The situation that’s unfolding in Ukraine as a result of Vladimir Putin’s Russian invasion and attack against the country is enough to make even the most professional of us all choke with heartbreak and emotion.
CNN’s Anderson Cooper proved as much when he found himself rightfully choked up and emotional as he reacted to reporting from one of his colleagues on the evacuation of sick Ukrainian children in hospice care who are currently being evacuated from the country as Russian forces continue to attack civilian areas.
CNN’s Arwa Damon reported from Warsaw, Poland, and explained that severely ill Ukrainian children who have been in hospice care facilities in and around Kharkiv have finally been evacuated to safety in Poland via train, as well as some of their family members. Kharkiv, the second-largest city in Ukraine, has been wading through an onslaught of heavy assault by Putin’s military and has reportedly served as the epicenter of the Russian military’s increasing attacks against civilian areas in Ukraine.
“The carriage is filled with the sort of emotion that is too intense, too incomprehensible for words,” Damon reported. “But it is also filled with so much love, love among strangers seen the tenderness of the touch of the medical team, the whispered words of, ‘You are safe now.'”
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Damon’s report showcased deeply emotional family members trying to comfort their gravely ill children in a strange new place, so far away from their homes that are under attack. One Ukrainian woman explains that she just keeps trying to get in touch with her family that’s still in the country under siege after she got word that her town had been bombed by Russian forces.
“Nobody is picking up the phone,” the Ukrainian woman said, full of tears. “There are just the beeps, and that’s it.”
Cooper, who was reporting on the ground from Lviv, Ukraine, gave his raw, emotional response to the footage, telling his colleague:
I know this a cliché, but I mean, if moms ruled the world, things would be a lot different. The strength of that mom who’s getting just beeps on the phone when she calls back to her village that’s been bombed and she can’t reach her husband and her other children, and she’s on this train hurtling in the dead of night with her daughter on the floor. I mean, Jesus. This is, it’s just, this is just awful. This is just awful.”
The heartbreak and despair are palpable at this point. There’s no avoiding it. There is no escaping it. There is no hiding it.
You can watch the emotional CNN clip here:
Anderson Cooper
A JOURNEY OF CARING
“Jesus, this is… it’s just…this is just awful. This is just awful.” pic.twitter.com/Rzibd7p7mb— BetoMedia (@BetoMedia) March 5, 2022
Featured image via screen capture
