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00:00 A U.S. Army official says the first batch of American Abrams tanks for Ukraine was approved
00:10 for shipment over the weekend and as is expected, they are expected those tanks to start arriving
00:15 in the early fall.
00:17 Meanwhile, Ukraine's security service says it has detained a Russian informant involved
00:22 in a plot to assassinate the Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky.
00:27 For more on this, I'm joined now by CNN's Fred Pleikin.
00:30 Fred, tell our viewers what you're hearing.
00:32 Hi there, Wolf.
00:34 Well, certainly some pretty troubling accusations coming there from the Ukrainian security service,
00:39 the SBU today, about that alleged plot to kill Volodymyr Zelensky.
00:42 And all this is going on as the fighting continues to escalate in Ukraine, not just in the south
00:48 of the country, but in the east of the country as well, where we're now hearing that the
00:52 Russians are expending massive quantities of ammo.
00:55 Here's what we're learning.
00:59 Nearly half a million munitions.
01:01 That's how much the Ukrainians say the Russian army fired at them in only a week's time on
01:05 the Eastern Front.
01:07 Still, Moscow reporting only modest gains.
01:13 Over the past three days, the advance of Russian troops in this direction amounted to 11 kilometers
01:17 along the front and more than three kilometers into the depths of the enemy's defense, the
01:22 army spokesman says.
01:25 But the Ukrainians say in most areas they are the ones advancing.
01:29 And Kiev is hitting Putin's military behind the front lines as well.
01:34 After Ukrainian sea drones hit both a Russian tanker and a warship in the past days, now
01:38 an air attack damaging a vital bridge connecting occupied Crimea to Ukraine's mainland.
01:46 A local Moscow-installed official trying to downplay the significance.
01:51 These are sneaky punches, he says, really sneaky.
01:58 They can't be forgiven.
01:59 They are just snarled from a wounded animal.
02:04 Strikes like these often made possible by Western-supplied air-launched cruise missiles.
02:09 Glory to Ukraine, President Zelensky wrote on a French model during a visit to his air
02:14 force this weekend.
02:16 Now Ukraine's intelligence service says it foiled a Russian plot to assassinate Zelensky
02:21 using an informant trying to scout out his whereabouts.
02:26 The Ukrainians say questioning revealed the person was involved in other attempted plots
02:31 as well.
02:33 The Ukrainians say their troops have been making some gains on the southern front, putting
02:37 pressure on entrenched Russian forces there.
02:41 Russian President Vladimir Putin meeting with the boss of one of Russia's top arms makers
02:46 urging him to speed up manufacturing of modern weapons.
02:52 Manufacturers promised me that they would increase the amount of production, he says.
02:56 They deliver on that promise, but it needs to be increased even more.
03:01 This Russian drone footage shows the aftermath of some of the fighting in Ukraine's south.
03:06 Very little territory won or lost, but nearly every building completely destroyed.
03:11 And Wolf, there was a phone call today between Ukraine's top general Valeriy Zaluzhny and
03:17 the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark Milley.
03:20 And in that phone call, the Ukrainian, Zaluzhny, he told Milley that by and large it still
03:25 is the Ukrainians who have the initiative on the battlefield.
03:28 Wolf?
03:29 All right, we shall see.
03:30 Fred Plankton reporting for us.
03:31 Thank you very much.
03:32 Let's get some more on all of these developments.
03:34 Joining me now, CNN senior national security correspondent Alex Barquart, who has just
03:39 returned from several weeks reporting in Ukraine.
03:42 Also with us, the former deputy assistant secretary of defense for Ukraine and Russia,
03:47 Evelyn Farkas.
03:48 Alex, let me start with you.
03:50 There have been many reported attempts to try to assassinate President Zelensky since
03:55 the start, at the beginning of this war.
03:59 How significant is this foiled assassination plot right now?
04:02 Well, Wolf, it's very significant.
04:03 It's another reminder of how much risk there is to even, and perhaps especially the leader
04:09 of Ukraine.
04:10 And it's another reminder of the counterintelligence challenges that Ukraine also faces in terms
04:14 of trying to root out Russian spies and Russian sympathizers.
04:19 This was, as you noted, a major goal of the Russians early on in the war.
04:23 They wanted to capture and kill President Zelensky and then eventually take over the
04:27 whole country.
04:29 President Zelensky has significant security measures in place.
04:33 He takes different kinds of transportation, never tells anyone where he's going ahead
04:36 of time.
04:37 At the NATO summit in Vilnius, we thought that he might be going, but there was no announcement
04:42 until he was there on the ground.
04:44 So I've been at these frontline cities and towns where there are very few people remaining.
04:51 There's a huge level of suspicion for people who are still in those towns because of what
04:57 they might be telling the Russians.
05:00 So whether it is revealing to Russians the location of ammunitions depots or any other
05:05 logistical hubs or even the location of the president, there is no sense that that spying
05:13 is ending any time soon and that the Russian effort to kill Zelensky is going to end any
05:18 time soon.
05:19 It's very worrisome indeed.
05:20 Glad you're back safe and sound, Alex.
05:21 Thank you.
05:22 Evelyn, how much of a threat do you believe this does pose to Zelensky, this attempted,
05:28 alleged attempted assassination attempt?
05:31 Well, Wolf, I think this is really interesting.
05:34 First of all, because I think the threat might be less than we think in the sense that the
05:39 Ukrainians nabbed this person.
05:42 They clearly were able to use technology to spy on the communications that this person
05:48 had, this woman had with whoever was controlling her in the Russian government.
05:53 So it is a victory for Ukrainian counterintelligence.
05:56 So maybe he is safer than he was yesterday, or maybe he is safer than we thought all along.
06:02 But what's really interesting about this, I think, is we have to remember when you're
06:06 looking at a battlefield in the military, you look at the other side and you try to
06:11 assess what is their center of gravity, they call it, their strength.
06:14 The strength for Ukraine is the will of their people.
06:18 And the guy who really rallies the people, and not just the Ukrainian people, but all
06:22 of us and the entire world, as we saw even in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia this past weekend,
06:28 where they're okay, they're not all on Ukraine's side.
06:30 But President Zelensky is the man who has led this huge effort to make sure that everybody
06:37 keeps Ukraine in the forefront of their thoughts, keeps Ukraine on CNN's screen, right, and
06:42 keeps as many people on board and tries to expand that, which is what he tried to do
06:48 this weekend.
06:49 Yes, he did.
06:50 A very, very impressive performance from the Ukrainian president.
06:53 Alex, as I said, you're just back from the front lines in Ukraine, and I'm glad you're
06:57 back safe and sound.
06:59 What's your assessment right now of Ukraine's counter-offensive strategy?
07:03 How's it unfolding?
07:04 Well, you know, when you talk to everyone from the defense minister, as I did, down
07:08 to the soldiers at the front line, you know, what they'll tell you is that this is an extremely
07:12 tough fight, and they really want to downplay the expectation that this is going to be fast
07:16 and that they're going to achieve a major victory any time soon.
07:20 This is very much, Wolf, a grinding war of attrition, and the strategy that we're seeing
07:25 in place right now is one where the Ukrainians believe that they have to just keep pushing
07:30 forward using the weapons that they've gotten from the West, the ammunition, you know, as
07:35 much ammunition as they can gather, and they're meant to try to pierce through that line,
07:41 both on the southern front and the eastern front.
07:44 And they know that that is going to take some time, so they're trying to grind away at the
07:48 Russians.
07:49 There's no ace up their sleeve.
07:50 That is their tactic, and they believe that at some point they will be able to pierce
07:54 through those lines and that their efforts in the counteroffensive will accelerate.
07:57 At the same time, Wolf, we're seeing these extraordinary attacks inside Russia, inside
08:02 Russian-occupied Crimea, both at sea and the Black Sea against these ships and Russian
08:06 ports from the air with these aerial drones, and more and more of these drone strikes,
08:11 both in the sea and in the air, that Ukraine is claiming responsibility for.
08:16 So they're trying to put pressure from the rear, both in terms of affecting Russian morale,
08:21 but also affecting that ammunition and other kinds of weapons, logistical lines, that will
08:26 help the Russian effort in the south and the eastern part of the country.
08:30 So they're trying to squeeze that so that that effort in the counteroffensive can really
08:35 achieve some success soon.
08:36 Yeah, it's a sensitive, clearly critical moment right now in this war.
08:41 Alex, thank you very much.
08:42 Evelyn, thanks to you as well.