geoff: nick schifrin reporting for us tonight from kharkiv, ukraine. thank you so much. : thank you. geoff: in the day's other headlines, the hearse for the late queen elizabeth ii arrived edinburgh, scotland earlier today, amid a crowd of tens of thousands. she will lie in state there through esday. her coffin departed balmoral castle this morning. along the way, thousands lined the streets in silence to mourn thlate queen. queen elizabeth's funeral will be held monday, september 19. president biden today formally accepted an invitation to attend. and two more u.s. military planes, loaded with about 70 tons of supplies for pakistan's flood victims, landed in one of the hardest-hit provinces today. the u.s. operation began thursday and will continue through next week. nearly 1400 people have been killed, 13,000 injured, and millions left homeless since unprecedented monsoon rains started in mid-june. still to comonpbs news weekend," more on the devastating floods in pakistan and the impact of climate change. and, how a reddit short story became aebut novel. >> this is "pb

nick schifrin has our report.ondent: ukraine's anthem as been titled ukraine cannot yet perish. the blue and gold flies again. relieved residents embraced liberators and offer the ukrainian soldiers pancakes. inhe wake of the success russian forces leave behind devastation. the gains of the war are the most dramatic events in months. ukraine liberated a key railway supply on russia's redline and have now entered a critical russian logistic and military stronghold. >> the liberation is significant, and we are going to liberate all occupied territories. correspondent: the ukrainian minister of defense told me at the strategy conference that ukrainian forces recaptured 500 square miles. >> they became weaker and weaker and they will run away army. ,correspondent: today, the russian defense ministry acknowledged their troops pulled back. russia still controls a large amount of ukrainian land, but tonight, ukraine vows to march on, and seize even more of its territory. for pbs news weekend, i am nick schifrin in kyiv.

nick schifrin has our report. a warning, it contains disturbing images. in a forage on the edge of the city, the ultimate dehumanization, unmarked graves. some got numbers. civilian 258 of more than 400. this is now ukrainian-held territory, so the ukrainians buried here are finally accessible to investigators. but that means in this war, the dead earn no rest. today, authorities exhume the bodies in order to try and pull russia -- hold russia accountable. none of these ukrainians received burials or coffins, but they were on the receiving end of russian torture. kharkiv's governor called it proof of russia's attempt to destroy. >> there are many children. there are bodies with hands tied on their backs. each of these facts will be investigated and it will get a legal review. the world has to acknowledge that this is a genocide of the ukrainian people. nick: many of the 40,000 residents left the city that was devastated by six months of occupation. but this man stayed. >> we retrieved our neighbor together with another neighbor. all of his family, seven pe

nick schifrin is in ukraine tonight. raine's president calls it a nuclear weapon -- an nuclear power plant occupied by an invading army. with russian military vehicles parked inside, and outside, remnants of shelling that u.s. officials blame on russia. today iaea director general rafael grossi told the security council the violence needs to end. dir. grossi: the physical attack wittingly or unwittingly, the hits that this facility has received and that i could personally see, assess together with my experts is simply unacceptable. we are playing with fire and something very catastrophic could take place. nick: grossi and his team visited the plant last week, escorted by a russian nuclear official. today's iaea report called the situation unsustainable and warned of damage to a building that houses fresh nuclear fuel and a radioactive waste storage facility. and the report calls for a protection zone around the plant, an improvement of staff conditions, and the end of military activities that have damaged the plant's sour

nick schifrin reports.e border checkpoint in georgia, entire families are mobilizing themselves to as gabe pu -- to escape putin's --. trying to ride out of russia rather than ride into the war in ukraine. at one point, so many russian cars arrived at this checkpoint, the line could be seen from space. georgia has no restricted cars so most of the russians fleeing the war walk with their wheels, at least as many as they can roll across. he calls his uncle overjoyed to have escaped. to tell him he had finally arrived after a 250 mile journey by bicycle. he had gone after vladimir putin had announced mobilization. >> it is like a zombie apocalypse. reporter: he also called his mother who had no idea about his planned escape. >> people are moving here on foot with baby strollers, whatever they can. reporter: ivan is a nuclear physicist against the war. >> it is more. it is wrong and awful. i cannot comprehend how my fellow russians can approve it. reporter: he crossed with his girlfriend and friends and campin

nick schifrin is in new york, and begins our coverage. the 210th d of russia's war in ukraine, as a russian rocket left yet another ukrainian home a mangled mess, as ukrainian soldiers maintained their momentum, evicting russian occupiers and capturing equipment as russian troops flee for their lives, president vladimir putin launched russia's largest mobilization since world war 2. >> only military reservists, primarily those who served in the armed forces, will be called up. i have already signed the executive order on partial mobilization. nick: defense minister sergei shoigu promised to deploy an additional 300,000 veterans, doubling the number of troops already committed to ukraine, on -- and in an echo of 2014 in crimea, putin endorsed referenda in occupied ukrainian territory, that the u.s. believes will lead to annexation. >> we will do everything necessary to create safe conditions for these referenda, so people can express their will. and we will support their choice, for their future. nick: western weapons have helped ukraine s

nick schifrin is in new york, and begins our coverage. : on the 210th day of russia's war in ukraine as a russian rocket left another ukrainian home a mangled mess -- as ukrainian soldiers maintained their momentum, evicting russian occupiers and capturing equipment as russian troops flee for their lives, president vladimir putin rushed russia -- launched russia's largest mobilization since world war ii. >> only military reservists will be called up. i have already signed up the executive order on partial mobilization. nick: defense miniter promised to disport -- to deploy the range of thousand veterans, doubling the number of troops committed to ukraine. in na echo after when he 14 in crimea, putin endorsed that the u.s. believes will lead to annexation. >> will do everything necessary to create safe and then -- safe condition so people can express their will. we will support their choice for the future. nick: western weapons have helped ukraine survive and beat russia back. putin said the west "had gone too far." and unleashed with the u

nick schifrin has the report. : at moscow's gorbachev foundation today, his memory hangs larger than life. mikhail gorbachev oversaw the end of the soviet union, after trying to create the change he believed it needed to survive. >> despite the fact that it was not easy, there was hope. nick: the cold war's victors today see it the same way. >> when history is written, he will be, i think, one of the authors of fantastic change for the better in the world. and what i worry about today is the current leadership in moscow is intent on undoing the good that mikhail gorbachev did. nick: russian president vladimir putin calls the war in ukraine an attempt to restore russian influence over htoric russian territory lost by gorbachev. putin has long argued gorbachev trusted the west too much. and today, putin's spokesman dmitry peksov, suggested gorbachev had been naive. >> he sincerely wanted to believe that the cold war would end and an eternal romantic period between t new soviet union and the world would arrive. that r

nick schifrin has our report. : in a war that russia says only targets the military, today the target was a ukrainian hotel, and residents of and residents of zaporizhzhia have lost hope. >> for me, it doesn't matter anymore. it doesn't matter if it kills me. i have nobody to bury me. nick: at the same time in new york, the security council held an unusually senior-level meeting about a war secretary of state antony blinken called existential. >> if ukraine stops fighting, ukraine ends. nick: the diplomats discussed russian horrors, including a mass burial site of more than 400 ukrainians. among the exhumed, a soldier wearing a bracelet of ukraine's colors. ukrainian foreign minister dmytro kuleba -- >> i do wear one too. just want to show it to you, many of us do. russia should know one thing, it will never be able to kill all of us. nick: russian foreign minister sergei lavrov walked in 20 minutes after blinken finished, and said moscow considered the war necessary. >> the decision to conduct the special military

this week, nick schifrin and his team traveled to the nearby village of nikopol and discovered russiae nuclear plant a combat zone. nick: from behind a nuclear shield, russia strikes nikopol's civilian targets. including what used to be liudmyla shyshkina's apartment. she and her son pavlo stand in the spot a russian rocket tore through the ceiling and the walls. it stole her home and her husband. 81-year-old anatoliy was killed on the spot. liudmyla: he got this apartment. he was happy because he wanted to leave something for our children. he died and left nothing for his children. nick: the source of the strike seen through nikopol's haze, just 6 miles away, the zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant. a nikopol resident provided this video, a russian multiple launch rocket firing from the plant. it's an almost dailbarrage, that's forced more than half of city's residents to flee. evgeniy sinehin is 30 years old. why are you leaving nikopol? evgeniy: we decided to leave after the shelling got close. at first, we thought it was somewhere far away and didn't pay attention. but the second nig

and nick schifrin was there, reporting tonight from balakliya in the northeast of ukraine. warning, some images and accounts in this story are graphic. nick: in liberated izium, scarred and smashed by russian occupation, the ukinian military now guarantees security. and ukraine's president vows to restore the rule of law that russia stole. speaking to the soldiers who liberated izium this past weekend, volodymyr zelenskyy said ukraineould re-seize all its territory. pres. zelenskyy: it might be possible to occupy the territories of our country, but it's certainly impossible to occupy our people. nick: ukraine's anthem promises to lay down soul and body for our freedom. today, the city once crucial to russia's offensive once again flies the blue and gold. zelenskyy then traveled up the road to another city liberated last week, balakliya. he awarded soldiers for their service and success. pres. zelenskyy: the people of ukraine will never forgive. but you, please, never forgive any of those traitors and terrorists. nick: we caught up with him as he left. why was it important fo

and as nick schifrin discovered, some are finding refuge in a most unlikely place. s done in partnership with retro report, the wnet group's exploring hate initiative, and the pulitzer center. nick: in the early days of the russian invasion, with bombs and uncertainty reigning, millions of ukrainians scrambled for safety. they fled their homes hoping to escape to neighboring countries. and along the way, many stopped in rabbi moshe azman's kyiv synagogue. 92-year-old rahyl entina, worried about her nephew and grandson who stayed behind. >> we don't know what will happen to them. these russians, please tell me, how can they have no shame? how can they have no shame? nick: one person who managed to escape with her, her daughter, larisa pogosova. >> it was scary, when we were traveling through ukraine. i had only seen this sort of thing in movies. i felt anxiety and fear that we were in danger. nick: they secured a coveted spot on an evacuation bus to moldova, with other ukrainian families. and for the second time, entina was forced to leave ukraine and become a refugee

today she sounded a moderate tone, but as nick schifrin reports, her recent rhetoric has many in italy europe concerned. nick: in the birthplace of the renaissance, today italians woke up to a new political era, and a new, untested leader whose message in victory was moderate. ms. meloni: if we will be called to lead this country, we will do that for all. we will do that with the aim to unify the people, to underline what unifies it, rather than what divides it. we on the right understand exactly who we are and what we stand for. nick: but giorgia meloni is unabashedly nationalist, and oudly populist. ms. meloni: our individual freedom is under attack. the sovereignty of our nation is under attack. the prosperity and well being of our families is under attack. the education of our children is under attack. nick: she will lead italy's farthest right coalition in 80 years, with firebrand matteo salvini, the former interior minister and leader ofhe euroskepc, nationalist party league, and three-time former prime minister, 85-year-old silvio berlusconi. >> [speaking italian] nick: meloni's

nick schifrin visited a town north of kharkiv in ruins after six months of russian occupation. >> ther borshova ended with russian defeat but not without a fight. ukrainian troops motivated to receives their own land battled hard for a week first with artillery and then from multiple sides to capture a town with only a population of 400. the russians spent six months digging in. they left behind food. and an armored personnel carrier ukrainian soldiers taken from their own. one wears a u.s. navy hat taken from a russian tank. andre is a lieutenant. this was his first major battle. >> to be honest, it was quite fierce it is hard to compare with me for something but the russians were pushing us pretty hard. >> why do you think you were able to receives this area? >> their commanders abandon them. their situation was a deadlock. the problem is their communication system does not go from top to bottom. there commanders must have fled and they did not know about it until sometime later. whenever they see cracks in their ranks, they flee. >> he said without american artillery, his command w

weapons for ukraine, and following it all is nick schifrin who joins me from southern ukraine. tell us about these promises made by secretary blinken. nick: his trick here was the highest profile of a triumvirate of support by the secretary of defense, blinken and the president's allies. he traveled to kyiv by train, and in the center of town, he met president the load mayor zielinski in his office, announcing a long-term assistance program to ukraine and 18 eastern european allies, and he called this a pivotal moment in the war, referring to ukraine's opportunity to re-seize territory. blinken walked through irpin, one of the epicenters of horror in this war where russian soldiers tortured and dumped ukrainian soldiers into a mass grave. >> look at all of these buildings, all civilian dwellings, and at best, it seems indiscriminate, and at worst, intentional. there has to be accountability for those who committed atrocities, those who ordered atrocities. nick: he and the u.s. are supporting ukraine's efforts to hold accountable not only soldiers, some of whom have been found gu

it is my pleasure to pass the floor to our moderator, nick schifrin, correspondent for cbs news our. take it away. >> reporter: welcome, to this panel on ukraine, and touch a little bit about china and the black sea region. i want to remind the audience what fred said, submit questions on twitter, on social media or inside zoom, you can submit the chat tab and we will try to go 30 minutes or so and leave 10 to 15 minutes for questions, let me start with you. i just returned from ukraine in kharkiv where i saw the success ukraine has had on the eastern front approaching from the north, we've seen some success in the south and at the same time we see the most dramatic escalation since february with details on mobilization announced by putin and the impending imminent annexation of four parts of ukraine. give us a sense of where you see this war today and where it is going. >> senator, i think you had me -- sorry. >> vladimir putin is responding to the successes of ukrainians and counteroffensive's because he is clearly getting desperate and he showed that with the call up of the draft

for the pbs newshour, i'm nick schifrin. ♪ judy: the child poverty rate in the u.s. nearly half last year to 5.2%. that is the lowest level on record and based on a census record that takes into account cash benefits, tax credits and other kinds of non-cash benefits, many of which increased during the pandemic. meantime, nearly 92% of americans had health insurance for some part of the year, but overall inequality increased and median income remained largely flat. that drop in childhood poverty was preceded by an even larger decline since the 1990's. all this is according to a new analysis done by the nonpartisan research group child trends and "the new york times." dana thomson is one of the lead researchers and she joins me now. hello. dropping by nearly half, child poverty. how did it happen? dana: that is a great question. we are looking at a remarkable success story. in 1983, one in four kids were experiencing poverty. it is reduced to one in 10, largely thanks to the growth in the social safety net and a healthy economy. judy: if social safety net, that means g

for the pbs newshour, nick schifrin. ♪ julie: this midterm election cycle, there are high-stakes in campaignsns, winners will impact everything from state elections to issues like reproductive rights. geoff bennett has more on the gubernatorial forecast. >> in a midterm election year, the fight for control of congress gets most of the attention. control of state governments will be on the ballot with the outcome having a major impact on americans lives. republicans have long dominated the gubernatorial landscape. today they hold 28 governor's mansions while democrats hold 22. but there are 36 races that could change that partisan breakdown. democrats are hoping to make gains this november and have a good chance of flipping two states with current republican governors, but are traditionally blue. maryland and massachusetts. kyle is following all of this closely, the managing editor of crystal ball at the university of virginia center for politics. he joins us now. good to have you here. 36 states with governor seats are up this year. 27 of the candidates are incumbents, typically an advantage,

nick schifrin reports.e banks of this river, uighur victims of chinese detention did not need a u.n. report of what they had survived. can you describe for us what the detention center was like? >> they brought everyone in there because they called us suspicious. there is unimaginable pressure inside. every day they would toss us a little bread and water so we would not die and every day they would interrogate 15 or 20 of us with unbearable brutality. reporter: we met him three years ago and he says he was detained in 2017 in what he called a prison for brainwashing. >> in 10 hours of clasthey would tell us in one day was the same as the next. the goal was to change our minds, our faith, and our beliefs. aging has long called some uighurs extremists and separatists that needed to be reeducated with chinese language and skills. the former ddts -- the former detainees that we interviewed said it was a faÇade that hid what was really happening. in this drone video prisoners in blue with shaved heads were kept

nick schifrin sits down with ukraine's prosecutor general, as the world is witnessing another horror rial site in eastern ukraine. a warning, images in this segment are disturbing. nick: it is the ultimate dehumanization, human beings bared in unmarked graves, more than 400 of them left behind by occupying russian forces in eastern ukraine, discovered when ukrainian forces liberated the city last week. executives are exhuming the graves and say 99% were killed by violence and somebody's show signs of torture. it's the latest sign of apparent war crimes in ukraine. the ukrainian official responsible for holding russia responsible is attorney general andriy kostin. welcome to the newshour. i spent time in kharkiv, and we met a woman who had to witness the big summation of her own son who had been tortured a murdered by russian forces. we visited a room that russian occupiers used for torture. now that mass burial site we see. what evidence of war crimes so far right now are you at this new site? mr. kostin: we see people who were killed, civilians. we see people who were without hands.

nick schifrin looks at what russian forces left behind and the crimes they committed. at their peak, russian forces captured nearly 20 -- 20% of ukraine, and in each village, city and district they occupy, leave behind a trail of horror. in bucha and irpin, suburbs of kyiv, more than a thousand bodies buried in mass graves. in izium, outside kharkiv, investigators have finished exhuming the bodies of more than 400 ukrainians. 99% died from violence, and dozens, if not more, were tortured as they were killed. for the first time last week, a group of u.n. appointed experts presented preliminary evidence of russian atrocities. the official in charge of the united nations independent commission of inquiry on ukraine is erik mose, and he joins me now. thank you very much. welcome to the newshour. your commission visited 27 towns and settlements in ukraine and interviewed more than 150 witnesses and victims. what is the scale of russian war crimes? erik: so far, we have investigated four areas of ukraine. we have seen that there have -- there were explosives, which caused dev

nick schifrin sits down with ukraine's prosecutor general, as the world is witnessing another horror,ass burial site in eastern ukraine. and a warning -- images in this segment are disturbing. nick: it is the ultimate dehumanization, human beings buried in unmarked graves. more than 400 of them left behind by occupying russian forces in izyum in eastern ukraine, discovered when ukrainian forces liberated the city last week. investigators are now exhuming the graves and say 99% were killed by violence and some of the bodies show signs of torture. it is just the latest sign of apparent war crimes in ukraine. the ukrainian official responsible for trying to hold russia accountable, the equivalent to the attorney general, is the prosecutor general, andriy kostin. and he joins me in the studio. andriy kostin, thank you very much. welcome to the "newshour." i spent the last week in kharkiv, where we visited villages that have just been liberated from russian forces by ukrainian troops. we met a woman who had to witness the exhumation of her own son, who had been tortured and murder by russi

nick schifrin is finishing two weeks of reporting in the country and he sat down this morning with ukraine's minister. >> mr. foreign minister, thank you, welcome. we have spent the last week in kharkiv where we found the villages and towns were liberated from pressure for the past six months. we met a woman who had to witness the excavation of her own son who was tortured and murdered russian soldiers. he visited a room that russian occupiers used for torture. now police have announced a mass grave of 400 soldiers and civilians. can you talk to russian -- russia diplomatically when it soldiers are committing the crimes that we've seen? >> that's a very painful question you ask. as a diplomat i have to be ready to talk, even with the devil of the national interest of my countries require so. but i am also a human being in the last thing i want to do is to talk to them. after everything russia has done, and it has become a patent -- apparent that war crimes and atrocities always follow the russian army. after seeing all of that i have a strong feeling that the best negotiating table with russ

ck schifrin begins our coverage. nickday's reality, the body of the ukrainian civilians killed by a russian rocket. today's alternate reality, the red square celebration of conquest. a euphoric concert marking russian annexation. reality, ukrainian soldiers re-seizing their own territory from russian occupiers. alternate reality, a handpicked audience cheers russian president puitin, calling today a day of truth and justice. and yet, today's formal annexation signing with the four russian appointed leaders of ukrainian districts is the war's largest escalation since invasion. >> we will defend our land using all forces at our disposal and will do everything we can to protect the security of our people. nick: and to an ecstatic audience of elites, putin rallied against the west and what he defined as the culture. >> to maintain its unlimited power is the real reason for the hybrid war the west is waging against russia. we want schools that there are other genders? such a rejection of faith and traditional values begins to