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Fareed Zakaria GPS

Interview With President Volodymyr Zelenskyy; Interview With Mykhailo Fedorov About Ukraine's Army Of Drones; Ukraine's Children Of War. Aired 1-2p ET

Aired September 10, 2023 - 13:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

[13:00:31]

FAREED ZAKARIA, CNN HOST: This is GPS, the GLOBAL PUBLIC SQUARE. Welcome to all of you in the United States and around the world. I'm Fareed Zakaria coming to you from Kyiv.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ZAKARIA: Today, a special edition of the program from Ukraine. A country that's been at war now for almost 600 days. I have an exclusive interview with the country's president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy. This week he fired his defense minister, visited the frontlines, and welcomed Secretary of State Blinken. I ask him about all that and more.

VOLODYMYR ZELENSKYY, UKRAINIAN PRESIDENT: Ukraine will never go back, go away from our land.

ZAKARIA: Then, as it awaits F-16 fighters, Ukraine's best weapons up in the sky are drones. The country's so-called "Army of Drones" has been a gamechanger for surveillance, dropping bombs and kamikaze missions. I talk to the mastermind behind the program, the country's minister of digital transformation.

Finally, the children of war. Last September I introduced you to some amazing kids in Kyiv who had just gone back to school for the first time since the war started. This week, we went back to see them again to see how they're holding up after another year of strife.

MASHA, AGE 15, FROM KYIV: After all of these dark times you want to live the best life that you can.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ZAKARIA: But first, here's my take.

The overnight train ride from Poland to Ukraine is a reminder of why this land has been so hotly contested over the last century. Ukraine's soil is among the most fertile on the planet. We passed vast fields of wheat and other crops, dotted with small farm houses. Some of them still using horses to plow the fields. As we approach Kyiv, the landscape quickly shifted to urban. Despite the war, Ukraine's railways continue to be clean, comfortable and efficient. My train rolled into Kyiv right on time. That might be a phrase that says a lot about Ukraine. Despite the war,

Kyiv is now almost normal. A year into the invasion, roughly half of Kyiv's population have fled but many people have since returned. The city had about 3.9 million residents in 2021 before the fighting started, and it's back to around 3.6 million today local sources tell me.

The Yalta European Strategy annual meeting is also still being held despite the war as it has been held for nearly 20 years located originally in Yalta and then after the 2014 invasion in Kyiv. Victor Pinchuk, the organizer, told me the struggle for Ukraine is the most important struggle in the world right now and we need to keep the world's attention focused on it.

Most here are trying to keep life as normal as possible. Stores and cafes are bustling. Air raid sirens went off while I was having dinner a friend's place, and no one even stopped eating. But there are constant reminders of the conflict. Billboards scattered around the city that mourned Ukraine's lost heroes as the fallen soldiers are often called. Sandbags and roadblocks. Everyone is exhausted and sober. Ukraine's losses have been terrible in cities destroyed and soldiers and civilians killed.

As a German friend who has lived in Kyiv for years put it to me, there's a growing understanding of loss as part of normalcy. People are adjusting to the reality of knowing more and more people who have been killed or wounded. It's a tough, sad condition, but exhaustion does not equal surrender.

[13:05:01]

No one I spoke with believed that Ukraine should stop fighting to get back its territories. They were disappointed that the counteroffensive is not going better, but it only reminds them that this would be a long struggle. Were they to make a premature peace, many said to me, this would only be a temporary pause. The Russians would come back and they would simply have pushed the burdens of war on to the next generation.

When you speak with people at greater length their views are more nuanced. No surrender is the mantra, but some said it was possible to imagine a cease-fire with Ukraine never legally endorsing the legitimacy of Russian rule over parts of the Donbas and Crimea in exchange for real security guarantees.

As one Ukrainian politician who wished to stay unnamed told me, it's easy for all of us who have not been in the fighting to refuse to compromise. The real question is, what are the attitudes of the soldiers in the field and those who have returned. They might have more nuanced positions, but they would have to articulate them.

The dominant worry in Kyiv is not about Russia, but the West. They have reason to be worried. Support for Ukraine is losing strength in some European countries. An election in Slovakia could bring into power a prime minister who is distinctly pro-Russian which would give Hungary's Viktor Orban a useful ally in trying to change Europe's policies.

In the U.S. support for Ukraine is slipping. More crucially many observers believe that the Russians are determined to stay the course until the 2024 election hoping that Donald Trump would be elected and that he would quickly hang the Ukrainians out to dry as he searched for a deal with Putin. That would be a disaster, legitimizing naked aggression and emboldening dictators like Putin and Xi Jinping who want to disregard norms and re-write the rules of the international system. The jungle, as Robert Kagan calls it, would return to international life.

The West has often fought wars alongside allies who were not deeply committed to their own cause, let alone the larger cause of freedom. From Afghans and Iraqis to the South Vietnamese and even the South Koreans who were defending a nasty dictatorship during the Korean War. The Ukrainians are different, utterly committed to their independence, but also to the values the West holds most deeply.

Ukrainians understand that they are in for a long war of attrition. They understand that they are up against a formidable foe. Russia is almost four times Ukraine's population and about 15 times its economic size. They are ready to persevere, but they worry that their allies are not.

Go to CNN.com/Fareed for a link to my "Washington Post" column this week, and let's get started.

President Zelenskyy is almost always working, but this week seemed particularly eventful and busy for him. Last Sunday he announced he was replacing his longtime Defense minister Alexei Reznikov. A day later he was visiting troops in two of his nation's frontline regions. Then on Wednesday he received Secretary of State Antony Blinken in Kyiv just three weeks after Washington agreed to finally send F-16s to Ukraine.

And on Thursday, Zelenskyy introduced the world to his new Defense minister, Rustem Umarov. I sat down with Zelenskyy on Friday at his presidential offices in Kyiv.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ZAKARIA: Mr. President, pleasure to have you on again.

ZELENSKYY: Thank you so much.

ZAKARIA: Everyone is wondering about the counteroffensive. There was a sense that it was slower than expected. Now there is some hope that it is speeding up. Can you give us a sense from your perspective what -- how is it going?

ZELENSKYY: It depends on many directions, on many cases and issues, how to speed up counteroffensive, but remember that we need the result. The result we need, we have to get our land. We have to get the occupied land, and it's also not about the land, it's about the people because the frozen world is not the peace. Putin, he want to take all our country, to destroy all of our families, houses, because if he understands why he destroys, he understands that Ukraine will never go back -- go away from our land.

[13:10:05]

We'll never do it, that's why he has to kill us. He want to do it. That's why when we speak about counteroffensive, it depends on many cases. Of course, we gave a lot of time for Russians. We gave a lot of time to prepare to mine --

ZAKARIA: To put the mines in --

ZELENSKYY: To put the mines on the fields and on the big territory, so you see the three defending lines.

ZAKARIA: And that's because you were waiting for Western weapons.

ZELENSKYY: For the weapons. That's why when I said -- yes. That's why I said it depends on many issues. We -- look, we waited too long. It's true. No, I'm thankful to partners, to the United States, E.U., other partners. I'm thankful very much to President Biden and to Congress, but we have to understand, we waited too long, they put mines. Then when we been ready from the point of view of our partners because the decision to give us, for example, Bradley and other kind of weapons, the decision, it doesn't mean the result.

ZAKARIA: You don't get them immediately?

ZELENSKYY: Of course, you don't. Of course, you don't. So something still on the way, until now when we are sitting and speaking about it, when counteroffensive and when a lot of different people said that it's too slow, but it's still on the way.

ZAKARIA: You feel as though when you go to Europe and the United States, and you make these demands, you have these lists of weapons, do they listen to you?

ZELENSKYY: First of all, what we need long distance weapons systems, long distance artillery rounds, systems, et cetera, everybody speaks about ATACMS. It's very important. Everybody speaks about the jets, for example, in the sky. It's very important. We have the decision, let's start from the ATACMS. I hope and I will speak with President Biden. For me it's very important his thoughts and his support. I think he can change this page and this war. Once he did it with the HIMARS. It was very important, these HIMARS.

So it's about the ATACMS, I will speak with President Biden again. It's not the first dialogue. So we are moving. I hope we'll get it in autumn. For us it's very important not to do the pause in this counteroffensive and I need it very much. The second thing we'll be speaking about the jets, and I said before the counteroffensive with our partners that they had to know and to recognize that we don't control the sky. How to control or even to compare with the power of Russia in the sky.

All of us want to have success and a happy end. First of all, it's not the movie. It's not one hour and half. It's about counter offense. It's not a movie with the happy end. We will not have a happy end. We lost a lot of people. No happy end. That we have to recognize it. Victory that's only one thing that can bring the occupation of our land. It means not to give possibility for Russia to attack other countries, Baltic, Poland, and then to bring all of us back, you know, by this aggression back to USSR.

We don't want, the only position for this, victory is not happiness. Victory is only one possibility to ally and people in the West have to recognize it, not our values, common values. Not our war, common war. We pay the highest price, it's true, and I don't want to repeat this for everybody to know this war, but they can not only know people in the West have to feel it and you can choose. Feel it when your families are under attacks? You really want it? You really want to try it? I will not -- I can't recommend it.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ZAKARIA: Next on GPS, will Volodymyr Zelenskyy seek compromise with Putin at the negotiating table? Should he? I'll ask him.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[13:18:47]

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ZAKARIA: There are people who say there has to be some kind of negotiation. We can't go on like this. The president of Brazil, Lula, has said Ukraine needs to get out of a cold war mentality and compromise and even understand that some territory will have to be given to Russia. I'm paraphrasing, but I think that's roughly speaking the kind of view. And you know you've heard this. What do you say to people like President Lula?

ZELENSKYY: First of all, he has his own position and that's his right. I'm OK with people are free and they can give their position worldwide, but I think he doesn't understand that the position of Putin not to stop the war, let us be honest, his position to continue, his position to continue the war. His position is to divide Europe. His position is not to have strong European continent. One prime minister told me and it's true, she's one of our friends, she said that, you know, why I'm supporting?

[13:20:05]

My question is, why are you supporting us? And she said, people who understood Putin. I can choose only you support Ukraine or you support Russia. There is no other variance really.

ZAKARIA: No space in between.

ZELENSKYY: No space between. It's true. The question of the time. The question of the time when you will recognize it and when you will understand it. It mean that if Lula don't support us he will, if he doesn't support us he will support Russia, even if he doesn't want. That's why, Lula, maybe he said, I don't know what did he mean, but he said about it, we have to stop the war and we have to find compromise.

Compromise always with the people who are ready to compromise, who are compromistic to other issues. Do you see any other compromises from Putin in other issues? Did you see? Did somebody saw? Did somebody see? With Chechnya, with Georgia, with Moldova? He occupied all these countries. He divided all these nations.

ZAKARIA: Do you think Putin is stronger today or weaker after Prigozhin, after everything?

ZELENSKYY: I think he's -- my thoughts, that is the real face of him, that is the real face, and the answers how he see his life, the life of people. How he see what will be tomorrow, how he control, and you will find in one case with Prigozhin you can find -- even Lula, he can also find for himself in such partners. They can find all the answers.

ZAKARIA: And just see the way he handled Prigozhin.

ZELENSKYY: Yes. That is the answer. How Putin control everything. He control only people's mind, but he doesn't control what goes on in the country. He doesn't control. Then when he understood a little -- a big part of society supports Prigozhin, what he did, he killed him. But before he killed he gave him promises that territory of Belorussia and gave him new locations, the Africa issues and businesses. A lot of different things.

ZAKARIA: So he lied to Prigozhin?

ZELENSKYY: Yes, of course. That's -- and that is the answer. When you want to have compromises or dialogue with somebody, you can do it with a lie.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ZAKARIA: Next on GPS, I asked President Zelenskyy about why he fired his defense minister and how he plans to weed out corruption in his country.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[13:27:28]

ZAKARIA: On September 3rd, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy announced his plans to replace his longtime defense minister. The move came amidst ongoing corruption scandals relating to the military, but that's not the only part of the government people point fingers at. In one recent poll 89 percent of Ukrainians said that aside from the war, corruption was the country's most serious problem.

Further afield, politicians from donor countries like the U.S. have grown concern that continued financial support will not serve the war effort and instead line of pockets of corrupt officials.

More on all that now with President Zelenskyy.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) ZAKARIA: Back at home, you are fighting corruption. You fired the defense minister. You've put a new defense minister in place. This is something, as you know, people in the West worry a lot about. There is a lot of money going to Ukraine. Do you think you have been able to stop this and put in place a system that will stop it?

ZELENSKYY: First of all, what we have to understand that everything which today belong to justice in Ukraine. Justice for today for people is very sensitive and it's because of the war, because our fighting for these values that we can't, you know, we can't give possibility live that way which we live during some years, before, it doesn't matter now how many years ago it was. It means how it will be after the war and after the victory in another country and other people and another generation, another way. So that's why --

ZAKARIA: Are you able to make the changes to get to that new way?

ZELENSKYY: Of course. No, no, no. I have no -- I have no another way. Here. Here, I don't have alternative and I don't want. We don't want to have any compromises with not only corrupt -- corrupted things or people, even thoughts about it, you know?

ZAKARIA: But, look, there are a lot of people who say there has been a lot of corruption in this first year and that's why you are firing the defense minister.

[13:30:00]

ZELENSKYY: It's also what you have to know. All these cases are not with the help, are not connecting that -- not connected with the help of our partners. So it's not about that, the weapon of our partners or money for the weapon or money for the budget to give pensions, social support, et cetera, it's in other cases. It's not about the partners so --

ZAKARIA: So these are Ukrainian funds that have been --

ZELENSKYY: These are Ukrainian cases, but anyway -- yes, but anyway, it doesn't matter for me now. We will fight and win in this war, but again I'm underlining, it's not the money of our partners, also it's important. I know.

ZAKARIA: Finally, 600 days of war, for you, non-stop work. How are you holding up? And do you get depressed? How are you managing?

ZELENSKYY: No, no, no. I'm -- I'm OK. So I can live with it, and I sometimes -- I don't have a lot of time, but sometimes I'm looking at my children, yes. Yes. In Ukraine. They are very Ukrainian and I'm happy that they're here. I mean, that this generation will make Ukraine I think great because they're very strong with all of the positions, with all the values, with all -- you know, they're very free and I'm so happy. And like I said, I'm looking through the mirror, and I see another person older.

ZAKARIA: Maybe wiser. ZELENSKYY: Maybe wiser. Thank you. Thank you. Our friends say wiser

and other people say older, but it doesn't matter. My wife, I'm happy that I have -- she's nice. She's so strong. She's day by day she's stronger and nicer and younger. She has a lot of energy.

ZAKARIA: So you look older in the mirror, but she looks younger.

ZELENSKYY: Yes, and you see, this -- yes, and you see this is the same mirror.

(LAUGHTER)

ZAKARIA: Mr. President, thank you so much.

ZELENSKYY: Thank you so much.

ZAKARIA: You've got to go to get back to the war.

ZELENSKYY: Yes. Thank you so much.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ZAKARIA: My thanks again to President Zelenskyy for speaking with me and for making the effort and speaking to me in English.

Next on GPS, I talk to another key figure in the Ukrainian government, the man who is the mastermind behind Ukraine's drone war.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[13:36:54]

ZAKARIA: The war in Ukraine is in many ways an old style land war with tank warfare and trenches, but it is also revolutionary, perhaps most notably in the use of drones. Both sides have used drones for surveillance, to draw bombs and to make kamikaze attacks. Of course, these drones are quite expendable and easy to disable. One estimate in May found Ukraine was losing about 10,000 drones a month. That gives you a sense of the scale of this drone war.

Behind Ukraine's army of drones is Mykhailo Fedorov, the deputy prime minister for innovation, education, science and technology. I sat down with him yesterday.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ZAKARIA: So when I talked to people who have been on the battlefield in Ukraine, they say that the Ukrainian army confronts a terrible dilemma problem. There's a huge amount of mine -- land mines that have been laid out after which you get to these very big concrete trenches where the Russian soldiers are, after which there's a huge amount of Russian artillery, tanks and armored vehicles waiting.

Normally, the U.S. Army would clear this out by having air superiority. You don't have that because you barely have an air force that might change. The only solution, I'm told, is drones and drones are the great asymmetrical weapon you have. Do you believe that that is the path for Ukraine to break out of this stalemate?

MYKHAILO FEDOROV, UKRAINIAN MINISTER OF DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION (through translator): Yes. I think that the side will win that will have more drones that will use them with. The best quality drones are definitely the important thing for today and for the future in this war so we're going to put very many efforts in building an army of drones, so that we can develop and design air drones, ground drones and water drones because they really help us in real time to get quality information on the enemy.

They allow us to hit the enemy both on sea, on the ground, on the air, and of course they will be helping us to demine the fields. That's our next focus. And it can make -- it can be decisive.

ZAKARIA: Now you're buying a lot of off-the-shelf drones, Chinese-made drones, but you're also designing your own drones. What are the things you're trying to design that you can't use commercial drones for?

FEDOROV (through translator): As a matter of fact, if we look at how much we are buying -- how many drones we're buying inside the country that they're produced here and abroad, 95 percent, 90 percent, 95 percent of the drones that we design inside the country. We develop them with the use of components from all over the world, but we do that in Ukraine and they have an advantage over many world brands because the technological war means that there are changes everything.

[13:40:06]

Every day you have radio electronic warfare now means Russia has that and every day we need to respond to those products. Every day the doctrine of how to use them changes. We have to respond to them. During this year, we have increased the production of drones more than 100 times.

ZAKARIA: Some people have thought that this will be the future of war. You know, there'll be these automated drones going at each other. But when I look at Ukraine, I see you're using a lot of drones, the Russians are using drones, too, but there's still an enormous amount of human death. That doesn't seem to be going away.

FEDOROV (through translator): I think that today it's just the beginning of the technological war, a real one. We are just at the very early stages, everything is ahead. Drones will hit drones, will shut them down, and the role of A.I. will become much bigger in capturing targets on the battlefield, doctrines will keep changing. The systems of situational awareness will keep developing and we'll get some better understanding of what's happening in the battlefield and lose fewer people.

Everything is moving to a situation where robotized technologies will be fighting robotized technologies. And the one who will be the first to make those steps, who will reach the goal faster will win this war faster.

ZAKARIA: Let me ask you about something that's out in the news which involves you, which is Elon Musk and Starlink and the issue of last September, an effort to attack Crimea and the Russian naval base. The way the story is told and Elon Musk confirms it is that the Ukrainians, perhaps you, requested that Starlink be extended into Crimea so that you could operate in Crimea for this attack. Elon Musk said no because he thought that was widening the war.

Does that mean that if Ukraine were to try to get back territories that were captured by the Russians in 2014 Elon Musk will not allow his technology to be used in that process and it would be crippling for you because that would mean you would have no internet connectivity if you were trying to get back territories annexed in 2014? If you're trying to get the stuff that was annexed in 2022, you have the green light from Musk, but 2014, there's a red light.

FEDOROV (through translator): In fact, that case just became well- known because Elon Musk is quite a popular person in the world, but there are technologies that one can use that work effectively in the Black Sea, in the Crimea, and these are other satellite-based systems, these are military satellite systems, and you see that there have been successful missions related to the Crimean Bridge and many other missions to hit the enemy ships, and all of it used very many different communication means.

ZAKARIA: Do you think Musk is fully supportive of Ukraine's war effort? Do you think he's neutral? How do you view him? You've dealt with him a lot. In fact, it's because of your tweet to him that he turned Starlink on in Ukraine.

FEDOROV (through translator): If I look at his concrete, specific actions probably out of private companies and investor he has done the most for the victory of my country. We don't know what could have happened if we didn't have satellite communications systems in the first days of the war. We didn't have dozens of, hundreds of Starlink terminals that are working well, that allow us to provide effective communication. I think he has done very much for my country.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ZAKARIA: Next on GPS, you will meet some amazing teenagers I talked to this week in Kyiv.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[13:48:22]

ZAKARIA: It's that time again. Summer is drawing to a close and kids in many parts of the world have been going back to school, but back to school in Ukraine looks quite a bit different.

This was the first day of school for kids in Kryvyi Rih in central Ukraine. They were forced to spend part of it in a bunker because of the air raid sirens overhead. They are some of the nearly four million children who went back to school on September 1st. Children who have now lived through a year and a half of war.

A year ago we introduced you to several Ukrainian students in Kyiv. This year we've come back to see how some of those same kids are doing. I met up with 15-year-old Masha, 16-year-old Lera, and 11-year- old Maria, all from Kyiv. I also spoke with Vika, 14, from close to the border with Russia, and I met two students both named Maxim, a 10- year-old from Kyiv and a 16-year-old who's from the eastern city of Severodonetsk now under Russian control.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ZAKARIA: So the first question I have is what's it been like for another year like this? You might have started out and you may have thought this was a brief thing, but now does it feel like this is the new life that you have? You know, kind of going to school while a war is going on?

LERA, AGE 16, FROM KYIV: It is a new thing for all of us, but I think we got used to it because we've had this routine for the last year and now it doesn't really feel like there's something unusual about it. Just a new life we have to get used to.

[13:50:02]

ZAKARIA: So, Maxim, you come from a town, Severodonetsk, which is now occupied by the Russians.

MAXIM, AGE 16, FROM SEVERODONETSK: Yes.

ZAKARIA: When did that happen and where were you? When did you leave?

MAXIM: We stayed in the city very long time, so there are 66 days of bombardment in our city and --

ZAKARIA: And you were there?

MAXIM: Yes. And the line of the front like was here to the city, and there like Russian soldiers so we were very close.

ZAKARIA: That must have been scary.

MAXIM: Yes.

ZAKARIA: And you could hear the bombardment?

MAXIM: Yes, the bombardment, the artillery. And even like AK-74 or something like that also we heard.

ZAKARIA: Do any of you know somebody who is fighting?

VIKA, AGE 14, FROM KONOTOP: Yes, unfortunately my mother is fighting right now and I can say that she sometimes on the frontline, sometimes not, but I hope she will be OK.

ZAKARIA: And she's actually on the frontlines?

VIKA: She can help, she can cure some soldiers. So she's a nurse.

ZAKARIA: So she's the medevac units but that's all right at the frontlines. VIKA: Sometimes yes, statement not.

ZAKARIA: Do you get scared?

VIKA: I was very scared. I was crying a lot in the autumn. And it was very scary for me. I would call for my family, for my brother and father. But now it's OK because I get used to it unfortunately. And sometimes when I just think about that I got used to the thought that my mom can possibly die at anymore, it's just -- I can see that -- I can't say any words about it. I think any child can't express that.

ZAKARIA: Masha, I remember when you were on the show the last time, you talked about how you had a message for Putin and how you said, you know, does he realize how much pain and destruction he is causing. Do you feel like has your message changed one year later?

MASHA: Definitely no, because this year of war feels much more personal for me because my dad is fighting on the first line. Certainly hard for me to say it. But, you know, it's not same situation for me as Vika because she said she's used to it. And I understand her, but for me, you know, it's really hard to live with the thought that your father can die. And you can lose him anytime. So for me, I think this message is still like very meaningful.

ZAKARIA: Wow. When you -- do you think you have lost some of that -- the innocence of childhood?

LERA: All of us.

MASHA: Russians took away from us our childhood.

VIKA: Teenage years.

ZAKARIA: What do you like fantasize about if you think about like what is the thing that you look forward to, you hope for?

VIKA: I think the peace. I just want to live in peace. I don't want to be scared about anything in my life.

ZAKARIA: And Max, what kind of -- if this war wasn't going on, what do you think you'd be able to do?

MAXIM, AGE 10, FROM KYIV: I'd be able to go to the tournaments in other countries. Like I'm playing football. My hobby is football. I like playing football. And I could go with my team to some tournaments. Not only in Kyiv, we could go to other countries and maybe other towns.

ZAKARIA: Have any of you changed your minds about what you will do with your life because of this war?

VIKA: Of course. I really want now to go and have a job in the field of international relationships and international law because I don't want any child ever experience what we're going through now. Me, Masha and every child in Ukraine, it doesn't matter it's south, it is -- it's just all Ukraine. LERA: War actually gave me some certainty because before I was

doubting about my career. But right now I'm pretty sure I want to be a journalist. I just want to provide information about ongoing problems in the world because since the war started, I realized how important informational war is.

ZAKARIA: Maria, what do you think?

MARIA, AGE 11, FROM KYIV: I don't know what I would do in the future, but I sure know I want to live in Ukraine. Like I live to sometime in America. And I just -- it wasn't my home. I wanted to live here. I want to go to school here. I want to like make our country better.

[13:55:03]

ZAKARIA: Any of you have any lessons to teenagers?

MASHA: The main piece of advice for me is very basic. Enjoy every moment of your life because you don't know what is going to be the next. You don't know whether you are going to be with your mother or father, or they will be gone. Or your friends, or like the path of your life. It's just -- it's very unpredictable and the same was when we were called on the 24th of February and we realized that that is not the same life as I was living. So, yes.

ZAKARIA: You guys have been amazing and very kind to share all of this with us. And to share it with the world. I hope we can come back and do this with Ukraine in peace.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ZAKARIA: And that is our program from Kyiv. Thanks to all of you for being a part of the program this week. I will see you next week.

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