the deoccupation of crimea this was stated by the former us special representative in ukraine kurt volker he added that the russians systematically spread their propaganda about the peninsula, supposedly crimea has always been russian and its liberation will lead to terrible consequences , in fact, volker says, in 1991, the russian federation recognized the borders of ukraine together with the peninsula, some people misunderstand what the liberation of the peninsula means for ukraine , they imagine marines running on the beach under heavy artillery fire, this is not what you should imagine, it is about cutting off the russian occupation forces so that they cannot support themselves there, but it will not be successful and viable if it is cut off from russian supply lines only because of natural geography, it will be connected to the ukrainian center, those involved in pseudo elections in the occupied territories of ukraine will fall under us sanctions , state secretary anthony blinken said, the politician called the pseudo vote a propaganda event with the help of which the kremlin wants to s

earlier my colleague caitriona perry spoke with kurt volker — he served as us ambassador to nato andve on ukraine negotations. kurt volker, thank you forjoining us. you are in ukraine this week. with the recent attack in a market in the middle of the afternoon by russia, is there a sense on the ground that this conflict is shifting? mmm, i wouldn't say that. these attacks by russia, which killed civilians and are fairly indiscriminate happen with some regularity. it's tragic, it's unfortunate, people are angry about it, they despair about it, but at the same time this is typical. so ukrainians have built up a tremendous amount of resilience and resolve, and they realise that the only way to guarantee peace and security in ukraine again is for russian forces to be defeated. and so that is what they are focused on. and as you are in the country now, what you've seen of the counteroffensive, are those measures deterring russia at all? no, quite the contrary. i think that because russia is unable to have any significant military gains on the front line, they have resorted to indiscrimina

arthel: will bring in right now ambassador kurt volker he's a former u.s.d former u.s. representative for ukraine negotiations. ambassador i want to start the crane strike on russia's black sea fleet. was it indeed an attack in ukraine? and what does this tell you about military capabilities at this point on both sides? >> no doubt it was an attack by ukraine the russians would not be attacking it themselves. they are showing the ukrainians are showing have increasing range in increasing capacity to cut off russian forces that are in crimea in southern ukraine. it's with the whole counter offensive is about cutting off the supply lines, the ability of russia to supply its forces that are deployed inside ukrainian territory and crimea and so on. and that is important that is the naval headquarters that can supply their and they can use their navy from there. the other two places they have to get through our where the offensive is on the ground the land line of communication across southern ukraine and also the bridge. it appears ukrainians are showing increa

expressed by the special representative of the us state department for ukraine in 2017-19, diplomat kurt volker, now hein kyiv and spoke with journalists, according to him, those who believe that the counteroffensive for jesus is slowing down have wrong expectations, what ukraine is doing and is doing successfully, it seriously interrupts russia's supply lines, its ability to support its forces that occupy ukraine, in particular crimea and the south of ukraine, ukraine would is on fuel ammunition logistics bridges roads also uses drones to target russian naval ships interrupting russian oil supplies forcing commercial air traffic to stop in russia, due to the drone strikes that convey the reality of this war to the russian people, we are moving to the next phase of defense, but we are doing it methodically carefully and with some success, so instead of looking at it as usual, i look with admiration that ukraine succeeds in very difficult circumstances without air cover without the longest range artillery systems we could provide and doing it carefully to save lives it's actually very impressive i doubt

with he here is international chief christiane amanpour, and also joining me international ambassador to nato kurt volkerne, to you first, you and i were speaking about this, this was a moving speech. it was an impassioned speech that can only be delivered by a leader of a country such as him. whose country is going through a horrible war. he accuses russia of genocide, he accuses russia of weaponizing food and nuclear power. does his message? >> i think it does. with zelenskyy, he has to refine and really focus his message knowing it's going on for a long time. and it's very hard to keep an alliance together. you know, president biden, president zelenskyy are the wartime alliance leaders fighting down autocracy, and fighting for democracy and the rules of national order. that's the big picture, a slightly smaller picture but nonetheless equally as important as zelenskyy has to keep going to washington, keep persuading capitol hill to keep up this support. it is really, really important. and the way he put it was incredibly, i think powerful and accessible. people can understand what he's saying. and as

let's speak to kurt volker, a former us special representative for ukraine. hes military intelligence chief, there attacks from inside russia, what does that suggest to you about the ukrainian incursion all russian operatives? first you about the ukrainian incursion all russian operatives?— all russian operatives? first off, there are armed _ all russian operatives? first off, there are armed russian - all russian operatives? first off, i there are armed russian opposition groups now and notjust the wagner group, but there are also groups that characterise themselves as wanting a free russia, and they have the ability to carry out drone strikes as well, and they are probably getting support from ukraine, and on top of that ukraine may have its own special forces as well. and all of this is meant to bring home to the russians that their war against ukraine is not cost free, it's not a special antiseptic military operation but something that is actually causing loss of lives and destruction and this is bringing back home to them as well. in this is bringing back h

the united states of america in ukraine, kurt volker, also spoke about the prospects of how the liberation of crimea should take place . let's listen to what heds what the liberation of the peninsula means for ukraine, they imagine marines running on the beach under heavy artillery fire, this is not what you should imagine , it is about cutting off the russian occupation forces so that they cannot support themselves there , but it will not be successful and viable if it is cut off from the russian supply lines only through natural geography it will be connected to the ukrainian center p major please tell me what you think about in what way when and how ukraine can release crimea, we know that it is a peninsula, but volker says that in general , let's make an island and then the russians will not escape from it, especially since in history there have already been these escapes through the crimea by many armies and they all ended by the sea. it is very important to emphasize that crimea is ukraine and the international community recognizes this, russia illegally occupied crimea and annexed it, and i want to say, in particular, ben godis, a reti