Zelenskyy confirmed his most famous quote. I got pushback for reporting it.

Politics Zelenskyy confirmed asking for "ammunition, not a ride." Four years ago, I got pushback for reporting that. By James LaPorta James LaPorta National security coordinating producer James LaPorta is the national security coordinating producer for the CBS News' Washington bureau. He is a former U.S. Marine veteran infantryman and veteran of the Afghanistan war. Read Full Bio James LaPorta May 21, 2026 / 4:50 PM EDT / CBS News Add CBS News on Google Washington — Back in February, just after American forces captured former Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and days before the United States would kick off its war with Iran, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy confirmed for the first time that he had uttered perhaps the best known line attributed to him about the war against Russia: "I need ammunition — not a ride." In a speech marking four years since the full-scale Russian invasion, the embattled president recounted that as Russian forces were closing in, the U.S. offered to evacuate him. That line was his response. Zelenskyy told Ukrainians he had said it "not because we are all fearless or made of steel…but [that] on some invisible level, all of us know that we have no other Ukraine, that this is our home."  Today, the war has settled into a grinding conflict of attrition defined by drone warfare, long-range missile strikes, World War I-esque entrenched fighting positions, high casualty counts and mounting economic pressure on both sides. No long-term peace settlement appears close. But the war has also defied some early predictions that an outmanned Ukrainian military would suffer a swift defeat. In late February 2022, Zelenskyy's historic line became one of the most frequently quoted remarks about the invasion — despite the fact that after I reported it, the Biden administration firmly denied Zelenskyy had ever made the comment.  Still, the quote, which showed Zelenskyy's resolve and dashed any hope Vladimir...