♪ geoff: good evening. i'm geoff bennett. tonight on pbs news weekend -- as ukrainians continue to flee, president zelenskyy calls the latest deadly attack a war crime. we speak to ukraine's former prime minister about the situation on the ground. then, our weekend spotlight -- astronaut mark vande hei talks about what it's like to spend nearly a year in space. and, we examine the impact of air pollution in this country, especially on communities of color. >> i don't know how much more time we can give. mean, people are suffering. their health is heavily impacted. geoff: all that and more on tonight's "pbs news weekend.” ♪

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this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting and by contributions to your pbs station by viewers like you. thank you. geoff: as russian forces ramp up their attacks in eastern ukraine, civilians in affected cities and villages are atteting to evacuate following another deadly strike on friday. correspondent ali rogin has our report. ali: a day after russia struck the kramatorsk train station, survivors are processing what happened. 17-year-old nastyatill bears blood from the attack. >> i remember a really loud noise and there was something landing, shells or rockets. everybody hit the ground. that's all, a nightmare, everhing starts to burn, everyone was panicking. ali: the strike killed at least 50 people with many more wounded still in the hospital. overnight, ukrainian president

zelenskyy condemned moscow's strike and demanded accountability. pres. zelenskyy: we expect a firm, global response to this war crime. like the massacre in bucha, like many other russian war crimes, the missile strike on kramatorsk must be one of the charges at the tribunal. ali: residents of the kyiv suburb of bucha today returned to a city scarred by atrocity. >> we will never be able to rget this. what we have seen here, these pictures, will be carved into our minds for the rest of our lives. ali: despite the ongoing russian attacks, civilians today continued evacuating eastern ukraine. the kramatorsk strike is part of a reported regroup of russian troops. the ukrainian military today said moscow's forces are turning their guns to the city of donetsk, in the donbas region. >> in the donetsk direction, the enemy continues assault operations. ali:nd the russian defense ministry claims its forces destroyed an ammunition depot at a ukrainian air base. but in an effort to show the

capital is holding steady, president zelenskyy met with both british prime minister boris johnson and austrian chancellor karl nehammer in kyiv today. >> nice to meet you. how are you? last meeting we had was in brussels. do you remember? ali: zelenskyy again called for more sanctions on russia and said his country was preparing for a tough battle in the east. geoff: for more the situation on the ground in ukraine, ali spoke with former ukrainian prime minister arseniy yatsenyuk earlier today. ali: thank you so much for joining us. the world has been horrified by the images coming out of ukraine. president zelenskyy has said other cities have suffered even worse atrocities. have we not yet seen the worst of what russia has done? mr. yatsenyuk: what russia has done is war crimes and crimes against humanity. europe cannot remember such atrocities since the second world war, and yugoslavia.

putin is personally responsive for this and his so-called military that is no longer a military. they are no longer soldiers. this is a our barrick army -- barbaric army of inhumane predators who went after innocent ukrainian people and they have to be brought to justice. ali: the u.s. has said they believe the next phase of the conflict could go on for months or years. do you agree? mr. yatsenyuk: no one knows. preliminary estimations that the russian military is ready to take over ukraine in three to five days. did not happen. russia failed to reach its primary target, to seize the capital of ukraine, and take over half of ukraine. so very strong, durable and

courageous ukrainian military stopped the barbaric russian military. how long is it to happen? it all depends on whether the western world is ready to ship those defensive and offensive weapons to ukrainians, and whether western allies are ready to ramp up sanctions against russia every day. 24/7. ali: let me ask you about those allies. in recent days we've seen eu leaders and the u.k., today boris johnson visiting with president zelenskyy. some countries and organizations have announced they will be reinstating diplomatic presences in ukraine. do you believe the united states should follow suit? mr. yatsenyuk: i commend the efforts of the president of the united states and parts in support of the american people

-- and bipartisan support of the american people to protect and defend ukrainians. we did not expect -- putin did not expect this kind of unity in the western world. he is thinking the western world is split into factions and not ready to stand our ground for our freedoms and values of a liberal and free world. borisohnson just paid a visit to ukraine, it's not just a show of solidarity, it is an act of solidarity. let me reiterate, the unity of the western world and the strong support of the united states is one of the key focal points of the strong resilience of the ukrainn people and army. ali: do you think the united states is doing enough? do you want to see more weapons fromhe united states?

what would be most helpful? and again, should the united states be next to send a delegation to kyiv? mr. yatsenyuk: the house intellence committee sent a letter to the president of united states with a conference of list of the defensive and offensive weapons needed for the ukrainian military. i strongly believe that after the u.s. senate passed already a land lease act, ukraine will get everything needed for the ukrainian army to win, to win this righteous war. once again, the u.s. is doing what is needed, but my appeal to the united states and the entire western world, please do more. please speed up this process. the most i would say challenging issue is sanctions. the u.s. and our european allies

have to impose secondary sanctions. what we know for sure is russia is trying to evade sanctions, to circumvent sanctions, using different backdoor channels, including china. it is important for the free world to press on china, india, and other states not to support russian aggression, and to be on the right side of history. ali: former ukrainian prime minister, thank you so much. mr. yatsenyuk: thank you. ♪ geoff: in today's headlines -- for the first time in pakistan's history, a leader has been ousted by a vote of no confidence. embattled prime minister imran khan will no longer hold office, after the country's opposition secured a narrow majority to vote him down. the dramatic vote took place

after more than 13 hours of delays, and following the resignation of the speaker of the lower house of parliament. for days, khan has defiantly refused to resn, and encouraged his supporters to take to the streets in protest. the french presidential election could turn into an unexpected nail-biter as far-right candidate marine le pen pulls closer to the incumbent, emmanuel macron. a le pen victory would represent a major departure from macron's moderate leadership in europe and on the global stage. ench citizens living abroad were the first to cast their vote today. on sunday, voters in france will pick from a crowded field of twelve candidates. the top two candidates will qualify r the second and final round on april 24. shanghai officials say they will ease restrictions for communities if they report no positive covid-19 cases for two weeks. this as overall cases in the city of 26 million hit a record

high of over 23,000 today. much of shanghai has been under strict covid lockdown since late march. residents continue to raise concerns about shortages of food and other necessities. one week after amazon workers on staten island formed the company's rst union, the online retail giant says the vote should be thrown out. amazon alleges the national labor relations board, the independent agency responsible for conducting union elections in the private sector, did not act impartially. in an appeal filed friday, the company claims workers were coerced into supporting unionization. a text message sent by donald trump, jr. to then white house chief of staff mark meadows discussed options to overturn the 2020 presidential election before the race was even called. this is what cnn and the new york times are reporting. the president's son reportedly told meadows, "we have operational control to ensure

the election would be called" for his father, then president donald trump. and, one small step for space tourism. for the first time, private citizens boarded the international space station this morning. the crew, including a former nasa astronaut and three businessmen, will stay in space for more than a week. the three non-astronauts reportedly forked over a whopping $55 million each for the adventure. still to come on "pbs news weekend" -- my conversation with record-setting nasa astronaut mark vande hei. and a look at how pollution is affecting some communities of color. ♪ >> this is pbs news weekend, from weta studios in washington, home of the pbs newshour. geoff: on march 30, nasa's mark vande hei stepped foot on earth for the first time in nearly a year.

earlier this week, i talked to the astronaut about his record-setting journey. nasa astronaut mark vande hei set a new record for the single longest spaceflight by an american, spending 355 days in orbit, and surpassing the record held by retired astronaut scott kelly. so 355 days in space -- when you left for this flight, did you know it would last that long? mark: jeff, i did not know it was would last that long. i knew it was a possibility. and thankfully my wife and i decided to assume that was going to be what would happen. so it made it very easy for us to adapt to whatever happened. geoff: what's been the biggest adjustment returning to earth? mark: the biggest adjustment returning to earth has been finding stuff in my kitchen. my wife has done a lot of remodeling and i had to ask where the garbage bags were. i've had to ask where the utensils are, so it'll take me a little while to catch up. i'm getting there. geoff: it's understandable after spending nearly a year on the ternational space station, which vande hei describes as an

orbiting laboratory with hundreds of experiments. it's the only place to study the long-term effects of zero gravity. he is now an experiment himself, helping expand nasa's knowledge about how the human body adapts to long-term spaceflight, as the agency plans for future missions to the moon and mars. how do you feel? mark: well, i feel a little more achy than i did before i launched. i feel better than i would have expected. i'm very pleasantly surprised at how quickly things are adapting. but whenever i bend over to tie my shoes, it gets my attention. the muscles, the small muscles of my lower back have been deconditioned with not having the ability to fall down for 355 days. geoff: what is space station living like? and how do you keep your wits about you when you are there for such an extended period of time? mark: the view is absolutely incredible. and i think keeping your sanity in the space station depends a

lot on understanding the type of narrative you give yourself about how you're doing. if you if you're beating yourself up about every little mistake or filling in gaps or making assumptions that people don't think you're doing a good job, you can make it very, very rough to be on the space station. so you've got to be aware of that. geoff: i read that you did a fair amount of meditating, and there's this phenomenal picture of you in this sort of tiny cupola and you can see just the universe all around you. what was that like? mark: that was amazing. for the majority of the flight i meditated in my crew quarters, so it's kind of like a little closet, it's your own private space. and then at some point i realized that it might be nice to meditate with my eyes open and looking outside. some of my favorite moments with that was because i did that early in the morning before i -- before everyone else was awake, i had the ability to turn off all the lights, and if it was at night, looking out those windows with about 10 15 minutes for my eyes to adjust, the stars were just glorious. it was absolutely amazing. i don't even know how to describe it.

geoff: the international space station started as a joint effort between the u.s. and russia in the late 1990's. in the wake of the cold war, it was considered a major feat of international collaboration. but now, putin's bloody invasion of ukraine has severely strained u.s./russia relations. i asked vande hei if the events on the ground affected his relationship in space with his russian cosmonaut crewmates. mark: it didn't negatively affect our relationship. it was something that we did not talk about often. just with how focused we were on cooperating and doing our our our job every day to help further the accomplishments we were making to help out all of humanity. it really -- we had to stay focused on our job. geoff: how did you become an astronaut? i understand you have background in physics, you are a returned -- retired army colonel and you served in iraq. how did you go from that to

being an astronaut? mark: there is one incredibly important step in becoming an astronaut for everybody. it's you've got to apply. on the website i think is the , current way we do that, just like every other federal job. geoff: you applied to be an astronaut, just like on the website. mark: yes, that's part of the process. and the reason i bring that up is i almost didn't because i thought there was no way they' ever hire me. and my wife said, hey, how are you going to know if you don't try? so i tried, but again, i didn't think it would work. so the message i'm trying to get out to all of you out there is it doesn't hurt to try. it's just some of your time. geoff: that is phenomenal that you applieon a website like any of us would apply for a job on a website and you became an astronaut, an american hero, that's incredible. what about this experience will you remember the most? mark: the people. the people that i got to work with on the mission control team that took such incredibly good care of us, and i mean mission control teams around the world. we've got mission control centers in huntsville, houston, scuba, japan, near munich,

germany and moscow. into especially the -- and especially the support i got from my family throughout this long period of time, the sacrifices they made and the support i got from my crewmates in orbit. all of those were not just essential, but they made it a pleasant experience. geoff: mark vande hei, thank you for your service and you sacrifice in the name of science and exploration. mark: thanks very much, jeff. appreciate it. ♪ geoff: there is new evidence about the disproportionate impact of air pollution in this country. a study out this week from the university of california san diego shows that state environmental regulation have systemically protected the state's white residents over people of color. my colleague amna nawaz recently traveled to one community in san diego grappling with the best path forward.

amna: emily has lived around this san diego neighborhood most of her life. she loves this area. neighbors look out for each other and it has a booming arts and restaurant scene. but there is a persistent problem here -- the air. >> i can always tell when i go hiking outside of this neighborhood. my breathing improves. amna: as a kid, emily said she would get frequent bronchial infections and headaches. she now has sinus pressure and a consistent itchy nose. her mom and aunt have health issues too. they've never received an official diagnosis, but emily believes it comes back to pollutants in the air. >> i question whether or not to have a child because i would most likely raise it here and i would be concerned about their health, knowing the impact the environment would have on their health. amna: emily sits next -- emily's

neighborhood sits ne to the port. the neighborhood was sliced by interstate five and the coronado bridge. the combination left the area with higher levels of diesel pollution than almost anywhere in the state of california. that is evident in its asthma rate, about seven times higher than the wealthy, mostly white community of la jolla some 50 miles away. more than 70% of this neighborhood are hispanic in about 4 below the poverty line. >> it feels like this is environmental racism. amna: millions of americans across the country live in communities like this, where the confluence of emission tivity from nearby -- people of color are more than three times likely the white people to be breathing

polluted air. >> we have done a lot to reduce some of the emissions, but we need to do more. amna: diane is the executive director director of the environmental health coalition, a nonprofit that has worked on environmental justice issues in san diego for years. she applauds the clean air plans put forth by the biden administration the state of california. a year and half ago, governor gavin newsom signed an executive order requiring tcks like those going in and out of the port to be 100% zero mission -- emissions by 2025. but she says that is not enough. >> kids will grow up in that time. they will be stuck in that time with significant diesel pollution. we have to look thisn the face and say it is not ok. amna: ehc has pushed local

leaders of her broad policy shifts and notched a major victory last fall when the port of san diego signed off on a sweeping plan to curb air pollution. it calls for all trucks and cargo handling equipment at the port to switch to zero emissions five years faster than the state mandate. it sets an interim goal of 40% of yearly truck trips to be zero emissions by 2026. some are not enthusiastic about the move. this is the president of the san diego port tenants association, a group of about 200 businesses and industries working up and down the bay. businesses here also want cleaner air, she says, but they worry about the technology, infrastructure and money is the port moves to meet the goals. >> our concerns are if we put restrictions just on our port, the truckers will still have to deliver the material, they will just go up the street to the

neighbor. we don't want to lose that because you don't want to lose jobs. it is complicated. we are not against it, we are just showing there are complications and things that are hard to get to. it doesn't mean we are opposed to it, we just need these extra things. amna: dan malcolm is the chair of the port board of commissioners. he opposed the interim benchmark for zero emission trucks but support of 2030 goals. >> i understand industry can be nervous. we don't know what technology will be available, we don't know economically what it will cost to implement that technology. you have to start with the goal. i would rather set that goal very aspirationally that shows the people of the community that we care about their health. amna: for some in the area, the port's strategyhows a larger shift in environmental justice.

in 2020, nora was the first woman of color ever elected to the san diego board of supervisors. born in tijuana, she grew up in san diego southbay, and she has made health equity a priority. >> i say to folks, how is it possible your zip ce can have access to clean air? for the first time you are seeing a real change in this area. amna: she points to other developments like a new community plan for the neighborhood that could add green space and create a buffer zone between houses and the working waterfront. with money from the county and port, ehc is stripping air monitors and purifiers to more than 500 port side homes like emily's. she says cleaner air cannot come soon enough. >> i don't know how much more time we can give. people are suffering, their health is heavily impacted.

we get promised a lot of things and they say we are ing to do it or this and that, but then it is 20 years later and it still hasn't happened. a■mna:thistimearound, she an other residents are hoping it is different. ♪ geoff: that is pbs news weekend for tonigh on sunday, we get the latest from on the ground in ukraine. i'm geoff bennett. join us online and again here tomorrow evening. for all us at pbs news weekend, thanks for spending part of your saturday with us. >> major funding for pbs news weekend has been provided by -- and with the ongoing support of these individuals and institutions --

♪ this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting and contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy.]

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