I know that Zalinsky and the people around him wanted their president to speak directly

to the American people.

And because CNN has been so prominent on this story, I think it was the obvious choice

for them to go with me.

They know me.

I'm in their face all the time.

We got a location we had to go to in a car, into our own car there.

If you've been watching coverage of the war in Ukraine, you might recognize that voice.

Then we got out the car with some military forces came up and put us into another car.

And then we went into an internal yard in a building complex.

And then we went underground, got it by foot.

Matthew Chants is a senior international correspondent for CNN.

He's been covering the war from Kiev this week.

He interviewed the president of Ukraine for Little Mirror Zalinsky in his bunker in the capital

as an ominous 40-mile long column of Russian troops and tanks approached the city.

There's no electricity, sandbags everywhere.

I was totally disorientated by the time I got to.

I was dizzy by the time I got to the actual place.

You know, and then eventually, President Zalinsky turned up in his car key military fatigues,

looking, frankly, like he hadn't slept a wink for a week.

In international conflicts, there's often a single TV journalist who becomes the face of the war.

The person who shapes how Americans understand the conflict.

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