All language subtitles for Superpower.English-WWW.MY-SUBS.CO

- I used to carry around a little card in my wallet.

Printed on it was a passage written by

Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright William Saroyan.

His words have served me as a a kind of

aspirational instruction

on how I might best live my life.

In its few and poignant paragraphs

I held it as a Bible of sorts.

Its thoughts had resonated deeply with me

from a young age and on a visceral level

and for decades.

But it had not become so crystal clear

in its relevance until this past year and half

as I made seven trips to and from Ukraine

for the making of this film.

- For those of you watching,

Vladimir Putin has just declared

that a special military operation is now underway.

- This speech by Vladimir Putin

basically saying that this war

is on the hands of the Ukrainians who resist.

[distant explosion] Oh. I tell you what.

I just heard a big bang.

- And the distinct sound of explosions

on the horizon here in Kyiv.

- Go, go, go.

- A democratic country has been invaded

by its nuclear-armed neighbor.

- At least three explosions rocked the capital of Kyiv.

- We should go a little bit faster.

- Russia is picking off Ukraine's military facilities

one after another.

- No, no, guys.

- Okay. - What the fuck is going on?

- If the Russians did attack,

they'd have a short run to Kharkiv.

We're driving north towards the border

with Russia, which is now about

15 or 20 minutes away.

About half an hour beyond that is the city of...

- I really want to get back over there.

- They pulled back logistical units

that they could move back to bases

that are already close by.

All the, like, the things that would be essential for--

to take Kyiv they've left in place.

- But then the counterpoint

from the Unites States' position is that

they've also moved things in what looks like

a strategic movement towards--

- You have to spend this money to train the troops

on logistics on how you make these moves.

- I had a conversation

with a former State Department official,

and he, like us,

"I don't think it's going to happen" kind of feel.

Some of these pieces will be edited out of the film,

because it might be us saying, "It's not going to happen.

- And then they fucking... - No.

In fact, though, it's a valuable time capsule

to, you know... - With feeling.

- Yes, we will admit it.

But it's not going to happen.

- Erin's hearing from the Zelensky office.

How do you feel about jumping on the plane Sunday?

- Let's say things get weird

and they shut down airlines... - Right.

- Into Kyiv, should we go to Poland?

- There's a natural kind of avenue to get there.

We fly in and drive in. - Yeah.

Is there a train?

- I'll check on the train. - Fuck, that was tits.

That was really great.

That was one of the great nights in my life

just being able to look out the window

at the distant little lights and villages.

- So...

- We're gonna follow your lead,

because we're starting from zero.

- Okay.

- This project started with,

"Oh, what a cute human interest.

"This comedic actor, this nice little guy

"has become the president of Ukraine.

This is going to be funny."

I talked to Sean about it just as a friend.

I said, "Oh, I'm doing this, you know,

this project on Zelensky."

And Sean said, "Oh, you know, I've been watching

"a little bit about this guy.

He seems, like, really interesting."

And I've seen Sean do this with other things

and people that he finds interesting.

- Before the quake, actor Sean Penn

had never been to Haiti.

He has been there almost full-time since January.

- I've often been asked,

"What's a Hollywood actor doing

by going to places of disaster..."

- We arrived in Baghdad this morning.

- "Of conflict..."

I cannot conceive why they would not have shared

the evidence of weapons of mass destruction.

- Remember that Sean Penn is an arrogant

and self-involved person.

- You know, even his poop doesn't stink.

- "Spending time with alleged enemies of America

- Two-time Oscar winner Sean Penn...

- "Or much worse?

- Shaking hands with El Chapo.

Who do you think you are, Walter Cronkite?"

- Unbelievable, you see these celebrities...

"Do you have a savior complex?"

- Just stick to what you're good at,

but stay out of our politics.

I just don't quite get why CNN keeps having him on.

- What really motivates you, Sean Penn?

The best response that I've ever

been able to muster is that I'm curious.

I've been lucky in life to be able to afford to travel.

And weathered though it is,

my famous face

gets me access to places and people

I may otherwise not have known.

And sometimes I feel I can be helpful.

This film is unusual.

When Billy Smith and I set out to make this film

there'd been no recent sign of accelerated threat

to Ukraine by Russia.

Most of what I knew about President Zelensky

was that he had too had been an actor

and that as president he had the very unfortunate

international perception

of having an attempt at him being puppeted

by then U.S. president Donald Trump.

- Tonight an explosive allegation

by a government whistleblower.

- It details President Trump's conversation

with the Ukrainian president.

- It was on that call President Trump

told the Ukrainian president,

"I would like you to do us a favor.

- Suddenly I had to do what I do,

listen to smart people.

- In the early 1990s, when the Soviet Union collapsed,

Ukraine had on its territory

the world's third-largest nuclear arsenal.

If you go back and you look

at the George H.W. Bush administration

and then the first year or two

of the Clinton administration,

a real focus was on getting rid of those nuclear weapons.

And the Ukrainians at the end of the day

were prepared to do that.

Their one condition was, they said, "Look,

"nuclear weapons offer security.

If we get rid of them, how do you replace that?"

And we came up with something that seemed like a good idea

at the time.

And it was the Budapest Memorandum

on Security Assurances, where the United States,

Britain, and Russia said,

"We will respect your sovereignty,

"your territorial integrity, your independence.

"And we will not use or threaten

to use force against you."

Russians, of course, have violated all of that.

- We'd originally set out to tell the whimsical tale

of a real-world president,

who had been a comedy superstar

in a series about a rural history teacher

who becomes a president

only later to actually become one.

- Reality had mirrored fiction,

and Zelensky had made it difficult

for many of us to know

where the television president ended and the real one began.

- It was feeling ever more strangely

like a movie within a movie

within a movie.

What would it take for Ukraine

to be accepted into NATO?

- NATO said, "Enlargement will be a matter

"between the alliance and the country in question

and no third parties."

Well, I think it's fairly obvious

Russia's gotten a de facto vote.

I think the concern here is,

if Ukraine joins NATO on Monday,

on Tuesday, is NATO then at war with Russia?

- The situation in and around Ukraine

remains fluid and unpredictable.

There is no certainty about Russia's intentions.

We see a significant

and unusual concentration of forces,

which is, you know, unjustified and unexplained.

- And with the current Russian buildups...

- Yeah. - How does that go

for a president like Zelensky?

- I think Zelensky is a problem for Putin

in the sense that he contradicts

the Russian narrative.

I mean, the Russian narrative of Ukraine

is that there's an ultra-right neo-Nazi government

that hates Russia and hates Russians,

including Ukrainians who are ethnic Russians.

Zelensky is a problem for that.

He's Jewish.

- Let's be serious.

We're now living in the world where...

He made an entertainment empire making movies,

coming to shows all over the post-Soviet space.

He was a star in Russia as well.

- [speaking native language]

[cheers and applause]

- The situation was changing

and feeling more urgent

for us as trying to tell a story about Zelensky

to get over there as soon as possible

to give Sean a feel for the place

before it all might go sideways.

- We took in a bit of nightlife,

met with some veterans of the Crimea invasion...

Then ultimately with a very big and strong man

who was posed to challenge Zelensky for the presidency.

- Vitali Klitschko has made history as a boxer.

- Vitali Klitschko retained his share

of the heavyweight title.

- But he's recently left the ring

for a far more dangerous arena.

- Right now I continue my fight,

because I see the great future of my country.

- There's a lot of parallels between Ukraine

and the United States today politically.

One of them is how people define freedom.

- Regarding Ukraine, it's our freedom

to be independent,

independent to make a decision where we go.

Not so many people know about Ukraine,

because we're a very young country.

We just celebrate 30 years' independency.

We was in Soviet Union,

and somebody have an idea to rebuild

big Russian empire.

- Somebody has an idea to rebuild the Soviet Empire?

- Yeah. - Yeah. That's right. Okay.

- We don't want back to USSR.

We're fighting to build democracy,

to have a choice.

To be part of modern world, I guess, is freedom.

But just after 2014,

we clearly understand what this mean,

territorial integrity and independency.

People pay for that highest price.

- Thousands upon thousands of demonstrators

have taken to the streets furious with the government

of President Viktor Yanukovych.

- Yanukovych reversed his decision to sign

a long-awaited trade deal with the European Union

in a move that favored stronger ties with Russia.

- I can't imagine us living in the pre-Maidan times,

in the country with authoritarian rule.

We didn't have strong institutions

that were pro-Ukranian.

Our information space was merged with Russia.

We didn't think much about Ukrainian identity,

but people changed.

- I am Ukrainian.

We are not a Soviet Union.

We want to be free.

Maidan was such an empowering moment

for my generation.

Like, each of us, we felt that our voice matter,

our persistence matters, and that we can win.

- Before Maidan, Ukraine was kind of

a gray area on the map.

- No one understood what's really the difference

between Ukraine and Russia.

We were completely, like, in this kleptocratic state,

like, where everyone was stealing everything.

And one of the goals of this protest

was to clean up corruption from Ukrainian government.

And it was so hard.

- Fallen bodies in the streets of Kyiv.

Protesters confronting security services,

who respond with live ammunition.

- We're hearing from medical officials

that possibly 100 people have died.

That figure is going to inflame

an awful lot of anger.

- Ukrainians have this historical willingness

to be a democratic state.

And because it is so hard to get,

it becomes very precious.

- At the ceremony, the lady who spoke before you said

he wanted to build Europe here.

Is that dream one that will be realized

in the future of Ukraine?

- Euromaidan gave a great push to build our own sense

of responsibility.

We started to realize, it's our country.

We have to do something.

- In a special session, Ukraine's parliament

voted to remove President Viktor Yanukovych.

- He fled to Russia, urging Moscow to retaliate.

- Annexation of Crimea was made possible

because of Euromaidan.

It allowed Putin to switch on the propaganda.

- Shame on me having focused so little of my attention

on Ukraine's 2004 Orange Revolution

or its significant leader, Viktor Yushchenko.

After being elected president in 2005,

Yushchenko became Ukraine's first modern leader

to stand up for Ukraine's sovereignty

against Russia's unrelentingly invasive grip.

While I, like most Americans,

remembered little beyond the headlines

about the dioxin poisoning of Yushchenko

by Russian assets,

this had been a sanguine moment

in Ukraine's sovereign evolution.

In the ten politically corrupt and chaotic years

of disappointment that followed,

the masses had maintained that rumble of freedom calling

until that rumble became the river

that burst into Maidan.

- We were all through eastern Ukraine,

and we traveled down to Mariupol.

- Mariupol, which had been so consistently scarred

since 2014, would later become the site

of so much death and destruction.

Why did you decide to serve?

- And you rose to position of commander?

- And you're a sniper?

- It's November 2021.

Where is general troop morale?

- After Maidan, it was hard to imagine myself

anywhere else in the world,

because Ukraine is a country in the making.

And, like, being a part of the historical process

of building a state,

it's bigger than anything.

Like, you're building something

that will influence life of people for hundreds of years.

- After Maidan, people expected

a new political elite, a new government

will change the situation dramatically,

will fight corruption, will change internal rules,

and so on and so forth.

But, unfortunately, the old corrupted elite--

Western-related but still corrupted--

came to power.

- He was one of the wealthiest people in the country

from day one.

- Ukrainians perceived Poroshenko, many of them,

as another oligarch, a rich man going to power

and becoming even more rich man.

- There's a saying here,

which may sound bad,

but as long as there's corruption,

you can count on justice.

- This kind of idea of Ukrainians,

that there are oligarchs who privatized the country,

and they put the private interests

over the public interests.

So Zelensky was playing on this,

that, "I will come, and I will break this system."

- His political life began

with that really incredible coup on New Year's Eve.

- Zelensky was, you know, ally with Kolomoisky,

one of the oligarchs.

And Kolomoisky TV channel, 1+1,

instead of address of the president, Poroshenko,

they put address of Zelensky.

- Zelensky has done a lot to try to separate himself

from Kolomoisky, but I don't get the sense

that he's as compromised

as someone like Viktor Yanukovych

or Petro Poroshenko, who are legitimate oligarchs.

- In Ukraine, it's not necessarily a country

that's black and white; it's shades of gray.

- Here's a young kid, pure,

innocent, white, fluffy bunny rabbit

untouched by the dirt of politics.

- He knows what to do.

- I saw his show, "The Servant of the People,"

exactly what he would do if he was president,

which is destroy oligarchy, destroy corruption.

Be careful.

- He was one of the most famous actor

not just in Ukraine, of all territory

of the Soviet Union.

He not be an actor who is sitting and waiting,

what happened around him.

He was producer. He was director.

- Whoo-hoo!

- The choice is very simple, either or.

Zelensky is hope.

- Sometimes he is not very well-prepared.

- He's really trying.

It's just, like, not his role.

- I mean, we don't know what he thinks

about almost anything. - Well, indeed.

- Test out the policies in the TV show.

See if they bump, you know, and implement them.

- Yes.

- Zelensky came in,

a political novice, supposedly,

but I think he ran an excellent campaign.

You know, his themes were, "I'm going to fight corruption.

"I'm going to grow the economy.

"We're going to stop the war with Russia,

and we're going to get our territory back."

- We are living in the country

in which all the presidents

was from some politic elite.

I've been not sure that it can be possible,

but I was sure about him.

Absolutely.

- A political earthquake took place in Ukraine this weekend.

On Sunday an electorate sick of the status quo

voted overwhelmingly for a political satirist.

- We were meeting with people every day

while waiting for it all to line up

to meet with the president.

Between people on the street,

people in bars and restaurants,

people from all walks of life,

I don't think we found anybody

who said, "This is the guy."

Did you vote for him?

- Were you a fan of "Servant of the People"?

- I think a lot of people who voted for them

were also confused,

and they were choosing, like, from lesser evil.

- I didn't vote for him,

and I was very skeptical about him.

He did belong to Russian world.

He worked and made money in Russia.

I think that for a long time,

he expected that he could find some understanding.

- Who is Zelensky to you?

- He's the president, you know?

I don't vote for him, because for me,

president in Ukraine must be a man with the balls.

Because when we have president which want to speak

with the Russians about the peace,

what the fuck, man?

Russians don't care about peace.

- How old were each of you when you went to fight?

- I was 27. - 35.

- What led you to it?

- My father was born in Crimea.

My mother lived in Donetsk.

And Crimea and Donetsk now is occupied by Russians.

So I don't want Russians in my house.

Our neighbors, fucking neighbors.

- Da, fucking neighbors.

Fucking neighbors.

- We're currently in this situation

where there's a major Russian buildup.

- We live with this for 7 1/2 years.

We understand that they can go to war at us.

So maybe for United citizens,

it's like, you know... [gasps]

For Ukrainians, it's like, "Okay, we know, yeah."

When your enemy is Russian,

you must be fucking tough guy.

And it's a time when president

must, mm, do some difficult decisions.

- More now on our top national story.

The whistleblower

at the center of the impeachment inquiry

by the House of Representatives alleged

that President Trump abused the power of his office.

- President repeatedly urged

Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky

to investigate his political rival.

- Allegations of a quid pro quo,

that U.S. president Donald Trump

made military aid to Ukraine

dependent on the country digging up dirt

on Trump's political opponent.

- It is improper for the president of the United States

to demand a foreign government investigate a U.S. citizen

and a political opponent.

We missed a huge opportunity

because of the Ukrainian scandal

to work with Zelensky.

And also, those moments indicated to Putin

that there was an opportunity here.

You don't have to worry about the U.S. government

coming down on you like a hammer.

This is a wedge issue.

We could separate, you know, the parties,

the bipartisan support.

If we didn't have that,

maybe we could have warned off Russia's aggression.

- I can see you're angry with President Trump.

Maybe a little bit, huh?

- A little bit? [chuckles]

- Zelensky is incredibly careful.

And, I mean, at that point, you can tell he understands

that there's a huge trap here,

and he very carefully walks around it.

And then in December of 2019

there's a summit meeting in Paris.

President Macron of France, Chancellor Merkel of Germany,

they're there with Putin and Zelensky,

tried to mediate a solution to the conflict in Donbas.

- I think Putin kind of thought

he could play Zelensky,

but he challenged Putin in a way that I think

Putin was kind of surprised about.

- How does this play out now?

- Now we have the same Putin,

but we have absolutely different Ukraine

and absolutely different mood in your country.

- While Zelensky had coalesced

a new centrism in Ukraine,

the United States had fallen into

a populist lap dance of extremes.

We'd all been feeling the unimaginatively toxic

divisiveness at home,

so to see Ukraine's vibrant, young,

and united democracy downrage

of Russian tyranny was chilling.

- If Putin goes full-strength forward

using conventional weapons,

is Ukraine ready?

- I want protect my country, my mom, my family.

To protect democracy is really important to everyone.

All Ukrainians, we all is strong.

And I know that our future is great and big

for everyone Ukrainian.

- In a 2005 address to the Russian Federation

Putin said, "We are a free nation,

"and our place in the modern world

"will be defined only by how successful

and strong we are."

His statement played out as mockery

in the absolutely authoritarianism

he'd adopted in the years that followed.

But its true embodiment was happening

in the sovereign Ukraine.

And we could feel its simmering unification.

It was a different kind of air I was breathing.

- So fucking great.

- There has been a dramatic and worrying shift

in Russia's readiness to attack in the past 48 hours.

Russia has now moved rocket launchers

and long-range artillery into firing positions.

- Vladimir Putin, in a dramatic escalation,

announcing tonight he's sending Russian troops

into eastern Ukraine.

- Hello.

- Fernando, we have a camera on you.

- Okay.

- What was your impression

of Putin's speech the other night?

- But what is your human perception

of his state of mind?

- Up until last night I had some faith

that maybe there is some plan that Putin had in his mind,

bust just on his demeanor

he may not be rational,

and maybe we should seriously consider the fact

that there's a madman in Europe again.

- I don't think he's an irrational man.

I don't think it was a crazy speech.

- He challenged Ukraine's right to exist.

- He makes all sorts of absurd assertions,

like, you know, "Ukrainians are attacking

Russian soil" and that sort of thing,

but in some ways I think the point that he's making is that,

"You Americans behave this way for decades already.

And now I'm gonna behave this way myself."

And I think Zelensky has a problem,

because he's the target.

They want a regime change here.

- People would never support some puppet--

- No, no, no. - No.

- Isn't it ridiculous, though,

that they got to this point because of their hubris.

Zelensky comes to power saying,

"I can make a deal.

"I'm not particularly wedded to any ideological position.

"Language, politics, don't care about it.

"Ukrainization, don't care about it.

"I just want peace.

I want everybody in Ukraine to live like what they want."

He says, "Let's have a dialogue."

None of it works.

Putin says, "Meh, meh, no, no deal."

I--you know-- - "You're a nationalist."

- Yeah, "You're a nationalist."

And he keeps calling him a Nazi Jew.

Putin kept calling him a nationalist so many times

that ultimately it's like, "Okay, fine.

NATO, I'm gonna speak Ukrainian in public all the time."

'Cause there's nothing that the people in the Kremlin

are willing to do in order to make a dialogue happen.

- Isn't it a story of, like Russia's policy

against Ukraine the last eight years?

Every single things they've done

has completely backfired on them.

- Totally. - They thought they'd launch

a war to split this country apart,

and it actually unified the country.

And I think in my interpretation last night is,

this is about vengeance.

He's angry.

This country wants to divorce itself from Russia forever,

and he wants it back.

- Yeah, and there's this ideology in Russia

Slovak people can't have a democracy,

and, you know, Russians actually believe it,

and then, if, you know, if they have something

that's successful here, it is an existential threat to them.

- We're looking at something now,

we're gonna have air power, missiles, cyberattacks,

jamming GPS.

It's--

- If it happens like that.

- But I think if--if--

- I think the chances are up to 10% of--

- Ooh.

- I say, for me, it's 50/50 right now.

- 50/50 of Kyiv on fire. - Yes.

- I mean, I just think the U.S. government

isn't worrying about these things for nothing.

- Have you been to Russia?

- In 2001 Jack Nicholson and I had a film

at the Moscow Film Festival.

That night has become a deviant memory.

- Rising tension has prompted the United States

to remove its personnel from the U.S. embassy in Ukraine.

- The U.S. State Department

issuing its highest level, level 4,

"do not travel" advisory.

- It felt increasingly like Putin's special operation

was coming our way.

- The U.S. is rushing more military aid to the country,

the first shipment

of a new $200 million package arriving,

including ammunition.

- You are likely in the last few hours

of peace on the European continent

for a long time to come.

- Vladimir Putin has just addressed

the Russian people moments ago announcing what Putin called

the start of a military special operation,

in his words, to demilitarize Ukraine.

- We may be witnessing now what is the beginning

of the bloodiest conflict in Europe since World War II.

- Russian president Vladimir Putin

has 150,000-plus troops near the border.

- Russia has got forces effectively

surrounding Ukraine on three sides,

by land and sea and air.

- We were nearing the end of our scheduled week in Kyiv

when we got the called we'd been waiting for.

It was February 23, 2022,

when our first in-person meeting

with President Zelensky would happen.

We did not bring our cameras.

I myself am suspicious of trusts built

on electronic communications.

I wanted the president to have an opportunity

of sizing me up in person before asking him to commit

to participate in our film.

By the end of our meeting he did indeed commit to us

bringing out cameras on the following day.

On any other day I might have been ecstatic.

But this was not anyone's average day on planet Earth.

And both this warm, young president I'd just met

and his nation were in

a heart-wrenching degree of danger.

- Sean, I just talked to the security guy.

We have to leave the country in the morning.

Yeah, so we'll try to meet the president tomorrow.

- There's a big difference in my conversation

about leaving one day early versus leaving tomorrow.

I don't--I'm not prepared to leave tomorrow.

Who do you think you are, Geraldo Rivera?

- The war in Ukraine has begun.

- Three explosions rocked the capital of Kyiv this morning.

A rocket hit an apartment building

starting a fire.

- When was the last time you heard something?

- Like, that was, like, a half an hour ago.

I heard, like, the sounds of explosions.

- If we need them at some point,

who's providing vests, helmets, and all that shit?

- Peter. - Okay.

- I mean, we just got a call that there was--

- They had two impacts in town.

They're hitting the airport. - No.

- Yeah. - Fucking A.

- Airspace shut down.

- I agree.

- What are we doing?

- Just going over to the InterContinental,

find out what's going on, because nobody here

seems to know what's going on.

No maps, nothing. They'll have stuff...

- Fuck it.

- We're just going to go to the InterContinental,

that hotel right there. - Right. Right.

- To that? - Just the hotel right there.

- To that hotel that is on the opposite side?

- Yeah.

- And it says, like, the recent rocket attacks--

- Rocket attacks?

I hear ya. I hear ya.

- Here. - Thanks.

I just heard from Robert O'Brien.

He said, "Get the fuck out."

- The U.S. did hear from the president

of Ukraine earlier tonight.

He's there. He has not fled his country.

- He obviously is determined to say.

- Your attention, please.

There is second-level threat in country.

We'll leave upon you the decision

to leave the hotel or stay.

We'll help to organize this at a point in the hotel.

In a crisis, you will get the shelter.

In the announcement of this threat,

use stairwell down to the lobby.

Follow staff instructions.

You will be leaded to the shelter place.

- The air raid sirens had escorted us

into the day break of the 24th.

The modern country was suddenly at war.

It was a sad, surreal, and shocking day.

But admittedly, one also surrenders

to some exhilaration.

It keeps you awake when sleep is a distant memory.

And though completely unexpected,

the president's office confirmed

that the president would still keep our appointment.

- President Biden unleashed new sanctions against Russia.

- This aggression cannot go unanswered.

America stands up to bullies. We stand up for freedom.

- President Biden has said again and again

no U.S. troops will be involved in this war.

- I assumed that journalist and quasi-journalists

around the world would scoff,

but there was not one cell in my body

willing to prepare a question for the president,

not on a day like this.

I hoped the film would be useful.

That's about it.

- This is the center of the universe

for democracy today, right now.

- Okay, we have ten minutes for that.

- We knew by that time about the Russian commandos

that had taken the airport.

And that was only about 15 kilometers away.

There was talk about how long it would take

for the Russians to completely encircle Kyiv.

It was imminent.

- Hi.

- I'm well.

- To be here at this time, in this country,

with you, with your countrymen,

I mean, there's so much inspiration to be had here.

- Where does it end? I mean, what does he want?

What does he--what is the--

- Rosa arrange this. - Yes. Right.

- Please don't say you were in the bunker.

- No.

- You say only Office of President.

- Okay.

Oh, man.

- Right. No, we're the good guys.

- Yeah.

- Yeah.

- Yeah.

Bye-bye.

- Yeah.

Who's the Zoom with?

- With Ksenia Sobchak--Russia-- who's staying in Moscow.

- Okay, but is it on TV or just a person?

- On TV. - You think it's TV?

- Yes. - Russian TV?

- Russian TV. - Okay.

All right, let me tell him.

- Thank you for coming out to our broadcast.

Sean, tell us, please, where are you, first of all?

- I am in Kyiv.

- Why you're in Kyiv?

Were you aware of the threat

you're facing there?

- Well, I think all reasonable people were considering

all possibilities.

- As far as I know, as far as I understand,

today you met with President Zelensky.

What were the things you were discussing?

- What an unimaginable position--

it is my thought-- that any man or woman

in this world could be in.

I believe with everything in my heart

that this is a man of love,

intelligence, and courage,

and I still believe love is proving itself

to be the most powerful weapon on Earth.

- Protests tonight across Russia

in more than 50 cities.

- How much resistance is there to President Putin?

- These Russians

need to be the example of peace

for the rest of the world.

This is the height of that moment

in my lifetime, certainly,

and I think we can all assume, perhaps, ever.

Okay, any questions? - Yes.

Is there a weapon in the bunch? Where is it?

- Oh, my God.

- Russia's brutal war on Ukraine

begins its second day.

- Right now, I--

we've been, like,

for the last 12 hours, we've been on the road

kind of zigzagging to get to the Polish border

going a foot at a time in cars on different roads,

because they bombed out a bridge on one,

and it's just a lot of, you know--

but I'm completely fine.

And we got to shoot with the president.

Just moving.

- Ukrainian president Zelensky

remains in the capital

despite threats from the Kremlin

against his young family.

- Reports emerged the Americans had offered an evacuation,

to which Mr. Zelensky replied...

- How many kilometers away are we, 20?

- About 28.

- Hey. Yeah, so we're just going to abandon this.

There's no order to it.

- Let's see if there's a dirt road

behind those trees.

- All right, this is it? This is all we're taking?

You're going to take that backpack and your other bag.

- I got it. - You need to put the backpack

on properly.

- Hey. How you doing?

- Hey. How are you?

- It is, man. It is. It is.

My wife's devastated.

- It's unbelievable. It's surreal.

- It's crazy.

- Come on, Mick.

- Now they're just picking up everyone.

- Yeah.

- I mean, it's unreal what's happening.

- Yeah, man. Mickey. - Yeah?

- All right, man. - All right, man, cool.

- While the men of Ukraine ages 18 to 60

were compelled to stay in country

and get into the fight,

women and children dominantly occupied these miles and miles

of cars inching their way toward the Polish border.

These heroic women set off to a different front line

and the heartbreak of husbands, fathers,

brothers, sons, and businesses

all left behind.

They fled for their children's safety,

many without any certain destination or support.

Just three days earlier, they were you and me.

[air raid siren blaring]

- War has returned to Europe.

- Explosions and the exodus are only the beginning.

all: Stand with Ukraine!

- The Russian invasion of Ukraine

continues to spark an outcry.

- People around the globe are rallying

in solidarity with Ukraine.

- My feeling is,

I'd rather fail, you know, trying in my little way

to be a uniter, you know, by going and talking to somebody

who's already labeled me full screen

the enemy of the state.

- And finally tonight, the enemy of the state.

This week, actor, activist,

and all-around very angry man

Sean Penn takes the honors.

You are this week's enemy of the state.

- I flip between Fox and CNN.

And, like, each time, it's like,

"Sean Penn's going on 'Hannity.'"

- The least we can do to honor what they're doing is try.

It was important for him to get the word out

about what he had seen, what he had heard,

what he had experienced.

- It's a pleasure.

Thanks for everything. You've been great.

- If you were on this set, 99 out of 100 times,

we probably would be in full disagreement, right?

- No question about that.

I don't trust you.

Is there a reason you didn't trust me?

- Yeah, there's a lot of reasons I don't trust you,

but I don't think that I've got time

to indulge my lack of trust,

which it becomes a petty thing

as people and babies are being vaporized.

- A lot of the world didn't think that Putin would do it.

I did think he would.

So you get there.

You're interviewing Zelensky at this time.

Did he see this coming?

Did he believe that this was real?

- Yes.

He is the face of something that you see

in all the Ukrainians we saw and talked to

whether they were in uniform, out of uniform,

schoolteachers, even children,

this extraordinary courage that's come up.

It is clear to me that the Ukrainians will win this.

The question is, at what cost?

- In this buildup

I thought NATO countries and Western European countries

and the U.S. should have been arming

the Ukrainians for that moment.

- This could happen tomorrow also.

We could get F-15s, F-16s in.

Then they can fly those with three weeks of training.

They can fly the MiGs and the Sus now.

- Poland offered--what was it-- 28 or 29 MiGs.

- Yeah.

- Every report says Joe Biden vetoed that.

Forget politics.

- Not everybody says he vetoed it.

- Whoever vetoed it, Ronald Reagan had a doctrine.

And the doctrine was in the case of the former Soviet Union

invading Afghanistan in the '80s,

he supplied Stinger missiles to the mujahideen.

I support that doctrine.

I support the Trump doctrine that,

if you're gonna fight a war you push buttons

using new military weaponry and technology,

and you bomb the shit out of--

- Okay, but I would argue... - Hang on.

- You've made this political,

and now give me a chance to respond to it.

- Hang on. I will.

- Because I'm not talking about anybody's doctrine

that got us into a lot of other crap.

- Republicans and Democrats, they're all gung ho.

They start these wars.

They don't fight them to win them.

- We--we absolutely agree on that.

- And fight the war to win it. - That's right.

- And that means to defeat Russa--

- Or let them fight it to win it, because they will.

- Well, that's what I'm saying.

Let the Ukrainians fight themselves.

- Yeah, we agree. You and I can argue all day.

But I look at you, and I think you believe

in this country in your way.

I believe in it in mine. - 100%

- When you step into a country of such incredible unity,

you realize what we've all been missing.

- You'll never talk politics with me on this show, will you?

- We--we've all got to figure out--

- Wasn't that bad.

Do you trust me now more than you did?

- There's a lot of physical therapy necessary

after a big car accident.

You don't get it all done in a day.

- Our prayers are with the innocent,

and I wish you luck in helping them.

- And the heroes who are fighting for them.

- Next time we'll battle over Hugo Chávez or something fun.

- That's an interesting conversation.

- All right. - All right.

- Thank you for being with us.

- Former Speaker of the House, Fox News contributor

Newt Gingrich is with us.

Your thoughts on the conversation and more.

- That may have been one of the most impactful

and amazing interviews of your entire career.

- I'm going to talk to Sean Hannity,

to Fox News, MSNBC.

I'm going to go do talks at presidential libraries.

We're going to get this message out

and help get what Ukraine needs.

- You called and said get the hell out,

get the F out, whatever. - Yeah, yeah.

There's going to be a serious attempt

at a quick decapitation strike with the Russian paratroopers.

- The Ukrainians had something to say about that, obviously.

- Every fundraiser I've been to, every event I've been to

for the last several months,

people are up in arms over Ukraine.

- I mean, when we do the stories,

the ratings go through the roof.

- Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome

our distinguished panel.

- It's amazing to see the Ukrainians

and the resilience.

The Ukrainians are fighting and fighting hard.

And you think Ukraine can win this.

- I'd go further, and, you know, I wager everything.

The Ukrainians are going to win.

And what we're going to be doing is saying,

"How many lives did we let them lose?"

- You know, in Zelensky, this is a leader

who is pretty remarkable in this moment.

- Part of what makes him so particularly extraordinary

is that in that courage, he's the face

of so many Ukrainians.

This is leadership.

No one on the planet's been tested

in leadership like this one human being.

- Mr. President, what is it... - Tonight

a world-exclusive interview. - What is the situation?

- Thank you so much for talking.

- Thank you very much.

- If you do win, will Vladimir Putin survive?

- You know, Ronald Reagan once said,

"I don't know how anyone could have held this position

without having had acting ability."

And he said, "The ability to be a good actor

is to be yourself when the camera comes on."

When Zelensky got elected, a lot of people

made the comparisons to Ronald Reagan.

And, "He's an actor, and he's not prepared."

And yet Zelensky is just himself,

when the camera's on, when it's off.

He is who he is.

This moment right now, he is perfect.

- The Ukrainian president has been praised

as a master of social media.

- I mean, one thing that's very important to remember

is, he is a performer.

- Social media has allowed him

to dominate the information war.

- He has the bully pulpit now.

People feel comfortable that he has a vision now.

- All three of you really being versed

in this over time,

take me back before the invasion.

- 1999, I had an opportunity to do a project in Ukraine,

and I was in Ukraine until a month ago,

two days before the war.

- I was in 2008 when the second invasion

happened in Georgia.

We got in, and we were lucky we got out.

- I was in Iraq in 2007, 2008 during the surge.

- So I was the main interpreter for Lech Walesa.

So I was all over Central and Eastern Europe.

Yeah, so I've seen a lot of stuff.

And I've seen regression.

And it breaks my heart.

I was sent twice...

- What does the healing look like

between Russians and Ukrainians?

- Unless they kick the Russians out

or the Russians take off

and literally give everything back to the Ukrainians

that would be perhaps the beginning,

except when you look at the number of dead civilians

and children and women and old people

that the Russians, they've been killing.

- Go this way, guys.

- Thank you very much for talking with us.

What is your assessment?

- Taking Ukraine may come easy to the overwhelming Russian...

- Like just come out of an intelligence

with a Western official.

Ukraine is in a battle for its life right now.

- Ukraine's capital city of Kyiv

might soon fall to Russian forces.

- Russia's actions are outrageous.

Every hour of inaction now is a threat to the lives

of Ukrainians.

Ukraine loses the war, there will be no Ukraine.

And when stakes are so high for us,

of course we will keep fighting.

Whatever it takes.

- The people are mobilizing.

- People signing up to fight.

People bringing in supplies,

anything they think that will help

the Ukrainian war effort.

- We never seek to leave.

This our homes.

We defend our children, family,

our buildings, our city, and our future,

future of Ukraine.

- Can Ukraine outright win this war?

- Ukrainian resistance

is having a huge battlefield impact.

- There's a recording between Ukrainian

and Russian forces.

- Snake Island, and appears to have been

attacked by a Russian warship.

- The man behind those words

was awarded a medal for his bravery.

- Now we've seen impressive gains

by the Ukrainian army.

- Russia's flagship vessel, the "Moskva."

- Ukraine says it hit the ship with cruise missiles

launched from the coast.

- President Volodymyr Zelensky

visited at extreme risk.

- Tonight a stunning breakthrough.

- How are the Ukrainians pulling this off?

- Nobody believed in us.

- "Oh, they're going-- you know, they will fail."

And now the whole world is basically watching.

- This moment in Ukraine to represent a human phenomenon.

Like, everyone who I was calling

was doing something for the army.

It was such a huge network of volunteers.

- Ukraine is extremely united right now

for so many of us.

And it gives us strength,

and that's why we are not-- we are not afraid,

because we realize that they have to kill all of us.

- In Ukraine it's not difficult

to find a great diversity in political opinion.

Just as in the U.S. one can find

every impassioned nationalist idea,

every impassioned humanist idea.

And yet they've someone found a complete recognition

in the interdependence that allows for independence.

It's tangible.

- President Zelensky called on the United States

to send more weapons.

- They asked for heavier weapons faster.

- The Pentagon has rejected a surprise offer from Poland

to fly all of its MiGs to a U.S. airbase in Germany.

- Saying it risks setting off a wider war with Russia.

- We continue. We continue fighting.

We just need support.

I--I need to say to you, because you're our friends,

that we still waiting.

We still talking every day

with international war leaders.

We need some help by the weapons.

We still, for example, waiting this jet

from Poland. - Right.

- Thank you, Sean. Thank you.

Thank you very much, my friend.

- The people and government of Poland

had opened their hearts and borders

to some 8 million Ukrainian refugees

but found challenges when seeking

to provide fighter jets.

What did happen with the MiG proposal?

- We don't want to act unilaterally.

Such weapons like the jet fighters,

it would require the NATO,

and our collective decision was not to go

farther with our action of delivering the MiGs.

- Some countries make the point that Ukraine

should only be provided with defensive weapons

and we should not receive any offensive weapons.

The real point is that any weapon

that is being used by Ukrainian army

in the territory of Ukraine is defensive by definition.

Because we are not using it to attack anyone.

We are using it to defend ourselves.

We don't have the feeling that neither Poland

or the United States are not willing

to do something for Ukraine.

But they do have differences in understanding

who will assume the responsibility

for making the decision.

Use the bloody weapons necessary to win.

- Ukraine needs weapon supplies.

We need heavy artillery, armed vehicles,

air defense systems, and combat aircraft,

anything to repel Russian forces

and stop their war crimes.

Arm Ukraine now to defend freedom.

- It's an apocalyptic vision.

- How much more can the civilians withstand?

- Accounts of Russian abuses are widespread.

- We saw undeniable evidence of atrocities.

- New fallout and outrage

sparking more calls for a war crimes investigation.

- I don't want to live in a world

where a gangster with nukes gets to dictate

what we have to live under.

I just don't want to live in that world.

And the Ukrainians won't live in that world.

It's a real war. - Mm-hmm.

- It's in real life.

- We all thought that Kyiv was going to fall

in two days, and now here we are.

- Russia is aware that it's not winning this war.

- The new narrative is being born right now

about Ukraine,

this narrative about very strong,

brave, courageous country.

- The recipe of victory

is Ukrainian stamina

and Western sanctions and weapons.

These are the three elements that will make us prevail.

- The Russians, they have been bloodied.

- The Russians are taking a tremendous number

of casualties,

probably taken 70,000 or 80,000 casualties.

- I hate to say this.

You know, these Russian soldiers,

17, 18, 19 years old, right?

They're just cannon fodder.

And they're getting blown to bits by the Ukrainians.

You've got refrigerator trucks

and refrigerator train wagons

full of dead Russian soldiers,

because Putin does not want society to see this.

[somber music]

- Make no mistake, while I believe they're winning,

the longer that this war goes on,

the more likely it is

that it will start to fray and fracture.

So Mr. Zelensky needs to have an outright win here

pretty soon.

- I'm glad to see you, Mr. President.

How are you holding up?

- Thank you. - Thank you, Sean.

All the best.

- He looks like he's been awake since we saw him.

- [chuckles]

- Because the Ukrainians have performed so well,

because the democratic world has consolidated

with regard to sanctions

and supporting Ukraine with weapons,

it is not going to escalate towards a conventional war

with NATO

because we provided the Ukrainians with planes.

Since before this war, I've been talking

about giving the Ukrainians weapons to deter Russia.

We should be able to peer around the corner

and see how this war is going to unfold,

the fact that we're going to have to step in

and provide more.

But we're going to do it too late,

and we're going to miss opportunities

to make this a short war.

We're going to miss opportunities

to reduce the human toll for Ukraine.

We're going to miss opportunities

to really decrease the risk for the U.S.

with a long-war scenario.

- One part of the war that we've gotten

very little insight into is the battle for the sky.

- This rumor of the Ghost of Kyiv.

- The Ghost of Kyiv.

- The Ghost of Kyiv, they call it.

- The Russian Air Force has not been able

to get air supremacy.

Can you just talk a little bit about why that is?

- Because they have a fear of our air defense.

But we need effective tools to do this efficiently.

- How do the Russians get stopped?

- The conflict will be going on for some time,

and we need the weapons flowing,

and without U.S. assistance,

that would be close to not possible.

We need new fighter jets.

- That's much more exciting for him than it is for you.

- Yeah.

- We just watched your movie.

The next "Top Gun" movie should be made in Ukraine.

- You know, you put the world on notice

that Ukraine, you know,

isn't fucking laying down for anything.

It's a real honor to talk to you guys.

- Thank you for support.

- As this war went on,

it got more and more difficult

to keep attention and interest in it.

- Other stories we're following for you...

- Will Smith clashed with comedian Chris Rock.

- There's a time limit.

- The world watched Johnny Depp's...

- And there's an energy limit

to what people can put on the horrors

of something taking place far away.

For Sean, it was very important

to get back to Ukraine...

Get back to see what's going on

and experience what it was like now in June.

And we knew the important thing was getting Sean

and Zelensky back together.

- Ukraine's president is accusing Russia now

of bombing a crowded shopping mall

in the eastern part of the country.

- The capital, Kyiv, once again in the crosshairs.

- This morning, the most serious attack

on Kyiv in weeks, two apartment blocks struck.

- In residential buildings hit by rockets,

the number of civilian casualties is rising.

- Is this it?

- Yeah, this is-- this is it.

Who's coming?

Wow.

This was the living room.

That was a bedroom and restroom.

- Yeah, this is not structurally sound anymore,

is it? - No.

- So what are you doing now?

Just hearing out the things that can be salvaged?

- Yeah, so actually, I asked the military guys

to help me out.

They came here. They clear everything.

They try to make sure that we actually can take anything.

I tried to find, like, really sensitive stuff,

like maybe pictures or, like, some other stuff.

Yeah, that's it.

Like, I just wanted to find something.

- What can we help you carry? - Nothing.

It's done. - It's done. Okay.

- It's done.

We took everything that we could.

That's it.

Welcome to my home.

- Because you can?

- Because I can.

- Thank you.

- And here too.

- I'm a little bit late.

Maybe not little. Sorry. I'm so sorry.

- No, you're fine.

Once the invasion began,

what was the first moment

that you were able to check in with your family?

- In the night, I think.

In the night. It was in the night.

And I had phone call.

My wife, I said, "Tell children,

"detailing everything.

What does it mean, the war with Russia?"

- The day of the invasion, when you walked in,

I saw a change in you.

There was an air of, you were born for this moment.

It was so clear

that we were in a moment of...

extreme history.

- Everybody has to be--

has to become older, older at this moment

to understand what to do and what we are doing,

because we need to live in the real life,

not in fairy tale.

- There it is.

- So this is the direct impact crater?

- Yeah.

And he's like wise...

political man.

So even our children began because of the war.

They began to speak, like, you know,

to speak not like children.

He understand why I am not with him every day.

He said to me that, "I understand you,

"and I think that in the future,

maybe we can have something like it was before the war."

He understand that it will not be such way like it was.

Only now we know what country we have to build.

I made a lot of decisions.

For example...

And we'll see the result only after the war.

From this point, we can't come back

to the political, economical

securities strategy.

It couldn't be just democracy,

just liberal attitude to everything.

It couldn't be so.

But we should know that soldiers with weapon

will be in the streets.

You know, how can everywhere be people with guns?

Why you are looking what is in my bag

when I'm entering shops?

Now we should do it.

It's a pity.

It's not about Ukraine.

That is the result of all the wars.

- Yeah, this kind of stuff is still shockingly stupid,

and the idea that one evil little man

could be so generating the force behind it,

it's just unimaginable

and has to change somehow for--

I think about it for my kids,

because everything that happens here

is going to affect

every other place in the world today.

And I think that's the reason that we're all

so invested in this,

and because Ukraine is representing

the greatest aspirations that we all share.

- They will not stop...

never.

A lot of people die.

And... [sighs, clears throat]

so--so it's tragedy,

but I understood that this tragedy result of the war.

I understood it.

They will destroy everything.

People want to forget what's going on in the East.

Believe me, now they destroyed everything on the East.

We need to go and talk

to the soldiers who are fighting the fight

and spend some time on the front line.

- Yes, it's possible. We could help.

We're very interested to show the world

what's going on here.

We are fighting.

We destroyed a lot of Russian troops,

and they destroyed us.

That is the war between two.

They are not waiting, and we are fighting.

They will dig in.

So that is the problem.

We should press on them.

That's very difficult with such,

I think, slowly way

of getting weapons.

With such speed...

you can't move forward.

- Ukraine is intent on pushing Russian troops

back to their border with the help

of advanced long-range missile systems

en route from the United States.

- The U.S. is sending artillery rocket systems

known as HIMARS.

- The weaponry includes the M142

high-mobility artillery rocket system.

- Once you fire from a position,

does that immediately mean you're gonna move positions?

I think that because of our proximity now

to active combat, that's where our sights should be set.

- Let's put that in this truck.

- Yeah, we're gonna do this.

- Let's do that. - Okay.

Okay.

- Up.

- Okay.

So that means we're getting close.

During last ten days...

During last ten days.

Because shells are going without stopping.

No stop, shelling without stopping,

any stopping, different kinds.

And it's, you know...

that is what we have.

- Russia is intensifying its assault

in the east of Ukraine.

- And the Ukrainians may have to decide do they,

as it were, dig in in Severodonetsk,

or do they give up the city now

and leave while they can?

- Can you speak to what importance it was

to the solidary of this fight

that the president stayed in Kyiv?

- These Russians, they killed a lot of people.

And it was, for me, shock,

also for everybody, that they--

- Raped, yeah.

When they began, when they raped

some women and some children, it was fuck--

I can't find, you know, right words

and never find.

I will never find for this, because it was shock.

So many children, so many blood.

- Russia is bombing kindergarten schools,

maternity hospitals.

- They are crimes. They're not really soldiers.

They did crime

against the humanitarian...

- Right. - Values.

- Latvian MPs have declared Russia

a state sponsor of terrorism,

saying its invasion of Ukraine

amounted to genocide.

- Ukrainian officials saying

there are 1,000 new war crimes investigations

now underway in just one newly liberated city.

- For those who've lived under occupation,

it's been hell.

- There is very serious erosion

of moral values in Russia,

which is dangerous for the whole world.

- History will remember and talk about Zelensky.

He went beyond the expectations,

went beyond what anybody could have imagined he would do.

But Russia's not going anywhere.

This toxic environment

doesn't go away for many, many years.

- What are the challenges in the short term?

- To fly, you need two wings.

Don't give me one wing and waiting,

when you will fly?

I will never fly with one wing.

I need two, and if you want me to fly now,

I need two now.

So we should win now, jointly, with all the world now.

- It's already economic warfare,

sanctions, energy warfare.

It's refugee flows destabilizing countries.

What happens if Russia starts to fracture,

Chechens start to break off...

It's a recipe for the Chinas of the world

to make territorial grabs,

for the Irans of the world to make territorial grabs.

- If you want to keep China out of Taiwan,

keep Ukraine in the fight.

Push Russia out,

and keep that fight from coming to us,

'cause if Ukraine loses, we lose.

If Ukraine fails, it's not just a failure for democracy.

It's a failure for the global economy,

because we're seeing how dependent we all are

not just on oil and gas,

but also, global supply chains are affected.

So their fight is our fight,

and the tip of the spear right now

is the fight in Ukraine.

- And if these people

are ready to kill children,

are ready to kill civilians,

why will they stop?

For what?

- If Ukraine not stop the Russia

and not win,

they not a reason to stopping in the future.

Next will be Moldova.

Next will be Lithuania, Poland.

It means that it will be war against NATO.

And it means that, once again,

American soldiers

will be sent for the new war in Europe.

I went many cities, Chicago, Los Angeles, Boston

what I could with those money I had,

not a lot of money,

to understand, what does it mean, democracy?

What does it mean, feeling-- this feeling...

I loved to run.

Especially in the morning,

you could understand where you live.

I wanted very much to go to the country

where freedom-- to find this feeling.

Ukrainians so long time

wanted to be free. - Hmm.

- And Ukrainians didn't understand--me also.

We didn't understand that we have to pay for that.

And we didn't understand the high price of it.

This understanding of freedom came with a war,

with the fighting for this freedom.

For Americans to understand what's going on here

and to understand the price,

they can feel it only if they will be on the war,

and I don't want them to fight in the war.

They had already--had already many different wars,

many different dead guys and soldiers

on different wars.

If we will not win now,

Americans will fight

in some years with this enemy.

Can tyranny win or not?

What will be the end of this war?

If I fight, I should win,

because if you are not ready to win,

don't fight.

- One year ago, we interviewed you,

and you said what?

And... yeah, yeah.

- I hope, I really hope

that when he's an old man and I'm an even older one

that I might be sitting with him

in a peaceful and prosperous free Kyiv

laughing like a couple of kids

at what William Saroyan called "the infinite delight

and mystery of life."

You have a job as a head of state to lead...

To inspire, to communicate,

to sacrifice...

It's been said that leadership's

first responsibility is to define reality

in courage in the face of unspeakable terror.

Volodymyr Zelensky has done that.

And he's done it despite a next-level problem set.

He'd done it for his country.

He'd done it for his children.

And he'd done it for ours.

Going to Ukraine, I got filled with this feeling of unity.

That's not because I'm closing my eyes

to what the cost of it is right now.

It was about how they were paying it

in common cause.

The weapons and ammunition are not being supplied quickly

or completely, yet Ukrainians battle on

with otherworldly courage in a freedom war

for sovereignty and the right to dream.

And we in the United States,

if we don't find common cause,

then we're only going backwards.

And we're gonna kill each other.

- Mr. President, what's the first thing you're gonna do

once Ukraine wins this war?