Return to Transcripts main page
Fareed Zakaria GPS
Interview With Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy; Ukraine's Children Of War; Fighting For Ukraine's Freedom. Aired 10- 11a ET
Aired September 15, 2024 - 10:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[10:00:36]
FAREED ZAKARIA, CNN ANCHOR: 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, the capital of Ukraine.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ZAKARIA: Today on the program, I'll bring you for an exclusive interview with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
VOLODYMYR ZELENSKYY, UKRAINIAN PRESIDENT: I think this war changed all of us.
ZAKARIA: I'll ask him about Ukraine's incursion into Russia, its struggle to defend its own territory in the east. I'll ask whether peace negotiations are in the offing. And what he will tell President Biden when he visits the U.S. this month.
Also, I'll talk to a Ukrainian who has been tirelessly defending a vital stronghold against Russia. He'll tell us about the incredible difficult fight he faces.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We will win, or we will not exist.
ZAKARIA: Finally, war is hell. For the past two years we've introduced you to young Ukrainians sharing their wisdom about the horrors of war.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's really hard to leave with the thought that your father can die.
ZAKARIA: Now tragedy has struck for one of them. We'll bring you Masha's story and more, on this special edition of GPS.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ZAKARIA: But first, here's my take.
Coming to Kyiv from the United States is a bracing experience. The war in Ukraine has become a familiar part of the political debate in America. Democrats promised to stand with Ukraine. Trump declares he could end the war in a day. But it all has an air of abstraction, an ongoing conversation that could keep going. But in Ukraine, the mood feels raw, tense, and urgent.
This is a different city than the one I visited about this time in 2022 and 2023. The situation in Ukraine is critical. And the next few months might well determine the outcome of this war. Kyiv feels less safe coming here for the annual Yalta European Strategy conference, even during the war, I've always found it surprisingly normal.
No longer. The number of Russian aerial attacks have gone up substantially. Few missiles get through. But the psychological effect is intense. The night before I arrived dozens of air-raid sirens pierced the night and you could hear the booms, mostly not of missiles, but anti-missile batteries.
More wearing on the population than the threat of missiles is the reality of power outages. Russia has been attacking Ukraine's energy infrastructure with brutal persistence, and alas, considerable success. They have used the Iranian developed Shaheed drones and have received a recent shipment of Iranian ballistic missiles which may well be unleashed on Ukraine's power grid in the next weeks.
Power outages, even in Kyiv, are regular feature of life. Often lasting for hours. Sources in Ukraine's government tell me that these blackouts have made work and life so difficult that it has caused a fresh exodus of people out of the country.
I don't want to exaggerate or paint too gloomy a picture. Kyiv remains a bustling, lively, beautiful city. The streets and parks are filled with people going to work, shopping, or just walking hand-in-hand. But everywhere there are reminders of the war's current phase. You see large billboards urging Ukrainians to sign up for the armed forces. There is lots of construction activity, rebuilding what the Russians have destroyed. And there are captured Russian tanks proudly displayed in St. Michael's Square.
Just over a month ago, Ukrainian forces surprised the world by moving into Russia and capturing hundreds of square miles of its Kursk region.
[10:05:09]
It was a huge morale boost for the Ukrainians. Soldiers and civilians who desperately needed it. But now a realization has set in that it has not caused much of a change in the basic dynamics of the war. In fact, many now question whether it was a mistake. By diverting some of Ukraine's best troops to the mission, did the government leave exposed key areas of the 750-mile front line where Russia is now poised to make gains?
Whatever the reason, it's clear that Russian forces are advancing towards the city of Pokrovsk, a vital logistical center. If it were to fall, Russia would come closer to its goal of taking the entire Donbas which would be a brutal blow to Ukrainian morale and would substantially change facts on the ground. We would return to a situation like that in February and March of 2022, when Russian forces were steadily advancing through the east and south of Ukraine. For the first time since the invasion Russia recently struck an
international cargo ship loaded with grain in the Black Sea, headed for Egypt. If commercial vessels begin to shy away from the Black Sea, it would reverse one of Ukraine's greatest achievements during this war -- maintaining the ability to ship its grain and other exports at high levels.
The economic element of the war does not get enough attention. But Ukraine needs whatever cash it can get. Its arms industry, for example, needs more investment so that it can like Russia produce weapons on a near continuous basis.
The greatest fear in Ukraine, however, one that I heard often and from many people, both in government and on the streets, is not about their resolve, but rather the West. And in particular, the United States'. One Ukrainian who preferred to remain anonymous told me we will never become a Russian colony. We will keep fighting but we worry that we will be fighting alone.
The delay in American aid during the last year caused by infighting amongst stubborn Republicans in Congress has contributed to the deterioration of the situation on the ground. And many now fear what would happen if Donald Trump wins in November.
Kersti Kaljulaid, the former president of Estonia, told me this war is a struggle of will. Putin is in it to win. And he has transformed his economy into a war machine spending something like 7 percent or 8 percent of GDP on his war of aggression. The West is spending roughly 0.2 percent of its GDP helping Ukraine defend itself. If we could even double that figure, we could bankrupt Putin.
The discussion in the West needs to move from area abstractions to urgent reality. Ukraine needs help on all fronts, economic, political, and military, and it needs that help now. The Biden administration should recognize that there is a chance that the next four months of aid to Ukraine will be the last major American help to that country. And act accordingly. Better to hope for the best and plan for the worst.
Go to CNN.com for a link to my "Washington Post" column this week. And let's get started.
Let's get right to the main event, my exclusive interview with Ukraine's president Volodymyr Zelenskyy. We met Friday in Kyiv and I wanted to first understand how he saw the current state of the war.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ZAKARIA: Mr. President, pleasure to see you again. One more in September in Kyiv. This one feels like it is happening at a very important moment on the battlefield. Ukrainian forces went into the Kursk region in Russia. You've taken large amount of territory there. Has that worked? There are people in Ukraine who worry that you took forces away from the Donbas and that those lines are now fragile and weak even though you have achieved success in Kursk? ZELENSKYY: Thanks so much. Thank you for this possibility to speak,
Fareed. So, first of all, we had very tough situation on the east, especially on the east in Kharkiv region, in Donbas region, in some of these direction.
[10:10:05]
It's Vulhedar, it's Pokrovsk, Myrnohrad. A lot of different cities. People know about only Pokrovsk, but you're right that the situation was very difficult. And they moved very quickly because we didn't have equipment. Again, when we speak about equipment, how to equip brigades, really between us, it doesn't matter how many brigades stand on one direction if half of them not equipped. So you just lose a lot of people.
You lose people because they are not in armored vehicles or in something like this. They don't have artillery, they don't have artillery rounds. To compare the number Russia uses 12 rounds. We used one, one to 12. That was the difference. Of course the idea with the Kursk, the risk operation is true. We understood it. But the idea was to move some Russian forces there. And I think it was right idea.
ZAKARIA: You know, we've talked about munitions often and you talk about it a lot. Help us understand. So the U.S. has passed this big aid package. Europe has passed aid packages. Why is that not translating into enough munitions for you now? Is it that there isn't enough supply or is it that you need more aid?
ZELENSKYY: Everything. A lot of different reasons. First, it goes very slowly. Second, we need 14 brigades to be ready. Until now we don't have from these package on brigades, we didn't equip even four.
ZAKARIA: So you wanted to equip 14 brigades and --
ZELENSKYY: We want it.
ZAKARIA: You have not been able to equip four.
ZELENSKYY: No. No, no. Too much. It's too much, Fareed, that's why we used our interior production of drones. Not enough but we did it. It goes. As I said to you that after eight months pause in decision -- before their positive decision of U.S. Congress. What we did during these all eight months, everybody has to understand. We used all we could. We moved what we have in reserves and what we have in storages or what reserves brigades, who we need now, what they had we took all their weapon.
ZAKARIA: You have also been trying to persuade the United States and Europe to allow you to use the weaponry to strike into Russia. Explain why this is important. You know, what do you want to hit in Russia that you think you should be allowed to hit?
ZELENSKYY: Everybody is looking the decision of the United States. Everybody is waiting for such decisions. After that they make decisions. It's true. And so we wanted very much to use this weapon and just to attack these jets on the military bases, not civilian infrastructure, military base.
ZAKARIA: So you just want to be able to attack.
ZELENSKYY: Yes.
ZAKARIA: The bases that are being used to launch these weapons, these planes, these missiles.
ZELENSKYY: Yes, because these jets, Fareed, these jets, these jets from there, they use not only missiles. They use these jets and jets use per month 4,000 guided aerial bombs on just on the east of our territory. 4,000 bombs.
ZAKARIA: And these bombs and missiles are hitting Ukrainian civilians.
ZELENSKYY: Schools.
ZAKARIA: Energies.
ZELENSKYY: Universities. All our energy infrastructure, they destroyed 80 percent by these guided bombs, 80 percent. Now I said we had some meetings with officials and I said we waited too long. Now Russia began to move that jets from 100, 150 kilometers, 300 to 500. After that, I will tell you that now we need more permissions.
ZAKARIA: Do you have permission now?
ZELENSKYY: No. Until now no.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ZAKARIA: Next on GPS, from war to peace, perhaps. President Zelenskyy will meet with President Biden later this month. Zelenskyy says he will present his American counterpart with a peace plan. I asked him what's in it, when we come back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[10:19:00]
ZAKARIA: President Zelenskyy says he will present Joe Biden with a peace plan when the two meet later this month. I asked President Zelenskyy about it during my interview.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ZAKARIA: Mr. President, you've talked a lot about how you also have a path to peace that you -- your military strategy is designed to make Putin understand he cannot win. Are you going to talk to President Biden when you meet him in New York about this plan for peace?
ZELENSKYY: Yes. I will speak with him how to strengthen ours before peace summit to be in a strong position because diplomatic decisions or solutions, they're good when you're strong, otherwise Putin will not even -- I mean, this, you know, take place in it and I think otherwise they will be not interested in any kind of circumstances how they can stop the war.
[10:20:03]
That's why I have the plan. Yes. Victorious plan because for us it's victory to be very strong, and be ready for the strong diplomacy. That's why I prepared some points. Four of them, the basic points plus one which we need after the war. So I will share with Biden. It's about security. Security. It's about geopolitical place for Ukraine. It's about very strong military support and available for us. And that we have to be free how to use one or another item.
It's about economic support decisions which will be I think interesting, but I think that it's the main thing. We are ready. If our plan President Biden will value and will support, and if he and his team can add something which will give us more strong position we'll be ready.
ZAKARIA: Will you present this plan to Donald Trump?
ZELENSKYY: I'm ready. Yes, I'm ready to share it with President Biden. Then of course I think it will be honest and right to share with two candidates, with Donald Trump, with Kamala Harris, and also, I think that a lot of things depends on decision of the Congress of the United States to share it with Congress. After these steps, we're ready to share it with the people.
ZAKARIA: How did you understand Donald Trump when he said, I can solve this war, I can end this war within a few days if I get elected even before I'm president, I'll be able to solve it?
ZELENSKYY: I can't understand today because I don't know the details of what he means and what does it mean. So my position that election period and the election messages are election messages. Sometimes they are not very real and that's why I think these messages can have not very, can make us (INAUDIBLE) people, of course, of course. But I had phone call with Donald Trump and he said that he's very supportive and we had good conversation. That's why --
ZAKARIA: This is recently? When was --
ZELENSKYY: I had only one during this period, yes, it was. I think two months ago?
ZAKARIA: And he said he was very supportive of Ukraine?
ZELENSKYY: He will be very supportive and he is -- he understands how it's difficult to survive during the war, and he will do everything to strengthen Ukraine. So I don't know. I mean, that's great that it sounds this way and -- but that's why I wanted to share this plan to hear his reaction.
ZAKARIA: What do you think is going on in Putin's mind? Because Putin has recently said he's willing to have negotiations, but he talks about what his terms are is essentially total surrender for Ukraine.
ZELENSKYY: I think he is -- he didn't change his main idea and sometimes he's playing just for some of the leaders who are waiting some emotions from Putin to hear something about this. Sometimes he can give some messages to global powers or somewhere and they began to speak. You see, there begins -- you see Putin is ready for dialogue. What dialogue? He's a player, and he feels this weakness of the West and global house.
He is finding where the place where they're not in unity, where they have different interests, and I think that is a problem that people have to understand that his mission is not to stop the war. He doesn't want to stop anything because he doesn't need and he afraid very much of successful Ukraine. It's not about even victory.
ZAKARIA: But then how will the war end? Because you're not going to get a total victory it seems to me. You're not going to drive him out of all of the Donbas and Crimea. He's not going to be able to occupy Kyiv. So there will have to be some compromise.
ZELENSKYY: It's when you're very strong, when you're very strong. And other side knows that you're very strong, and you are as strong as possible to make influence on his society, not to be very happy with this war because he afraid. Again, I repeat it again and again because I'm sure in it, he afraids on the one thing, no leaders, no countries, no nothing. He afraids of his society. Russian people.
[10:25:04]
And if Russian people are in danger, if they don't have comfortable life, if they live without energy, like our people, they will understand the price of the war and they will be not happy with it. And they will begin to influence on him, on Putin. That's why I sat make Ukraine strong and you will see that he will sit and negotiate.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ZAKARIA: Next on GPS, Volodymyr Zelenskyy has been president of Ukraine nearly 2,000 days now. When we come back, I asked him about how his extraordinary time in office might have changed him.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[10:30:11]
ZAKARIA: Back now with more of my exclusive interview from Kyiv with Ukraine's president Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ZAKARIA: So, you -- when you were elected president, there was a fairly small war going on in the East. But now there has been a full- blown war, a battle of survival for three years.
So, it's a very different world. I mean, when we first met you were wearing a suit. How is it -- how has this war changed you?
ZELENSKYY: Like is said to you, to be very honest, I think, this war changed all of us. It's true the war is -- the war was only on the East and here in the capital. And in other regions, especially on the West and even on the South, which is closer to the East but -- anyway, people didn't feel -- didn't feel the war. That wasn't in our mind.
We're mistakable that the war is very far. Now, this mistake in some minds and some heads of our colleagues, who are in Europe, they think that the war is far from, no. By the way, 800 from Kyiv to the East, to the point where the war was from (INAUDIBLE) 800 kilometers. Like the distance between our border and a lot of European countries.
So, the war is very close, but we don't know about it, and don't believe in it until the war came everywhere to Ukraine. After 2022 it came everywhere to all the families. And, of course, it changed all of us, all Ukrainians, and all our families, divided families. It took a lot of lives, a lot of human losses, a lot destroyed, everything, what we value, and brought nothing -- nothing good, nothing good.
So, it has changed all of us. But I think the most important if this war can change Europe, can change the world. This is very important. They have to understand that the war is close. Otherwise, if it will not change, Europe and the world. Otherwise, if the world will not understand it, we have to live in unity. Otherwise, Putin or some similar guys, you know, they can divide the world and can eat these (ph) pieces (ph) like a pie.
That's why we need this unity. Then I hope that this war change minds of people and change minds of leaders of global countries. We count on it.
ZAKARIA: Mr. President, thank you for being with us.
ZELENSKYY: Thank you so much, Fareed. Thank you for everything.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ZAKARIA: Coming up next on GPS, I'll introduce you to an extraordinary 15-year-old girl I've come to know here in Ukraine. It's a reintroduction for some of you. Masha has been on the show these past two Septembers, but now she suffered a terrible tragedy. Masha's story, when we come back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[10:38:10]
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ZAKARIA (voice-over): When air-raid sirens first rang out in Ukraine in February of 2022, children around the country watched as Russia launched a full-scale invasion of their homeland. Millions of kids, more than half of the country's child population, were forced to flee their homes. Many watched their family members head to the front lines.
Russian bombs rain down on their cities and their schools. In less than a year, more than 2,600 schools were damaged or destroyed. Most schools in the country closed for a period of time. That year we made a trip to Kyiv where I wanted to understand how the war was affecting Ukraine's young people who were returning to school for the first time in months. We gathered a group of students who were all impressive but a girl named Masha stood out, especially with her message to Vladimir Putin.
MASHA, 13-YEAR-OLD UKRAINIAN: I urge you to visit all of these places that were destroyed by your soldiers, by your decision, and talk to all of the people whose lives were destroyed by you.
ZAKARIA (voice-over): The war had practically come to Masha's backyard when Russia invaded. But when we spoke to her the second time in September 2023, it had actually hit home with her father on the front line.
(on camera): And do you get reports back from him?
MASHA, 14-YEAR-OLD UKRAINIAN: I do, but it's not very often. And it has been like five days since he was on his phone so I don't know.
[10:40:01]
But it was like the Starlink wasn't working very well. So, I think everything is OK. I hope so.
ZAKARIA: That must be an extraordinary feeling where like -- if you've been hearing from him every couple of days and then you don't hear you wonder why you didn't hear.
MASHA: Yes.
ZAKARIA: Right? And is it just that the internet is down or is it something bad?
MASHA: Yes. This is the hardest thing because you don't know. And you don't the time when you're going to get a message from him. And you don't know if you're going to get a message from him. Yes, that's the hardest part.
ZAKARIA (voice-over): I sat down with Masha this week to hear her story.
(on camera): I remember when I asked you about your father you said that you didn't know where he was?
MASHA, 15-YEAR-OLD UKRAINIAN: Yes.
ZAKARIA: And you were worried that there may be some trouble with the internet that's why --
MASHA: Yes.
ZAKARIA: -- you hadn't been able to be in touch with him.
MASHA: Yes, because they said that there was just like something wrong with Starlink so we just saw the -- it's OK. Like, he's all right. Just -- he can't text me and that's the only problem. But unfortunately, that was not the problem.
ZAKARIA: So, few days after we talked --
MASHA: Yes.
ZAKARIA: -- it turned out he had been killed. How?
MASHA: It was a bomb that killed him and the other guys with him. It was the third of September. And the next day he was planning to go to Bakhmut to take some weapons and things. And the night before that he was killed by Russia.
ZAKARIA: When did you find out that he was dead?
MASHA: It was my mother who told me that. I remember it was after school. She was waiting for me, not in her car as usual, because usually she waits for me in her car and I'm just sitting when we're going home. But I remember I saw her just like in front of her car. And I was like, what's wrong? Why is she standing there? And then there was the phrase that, your father is dead.
ZAKARIA: How did you react?
MASHA: I was stunned. I just -- I remember the -- I couldn't really believe that. Of course, when your father is on the war, there is a possibility that he can be killed. But I just -- my father was so optimistic about things. And he has -- he had a lot of plans about his life. And I was just very faithful. And I believed in him. I believed in his life.
And then there's like, he's dead. Just the moment when you realized that everything can happen in this life and it just can turn to the other side.
ZAKARIA: Tell me about him. What kind of man was he?
MASHA: He definitely is the bravest person that I have ever known. And as I said, he was always very optimistic about things. And I just -- I think that's what he and I have in common because we're just really kind of the optimist.
ZAKARIA: If you have a message for him, if you could say one thing to him that you wish you had said, is there something that you -- that you didn't say?
MASHA: That I am proud to be his daughter.
ZAKARIA: When we talked last year, I also asked you, what would you tell Putin? And you had said, you know, you wished he could come and see the death and destruction that his policies are producing. Today, if you had a message for Putin, what would it be?
MASHA: I have no words left to him. All I have is just hate because my father died because of him. And there is no dialog with such people. All you want to do is just kill (ph) him. ZAKARIA: Did you -- in the days after, did you have a sense of bitterness? Why did this happen? He shouldn't have volunteered. It's only human to have that.
MASHA: I remember thinking like, why my father? I couldn't really think other things just like, why is he dead? Why is Putin just sitting there alive and making all of these terrible decisions and my father is dead?
[10:45:02]
The person that I had this huge bond in my life and one of the closest people in my life and he's dead now. And I can see his smile just in the photos in my phone or his grave. I just -- I was heartbroken, obviously.
ZAKARIA: Masha, thank you for sharing this with us. I know it's hard.
MASHA: Thank you so much.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[10:50:13]
ZAKARIA: Russia's advances near the city of Pokrovsk have been touted as among its fastest gains since 2022. The fight there is the current main thrust of Moscow's unrelenting attacks on eastern Ukraine.
Ukrainian forces are resolutely fighting to maintain a hold there. But it makes one wonder, as the war continues to take a toll on Ukrainian forces, how long can they resist Russia's relentless aggression. I spoke to Yegor Firsov, a chief sergeant in the army. He oversees more than a dozen soldiers in a drone attack unit.
He is just back from the front lines stationed between Pokrovsk and Toretsk, both tactically vital cities in the east that are under consistent barrage of attacks from Russian forces.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ZAKARIA: Yegor, pleasure to have you on. Thank you for doing this.
CHIEF SGT. YEGOR FIRSOV, UKRAINIAN ARMY: Yes, thank you for your support.
ZAKARIA: Tell me, we're all trying to understand what is it like to be on the front lines. Where exactly are you?
FIRSOV: There is like a hard situation, difficult situation. First of all, I should say, it is like, on the one hand Russians have like suffer heavy losses. We destroyed a lot of objects of Russians, like tanks.
ZAKARIA: Like this? FIRSOV: Yes. But on another hand, we have a serious problem with our infantry. I mean, our soldiers are tired. Tiredness is one of the reason, our crisis.
ZAKARIA: Because they've been out on the front lines now for almost three years --
FIRSOV: Yes. Absolutely.
ZAKARIA: -- with very little rotation.
FIRSOV: Absolutely.
ZAKARIA: Yegor, let me ask you, are you -- are you nervous doing this interview?
FIRSOV: No, because my nervous left in tranches. A lot of time, I am not nervous.
ZAKARIA: After having been in battle --
FIRSOV: Yes.
ZAKARIA: -- an interview for CNN is nothing.
FIRSOV: Yes, absolutely. Now, I am like -- I have relaxed here. Yes, I have several days for that relax. And after the days, I'll go back in the frontline zone, and from Pokrovsk. And unfortunately, I don't know will we control Pokrovsk city or not over that several days.
ZAKARIA: You think it's that close?
FIRSOV: Yes, absolutely. Yes.
ZAKARIA: So, people can understand how much the situation has changed. My understanding is Pokrovsk, months ago, was like Kyiv.
FIRSOV: Absolutely. Absolutely. You are --
ZAKARIA: Cafes, people --
FIRSOV: One hundred percent. I said that point everywhere that life of Pokrovsk if we compare with Kyiv, is the same life it was before, even several months ago. And unfortunately, I should say, that Pokrovsk is becoming like of Avdiivka and Bakhmut.
ZAKARIA: So, the city is being destroyed. There's bombardment.
FIRSOV: Yes, absolutely. Without people every day --
ZAKARIA: And most of the people fled.
FIRSOV: Yes. Yes. Yes. Not like --
ZAKARIA: And this is a city of 100,000 or 80,000 people.
FIRSOV: Yes, but majority of people left. Of course --
ZAKARIA: You are worried that Pokrovsk will fall.
FIRSOV: Yes.
ZAKARIA: Now, you just had a change in your family life.
FIRSOV: Yes. One week ago, I became a father. Yes. Now, I have a daughter, Elizabeth.
ZAKARIA: Wow.
FIRSOV: And it's a big motivation for me. And it's a big reason to continue our fight. And now maybe -- she is like changing my life, my thoughts. And this big like -- big -- I don't know. I cannot explain. To change --
ZAKARIA: How will it change? What's it making you think?
FIRSOV: You know, it's like more --
ZAKARIA: You want to live --
FIRSOV: -- like responsibility.
ZAKARIA: Yes.
FIRSOV: Yes, more -- it's understanding why should we fight.
[10:55:06]
Yes. And I do want that my children will not fight. I do want that to my children will not know what is -- what is war, what is fighting. Yes. And understand that I should continue that war so that we'll finish that and we'll win.
ZAKARIA: You fight so that your daughter will not have to fight?
FIRSOV: Yes. Absolutely.
ZAKARIA: Yegor, pleasure to have you on.
FIRSOV: Thank you so much.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ZAKARIA: Thanks to all of you for being part of my program from Kyiv this week. I will see you next week.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
