Mother Finding Son in Well 'Most Horrifying Thing I Have Seen': Zelensky

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Sunday reacted to a video that circulated widely on social media in recent days showing a mother finding her son's body in a well.

In the video, the woman cries and kneels down as she approaches the well, recognizing her child's shoes. "My son, my son. The [shoes] are his" she yells while weeping.

The Ukrainian president commented on the video during an interview with CNN that aired Sunday, nearly two months after Russia's invasion of Ukraine began.

"I'm sure you have seen the video of the Ukrainian mom finding her son in a well," CNN host Jake Tapper said. "What is it like for you as the president of this country to see those videos, to hear the crying of the moms?"

Zelensky responded: "This is the most horrifying thing I have seen in my life. I look at this first of all as a father. It hurts so so much. It's a tragedy, it is suffering. I won't be able to imagine the scale of suffering of these people, of this woman. It is a family's tragedy, it is a disaster."

"I can't watch it as a father only because all you want after this is revenge and to kill," he continued. "I have to watch it as the president of the state where a lot of people have died and lost their loved ones. There are millions of people, who want to live, all of us want to fight, but we all have to do our best for this war not to be endless. The longer it is, the more we would lose. All these losses will be just like that one."

According to Radio Free Europe, the footage of the mother finding her child in the well was captured in the village of Buzova, near the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv. Taras Didych, who is the head of the Dmytrivka community, told the news outlet that during an inspection of a gas station "two human bodies were found in a pit."

"We recognized one of them. Both were residents of the village of Buzova. They were members of the Territorial Defense," he said.

While many analysts believe Russia's military strategy has so far failed, Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehammer, who is the first Western leader to meet with Putin since Ukraine's invasion began in February, said Sunday that the Russian leader "believes he is winning."

"I think he is now in his own war logic. He thinks the war is necessary for security guarantees for the Russian Federation. He doesn't trust the international community," the chancellor said.