yamiche: challenges, foreign and domestic. pres. biden: one year later, kyiv stands. yamiche: president biden ghost ukraine, marking the when your anniversary. criticism of the president, arguing he should be more concerned about domestic issues like the train derailment and the southern border. up next. >> this is "washington week." corporate funding provided by -- >> how people communicate and connect. we offer a variety of plans. we can help you find one for

you. for more, visit consumer cellular tv. >> committed to bridging cultural differences in communities. sandra and carl, rose and andy, robert and susan. the corporation for public broadcasting and contributions from viewers like you. thank you. >> once again, from washington, moderator yamiche alcindor. yamiche: good evening, welcome to "washington week." this week, challenges were on full display. one year ago today that russia launched a full-scale invasion on ukraine. a secret planned trip to the capital. air raid sirens ringing, the two

leaders walked the city. president biden also announced a new half-billion aid package which president zelenskyy praised. >> together we will protect our cities and people from russian terror and strengthen the impulse to our victory. yamiche: on tuesday, president biden delivered a speech in poland where he pledged to continue support to ukraine and allies. pres. biden: one yea into this war, putin no longer doubts the strength of our coalition he still doubts our convictio there should be no doubt. our support for your crane will not waver. nato will not be divided and we will not tire. yamiche: follow-up from the train jerome in ohio.

former president trump -- from the train derailment in ohio. former president trump criticized them. >> if we would not have come, they never would have come. yamiche: the transportation secretary and other officials have visited. joining me to discuss this and more is the national security correspondent at the new york times. joining me here at the table, a senior white house correspondent and correspondent from cnn and anchor. thank you all for being here. vivian, you have spent a lot of time in ukraine, what strikes you, what are the key takeaways as you think about this year and how ukraine has been able to

hold their own ? vivian: it has been an incredible year. the fact that they are able to hold her own has been the biggest take away. the west was pouring in weapons and all kinds of aid before russia invaded. still, russian forces were deemed to be bigger, stronger, with better weaponry. the odds were against ukrainians. the performance was one of the most incredible takeaways. finally, the west and they came away with washinon leading the way to assist ukrainians. we sought the links they would not be able to go to help ukrainians. that is the big story on the side of the pond.

going forward, it will be about momentum. that will be the big story in the coming year. yamiche: that will be the big question. there is a question of how long ukraine can hold the line and whether o not i didn't administration will continue to support ukraine in this way. what does your reporting reveal ? david: it has been a remarkable week. the site of the psident making his way into ukraine and walking around kyiv even briefly. the message of an 80-year-old president too many have criticized for his age and so forth, to be able to make that trip and give what was a pretty rousing speech in warsaw -- that said, in addition to the things that vivian pointed out, one of

the big questions is, ve we seen a high watermark of our ability to bring arms into ukraine in q2 ? a lot of nations say they are running low on ammunition that ukraine needs. the effort to ramp that up has been slower than we thought. the second thing is that we have to remember, while the russians have suffered a lot, their economy is chugging right along and could still have a lot of people buying their oil. that includes china, india, north korea. the white house said today that in addition with providing them with drones they are providing them with armor. one of the issues we are looking at, does the world go back into these blocks that have a lot of

similarity with the cold war ? that is a scary prospect. yamiche: that is a scary prospect. let's go back to the idea that this is a secret trip. what is the significance of that, given the moment about aid to ukraine? >> the president has wide to make this trip for some time. this is a war zone. we do not even have boots on the ground yet. in his view, this trip was not about what was unfolding in ukraine at the time. as about leaving a mark on foreign policy to show that the u.s. will not stand for any autocracy trying to dismantle and autocracy. that is why it is so crucial to send that message.

regardless of how you look forward, republicans have already been threatening to not write a blank check, their words, and to not audits. there is more hesitancy to find this war. i think that is softening. not only on capitol hill but when you look at public polling. the question is, not how much they can give to sustain but will you give ukraine what they need to win. winning is very different from losing and so far they do not have what they need to win. that brings up the fighter planes that the president just said he will not be able to provide. yamiche: that is one of the things that i think will be the biggest divide going forward. how important is it that there are some people on the

republican side that want to pull back on ukraine aid? or is it more important that the mitch mcconnell's of the world, the kevin mccarthy's in the house, they are attacking biden from the white saying that he moved to slowly here. you are seeing tonight that president biden does not believe the fighter pilots of the next step. they do not want to be pushed any further than they can go. there is a growing argument to be made on all sides. i have been hearing this from national security analysts from the left and the right who are asking the question, why not? even if you do not want to give the planes right now, why not start the training process?

the biden administration has not been able to answer the question. the elephant in the room is that they are not -- they are still concerned about going too far and need to see provoking russia . they are still eight nuclear power even though there army is proven to be more weak than people expected. >> congress has appropriated 100 billion dollars so far. what is so much about your view of the american people and the politics of this? abby: there is probably 30% of the american electorate that is much more likely to go along with the far right politics of the situation, which is calling for pullback of the situation.

i do think there is a solid majority that is comfortable with aid. perhaps they do not want it to be toouch but they are comfortable where it is right now. they will have to jump through some hoops but i do not hear a whole of alarm that the money will stop flowing, even with the approval rate of the american public, even if it goes down. yamiche: vivian, i want to go back to you. you had some insight on legal aid, explain on your reporting, based on your reporting, which china take the step? vivian: up until now, they have been exercising a level of restraint when it comes to weapons to russia. -- they have really held off on the one redline in the view of

washington, which is providing weapons for the battle in ukraine. partially because they did not want to embolden russia. for them, seeing and emboldened moscow could probably be problematic. it is a lot worse for them to see moscow crumble, they feel like that would come back and hunt china. they have been considering providing ammunition, starting small and working their way up. european intelligence is now revealing that while they were tant at first, they are looking to take medics that. washington and their allies have been collaborating and discussing whether or not to declassify that intelligence like they have so far with regards to iran helping and north korea helping russian forces. it would be sort of the same thing. this comes against the backdrop

of growing tensions in china because of its intensifying campaign towards taiwan and the surveillance balloon that was shot down over the atlantic ocean a few weeks ago. it will be a very tricky maneuver and diplomatic issue that they will have to face. i am traveling with secretary blinken next week where he may once again see his chinese counterpart. we know that came up in munich last week. this is something that is deeply concerning to washington and its allies across europe. yamiche: david, what is your reporting on this and this may be a hard question but with putin, it is hard to know what he is thinking but the fact that he is pulling out nuclear treaties and giving speeches were he is using the word war, what is your reporting showing? vivian: to follow up onrelationd

china may be the biggest signa -- single international story. back in the cold war, soviet union was the largest force out there. no one really thought of it as the coming world's second-largest economy. the chinese and the russians have played to the relationship without limits. we have seen some of those in recent times, as vivian explained. if those go away, we are in a different world as we are facing a different situation when we really only had one significant have a 30 there -- one significant adversary there.

on putin's mind, he has shown an obsession with ukraine and he has also been careful not to take the war beyond the borders of ukraine. if it was any single topic that worried him the most or in warsaw, along the russian border , it is change. we are already seeing a large increase in cyber attacks in poland. we have seen that for the last year. whether those spillover on nato countries is a big issue. some people believe putin does not want to take the risk of taking on all of nato. some may be so frustrated about his lack of progress in ukraine that he has to take it out on someone. yamiche: with those international issues, weijen, we

criticism for president biden's trip to ukraine, people have said he should be somewhere else. talk about the criticisms. weijen: the white house is aware that they could've handled the situation better than they did. the transportation secretary fumbled a few times heard he was criticized for being flippant about the derailment and plumping it with the other hundreds of derailments that have happened across the country , every day. that was intereted as insensitivity when the administration continue to say, we were there within two hours. the agencies that would normally respond were in fact there. of course, the optics also matter. republicans really seized on the

fact that he was abroad, committing money to another country instead of at the sight of this emergency disaster own showing that he was there physically. the white house will continue to make theirase that they are responding in the appropriate ways. the president also said that he did not get any requests to go visit. as of now even, he does not have any plans to go there. this is not unique. anytime there is a major disaster, he is very concerned about getting in the way of that response, of being a distraction. i think they are hopefully, continuing to hammer away at these points that they did everything they were supposed to. yamiche: abby, recovered president trump together, it was not surprising to see him there

while passing out red hats. abby: there is that part of the country where east palestine went for trump. it is not in any way the way it used to be a swing county. these are his people, deeply supportive of him. one of the correspondence on the floor -- on the ground there said there were trump flags in support everywhere. it is an opportunity for republicans and conservatives to do two things at once, not only to decide president biden but also pete would such. if you see how -- but also pete buttigieg. it is a very important political attack on biden. i think we should just be frank with the audience. the two things are not actually related.

there is no money going to ukraine beyond that, this is an environmental disaster. the white house missed an opportunity to have a public face, to what is an actual human tragedy on the ground there, people's live lahood's and their -- people's livelihoods and their actual lives. yamiche: on your sense of the gop pitting east palestine against ukraine. vivian: the politically charged environment that we are in right now, you are going to see that a lot. any president who is on the road somewhere and something happens back home, he or she would immediately get some criticism. what you're seeing is partially

not impartially just a sign of the times. president biden is obviously very committed to the cause. we mentioned this has been planned for months. whether or not he should have done something to rearrange the trip, they were very concerned about hitting the anniversary date. regardless, they made that the priority for him to physically be there and send the transportation secretary pete buttigieg. yamiche: tell me, what is next year as you -- as we think about president biden's stance? david: great powers have to learn how to run their own country and be great powers at the same time. i think president biden has been around long enough to recognize that that is a hard balancing act but that you can equally criticize for example, if he was

allowing russia to run across democratic societies. he has got to do both, and that is what is called being president. yamiche: we will leave it there. thank you so much for been there. don't forget to watch pbs news morning to watch and african american president. -- aviation. this is my last time hosting "washington week," and i will focus on my time as a correspondent and finishing my memoirs. it has been an honor to be in your homes every friday. thank you so much for watching. i could have done this work without the stellar team here at "washington week," so thank you for your efforts. i have been blessed to honor the

life of an iconic "washington week" moderator who mentored me in so many other women. i encourage my heart often forgiving me courage. hope this is not a good bite but a see you later as i hope to see you all on the next big story. i am yamiche alcindor, good night from washington. >> corporate funding is provided by -- >> consumer cellular is been offering no contract plans to help people do what they like. our u.s.-based customer service team can help you find the plan you need. >> additional funding is provided by -- the u.n. foundation, committed to bridging our committees.

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(narrator) the royal family and the tabloid press have had a long and complicated relationship. (shutters clicking) (orchestral music) sometimes they're friends. ♪ sometimes they're not. (reporter) this is haras. it must stop. ♪ (narrator) this is the inside story of that often troubled relationship, of how the editors and copywriters got their biggest royal scoops and most iconic front pages, and how creating them had the power to reshape public opinion. this time, we look at the royals' worst behavior. (katie) when it comes to t royals behaving badly, the tabloids just can't get enough of it. (camilla) you could have any headline of the last 30 or 40 years. you might suspect that they were made up,