amna: good evening. weome. i'm amna nawaz. geoff: and i'm geoff bennett. on the "newshour" tonight, with renewed resolve, ukraine marks one year of defending its territory from rsia's brutal invasion. >> i am grateful to everyone who endured last february, this past year, and who gives ukraine invincibility. amna: rebuilding after the devastating earthquake that struck turkey and syria is hampered by aftershocks, a lack of resources, and the sheer scale of destruction. geoff: and, a new lawsuit from malcolm x's family could provide answers about who was responsible for his assassination nearly six decades ago. ♪

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calamitous destruction and ath, but also by bravery and a resilient will of the ukrainians. amna: the somber day was observed around the world, at the united nations, across europe and, most profoundly, in ukraine. in kyiv, president volodymyr zelenskyy spoke at length to the world media today, at times welling up with tears for his family and his country. with the support of the pulitzer center, nick schifrin reports again tonight from ukraine. ♪ nick: in the ancient heart of a city that has endured one year of war, they sang the national anthem. its title, "ukraine has not yet perished," a dark but determined call to stay resilient on a solemn anniversary. president volodymyr zelenskyy, his leadership forged in the fire of war, honored the men and women who have saved their

country. >> i am grateful to everyone who endured last february, this past year, and who gives ukraine invincibility. nick: there was a moment of silence for lives lost. zelenskyy honored grieving widows. and he awarded ukrainian servicemen with the highest of awards, hero of ukraine. and from a basement in kyiv, zelenskyy gave a 2.5-hour press conference, and recalled what for him was the war's worst moment -- the day he visited the site of some of the war's worst atrocities. >> i think bucha. what i saw. the moment we de-occupied bucha. it was horrible. what we've seen -- the devil is not somewhere below us, he's among us. nick: two ys after china's top diplomat visited the kremlin, today beijing released a peace plan that called for respect for territorial integrity, but didn't detail what that meant. zelenskyy said today he would oppose the plan, if it didn't call for a russian withdrawal.

>> as far as i know, china has historically respected territorial integrity, and so it should do everything so that the russian federation leaves our territory, as it's in this that the gravity of sovereignty and territorial integrity lies. >> no one wants peace more than the ukrainian people. nick: at the u.n. security council, secretary of state antony blinken called for what the u.s. and ukraine call a just and durable peace. for peace to be durable, it must ensure russia can't rest, rearm, and relaunch its war in a few months or a few years. nick: today, the u.s. and other leaders of the seven largest industrial nations announced new sanctions, and export controls on russia. the u.s. also unveiled an additional $2.2 billion in military aid for ukraine, including more ammunition for long-range rockets. >> russia, stop the war! nick: and on this anniversary, much of the western world showed solidarity, from amsterdam to sydney. and even in moscow, memorials on monuments devoted to ukrainian

writers. but even the flower-bearers were quickly detained. it is still illegal in russia to call the war a war. and a year is a long time to be at war, even for hardened warriors. >> my children are the most important people for me. i do not see them often. my parents, i do not see them at all. i am very proud of my wife. nick: that was zelenskyy at his most vnerable but also today atis most determined. he ruled out any idea of negotiating with vladimir putin and said the only vision for the end of this war he could see was russia's total withdrawal. am: nick schifrin with another piece of reporting. we heard a little bit of what president zelenskyy had to say today. it was a two hour press conference.

what stood out to you from his remarks? nick: a spokesman called on more than 40 reporters across five continents. there was clearly a desire from his team to get into the markets across from latin america all the way to east asia. on the u.s., he was asked about americans who were saying to pollsters that they believe the administration is putting too much money to support ukraine. he warned of the u.s. did not support ukraine enough to win over russia, then russia would eventually launch a war against nato and american soldiers would have to go and fight and die like ukrainian soldiers would fight and die, or are fighting and dying right now. on china, beyond the peace plan, he said beijing must not send weapons to russia. he said that was his number one priority. i'm doing everything i can to ensure that doesn't happen. that is something the u.s. is also warning beijing is considering. geoff: you have been in ukraine

for the past two weeks. this is your fourth reporting trip to the country since russia launched its full-scale invasion last year. you have interviewed ukrainian troops, you have spoken to everyday ukrainians. is there a message the people you have spoken with want to convey to americans? nick: the a message is two words -- weapons and resilience. ukraine needs more weapons to logic counteroffensive in the coming weeks and months. that is not just the armored vehicles that the u.s. is sending, it is also basic ammunition. i visited multiple units on the front that have said they are short on ammunition. also, resilience. your that from zelenskyy to the soldiers on the front to the man that just lost his home in eastern ukraine to a russian rocket. they are resilient in figh -- because of all the horrors and crimes, with the u.s. calls crimes against humanity committed by russian forces tt are waging total war.

the person who pushed the button that launched the missile that struck this strt almost certainly did not know if the apartments that once stood here, the people and families once lived here and the lives that were stolen here. but this 60-year-old knows. she might have lived on the fourth floor but all that she owns fell in the lobby. she salvages what she can from the russian strike on february 1 that ukraine and the u.s. called indiscriminate. she walked up to her apartment, despite the frequent air raid siren. she's lived here longer than ukraine has been independent. she was in her apartment whe the missile struck. she's lucky to be alive. today, she uses it for storage. this is all that's left of what she owns. the wall that used to have a

window into the bathroom is now a window onto the ground below. that's her bathtub, and the aqua tiles installed by her and her son. >> i was asleep. and i was lucky that i was on the other side of the apartment. had i been sleeping on this side, you see for yourself. nick: so, that's your son. she shows me videos of her son. in 2014, he went to fight following russia's initial invasion. he never came back. >> on march 23, he would have been 44. my life habeen lived. for 60 years, i was saving, creating this home, and now it's all gone. there was a grocery store here. d they got me some groceries. just strangers, total strangers. this was the first year they've opened this store. they called me and asked, do you need anything? i said, i've never asked anyone for anything my whole life. i'm very ashamed, but i don't

have anything. and they got me groceries. they said, this is for you from our family. that's it. everybody left. i'm here all alone. nick: artem shalata is a donetsk region war crimes prosecutor, who's investigating the strike he calls a violation of the rules of war. during this attack, a married couple died. and 17 people were wounded. he and his felloprosecutors visit the aftermath of many strikes, and try to find the russian missile, that can be sometimes linked with specific units. and they document graves of the ukrainians whom russians have killed with overelming regularity. what is the scale of russian crimes in donetsk? >> we're overseeing investigations of more than 20,000 criminal cases in connection with violations of the rules of war.

nick: one of the most notorious occurred here, the kramatorsk train station, where the horror of what happened hangs heavy, for even soldiers. and the memorial marks the most innocent victims. last april 8, hundreds of eastern ukrainians arrived on the platform to try and flee the war. suddenly, they flinched. human rights watch investigated the attack and created this animation. at that moment, a mile and a half above the station, a tochka-u cluster bomb, 20 feet long with 50 bomblets inside, exploded and released its deadly submunitions. each with explosives and metal rings. when they land, they burst into thousands of fragments. and create terror. at least 58 people died. more than 100 injured. one of the war's deadliest moments. left behind, the suitcases that would never be used again. the prized possession that would

never be held again. apparently, the russians considered the attack tit-for-tat. the missile that landed here was spraypainted, "payback for our children." >> i mean, absolutely horrific what they did. this was a known evacuation point. we counted over 500 people at this train station at the moment of the attack. nick: ida sawyer directs the crisis and conflict division at human rights watch. >> this attack at the train station, clearly a violation of the laws of war and an apparent war crime. these are people desperately fleeing war. we've seen extensive war crimes, crimes against humanity being committed over the past year. and it is it's just one thing after another. nick: in so many ways, russia has taken a page from its own playbook and targeted ukraine's most vulnerable. this used to be a psychiatric institution, hit by four russian rockets. one of at least eight hospitals in this city alone, struck by russia. part of what independent researchers call a nationwide campaign against ukrainian

medical facilities. physicians for human rights mapped every attack on a medical facility between february 24 and december 31. they counted 707. if you think this is new, you haven't been paying attention. russia has used the same tactics in syria for eight years. but, russia is now committing a new crime. these children might look happy for russian propaganda cameras. but each is ukinian, stolen from their homeland and forcibly made russian. this is the reality. russians besieged mariupol and rced its children into russia, including those of yevhen mezhevyi. >> i put the children on the bus, hugged and kissed them. >> one man said he would be returned in seven years. people said five or seven years. >> they asked me again, do you want to jo a foster family or

an orphanage? nick: they told their story in a "vanity fair" cumentary for the reckoning project. natalia humanyuk is the group's founding member. >> from some of the testimonies and also analytical reports and what we hear from the people, there is an attempt to indoctrinate those kids with the different pocies, with the different ideas, and actually, you know, creating kind of a hatred and denial of the ukrainian state. nick: mezhevyi managed to travel to moscow and escape to latvia. the u.s. says moscow's actions are taken at all levels of the russian government. including the top. last week, russian president vladimir putin met the presidential commissioner for children's rights in russia, who said she "adopted" her own ukrainian child. >> i think russia, in particularly, in previous wars in syria, in chechnya, they were acting with such an impunity,

thinking that nobody would care. in ukraine, they made a mistake. we do care. we record. we document. there is the will of the people of the country to do something. and that gives a hope that that the justice can prevail. nick: ukraine wants to create an independent tribunal to pursue russia's leadership. but the u.s. has so far refused to support that, and instead, prioritizes the international criminal court. accountability there will take years. while the russian missiles keep falling. e strike blew open a dozen homes and rained debris on the playground. the same playground where 61-year-old sergey seydaliev's children used to play. he stares at his now-destroyed home, where he lived with his parents and his family for the last 42 years. there is so much torment here, but it's mixed with a tenacious will. >> we lost all of our savings.

this is my whole life. and now everything is gone. everything is gone. i'm an older man, but we will make it through. life does not stop here. we will win, for sure. i have no doubt whatsoever. nick: after all the russian crimes, most ukrainians say the. for the "pbs newshour," i'm nick schifrin in kramatorsk, ukraine. ♪ vanessa: i'm vanessa ruiz in for stephanie sy with "nshour west." here are the latest headlines. parts of california were under blizzard and flood warnings today as a vicious storm intensified across the western u.s. five feet of snow could fall on the mountains near los angeles. the weather caused dangerous

whitut conditions for drivers. in portland, oregon, people were trapped on icy roads for hours. >> 12, 13, 14 hours. the road opened up and i got up to here, then a big truck here couldn't get up the hill. so, i parked it here and i got to wait for a tow truck. that's the safest thing. i've been up all night long. vanessa: farther east, about 650,000 people are still without power in michigan. storm conditions are expected to continue into the weekend. in brazil, the death toll from heavy rain that has devastated coastal areas has risen to 54 people. clean-up efforts are underway after massive downpours caused landslides and flooding in the southeastern state of sao paulo last weekend. residents are reeling from the loss. >> all my houses were brought down. the broken tiles and shingles

fell on us, leaving us injured. i called outo my mother, hoping she would answer, but all i heard were three cries from her and nothing else. at that moment, i knew she was taken away from us forever. vanessa: rescuers are searching for dozens of people who are still missing, before more rain moves in this weekend. first lady jill biden is giving the strongest signal yet that president joe biden will run for reelection. during an interview with the associated press during a trip to kenya, the first lady said the president is gearing up for a race. >> he says he's not done. he's not finished what he started. and that's what's important. and i think look at all that joe has done. >> so is all that's left at this point is just to figure out a time and place for the announcement? >> pretty much. vanessa: meantime, vice president kamala harris met and defended access to abortion

pills. she spoke out as a texas lawsuit seeks to ban sales of the fda-approved abortion pill mifepristone nationwide over concerns its safety review was awed. the vice president said it's the latest effort to limit women's rights since roe v. wade was overturned last year. >> we will continue to fight for the rights of the american people to make decisions about their own bodies free from government interference and free from partisan political obstructionist attacks. this is not just an attack on women's fundamental freedoms. it is an attack on the very foundations of our public health system. vanessa: meanwhile, 12 democrat-led states sued the federal government today to expand access to mifepristone. and a passing of note tonight. former u.s. senator james abourezk has died. in 1972, the south dakota democrat became the first

arab-american elected to the u.s. senate. abourezk was 92 years old. still to come on the "newshour," why house speaker mccarthy is drawing criticism for giving fox exclusive footage of the january 6 attack. david brooks and jonathan capehart weigh in on the week's political headlines. and the ukrainian ballet uses dance to help their country's fight against russia. ♪ >> this is the pbs newshour from weta studios in washington, and in the west from the walter cronkite school of journalism at arizona state university. amna: in the nearly three weeks since deadly quakes hit southern turkey and northern syria, the focus has shifted from rescue to rehabilitation. the task ahead is not only to reconstruct homes, but also to rebuild lives, especially for the youngest victims. special correspondent jane ferguson reports. jane: in the tent city of

gaziantep, life after the earthquakes is all but an endless struggle. hatice demir is battling cancer and now homelessness. learning to live with the bare minimum. >> i used to wake up in a warm room, but now i'm chasing gas stations running around looking for a sink to wash up. our opportunities are gone, our self-confidence is gone. jane: like her, a million turks are now witht a home. hundreds here stood in line in the cold for a shower. the public swimming pool has been turned into a sanitation center. efforts to find the living under the rubble have ended. now, a focus on the next stage -- rebuilding. yasir behrakci is picking up the pieces of his life. >> we cannot bring back the dead. but because we survived, we are trying to get out whatever is left. we have to live, we have no other choice. >> luckily, that mind shift and work is getting started.

we were in adyaman, which as you know, is 60% to 70% destroyed. they are already clearing large plots of land to put containers on. jane: tom smith is an americ air force veteran, volunteering in turkey with washington, d.c.-based charity project hope. >> the challenge is there. when you talk about rebuilding, it's not just here's the house we are going to build. it is going to be what is that intermediary step, which is basic housing units. jane: smith and his team have been assessing the needs of those displaced by the earthquake. >> the need for sanitation -- everyone loves that hot shower, the ability to wash their hands, going to a safe latrine and safe drinking water. it is still cold here. it's 20 degrees at night, 40 degrees during the day. people are living in tents. jane: and yet, attempts to move on have been disrupted again by the heaving earth. on monday, another large quake in antakya terrified already

traumatized, displaced families. >> this is what we call complex trauma, because ok, the incident happened the first time, but now it's recurring. we are continuously and recurrently experiencing aftershocks, and the people are continuously going through the trauma again and again. jane: rawan hamadeh is also with project hope and provides psychological support to earthquake victims and rescue staff. been especially tough on the youngest here. >> we hear stories about children going mute after the earthquake and not being able to talk or to express themselves in any way. we are seeing bed-wetting issues, and of cours disturbances in sleep and eating patterns. we are seeing children who are extremely attached to their mother, they wouldn't leave their side, or extreme isolation from others. jane: volunteers are trying to

bring joy back to their lives. an effort to let children, be children. infants across the border in northwest syria are also in desperate need. this clinic in the quake-hit jenderes is overrun with patients, but running out of medicines. a u.n. delegation finally arrived here over two weeks since the earthquakes. >> i am shocked by the scale of the disaster. never seen anything like it. people need food, water, medicines, sanitation. the needs are huge. jane: a day after the first wave of quakes, this family survived against all odds. mostafa el sayed, his wife, and three children were some of the few to make it out alive from harem city where 800 people died. at that time, this moment of his little daughter elaf's rescue was a rare glimmer of hope in a battered syria. "the newshour" caught up with them two weeks later. >> i'm five right now, right?

five levels fell on top of us. we were calling out, civil defense, please help us. we're going to die. there was a man who heard us. they said they're going to rescue us in the morning. i was like, whoa. i was sleeping, sleeping, sleeping, and then i knew they were coming to take us out. >> we were sleeping and there was a small earthquake, and then there was another one and the rocks fell on top of us. there was dirt in my ear. and then, the civil defense came and they rescued us and they took us to the hospital and then they took us to grandpa's house. jane: elaf and thousands of syrian and turkish kids like her have escaped with their lives. the quality of those lives now depends on an unprecedented, massive operation to repair and rebuild. for the "pbs newshour,i am jane ferguson.

♪ geoff: this week marked the anniversary of the assassination of malcolm x. since that day 58 years ago, there have been many difficult and painful questions about who may have been involved in his murder and what led to it. this wk, malcolm x's family took new action, announcing their intent to sue several federal and local government agencies, for allegedly concealing evidence about what happened. >> we want justice served for our father. >> malcolm x's daughter still searching for answers decades after his assassination. at a press conference this week, she surrounded by family and civil-rights attorney ben crump announced plans to violate $100 million wrongful death lawsuit against the nypd, the cia, fbi, and other government agencies.

>> for years, our family has fought for the truth to come to light concerning his murder. and we like our father to receive the justice that he deserves. >> they allege a conspiracy in connection to malcolm x's murder and a subsequent cover-up of evidence. >> the truth about the circumstances leading to the death of our father is important not only to his family, but to many followers, many admirers. many who look to him for guidance, for love. >> on february 21, 1965, malcolm x was killed in a hail of bullets just as he was about to give a speech in harlem. his pregnant wife and children duct for safety. he was 39. three men were arrested and convicted of the crime. in november 2021, after decades of doubts around the case, and following the release of the netflix documentary, the

manhattan district attorney reopened the case. two men who were convicted of murdering malcolm x in 1966 were exonerated after serving decades inrison. and the district attorney admitted that the fbi and nypd at the time withheld evidence. >> the new york police department, the fbi, the district attorney of new york had factual evidence, exculpatory evidence that they fraudulently concealed from the men who were wrongfully convicted for the assassination of malcolm x, and they also fraudulently concealed that information most importantly

from the family of malcolm x. >> the fbi, cia, and nypd did not respond to our requests for comment. the lawsuit could help with the rest decades of controversy and conspiracy theories that have swirled in the more than 50 years since his assassination. leading malcolm x historian sees this suit as the culmination of years of work investigating the assassination. >> i'm extremely gratified and really had no way of knowing going into this that it would culminate in such a spectacular victory. i think it is unprecedented in u.s. history that ever happened. i'm extremely grateful and gratified to have live long enough to see this day. >> as for malcolm x's family, they say they want their father to receive the justice he deserves. ♪ geoff: some republicans are once

again re-litigating what happened at the u.s. capitol on january 6, with house speaker kevin mccarthy sharing key video footage of the capitol attack with a star fox personality. lisa desjardins brings us up to speed about how it happened and what tucker carlson hopes to find in the footage. >> and why are they still hiding thousands of hours of surveillance footage from within the capitol? lisa: for months, he asked for access. >> you can't know whether the capitol surveillance videos pan, tilt, or zoom. lisa: and now, tucker carlson has it. this week, republican speaker kevin mccarthy granted the fox news host access to 44,000 hours of security footage from capitol grounds on january 6. carlson controls a primetime hour on the most watched cable network.

>> myth about what happened that day. lisa: and has been a megaphone for baseless conspiracy theories that deflect blame from former president trump, including the idea that rioters on january 6 were actually victims of a government false flag plot. he sees surveillance footage as possible evidence. >> our producers, some of our smartest producers, have been there looking at this stuff and trying to figure out what it means and how it contradicts or not the story we've been told for more than two years. we think already in some ways that it does contradict that story. lisa: carlson's words over the last two years reveal the narrative he wants. >> how many law enforcement agents actively helped january 6 protesters enter the building that day? some of them definitely did. ray epps was standing in exactly the same place that a lot of people who went to jail were standing, but he wasn't charged. his name was taken off the fbi's most wanted list. why is that? lisa: but evidence shows that ray epps, an arizona man who was at the capitol was telling protesters to calm down. and carlson's allegation that epps was working for the fbi has been debunked.

overall, there is no evidence of undercover law enforcement instigating the rioters. >> yeah, i think the public should see what's happened. lisa: in granting fox access, mccarthy keeps a promise to hardline members in his conference from negotiations boosted by carlson himself. >> if kevin mccarthy wants to be the speaker, he is going to have to do things he would never do otherwise. lisa: mccarthy told "the new york times" this week that the tapes belong to the public and he wants sunshine on them. but carlson is not a neutral arbiter. he has condemned violence, but also defended the motivations behind it. >> how, for example, did senile hermit joe biden get 15 million more votes than his former boss, rockstar crowdsurfer barack obama? lisa: despite raising conspiracies, recent court filings show carlson and other top fox stars did not believe some of the pro-trump claims. in text messages, carlson wrote about a one-time trump adviser,

"sidney powell is lying, by the way. i caught her. it's insane." carlson's not the first to access these tapes. they've already been reviewed by the house select committee investigating january 6 last congress. republicans accuse the group of cherry-picking those clips and fox did not air much of its hearings. >> they are lying and we are not going to help them do it. lisa: back at the capitol, senate majority leader chuck schumer issued a scathing statement accusing mccarthy of "exposing the capitol complex to one of the worst security risks since 9/11." mccarthy says he intends to grant others access to t video in the future, but until then, it remains an exclusive deal between the leading republican in congress and the party's primetime star. for "the pbs newshour," i'm lisa desjardins. amna: for insights into the larger implications of tucker carlson's access to the january 6 footage and what the year of war in ukraine can tell us about the future direction of that conflict and the world, we turn to the analysis of brooks and capehart.

that's "new york times" columnist david brooks. and jonathan capehart, associate editor for "the washington post." good to see you both. let's pick up where lisa left off. this idea speaker mccarthy handed over these thousands of hours of security footage to tucker carlsen. there are those that argue to let everyone see everything and make up their own minds. is there validit? >> sure, simply because the speaker has given all of this footage to tucker carlson. if you would give it to him, you should give it to msnbc, cnn, give it to pbs,ive to everyone. you know what? i don't need to see 44,000 hours worth of footage. i watched our government being attacked by supporters of the former president live on television in real time over several hours. i don't know what couple carls -- tucker carlson is going to do with this footage and how he

will presented on his show but whenever he does it, it will be a disservice to his viewers. a disservice to this country. amna: we don't know what he's going to do with it. i'm baffled by this idea that it seems like for a long time republicans wanted to get as far away from january 6 as they could. this feels like they are resurrecting it now. >> marjorie taylor greene was ecstatic over this. this is clearly what they wanted in exchange for voting for kevin mccarthy. i guess the argument was the people on the committee were not exact friends with donald trump. somebody more friendly to donald trump should have a whack at it. you want to pick the edward r. murrow of our day, tucker ca rlson. amna: duly noted. >> in general, as long as they protect the procedures of capitol security, giving everything to one news

organization, that is just bizarre and against the rules of what we do. if you give it to one news organization, it should be off the record. it is not done, you give it to the public. amna: are you worried about how they will use it? >> yeah, i worry about everything tucker touches these days. but, i think the conspiracy theories are out there. there may be more. it is hard them imagining building another mountain of noense on top of the existing mountain of nonsense. amna: that is one of the issues dividing a lot of americans now. we asked in our latest pbs newshour poll a number of other issues that americans have varying opinions on. we asked both of you what's that out to you from that. you pointed to the same question i want to highlight, which is a question of u.s. support for ukraine. when you take a look at those numbers, we asked people what they thought about the level of support. about 42% of people said we are

providing the right amount of support. but a third of people who said we are providing too much support did stick out to me. if you dig deeper into that, there is a partisan divide as well. republicans in that group overwhelmingly feel there is too much support from the u.s. going to ukraine. why did that stand out to you? >> it stood out to me because of what we have been hearing from the republican house majority. marjorie taylor greene and others. even before he became speaker, kevin mccarthy talking about, maybe we are giving too much support. we are sending too much money to ukraine. the fact that 47% of republicans say it is too much and 54% of trump voters say it is too much to my mind says after the president releases his budget on march 9, or when the president goes back to congress for more funding, then we will start to see this friction we've only been talking about in theory play out in publi

i think from the administration's perspective, that kind of daylight is not helpful because what the president has been banking on is a unified front. within the american government for ukraine, but among the alliance. if that phrase, within the u.s., then the fear is that could impact the alliance as well. amna: what do those numbers say to you? >> it is fascinating on the republican side. there was a similar poll to ours . you are beginning to see this play out in the republican field. you've got donald trump, president ucker carlson, and other republican figures saying too much. then, you got tom cotton, tim scott, nikki haley, all saying not enough, not enough. so, radically different policy agendas. this week, ron desantis went on

fox and friends. he sort of danced between the two. what you are seeing is a party bitterly divided of something over real substance. i think the primaries will reveal that over and over. amna: it is striking as we mark one year since the russian invasion of ukraine this week. a war that many people would not last but a matter of days. we went back and saw what both of you have to say a year ago. here's a snippet of what you were saying a year ago when it came to the war in ukraine. >> we were blessed to live for many years, probably all of our lives in this era of rules. we may be ending that era and reentering the era of rivalries such as we have seen. >> we are seeing right there the battle between democracy and autocracy. having democracy when is not assured especially because democracy here in the u.s. is

the weakest it has been in memory. amna: it is nice to have you both here in person rather than your home studios. jonathan, do you still see it the same way? >> yes. arguably, yes, because at that moment, we were not quite sure whether ukraine, whether president zelenskyy, who no one had any kind of expectation of him or of the country. we were disabused of that within days. the fact we are here entering year two is extraordinary. it says a lot about president zelenskyy. it says a lot about -- it says more about the ukrainian people. their willingness to fight for their country. men and women, anyone. remember those early pictures of people learning how to shoot guns because they are going to defend themselves against the russians. but, that fight between democracy and autocracy is still there. we could be facing a situation

where that battle will become more fraught as russia gets more desperate. amna: are we deeper into this new era as you described? >> we are. it is hard to overestimate how big of a deal this war has been. if the about the events of the last year, it has been literally earthshaking. first, the humanitarian crisis has been overwhelming. the western alliance has been reformed. american influence in the world has expanded. military strategies have been changed by the war. the decoupling of our economies. energy flows have radically changed. russia and china have come together. these are all sort of big events that have been set off by this war. i thinkasically the contradictions have become focused. we in the west, including japan and other countries, democracy loving countries, have been strengthened and hardened by the people of ukraine. even this week, the russians and

chinese are getting closer together. it really looks like a global power struggle between people who want respect of human dignity and people who not so much. amna: could china's entry into this war, as u.s. officials are warning, could that change the direction of the work? >> for sure. one thinks of the korean war. that was a war started by a russian dictator. they had some success but they thought the u.s. would never be involved. the u.s. got involved, they pushed them back. they got the chinese involved. the chinese altered the course of the war for a little while and then we pushed them back. and then it was a deadlock. we signed an armistice that people thought was temporary. it turned out not to be temporary. as people look at the future of ukraine, i think a lot will determine what hpens this spring. then, we could think about how we can get through a negotiated peace. right now, we are not there. amna: americans have felt the

effect of the war to some degree. certainly in the reshaping of the global energy market, the knock on effects of all of that, and bearing witness through the reporting, like nick schifrin has been doing. it is not necessarily the same certainly for ukrainians and even europeans. do you think the longer this goes on, we do see a decline in support and what does that mean for the future? >> yeah, unfortunately, because of our oceans and most of the american people have no real skin in the game, it is easy for us to go from the euphoria of cheering on an underdog to this has been going on a while, i will think about other things. but, we in this business, we cannot be a part of that process. we have to keep telling the stories. we have to keep doing the reporting. we have to keep explaining why this is important. this is not just because russia invaded ukraine. there are bigger issues here

that david pointed out. if china does provide legal aid to russia, how does the binding administration hold back on those f-16s that president zelenskyy has been asking for? if this truly is a battle between democracy and autocracy, at some point, democracy will have to rear up on its hindlegs and smacked down autocracy. we could seehat after we see what happens in the spring. amna: do you see the stretching another year? >> for sure. i see the west holding firm. i was in dublin. i was waiting to get my passport checked. there was one woman who said clear the way. she's got this ukrainian family. these people are going first. these are the most important people in the world now. we all bow, shake cans. that irish lady on her own will help the wesrn alliance.

amna: i think we can all buy into that idea. david brook jonathan capehart, thank you so much. ♪ geoff: during the past 12 months of war, ukrainians have demonstrated their courage and resilience in countless ways. one group of artists is responding the best way they know h, through dance. bringing their work and stories to world stages. jeffrey brown profiles the united ukrainian ballet. ♪ jeffrey: "giselle," one of the most beloved ballets in the classical repertoire. gorgeous music and movement. a story of romance and loss. but this production, performed recently at washington, d.c.'s kennedy center for the performing arts, hadts own added story, one dancers like

oleksii knzkov brought to the stage. >> all dancers have, or maybe alof ukrainians, have these floating on the waves all the time with the emotions, with everything. we don't know how it will end. we don't know will we have our homes when we will come back. jeffrey: before the russian invasion of ukraine, kniazkov, 30, was a principal dancer with the kharkiv national opera and ballet in ukraine's second-largest city. the war put a stop to his career, as to so much else. more important, it has threatened his homeland and the lives of his loved ones, most of whom remain in donetsk where he grew up. now, he's one of more than 60 professional dancers from theaters throughout ukraine living in exile in the hague in the netherlands, joined as the united ukrainian ballet. several of them danced amid the rubble at home to highlight the mission of the new group.

>> the only thing that can save me is dancing. jeffrey: knizkov and the other male dancers were given special permission by the government to leave ukraine to take part in this project, an acknowledgement of their importance as cultural ambassadors. >> people see us, we have like, bones and blood. jeffrey: real flesh and blood human beings. >> yeah. not on screen, when they watch news on tv. but when y see these real people on the stage, you can maybe understand them, feel their emotions, and in some way, united with them, some way connect with them. jeffrey: 20-year-old vladyslava ihnaten'ko grew up in kharkiv, where her family remains. she had just begun her dancing career in odesa when the war broke out. >> we really trying to help each other, and wunderstand each other more than everyone else at

this time. so, i think it's really powerful community for us to share our emotions and to help each other on the same project. jeffrey: sharing emotions. everybody has difficult, painful emotions now. >> that's right. but also, it's really nice when people, after performance, think about how to help our country or maybe check on something what happened there much more, to donate, to help, to ask ukrainian people how it is. it's really nice to communicate like this. >> when we had this idea, we never thought it would be this, it would never become this big. jeffrey: the united ukrainian ballet was begun last year by dutch ballerina igone de jongh, who serves as the company's artistic director. she helped find lodging and studio space in the hague, and gradually brought more dancers

into the fold. this is unlike anything she or the dancers havever done. for one thing, ballet requires enormous discipline and focus. but, these dancers necessarily have their minds on their families and friends back home. >> i try to have conversations with them where i said to them, maybe just 10 minutes or just 15 minutes during class, just focus on you, focus on what you're doing with your body and give yourself a little break. it's, of course, a very difficult question to ask. but after a few months, i could feel that they were getting a little bit more comfortable and a little bit more at ease with just dancing. jeffrey: there's a psychology to this project that you probably have never experienced. >> no, no. and i don't thk there's a rule book for it. >> if you have any sense of faness, of what's right or wrong, i think that's the only choice. ukraine is fighting for freedom

and democracy. jeffrey: the biggest name involved with the united ukrainian ballet is alexei ratmansky, a one-time director of moscow's famed bolshoi ballet, today one of the world's most-renowned choreographers. the company is performing his version of "giselle," which restores some of the movement and other features of the original 19th-century french ballet. he brings his own unusually-personal story to this project. his mother is russian, his father ukrainian. he was born in leningrad, now st. petersburg, russia, but raised in kyiv. on the day russia attacked ukraine, he was actually in moscow working with the bolshoi, and his world changed, too. >> when my wife called me from new york saying kyiv is bombed, it was 5:00 a.m. i didn't have any choice. i just left right away. i grabbed my team and i, yeah, i felt that this door is shut for

me because i can't split. i can't sit on two chairs. i have to make a decision. jeffrey: and the decision is ukrainian identity and the country must be supported. >> right, right. jeffrey: that support is now evident in his work with the united ukrainian ballet. also, in his public criticism of prominent russian artists for not speaking out. he understands why some russians, fearing for their families, might stay silent. but, he says -- >> you can't pretend that nothing is going on. you can't say, life continues, we are happy, we are, we are dancing. you know, there is something that just doesn't work that way. you're selling yourself to the wrong person. you're on the wrong side. jeffrey: for the ukrainian dancers, of course, there is also no question of the right and wrong side.

and for them, being able to dance is part of their identity, stripped away by the war. >> in some way, when i came on stage in netherlands the first time, it was almost half year past after beginning of the war, i felt that my life came back to me, that i begin to live again. jeffrey: are you worried that the rest of the world isn't paying as much attention anymore? >> i think it's sometimes doubt about it. then, you go into another country and you see people interested in news about ukraine. our mission is to make it more people, to keep it in mind. jeffrey: the group ends each performance by singing the ukrainian national anthem. for "the pbs newshour," i'm

jeffrey brown at washington, d.c.'s kennedy center for the performing arts. amna: you can watch more of our stories on the war in ukraine over the past year on our youtube page. geoff: tune in to "washington week" tonight for more analysis of the war in ukraine and president biden's recent trip to kyiv. amna: and watch "pbs news weekend" to hear the story of ed dwight, the air force pilot who helped pave the way for nasa's black astronauts. that is "the newshour." i'm amna nawaz. geoff: and i'm geoff bennett. thanks for joining us. have areat weekend. ♪ >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by -- ♪

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tonight on kqed newsroom, on the one-year anniversary of the war in ukraine, we speak with the san francisco consul general about how californians have supported ukrainians and what the war-torn country still needs. newly inducted in california's hall of fame, alonzo king discusses his ballet company and the language of movement. hello and welcome to