War-zone CNN reporter Clarissa Ward said it was 'so painful' to FaceTime with her children while reporting from Ukraine

• Clarissa Ward and Anderson Cooper discussed the difficulties of parenting from a war zone.
• Ward said that FaceTiming with her kids can be "so painful" and makes her emotional.

CNN war-zone reporter Clarissa Ward told Anderson Cooper that FaceTiming with her kids while working from Ukraine was "so painful."

"I think I'm still working it out," Ward, CNN's chief international correspondent who reported from Ukraine after Russia invaded the eastern European country in February, told Cooper on CNN+'s "Parental Guidance" while discussing the difficulties of parenting from a war zone.

"It's really hard," she told Cooper. "Because I feel like there is guilt as a parent with being away from your kids even if you know it's for good reasons and even if you feel pretty confident that in the long run, they're going to be glad you did the work that you did."

Ward, who has a 4-year-old son and a 1-year-old son, described a life she has built for her children "that exists without me in it as well."

She told Cooper that she has built an "army" consisting of her husband, her parents, and two nannies to care for her kids when she is not there.

"You make sure that your children have a beautiful, happy, stable, secure life and they just get used to the idea that mommy or daddy travels sometimes and it doesn't mean anything is wrong," she said.

But Ward said using FaceTime to stay in touch while she's away can be "so painful."

"Sometimes I wanted the call to end, not because I don't want to look at my beautiful children, but because it does become so painful at a certain point," she said.

Prior to being in Ukraine, Ward spent time reporting from Afghanistan during the Taliban takeover last year.