Ukraine’s ambassador to the U.S. discusses the state of the war 100 days after it began

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• William Brangham:

  Exactly 100 days ago, Russian soldiers launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine, aiming to overthrow a democratically elected government.

  Ukraine won the battle for Kyiv and has achieved some military success. But the war has killed tens of thousands of Ukrainian civilians, tens of thousands of Ukrainian and Russian troops, and, at its peak, drove close to 14 million Ukrainians from their homes. That's one-third of the country.

  Nick Schifrin take stock of this moment and talks to Ukraine's ambassador to the United States.

• Nick Schifrin:

  This war's horrors have become household names, Mariupol, a city destroyed, a theater shielding people bombed, Bucha, Ukrainian civilians bound and executed by Russian troops dumped in mass graves.

  This week, President Zelenskyy admitted Russia controls 20 percent of Ukraine.

  Ukraine's ambassador to United States is Oksana Markarova. And she joins me now.

  Ambassador, welcome back to the "NewsHour."

  Can you just give us some perspective on how destructive these 100 days have been?

  Oksana Markarova, Ukrainian Ambassador to the United States: Yes, these 100 days of the war that actually goes on for eight years.

  But these 100 days were especially brutal, with full-fledged war returning to whole territory of Ukraine. And the devastation has been huge, more than 40 million square meters of residential areas destroyed. And the majority of people live under constant threat.

  And yet we are fighting we will be fighting. And we still can win in this war.

• Nick Schifrin:

  Looking forward, how do you define winning in this war? How do you define victory?

• Oksana Markarova:

  Just getting our country back, having control under all territory of Ukraine in our recognized borders, and with Russians getting out from our territory, stop and shooting at us.

  And then we can start returning to rebuilding of our country and returning to some kind of normal life, which is going to be very, very difficult. But, first, we have to win. It means that we have to defeat Russians in Ukraine.

• Nick Schifrin:

  You're suggesting Russian forces need to be evicted not only from territory they have seized since February 24, but also territory in the Donbas and Crimea that they have occupied since 2014?

  Is that what you're saying defines victory?

• Oksana Markarova:

  Well, since 2014, when Russia illegally attacked Crimea and illegally attacked part of Donbas and Luhansk, not only Ukraine, but the whole democratic world never agreed and never recognized that act of aggression and the illegal annexation.

  So, yes, Crimea is Ukraine. Since 2014, we had all the rights to retake Crimea or Donetsk and Luhansk through military operations, but we never did it, and we never planned to do it. We still are open for any diplomatic solutions. But, right now, Russia crossed the border again. And it's a very black-and-white situation.

  We would like to restore our territorial integrity and sovereignty within all borders.

• Nick Schifrin:

  Some senior Ukrainian officials I speak to have some doubts about whether the military can re-seize territory that Russia has occupied not only since February 24, but over the last eight years.

  So does that not mean that this war is headed for a stalemate and Ukraine will struggle to re-seize that territory?

• Oksana Markarova:

  Well, we can all have doubts, or we know that it's going to be very, very difficult.

  And, even today, we hear Russian officials, the criminal minister Shoigu and others, essentially saying that the separation has to go on, that they're still on target, which is really a brutal thing to hear.

  We're up against a much stronger power, a very brutal power, a power that has no moral restrictions or the red lines they would not close. We know it's going to be hard. But, at the same time, there is no other alternative. We cannot reach peace unless Russians are out from the country.

  Anything else, any stalemate on Russian terms, would be an illusion of peace. So, unfortunately, we know what happens on the territories where — which Russians occupy, and we're not ready to leave our people behind.

• Nick Schifrin:

  This week, the Biden administration authorized the most advanced rocket system to Ukraine, the HIMARS, High Mobility Artillery Rocket System.

  But the Biden administration did not provide the longest-range ammunition and basically capped the ammunition range that it's providing at 45 miles. Is that good enough?

• Oksana Markarova:

  Well, as I always say, we're very grateful to American people, to administration, to President Biden, to Congress.

  Russia is not motivated, but they have so many more weapons. And that's why we need more and more support from the U.S., but also from other allies. Now, we never asked boots on the ground. We never asked other countries to help us fight the fight. We will fight this fight. It's our fight.

  We need as much artillery and as much ammunition to this new capabilities that we will be getting as possible. Every phase of the war requires different weapons. And we are in discussions. And I really hope that we will see more support.

• Nick Schifrin:

  Some of the main fighting is in a city called Severodonetsk, which is the last Ukrainian-held city in Luhansk, in the east part of the Donbas.

  British intelligence today said that they fear Luhansk could fall entirely in the next two weeks. Do you fear that to be the case?

• Oksana Markarova:

  It's a full-fledged war.

  And it's very — I know that our armed forces do everything possible and impossible. And I'm positive, as well as all Ukrainians and our armed forces and our president, that we are fighting for our land and we're fighting for our people. And we will be able to retake everything.

  The question is how long it will take and how many of us, the best of us, we will lose.

• Nick Schifrin:

  This week, President Biden wrote a New York Times op-ed. He did not use the word Ukrainian victory or Russian defeat. And he said specifically that the goal is not to unseat Vladimir Putin.

  Do you fear that, so long as Putin remains in power, the threat to Ukraine will continue?

• Oksana Markarova:

  I believe, as long as Russia will remain in this imperialistic mode of thinking, the threat not only to Ukraine, but all democratic world will remain.

  Russia, in its present form, is a threat to global security, is a threat to food security after blocking Ukrainian ports in the Black Sea. They are a threat to any democracy, because, again, Ukraine did not provoke this war. We did not do anything to cause this aggression.

  And if being democratic, peaceful and just wanted to live in your own country is enough reason for an autocratic large country to attack you, then nobody is safe.

• Nick Schifrin:

  Overnight, President Zelenskyy said that 200,000 children, Ukrainian children, had been forcibly moved to Russia. He's said that half-a-million Ukrainians in the past have been forcibly moved to Russia.

  Is that an example of Russian genocide?

• Oksana Markarova:

  It's one of many, yes, half-a-million people who were forced — forcefully deported to Russia, than many children which were killed in Ukraine, people put in the filtration camps.

  I mean, these are, again, the Nazi techniques that we see 80 almost years after the world said, never again. And, yes, it is a genocide, because we are being targeted and killed only because we are Ukrainians.

• Nick Schifrin:

  And while we talk about all of those atrocities, at the same time, the U.N. says there are credible allegations of ill treatment of Russian soldiers by Ukrainian forces.

  Are you investigating those examples and taking steps to ensure that Russian soldiers in your custody are being treated humanely?

• Oksana Markarova:

  We already have shown how we treated the captured soldiers. We're recording everything, where they have access to everything. We're giving them the possibility to call their relatives, regardless of the crimes that they have committed.

  So, yes, we take very seriously, and our armed forces are doing everything possible in order to stick to all the rules while we are defending our country and while we are defending our people.

• Nick Schifrin:

  Ambassador Oksana Markarova, thank you very much.

• Oksana Markarova:

  Thank you.