Zelenskyy sees "opportunity" as China offers to mediate in Ukraine war
Ukraine's leader said he had a "mostly reasonable" conversation with Xi Jinping, and they have an equal interest in "the sovereignty of nations and territorial integrity."
Charlie D'Agata is CBS News' senior national security correspondent, based in Washington, D.C. He was previously a senior foreign correspondent, based in London, and has spent more than two decades covering international news for CBS, touching virtually every major worldwide conflict since the terrorist attacks of 9/11 and war in Afghanistan. D'Agata reports for all CBS News broadcasts and platforms, including "CBS This Morning," and the "CBS Evening News" and CBS News 24/7.
Most recently, D'Agata has been reporting from the frontlines of the conflicts in Ukraine and Israel-Gaza as war and humanitarian crises have engulfed these regions. In early 2024, D'Agata conducted an exclusive, in-depth interview with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in a bombed-out building, 12 miles from near the Russia border, where Zelenskyy warned of Vladimir Putin bringing war to Europe. D'Agata was given exclusive access to the U.S. Army's 101st Airborne Division who were practicing for war with Russia several miles from Ukraine's border — the unit's first deployment to Europe since World War II.
D'Agata was among one of the first reporters on the ground in Israel after the Hamas terrorist attack on Oct. 7, 2023, and has reported from inside Gaza, embedding with the Israeli military numerous times since the conflict began. As tensions spread in the region, he joined a crew aboard the USS Bataan in the eastern Mediterranean as Yemen's Iran-backed Houthi rebels continued to attack commercial vessels linked to Israel and its allies.
Beyond offering insights from active participants of the conflicts, D'Agata has relentlessly extended a platform to honor the lives of civilian casualties and individuals whose lives have been uprooted as a result of war.
D'Agata and his team spearheaded coverage of the migrant crisis that led to CBS News winning both the prestigious 2017 Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University Award and the Sigma Delta Chi award. He earned the Overseas Press Club Award in 2013 for the dramatic story of the crackdown in Cairo following the Egyptian revolution. His work helped earn numerous Edward R. Murrow awards for CBS News, primarily for his coverage throughout Iraq and inside Syria.
In reporting on the fight against ISIS, D'Agata and his team were among the first Western journalists to reach eastern Mosul. Prior to that, he covered the offensive to liberate Fallujah, and embedded with Kurdish Peshmerga in the battle for Sinjar. D'Agata was also the first American journalist in Baghdad 10 months before the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in 2003.
D'Agata and his colleagues were the first to report from Benghazi, Libya, when Islamic militants launched a coordinated attack on the U.S. Consulate, which resulted in the deaths of Ambassador Christopher Stevens and three U.S. personnel.
He has covered natural disasters from the Asian tsunami, earthquakes in Italy, and the earthquake and tsunami in Japan that triggered a nuclear crisis at the Fukushima power plant.
D'Agata has also been a correspondent for many other international events, including the death of Pope John Paul II and succession to Pope Benedict, the Royal Wedding of William and Catherine, Queen Elizabeth's Golden Jubilee, the upheavals during the Arab Spring, and numerous terror attacks in Europe.
Previously, he was the London correspondent for CBS Newspath, the affiliate news service of CBS News; Newspath's first internationally based correspondent. Before that, he was CBS Radio's chief overseas correspondent (2002-05).
Before joining CBS News, D'Agata was a correspondent for APTN in London, and began his international career in 1992 as assignment editor for ABC News in London.
D'Agata was born in Lawrence, Mass., and graduated from Colorado State University with a B.A. degree in journalism.
Ukraine's leader said he had a "mostly reasonable" conversation with Xi Jinping, and they have an equal interest in "the sovereignty of nations and territorial integrity."
U.S. troops left in 2011 but returned as the country was gripped by sectarian bloodshed and the rise of ISIS, and Iraqis struggle to believe the nightmare is over.
Western forces quickly toppled Saddam Hussein's regime, but the invasion sparked a devastating civil war and gave rise to ISIS, so optimism has been hard to come by.
Families are flocking to heating centers in churches, libraries and theaters to escape the winter cold.
A small group of Ukrainian leaders knew roughly what was coming, but for most of their nation, Vladimir Putin's full-scale invasion was a shock.
"It's been a really hard year," says Serhiy Perebyinis, whose family died when a Russian mortar tore into a crowd of people trying to flee Irpin.
An estimated 16 million people have fled from their homes because of Vladimir Putin's onslaught.
Kupyansk is a shell of what it was before Russian forces occupied it and then lost it again, and after a year of war, Putin's troops may try to take it once again.
The U.S. leader said he would "reaffirm our unwavering and unflagging commitment to Ukraine's democracy, sovereignty, and territorial integrity."
On a surprise visit, Mr. Biden vowed to "reaffirm our unwavering and unflagging commitment to Ukraine's democracy, sovereignty, and territorial integrity."
Even as every part of the country is within range of a Russian missile attack, those who haven't fled are trying to carry on with life as normal.
The front line near the embattled town of Bakhmut has barely budged in months, leaving the two sides locked face-to-face in a deadly standoff.
"I'm sure Harry would have been extremely proud of me and of our family," Charlotte Charles told CBS News. "It's taken us a lot to get where we are."
After denying the blast just inside Poland's border could have been caused by his country, Ukraine's leader focuses on his demand to join the investigation.
U.S. troops in Romania are extremely close to Putin's war, conducting exercises with NATO allies that "replicate exactly what's going on" over the border.