“Putin Is a War Criminal” — Ukraine’s Fmr. Prime Minister

CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR: Can I first ask you about what the president tweeted today? And that is images of this terrible attack on a hospital. Children are trapped in the rubble, we understand. Can you tell us any more about that, but, also, on the effect those kinds of attacks have on people there?

ARSENIY YATSENYUK, FORMER UKRAINIAN PRIME MINISTER: Thanks for having me, Christiane. Every scene you see, what is happening right now in Ukraine, this is the biggest tragedy, and this is the biggest war after the Second World War, and President Putin, who is the war criminal committing the crimes against humanity. Could you imagine that Russian military, Russian troops just bombarded maternity hospital? So they are killing innocent people in the center of Europe.

AMANPOUR: Yes.

YATSENYUK: So, that’s the real disaster. And we have to stop these atrocities. And we have to stop this new Hitler, which is President Putin.

AMANPOUR: Prime Minister, can I ask you, because you have seen — I mean, obviously, your president and many of your officials call for a no-fly zone. NATO has flatly rejected that. But there is a race and a rush to get weapons to your forces in the right places in time. From what you know, is that happening.

YATSENYUK: Well, I’m not in the position to disclose any information, and that — this would be for us, but not for the good of Ukraine. But, first of all, let me commend the efforts of the U.S. administration, President Biden and of the entire free world. You managed to stay united. You managed to impose the toughest ever sanctions on Russia. But please don’t stop. We just have not to deter Putin. We have to stop his atrocities. He wants to grab Ukraine. He wants to take over Ukraine. And the next target would be the free world, the Eastern Europe and even the United States, because he is doing everything to undermine the free world. In terms of the supply of the lethal weapon, we ask for the no-fly zone. But we have a number of additional options on the table. So, my appeal to all my friends in the free world, please send fighter jets to Ukraine, please send anti-missile systems to Ukraine, please send surface-to-air missiles. We need to defend Ukraine. And you have the chance. And you have these capabilities to supply all these lethal weapon to protect Ukraine and Ukrainians and actually to protect your citizens too.