Name: PBS NewsHour live episode, Feb. 23, 2024
Uploaded: 2024-03-01T03:27:55.000Z
Duration: 56 min 46 s
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AMNA NAWAZ: Good evening. I'm Amna Nawaz.

On the "NewsHour" tonight:  On the eve of the two-year  

anniversary of Russia's invasion of Ukraine,  

we speak to a top State Department official and  a Ukrainian soldier about the state of the war.

YURA, Ukrainian: We have nothing to lose,  because, like, if we will lose this war,  

we will lose, like, everything, our  freedom, our country, our lives.

AMNA NAWAZ: The boyfriend of a  dual Russian-American citizen  

speaks out after she was arrested  in Russia on charges of treason.

GEOFF BENNETT: And with Nikki Haley struggling to  close the gap with former President Donald Trump,  

a look ahead to tomorrow's South  Carolina Republican primary.

The Biden administration today unveiled  a new set of sanctions against Russia to  

punish it further for the full-scale invasion  of Ukraine that began two years ago tomorrow.

GEOFF BENNETT: The sanctions are  also meant to target Russia for the  

death of anti-corruption activist  and politician Alexei Navalny. He  

died in an Arctic prison one week  ago from a cause still unknown.

Earlier today, I spoke with  U.S. Undersecretary of State  

for Political Affairs Victoria Nuland  about the state of the war two years on.

Victoria Nuland, welcome back to the "NewsHour."

VICTORIA NULAND, U.S. Undersecretary of State  For Political Affairs: Thank you, Geoff.  

GEOFF BENNETT: As the world prepares to mark the  second anniversary of Putin's Ukraine invasion,  

Ukraine's counteroffensive has  stalled. Ukraine lost a brutal,  

monthslong battle for Avdiivka.  Additional funding, as you well know,  

is stuck in the GOP-led House. And  Russia is showing no signs of quitting.

What is the outlook for Ukraine right now?

VICTORIA NULAND: Well, Geoff, you are not  wrong that these are tough days for Ukraine.

And, as you said, they have had to come  out of Avdiivka. When I was out there a  

couple of weeks ago, there were soldiers  on the front line with only 20 bullets a  

day to defend themselves. And this is why  the administration is pushing so hard for  

this additional $60 billion to support  Ukraine, because the Ukrainians need it  

if they're going to continue to defend  the line and push back the Russians.

But with this money, we actually think that  they can make some serious gains in 2024,  

particularly by enhancing some of the asymmetric  techniques that they have been using. But we need  

to support them, just as the Europeans have  just given them an additional $54 billion.

GEOFF BENNETT: Well, so far,  House Speaker Mike Johnson has  

refused to bring up a Senate-passed  package, at least for a quick vote.

Is there a way for the administration  to get that much-needed aid to Ukraine,  

VICTORIA NULAND: Geoff, I would  just start by reminding that this  

bill passed overwhelmingly in the  Senate; 70 senators supported it.

And they supported it because they understand  that, as much as this is about Ukraine's  

ability to survive as a democratic state,  it is also about the larger principles of  

a free and open international order  that benefits the United States,  

and that, if we don't stand with Ukraine, if  Putin wins here, then dictators and tyrants  

all over the world will take note and will get  hungry with their own territorial aspirations.

So we need to pass this money, and the  American people broadly understand that.  

So we are hopeful that they will tell their  members when they're home during this recess  

how much they support this money, and  we are confident that it will pass.

GEOFF BENNETT: President Biden  today announced more than 500  

sanctions on Russia. This is the largest  tranche since the conflict started.

Is this a tacit admission that the  previous sanctions haven't worked,  

what with Russia's military industrial  complex up and running and seemingly  

drawing on limitless supplies and  support from its authoritarian allies?

VICTORIA NULAND: Well, let  me start with your premise,  

Geoff, that previous sanctions haven't worked.

Russia has become a pariah state around the world,  

thrown out of the international banking system,  and now so desperate for weapons that it has to  

go to countries like Iran and North Korea  to get them. But those Russians are wily,  

and they have over the last six  months found ways to evade sanctions,  

but we have also got smarter about how to hurt  them, and that's why this package is so massive.

It looks at punishing sanctions evaders. It  looks at closing down further Russia's access  

to credit and finance. It also punishes for  the death of the leading opposition figure,  

Navalny, at the hands of  Putin and his prison guards,  

and it sanctions those involved in the  abduction of Ukrainian children into Russia.

So it is a massive package,  and partly it's because we  

have got to staunch this evasion and  because we have far more targets now,  

as we understand better how to staunch  the Russian industrial complex.

GEOFF BENNETT: Why should it, though, take  an event like the death of Alexei Navalny to  

prompt these types of sanctions? Couldn't  some of this have happened two years ago,  

at least to stop the flow of technology  into Russia's military industrial complex  

that goes into building the kinds  of missiles that kill Ukrainians?

VICTORIA NULAND: Geoff, we did sanction technology  

from around the world as -- two years  ago, just before and after the invasion.

What has happened is that Russia has  found ways to evade those sanctions,  

going to third markets or buying, for  example, a billion washing machines,  

and then taking out the computer chips  that we have denied them in other ways.

So, this is a tightening of those sanctions as  Russia adjusts, and we're confident that they're  

going to have a very profound impact.  But the other thing that's happening,  

and this is quite worrying, is that Russia  has been willing to intensify its economic and  

security relationship with China, in fact,  becoming increasingly dependent on China.

And that is how it is fueling its war machine.  It's also been willing to put the vast majority  

of its own economic stimulus into the war  effort, so it is starving Russia and Russians  

of investment in education in their own future,  all in service of Putin's imperial ambitions.

So, what we are having to do is adjust as well.

GEOFF BENNETT: As we wrap up our conversation,  

you said you're confident that the aid  package will ultimately pass Congress.

There is this question, though, of  what good would additional aid do,  

especially among those who view this as  a war of attrition and point to the slow  

progress of Ukraine's counteroffensive. If  the U.S. continues to provide Ukraine the  

same sorts of weapons, why wouldn't  that lead to a further stalemate?

VICTORIA NULAND: First of all, this aid is  going to allow Ukraine to do four things.

It's going to allow them to continue  to fight. It's going to allow them to  

build a highly deterrent military of the future,  

so that they will increasingly be able to stand  on their own feet in security terms. It's going  

to help them recover and get more of their  own people home and rebuild their tax base,  

so that we have -- there's less economic support  that they need from the rest of the world.

And it's also going to help them reform and  become a more European, democratic country.  

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PBS NewsHour live episode, Feb. 23, 2024

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