May 31, 2026 / 8:13 AM EDT
/ CBS News
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The following is the full transcript of the interview with Cindy McCain, executive director of the U.N. World Food Programme, a portion of which aired on "Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan" on May 31, 2026.MARGARET BRENNAN: We go now to the President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who joins us from Kyiv. Welcome back to Face the Nation, Mr. President.UKRAINIAN PRESIDENT VOLODYMYR ZELENSKYY: Thank you so much, Margaret.MARGARET BRENNAN: You have warned that Ukraine has intelligence that Russia is preparing for a new massive attack. This is after Moscow had warned foreign nationals to leave your capital city ahead of expanded strikes. Exactly, what are you bracing for?PRESIDENT ZELENSKYY: So, first of all, today at night, or tomorrow at night, we will have- we think that we will have big attacks from Russian side using drones, using cruise missiles and ballistic, and we see the preparation always. We see the preparation, by the way- we are thankful to United States and European partners when they share with us intelligence. So, when we know that Russia prepares a big massive attack, definitely, our partners also know, maybe not a lot of details, but we know. So today, of course, I didn't address yet to my country. I will do it a bit later in the evening, and of course, I will say that our people have to be very, very careful, cautious, and children, and they have to use bomb shelters, because today at night or tomorrow at night, high percent, of course, nobody knows 100% but there is a high percent. So usually we have, we have each day attack from Russian side on civilians, and of course on battlefield. And two times a week, or two times per 10 days, they have big, massive attacks with ballistic, and etc. Last massive attack, just to understand, it was- some days ago, it was 600 drones, Iranian drones, Shaheds, and they had 35- about 30 plus ballistic missiles. In total it was 90 missiles and more than 600 Iranian drones, so it was very difficult to destroy it. We used all our weapon, what we have, what we produce, and of course we used anti-ballistic missile. This is the biggest deficit for us.MARGARET BRENNAN: Overnight, a Russian drone slammed into a Romanian building. We also saw a Russian drone hit a Turkish ship. These are NATO member states. We're hearing from European countries that Russia is taking more and more operational risks in Europe. Why do you think Vladimir Putin is taking these risks at this moment?PRESIDENT ZELENSKYY: First of all, it's not the first time he has- he's doing such pressure. I think it's political pressure. It's messages from Russia, don't help Ukraine. I think this is the most- the most usual meaning, what, what he used, don't - if you will - help Ukraine, (or) I will do these such steps. So he began- he tried once crossing at the very beginning of this war. He did it in Romania, and then a little bit later it was in Poland when they used 21 drones. Then, for example, today at night it was again Romanian, not the first time, we gave these messages to our Romanian partners at night. Usually we try to catch all the drones, even when they go in their direction to other countries, like Romania, Moldova, or the direction of Poland, we try to catch everything. If we can't, of course, we give these messages to our partners. We try to help them, and also the same with the Baltic countries, Estonia, Lithuania, Latvia. So Russia uses this just to attack politically and by weapon pressure on NATO countries to look at the reaction. So the reaction we- I think the reaction has to be more strong from the unity of NATO countries. And I think that Putin is comparing how this reaction and how it's changed during this one year or two years, three years, this is the way how- and he also, the testing of air defense of other countries, NATO countries, which are bordering us or bordering Belarus or Russia. So he's testing what air defense they have. Can they destroy all the- all the missiles or drones. This is what I think.
