MARY LOUISE KELLY, HOST:
This week marks a thousand days of all-out war raging in Ukraine. Here's a quick rundown of what has changed in that war in recent days. Ukraine is now firing U.S.-made missiles deep inside Russia. Russia has eased rules on its nuclear doctrine, essentially dangling the threat of nuclear weapons, and North Korean troops have joined Russia's fight.
For a window into how all of this sits with Ukrainians, I wanted to speak again with Hanna Hopko. She used to chair the Foreign Affairs Committee in Ukraine's Parliament. Now she chairs the International Center for Ukrainian Victory.
And alert listeners will also recognize her as the guinea pig mom because the first time I met her and Kyiv, just days before Russia invaded, she told me how her young daughter was begging for a pet guinea pig and how stressed out she, Hanna, was trying to figure out how to keep her family and now a rodent safe in a war zone.
Well, Hanna Hopko is in D.C. this week, so we invited her to stop by our studios. Hi. I'm glad to see you again. Welcome.
HANNA HOPKO: Thank you for inviting me.
KELLY: I understand you don't speak for Ukraine's military, but we are here to talk about the war. So let me just start with some of those developments I just listed with - yesterday, Ukraine fired American ballistic missiles into Russia - first time. This is after President Biden lifted restrictions on those weapons. He also just authorized antipersonnel mines to Ukraine. Are these game changers?
HOPKO: Sometimes, even if it's too late, but it's important that all these restrictions are lifted because for 10 years of ongoing Russian aggression, which became a genocide - so this is why I think this decision is really important.
KELLY: Later than you would have liked, but still welcome.
HOPKO: Yes.
KELLY: OK. What are you asking the U.S. for on this visit - and I guess, specifically, that the Biden administration might be able to do in the two months and counting that they're still in office?
HOPKO: So it's important to speed up the delivery of weapon from PDA, presidential drawdowns. It's also important to implement, enforce the REPO Act on confiscation of more than 5 billions of U.S. net assets, frozen assets. Russia must pay.
And we need this money to recover Ukrainian cities and invest in defense industry, where there could be joint production of weapons between American companies, European and Ukrainian because I do believe that Ukraine will become the defense hub in Europe because we already developed many technologies. And in the battlefield, our innovations are also helping us to defeat the enemy, especially drones.
KELLY: Yeah. So we've been talking about President Biden lifting some restrictions on weapons, things that Ukraine has been calling for for months. Incoming President-elect Trump could reverse everything that Biden has agreed - could walk back U.S. policy on these long-range missiles and other things. How are you thinking about that?
HOPKO: Actually, Trump's reelection comes as no surprise in Ukraine and no panic. We do remember the first term of Trump when Ukraine received little weapon javelins, when sanctions against Nord Stream 2 were imposed, which is really important. And I think Trump reelections means both challenges and opportunities for us.
And Ukraine is a country with critical strategic raw minerals. And I think we need to cooperate, not to allow Russia and China to extract critical minerals like lithium, titanium in the occupied territories of Ukraine. I think now is the time to adopt Ukraine victory support act as the act of defeat of access of evil states because 10 years ago, it was Russia, alone, attacking sovereign nation Ukraine. Now, it's Russia, North Korea, China, Iran, Belarus - all these tyrannies are fighting against democracy in Ukraine. And actually, they are fighting against American leadership.
KELLY: Hanna Hopko, just paint us a picture of what daily life is like. You just flew in from Kyiv. You were texting me right before you got on the plane early Sunday morning, and we - you wrote, it was a nightmare attack this morning. I'm trying to think what would even count as a nightmare anymore after so many months of living through a nightmare.
HOPKO: This is one of the hardest question because many friends asking, Hanna, why - it's already third year of full-scale war, a genocidal war. Why even Kyiv, the capital of Ukraine, is not protected? - because Russia, with the support from China, North Korea - they increase the number of kamikaze drones they are producing. So...
KELLY: So talk to me...
HOPKO: ...You cannot...
KELLY: ...Like, Sunday morning, you were woken up by what?
HOPKO: By hearing the sounds of explosion. When you see kamikaze drones flying and the sound of deaths, you cannot sleep. So actually, this is the deprivation of your sleep because in 3 a.m., almost daily, they are terrorizing. And this is a way how Russia tries to kill our resilience.
KELLY: How is your daughter? How is the guinea pig?
HOPKO: So guinea pig is in our neighbor's because I'm traveling almost every month. But he is satisfied with his...
(LAUGHTER)
HOPKO: ...New family.
KELLY: OK. With his guinea pig lot, yes.
HOPKO: No, no because Ukrainians - but look, seeing pictures of many animals which became the victims of Russian genocidal war - I'm also thinking about an attack on humanity because by killing what we love or dividing us, it's another way how Russia is trying to heart breaking us and making weaker. But it will never happen.
KELLY: Hanna Hopko, thank you. I wish you and your family well.
HOPKO: Thank you, Mary Louise.
KELLY: Hanna Hopko, former member of Ukraine's Parliament - she now chairs the International Center for Ukrainian Victory. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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