taisa has now buried both her children she says her son roman was 57 she'll rebury him in a cemetery when this is all over she tells me roman was shot in the back by russian troops as he was walking away the next morning he was dead "the russians are liars," she says, "they're all liars." had he grandson dmitro comes over he returned, but it was tolate how did you find out your father had died >> when i go here. >> reporter: so you came back expecting to see him? >> yes, yes. >> reporter: he's angry. >> it's bull [ bleep ]. all this thing is bull [ bleep ]. >> reporter: heading east to fight for his father [ crying ] >> reporter: and taisa, taking my hand. "you need to have a happy life." she wants to show us pictures in her apartment. that's roman when he was little what was he like "he was smart," she says "he spoke english. he brought me tulips on my birthday." she says she doesn't have any recent photos so this is how she'll remember her boys. lester, because there's no cell service in much of the country, many people are just learning about the deaths, lester >> molly, thank you

and then she goes, actually, here is her -- here is taisa. she can actually tell you what exactly happened to her and to her son. and she brings out her name and we get the full story right there. but we were the first people that she had really talked to, communicated with. she was on her way to get some humanitarian aid in the city center, hallie. >> as you have been reporting in and around this area, molly, what has stuck with you? >> the relief that people are feeling now, the relief that people are feeling as ukrainian troops roll into these towns. the shock, the confusion that people have. most of these people, hallie, have been completely without communication for the last five weeks. they have not been able to call relatives. they have not been able to check on people in other parts of the city. they have had no idea if, you know, war was still raging outside their borders, if there was a humanitarian convoy, what was happening in the rest of the country. and for a lot of people that was kind of the most terrifying, most isolating thi

taisa's neighbor, she also shared with us an additional story about her family that i just want to share with you here and then we can talk about it on the back end. >> marina shows us around the city center there. she says after this apartment building was bombed they could hear screams for days. people underneath urgently pleading for help, but she says the russians shot anyone who tried to rescue them. >> i'm mole. >> at her house she introduces us to her daughter elena. >> nice to meet you. >> i know these soldiers, she says. they're chechens fighting for russia. i was so worried they would come and rape her so we hid her under piles of clothes. >> so if the russians came you would be safe. >> yes. the soldiers came and searched their house, but didn't find elena. >> ali, this is the forefront of women's minds that we are talking to around these suburbs of kyiv. women who have escaped possible rape from russian soldiers, women who are accusing russian soldiers of rape and women like marina who were so scared of it they hid their daughter under piles of clothes so when russian troops

-year-old taisa has now buried both her children. she says her son, roman, was 57. she'll rebury him in a cemetery when this is all over. she tells me roman was shot in the back by russian troops as he was walking away. the next morning, he was dead. the russians are liars, she says. they're all liars. her grandson, dmytro, comes over. he returned. >> ai am come back, he's already dead. >> reporter: but it was too late. how did you find out that your father had died? >> when i go here. >> joining our coverage, former u.s. ambassador to ukraine, william taylor, vice president for russia and europe of the u.s. institute of peace. and clint watts is here, former consultant to the fbi's counterterrorism division, now a distinguished research fellow at the foreign policy research institute and an msnbc national security analyst. ambassador taylor, i want to ask you about the russian penchant for brutality as a military tactic. the ukrainians seem, while horrified, not necessarily surprised to see this out of their military adversary. >> n

jose, a little context, that's 80-year-old taisa, before the war, about 12,000 people, about an hour from here. we met her almost immediately upon driving in. xi said the russian troops shot her only son in the back. he called home. he said i'm sorry i let you down. she took us to see that grave. that's what she was talking about right there, jose. >> molly, it's so widespread and so difficult for us that aren't there to really be able to understand just how massive the destruction and the lives that have been lost, and they continue to be lost. >> reporter: it's overwhelming. the destruction is impactful, to see apartment buildings. we understand that from a far distance, of course. it is about the people. it's about how that story is playing out all over the country. interestingly you heard her grandson in that. her grandson came back to borodyanka and found out his father had died. there was no way for her to communicate with anyone in her family, with her grandchildren to tell them they lost their father because there's no cell service in so much of the country. not only have peo