stealing washing machines and equipment, so they were torturous as well. i think the clips that we shared with you, you have seen for yourself. it is important for the free people of the united states to have a look at it and see for themselves. before the war, when there was a lot of free time, we were watching different films and also war movies. but we couldn't have imagined anything like this because this is a maniac type of decision, to destroy the whole nation. in terms of the tactics and them pulling out and what the strategy of putin is, they are now focusing in the east of ukraine, so

this corridor, which is going from the crimea to eastern ukraine. this is in the south of ukraine, and this is where they are trying to focus in terms of armament, in terms of deploying the personnel, the chechyan troops occupying the cities. theybringing people from different parts of the world because they were in deficit of their personnel. and now they're grouping all of these troops in the south and east of our country. >> brennan: the images you're talking about have been described by leaders around the world as horrific. the mayor of kyiv used the term "genocide." your vice prime minister is asking if this is fascism or genocide, in terms of what have been

left around kyiv. do you feel that the world will actually make good on this promise to hold vladimir putin to account for war crimes?[speaing foreign language][speaking through interpreter] everything has to be fair, according to justice, as the civilized world will decide. we believe in justice, in the justice of the western world. and, therefore, the question is not only about the leader of russian federation, we wouldn't think that it would be fair to take only him. i think all of the military commanders, everyone who gave instructions and orders should be punished adequately. the adequate punishment to

this people is difficult to be achieved. it has to be done according to the law and what they have done. and i want to apologize to you and to those people who are watching us now, but for some things that they have done -- when we find people with hands tied behind their back and decapitated, such things i don't understand, i don't comprehend. the kids who were killed and tortured, so it wasn't enough just to kill for those criminals. maybe they wanted to take gold or washing machines, and they were killing them, but they were also torturing them as they did this. and your question is absolutely fair, but i

don't have the answer. i don't know what law or what imprisonment term would be adequate for this. as the father of two children and as a president, i think these people, if they are put behind the bars, this is too little for what they can done. >> brennan: is this genocide?[speaking foreign language][speaking through interpreter] indeed, this is genocide. >the elimination of a whole nation, the people -- we are citizens of ukraine. we have more than 100 nationalities. this is about the destruction and extermination of all of these nationalities. we are the citizens of ukraine, and we don't want to be subdued to the

policies of russia. this is the reason we're being destroyed. and exterminated. and this is happening in the europe of the 21st century, so this is the torture of the whole naton. >> brennan: in the donbas southeast area of your country, the city of mariupol, are you having any success getting civilians out?[speaking foreign language][speaking through interpreter] many people, many dozens of people, have been evacuated. in certain cities, 35, 30, 40,000 have been evacuated. so all together, hundreds of thousands. but nevertheless, there are still hundreds of thousands who remain blocked. some of them are blocked

behind the bars. to answer your question about mariupol, before the beginning of this full-fledge war and the occupation of mariupol, there have been lots of people. and all of the corridors have been blocked, including humanitarian corridors. the supply of food and water. so in this city now, there are 150,000. lots of dead bodies in the streets. lots of wounded people among military and civilians. the evacuation happens only when the russians agree to ukrainian proposal to open a

corridor. so the corridor for the food or water simply does not exist in the cities that are occupied by russia. >> brennan: mr. president, your team shared with us a video, images that your government has gathered of what has been left behind outside of kyiv, that i do want to share with our vewers. and i want to ask you about it. looking and listening to what vladimir putin has said, he has called ukraine not a real country. he said it is controlled by little nazis, and he called you a drug-addeled thug. is he somebody you can negotiate with?[speaking foreign language][speaking through interpreter] for the president of ukraine, they cannot be just my personal view about vladimir putin and a dialect with the russian federation. i have to stand for the interests of my country,

so it is difficult to say how, after all what has been done, we can have any kind of negotiations with russia. that's on the personal evel. but as a president, i have to do it. any war has to end, just end. i'm not t talking about ending this with peace, because peace, in a situation where there are thousands of people killed, is something i'm not fine with. but there is no any other way -- i'm saying as a president, there is no any other way but the dialogue if we don't want hundreds of thousands -- millions -- to die. but it is important to have an agreement between the two sides and understanding, or at least a desire to understand that we need to have a

dialect. because we're going to stand until the end, and they have to understand this. so i keep talking about this dialect, something i've been repeating throughout my term as a president. >> brennan: in terms of security guarantees, the united states has given security assurances to ukraine in the past, and that did not stop this invasion. when you t recently spoke with president biden, did he make you any kind of concrete promise that the u.s. and nato wouldn't let this happen to ukraine again? >> so we don't believe in papers any longer. so we are very grateful for the support of the united states, indeed, and it's a very powerful support, but in terms of security guarantees, we have not received them yet from anyone. and we have to get them. for us, it is important, also, what the circle of

countries who will be providing the security guarantees is going to be, and how specifically this will be enforced. so i'm not, as a president, satisfied with just assurance because then i don't know what the agreement is going to be about, whether we will have any agreement with russia. who are going to be the guarantors? because tomorrow if the war were to start again and only sanctions are introduced, well, that is about nothing. while sanctions are important, they cannot stop thesimsve interested in ths resource-rich part of eastern ukraine. i wonder, will you settle for anything less than a full withdrawal of russian troops from every inch of ukrainian soil?[speaking foreign language][speaking through interpreter] this is the bare minimum

that we have to start the occupation with. it should be 100% withdrawal of troops. to the borders that existed prior to the 24th of february, at least. this would make us to lead to start other discussions about the occupation, about how to live on after this. we have our dialect with them. so i can't even have a meeting when the challenge is going on. so first the cease-fire, and then we can have a meeting with the russian

president. if they have an approach that they keep making this authoritarian position, why do we need this bloodshed drama performance for? let's simply sit down together, the two of us. >> brennan: you can watch the full interview on our website facethenation.com. we'll be back in a moment. stay with us.

>> brennan: we turn now to former national security council senior director for european and russian affairs, fiona hill. she is also the author of "there is nothing for you here." glad to have you back with us. >> thank you, margaret. >> brennan: it was extraordinary to have this conversation with president zelenskyy as these images emerge of what has happened, the devastation in and around kyiv. he is talking about looting, the reports of mass rape, mass graves. is this how the russia military always behaves?

>> well, this is clear, it is a special military operation, when we see all of these images. and unfortunately, it is following a pattern that goes back historically. a lot of this wasn't talked about so much after world war ii, but when the red army moved into berlin, there was mass rape of german women in the city. and in the wake of world wr ii, people didn't want to talk about that so much given all of the at treés atrocities. we have reports of looting in other settings as well, in chechnya, and also in georgia, when the russian military moved in 2008, all of this wanton destruction of equipment and deliberate defecation on equipment, almost like stupid stuff that was meant to show unbelievable disrespect. we see in many war-time scenarios these kinds of reports. this was a special

military operation to liberate a fraternal country from what putin was describing as nazis. so either this is a complete breakdown or it is actually being sanctioned in some way to teach ukrainians a lessons. either way, this is disasterous, and it requires some response from the international community. >> brennan: the united states expected russia to launch an electronic blackout in ukraine when they did this. and they haven't. in fwas this is a failure by vladimir putin? why is he allowing this? >> that's a good qbey don't have the capacity. or is it because the ukrainians are pushing back? there is obviously a lot of assistance they're getting from the outside

world. we heard assistance from elon musk. a lot of it is coming from individuals, not just governments. there have been a lot of strategic blundering by the russian government. there are lots of things they didn't expect. first of all, that the campaign is going on much longer. second, they haven't been able to decapitate the ukrainian government. they haven't taken kyiv. they're just wreaking carnage all over the place, engaging in what appear to be war crimes, but and wanton destruction and this crazy looting that you're seeing taking place. this is really, i think, raising loot of questions about this much bonded russian military that we all actually expected to perform in a much better fashion across the board. and, clearly, if the information has not been filtering up to vladimir putin, as we've been hearing from his commanders, this must be something of a shock to the system for him as well, which actually then

raises a lot of questions about what is he going to do next. >> brennan: why is vladimir putin so concerned with the donbas region, the eastern region? >> this is the place he first got a grip on in 2014, after annexing crimea. we know in 2014, the russian government, putin in particularly, had bigger ambitions. he talked about this region of novarasia, which extends through the port cities that we've seen completely devastated, mariupol, for example, to some of the other cities they've seized, and all the way down to odessa, where we're getting reports they are starting to shell and fighting. this was seized by the russian empire under captain the great. and putin has talked about it repeatedly. along the black sea, across the crimea

peninsula, extending to donbas, seems to be the area he is wanting to make sure he has a hold of no matter what. >> brennan: i want to put up a map here because we keep hearing that much of the world is taking a side in this conflict against russia, but, actually, it is really just europe and the americas. it's the west, japan. is the world actually really lining up against him, or does he have quite a lifeline still? >> he does still have a lifeline. this is problematic. i know that president zelenskyy is really making a massive appeal for more help from the united states, from the west, from nato, and from some other allies and the european union, but we need to get other international actors to up. quevwe've had japan and south korea, and there is conversations in the general assembly, like garnia, but there needs to be more.

>> brennan: i want to talk about that on the other side of this break. stay with us, fiona hill. we have to take this quick break. stay with us. i'm down with rybe mom's a1c is down with rybelsus®. (♪ ♪) in a clinical study, once-daily rybelsus® significantly lowered a1c better than a leading branded pill. rybelsus® isn't for people with type 1 diabetes. don't take rybelsus® if you or your family ever had medullary thyroid cancer, or have multiple endocrine neoplasia syndrome type 2, or if allergic to it. stop rybelsus® and get medical help right away if you get a lump or swelling in your neck, severe stomach pain, or an allergic reaction. serious side effects may include pancreatitis. tell your provider about vision problems or changes. taking rybelsus® with a sulfonylurea or insulin increases low blood sugar risk. side effects like nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea may lead to dehydration, which may worsen kidney problems. need to get your a1c down? (♪ ♪)

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