this is "don lemon tonight." our breaking news, the

humanitarian crisis worsening across ukraine as russian forces shell civilian targets. ukrainian officials saying a russian airstrike early today in the northeastern city of sumy killing at least 21 civilians including two children. and u.s. intelligence now warning vladimir putin believes this is a war he cannot lose and he'll likely escalate his attacks. the united nations saying at least 474 civilians have been killed since the reduction invasion began. the actual number feared to be higher. more than 2 million people fleeing ukraine. cnn's michael holmes is in lviv tonight. he joins us once again. michael, hello to you again. explosions in the southern city of mykolaiv. horrific damage from a russian airstrike in the town of sumy. 21 people killed there. that's according to a ukrainian official. now russia announcing a new cease-fire in several cities but does anyone think they're going to abide by it? >> reporter: yeah, that's the

thing, isn't it, don? multiple attempts to get people out over multiple days and multiple failures to get it done. ukraine says because russia keeps firing on the routes out. now, tomorrow another cease-fire announced by russia in a number of places to try again. five cities. part of the problem, of course, is most of the routes that russia has been proposing go through russia or to its ally belarus, which is something ukraine opposes. and frankly most of those fleeing this country don't particularly want to go to russia. and you know, every chance they'll end up in a propaganda video by the russians showing their largesse. now, as for ukraine, when it comes to whether these corridors will work, this time they said, and i'll quote them, now they said we'll find it difficult to trust the occupiers. don? >> we're hearing about negotiations coming up in turkey with both ukrainian and the russian foreign ministers. these are high-level players. what can you tell us about it,

michael? >> reporter: yeah, exactly. and that's the point. russian and ukrainian foreign ministers meeting in turkey thursday. it is a good sign at that level. we know russia has said that, you know, in terms of what they could agree on perhaps, what russia wants is it said it wants ukraine to recognize crimea as russian, recognize those breakaway republics in the donbas as independent, wants ukraine to give up any aspiration to join nato. the thing is that that's a lot less than the initial russian plan which was to, quote, de-nazify a country that is led by a jewish president and essentially overthrow the zelenskyy government. but you know, will those demands be politically palatable for ukraine if it does become part of a compromise? we just don't know. but it is, as you said, significant that this meeting is taking place at all and particularly on the foreign minister level, don. >> you're live for us in lviv, where resources are running low because hundreds of thousands of

people are heading there for safety. what is it like on the ground? >> reporter: yeah, it's interesting. we went out and we did a story on this yesterday and went around the city. this city, as we've told you before, it's so far untouched by the missiles and artillery that is raining down on other parts of the country. but that's made it a destination for people fleeing the shelling in other parts of the country. we're close to the polish border. so of course we've seen hundreds of thousands pass through here on their way out of the country. but you know, the mayor here said yesterday, he said more than 200,000 people have chosen to stay here. and the city's resources are now stretched to breaking point. he said 400 city buildings, we're talking about schools, offices, there's even a famous theater here, now home to displaced people. and the mayor says the city's going to of course take care of people but he's now pleading for outside help. things like tents, medical supplies, food and so on. i can't tell you how beautiful this city is, don.

it's a unesco-listed city. it is a friendly, welcoming place. and so far safe. but now it is pretty much bursting at the seams. don? >> michael holmes in lviv. michael, thank you very much. i want you to look at this new footage from ukrainian forces. it shows russian military vehicles completely destroyed in ukraine. another sign this war is not going as putin planned. cnn's jim sciutto is in lviv tonight digging into what we know about the russian military. >> reporter: nearly two weeks into the invasion the war in ukraine has become a slow, grinding conflict. not the blitzkrieg advance the russian military had planned and hoped for. >> russia's failure to rapidly seize kyiv and overwhelm ukrainian forces has deprived moscow of the quick military victory that probably had originally expected. >> reporter: u.s. and nato military assistance to ukrainian forces has flowed in quickly and in enormous quantities.

today the u.s. and partners have provided some 17,000 anti-tank missiles including the javelin and at-4 shoulder-fired systems. and according to a senior u.s. official some 3,700 anti-aircraft missiles. including the stinger shoulder-fired missile. the vast majority since the start of the invasion. these missiles have had an immediate impact on the battlefield. this is a shoulder-fired missile shooting down a russian attack helicopter. >> it's a race between our ability and nato's ability to push forward supplies such as the 17,000 missiles that have been recently approved to get those into the hands of the ukrainian war fighters before the russians can regroup and get their logistics, lines of communication and capabilities up to snuff. ♪ >> reporter: military losses are harder to gauge. according to two senior u.s. officials briefed on the intelligence, the u.s. estimates russia has lost somewhere

between 2,000 and 4,000 soldiers, though this assessment comes with low confidence. the u.s. does not have reliable information on losses of ukrainian military personnel. on the battlefield russian forces have advanced more quickly in the south, from russian-controlled territory in crimea. more slowly in the east and the north. though they continue efforts to surround cities such as kharkiv. a senior u.s. official tells me the u.s. still believes russia is several days from being able to surround the capital kyiv and after that face az protracted battle for the city itself. >> our analysis says the city is unlikely to be deterred by such setbacks and instead will escalate. the we feel he's aggrieved the west does not give him proper deference and perceives this as a wear cannot afford to lose. >> reporter: russian forces have increasingly targeted civilian population with aerial bombardment and shelling following a timeworn russian strategy it pursued ruthlessly in chep na in the 1990s and more

recently in syria. at least 474 civilians including 29 children have been killed since the invasion began. this according to the u.n. human rights office. and a further 861 injured. though the u.n. believes the true figure is likely to be, quote, considerably higher. jim sciutto, cnn, lviv. >> all right, jim, thank you very much for that. we're getting new video of massive fires breaking out at two oil depots after russian airstrikes in ukraine's zhitomir region. that's according to ukrainian officials. and you can see crews extinguishing the fires. luckily, though, residents living nearby had already evacuated. i want to bring in now fareed zakaria, host of "fareed zakaria gps" right here on cnn. fareed, thank you for joining. good evening to you. the u.s. is banning all imports of russian energy and along with nato giving ukrainians thousands of anti-aircraft and anti-tank weapons. two weeks in this war has become

really a grinding fight. not the crushing defeat putin had anticipated. how can we make sense of how much has changed so quickly? >> this, don, is sort of one of those events that i think we will look back in history the way we look at the fall of the berlin wall, maybe 9/11. in some ways it is really comparable to the fall of the berlin wall in that it is beginning to alter the geopolitics not just of europe but of the world. you see how countries like germany are changing 40, 50-year-old foreign policies and becoming much more aware of the danger they face, the need to project military power. europe is coming together in a way it never has. the chinese are trying to figure out whether they need to reevaluate the way in which they have been pursuing an alliance or quasi-alliance with russia. india is having a debate about

whether it is too overreliant on russian technology. so everywhere you're seeing a kind of transformation. but at the center of it is this grinding merciless battle that is -- you know, the ukrainian people are showing such extraordinary bravery, with regard to the ukrainian army is showing such extraordinary bravery. so you have things that operate at two levels. one, the level of the military conflict. the other at the level of geopolitics. >> this is happening at a time, fareed, when gas prices are already high and as always a political issue. how long will this impact americans who are already feeling these high prices? and we should say gas prices are high everywhere. joe biden is not the president of the world. they're high in other countries and he had were going up before this. but how long do you think americans can hold out on these higher gas prices?

>> well, first of all, i think americans can hold out a lot longer than people think. americans are -- i mean, america is a very patient country when the stakes are high, when americans understand what is at stake. and i think they do in this case. think about it. the united states engaged in a cold war with the soviet union for 45 years. the united states has -- it has staying power. but it's important to point out the united states is now in a very different position than it was in the 1970s oil crisis. america is the largest producer of oil and gas in the world. so if the biden administration moves aggressively to increase supply, we can actually manage to do this in a way that is to the advantage of the united states and the western world and the american consumer will not have to pay an overly high price. russia exports about 5 billion barrels of crude oil on the

world markets. if you increased american supply, canadian supply, venezuelan supply and supply coming out of the persian gulf broadly speaking, that's iran, saudi arabia, uae, qatar for natural gas, you know, some of it will be symbolic. some of it will be real. but the point is there's a lot of supply in the world that could come forward and substitute for the russian supply. much of it, by the way, cleanup. one of the things i would say to all of the environmentalists out there who worry, and they're right to worry, the truth of the matter is for the last year or two the world has been burning way too much coal. we've had a 10, 15, 20% increase in burning coal around the world. because it's cheap. so if you don't drive the price of oil down by increasing supply, all that's going to happen is when oil is expensive countries like india and china and indonesia, they burn coal.

which is the worst thing for the environment. so let's get our priorities straight. in order to defeat putin, in order to help the american consumer, the number one priority should be increase the supply of petrol gasoline crude oil around the world. >> fareed, there are multiple sources telling cnn that the biden administration was completely caught off guard today by the polish offer to provide the u.s. with a fleet of used mig-29 fighter jets which would then be given to ukraine. i mean, this is something the ukrainian president has been pleading for. why is it so complicated? >> you know, i think that part of it was that the poles did not consult with the u.s. this is all happening in real time on a battlefield. you know, we're covering it minute to minute, as we should. but perhaps there could have been better coordination on this. but i do think the most important thing we should all be trying to figure out, washington

should be trying to figure out is how can you get the ukrainians air power to break up these russian convoys? if the polish mig idea is not a good one, let's come up with a better one. because what you do have is a golden opportunity here. the russians have these long convoys. they do not seem to be at this point logistically skilled in moving them fast. that makes them sitting targets. so you can use aircraft. you can use drones. you can also use anti-tank javelins. a number of times what has happened with these convoys is they've been broken up by somebody on a motorcycle carrying a javelin. i may be wrong about this. we should check the exact range. but i think some of these anti-tank weapons have like two or three-kilometer range. in other words, the person on the motorcycle can be very far back and can destroy a tank. and you destroy -- one of the things that we have to apply pressure on is the more pressure

there is placed on the russian army the lower the morale gets. you see, what happens in these situations, when armies get bogged down, when they're losing people, you lose morale. if one out of every five russian tanks is getting blown up, the next convoy of tanks, the russian soldiers, they're not so enthusiastic. right? they're thinking to themselves they're just human beings, they're thinking if i've got a 1 in 5 chance of getting destroyed, maybe i'm not as enthusiastic as i was. so part of the effort here has to be to keep the pressure on, to break the morale of the russians and to bust these convoys. >> i'm wondering, fareed, i don't know if you got to listen to lieutenant colonel alexander vindman. he was on my program just a short time ago. you may have been getting ready -- >> i did, yes. >> did you hear what he said that he believes the u.s. is wrong when it comes to the

airplanes and turning poland down? he also believes that putin has not been held accountable. he doesn't believe that he will escalate to the use of nuclear weapons. and he also believes a no-fly zone -- and i'm paraphrasing here. but if you heard him, what's your response to his response? >> look, i think the united states should lean forward, should be more aggressive. i think -- they're debating in each of these cases in washington what is the most effective way to do what needs to be done. those planes are russian planes. by which i mean russian manufactured. maybe there are better ideas to do it. i get the sense the administration is trying as hard as it can to supply the ukrainian military with all the best weapons they can get. on the no-fly zone i still do think that, you know, something that we developed during the cold war, which was the idea of

nuclear deterrence, that you were going to be very wary of engaging directly in a military contest with a country that has those many nuclear weapons, remains a good idea. if you have american planes shooting down russian planes and one side feels they're losing and they start ratcheting up, there is a final ratcheting point at which you could imagine the use of nuclear weapons. and so far we've always believed that that was a bridge too far. the only person threatening the use of nuclear weapons right now has been vladimir putin. he's done it twice to my recollection. some of the things he's done in the last two weeks have not been the most rational and calculating. so i would at least be careful about this. at this point i think there are better ways to supply the ukrainian military to break

those convoys, to try to make sure that ukraine has all the help it can get, and to ratchet up the costs for russia. remember, this is a petro state. if we can more effectively get at russian oil we're getting at the revenues that are funding this military. so for all those reasons i still remain respectfully wary of the idea of direct military engagement between the united states and russia. remember, both countries have enough nuclear weapons to blow the entire world up several times. that should give us all some pause and some caution, i think. >> well said, fareed zakaria. thank you very much. i appreciate it. the intelligence community believes vladimir putin sees the war in ukraine as a war that he cannot afford to lose. but his forces aren't making as much headway as he expected. why the cia is predicting an ugly next few weeks.

when we found out our son had autism, his future became my focus. lavender baths calmed him. so we made a plan to turn bath time into a business.

♪ ♪ find a northwestern mutual advisor at nm.com every year we try to exercise more, to be more social, to just relax. and eating healthy every single meal? if only it was this easy for us.

alright, so...cordless headphones, you can watch movies through your phone? and y'all got electric cars? yeah. the future is crunk! (laughs) anything else you wanna know? is the hype too much? am i ready? i can't tell you everything. but if you want to make history, you gotta call your own shots. we going to the league!

the ukrainian city of mykolaiv bracing after a night of shelling. the mayor asking citizens to bring spare tires to intersections as they await the full assault. in the city of sumy at least 21 civilians killed in a horrific strike according to ukrainian officials. two of them were just children. and in the southeast u.s. officials say that russian forces have isolated the city of mariupol, where residents have already been cut off from water and electricity for days. so joining me now to discuss, cnn military analyst and retired air force collegeonel cedric leighton. thank you, colonel. i'm glad you're there at the map to help us through this. a nato official says they don't

expect russia to make any significant gains in the next several days but ukrainian cities are still getting hammered with rockets and artillery. what is the situation in the key ukrainian cities? >> yeah, don, that's a really great question because as you pointed out already there are so many different things happening here in this battle space. and i'll call it a battle space because it's really three-dimensional. it's not just a battlefield. it's a whole bunch of everything here. of course the first thing that we have to worry about if you're ukrainian is kyiv because that is still russia's premier objective. as you note here, there are a lot of different movements that the russians have made in this direction. they're getting a lot closer to kyiv, but they're not quite there yet. and of course we have kharkiv, the second city, the second largest city that is still holding out, doing what it needs to do in order to maintain its freedom from the russians. however, there is going to be a movement it looks like here from

this way and possibly from this way where the russians are also looking at encircling kharkiv, the second ukrainian city. now, you mentioned mariupol. right here. this area is probably going to be highly contested. there's already obviously a lot of fighting. everything's been cut off as you mentioned. the water supplies, things of that nature. that is going to be an indicator that mariupol is just about to fall under russian control, unfortunately. you also have kherson, which has already fallen to the russians. and you have this basic idea that all of these things are happening at once. and then you mentioned earlier in the broadcast right about here there's the city of zhytomyr where they had the big fire you just reported on. so there are a lot of things going on here. this is still, however, the number one objective, don. >> the u.s. estimates the russian military have lost as much as 8% to 10% of their

assets. there's a new push east of kyiv but they still haven't been able to encircle the capital. what problem does a military face trying to isolate a city this size? z >> so this is going to be a very important piece right here, don, because right now you see this movement right here around kyiv. this is kyiv right here. and you see how close the russians are in the northeast part. in the western part we know of antonov airport. that was the place where the russian special forces landed at the very beginning of this offensive. that area is still contested. but the russians have moved around it. and they're also using this area right here, there's kind of a pincer coming out this way toward these northwestern suburbs of kyiv. and of course you have this movement right in this area. so as far as all of the things that have to come into place for the russians to actually do this, they need to bring all of their logistical supplies to bear in order to make this work.

what they want to do is they want to go from here and here, join up here so that they can actually surround the city. they have not done that yet. and that's going to be i think the big area where they will have to work through this. if the ukrainians can challenge them here, that's going to prevent a quick encirclement of kyiv. >> and ukrainians know that, right? >> they do. and it's pretty evident that they are trying to work in this way but they're also trying to concentrate on what to do within the urban center of kyiv itself. so this is where the possibility of house-to-house fighting comes in, and this could be of course a very dangerous situation for both sides really. >> colonel, the russians have been trying to seize all the cities along the coast to cut off access to the black sea. but what is the bigger picture strategy, do you think? >> so that's absolutely right, don. one of the key things to note about this, we'd already talked about kherson, which has fallen to the russians for all practical purposes. you'd mentioned earlier mykolaiv

right here. this is a contested space. but the big objective is still this city right here. this is odesa. this is the main port of ukraine on the black sea. the black sea is basically ukraine's gateway to the world's oceans. through there you can get to the mediterranean and then to the atlantic and also to the suez canal. so this is the kind of objective that they have. they want to basically control the coastline here. and they've already controlled this part. and they're controlling this part. this is already the land bridge that they're developing. so they have two main objectives. create the land bridge, which they've just about done, and then control the western part of the coastline over here by odesa. >> colonel, in a huge new step poland today says they are ready to deploy all their mig-29 fighter jets to a u.s. air base in germany. to a u.s. air base in germany. to be transported on to the ukrainians. but the pentagon dismissing that tonight as too risky. they're saying it's not tenable.

how much could those planes help the ukrainians, though? >> they could help them quite a bit. the mig-29s that we're talking about are not the newest generation of aircraft, but they are a very capable aircraft. they're basically a multirole fighter and they're designed to provide both air to air combat capability as well as an air to ground combat capability. so these aircraft could be very useful against that infamous 40-mile-long convoy that is northwest of kyiv. it could also serve to go after all kinds of other targets that would present themselves to the ukrainians as the russians advance. those aircraft would be worthwhile, but they're not the only thing the ukrainians could use. so they're not the end-all and be-all but they would definitely help. >> colonel, thank you so much. i appreciate it. i learned a lot tonight as well. >> you bet, don. anytime. >> more than 2 million refugees fleeing ukraine. many spending days trying to get out of the country. next i'm going to talk to a young woman who says her escape took more than 50 hours by car

and she doesn't know when she'll see her family again. pack at your pace. store e your things until you're ready. then w we deliver to your new home - across town or across the country. pods, yoyour personal moving and storage team.

thanks to realtor.com's home alerts we were able to see the newest homes on the market, super fast. so we could finally buy our first "big boi house." big boi house. big boi kitchen! big boi waterfall shower! big boi crawl space. big boi sold sign, big boi logo. realtor.com to each their home. i didn't know my genetic report could tell me i was prone to harmful blood clots. i travel a ton, so this info was kind of life changing. maybe even lifesaving. ♪do you know what the future holds?♪ as a struggling actor, i need all the breaks that i can get. at liberty butchemel... cut. liberty mu... line? cut. liberty mutual customizes your car insurance so you only pay for what you need. cut. liberty m...

am i allowed to riff? what if i come out of the water? liberty biberty... cut. we'll dub it. liberty mutual customizes your car insurance so you only pay for what you need. only pay for what you need. ♪ liberty. liberty. liberty. liberty. ♪ [inspirational soul music] [inspirational soul music] [inspirational soul music] [inspirational soul music]

when it comes to cybersecurity, the biggest threats don't always strike the biggest targets. so help safeguard your small business with comcast business securityedge™. it's advanced security that continuously scans for threats and helps protect every connected device. on the largest, fastest, reliable network with speeds up to 10 gigs to the most small businesses. so you can be ready for what's next. get started with internet and voice for $64.99 a month. and ask how to add securityedge™. or, ask how to get up to an $800 prepaid card.

tonight the u.n. reporting that more than 2 million refugees have fled ukraine since russia began its invasion nearly two weeks ago. more than 1 million have crossed the border into poland alone with thousands more seeking safety in romania, moldova and

other surrounding countries. i want to bring in now sophia keleznik. she is a student who fled ukraine through poland and she now joins me from chicago. sophia, thank you very much. how are you doing? >> hello. thank you so much for inviting me to tell my story. and i want to thank the americans for accepting me and now i am in a safety place. so thank you. >> welcome to the united states. you are now with family and friends in chicago after a very long journey. so again, are you okay? what's up? >> yes, i am okay. thank you. so i have set a place and i have food and water and good relax and sleep. yeah, i'm fine. >> you were at university in lviv. then you saw a phone call from your father at 6:00 a.m. and knew that that wasn't good. so tell me what happened after that. >> yeah. so i'm from kyiv.

like my whole family from kyiv. but i'm study in lviv in ukraine in catholic university. and i remember that morning and i remember seeing my dad call me, but i couldn't answer him because i understood why he called me. so that's not why he called me, to say hi, honey, good morning. so after that call he wrote me a message and he text me sofia, war has begun and you need to leave ukraine as soon as possible. so after that -- after that i tried to go to the border and so on the 24th february i could not leave from the border to poland. i couldn't. but i tried to go on the 25th of february and actually thank god it work out.

so it was dangerous and so scared for me, but i drove 50 hours to the polish border and another 5 hours to the warsaw and after that i took a plane ticket and arrived in america in chicago. >>let talk a little more about that. you were with all women. one of the women who was driving you was pregnant. you went from lviv to the border of poland to the united states. and it was 55 hours. an incredible journey for you. were you worried that you weren't going to make it? >> yeah. i was scared. and we drove two cars to the border, all of them women. because men are not allowed out of the country. and i was in the same car with three other women and two small children. another car was a pregnant woman

with a child, and this woman drove the car for herself. so i want to told you about my last night of this journey because it was the hardest night and more difficult to me because during all this time i slept probably i think six hours and our female drivers did not sleep at all. so we decided that last night i would not have to sleep because i need to help these beautiful women. so my job was to bring them coffee, talk and wake up them when we needed. so i couldn't sleep all night and help as much as i could. so there is out of this was that in the morning when we borrowed the -- when we across the border y bad because i

turned -- and the pressure i think probably dropped. i did not eat all day because i was very nervous about this situation and about all that is happening. and so when we arrived at the hotel, i think i slept for an hour and maybe two hours and after thato to warsaw. >> i want to ask you, your family. you had to leave your family and friends behind. >> yeah. so my family in key yiv -- part my family in kyiv, part of my family in chernyvtsy, and partar of my family now across the border to poland and after that going to berlin and after that going to paris, france. >> have you heard from them? >> yeah, i have message and i have calling from my family. so everything's good, thanks god. but i am still worry about their

health and about their lives. >> i'm sure. sofia, thank you. we're glad that you're safe and we hope your family continues to be safe as well. thanks so much. >> thank you. >> fighting to survive. traveling days in the cold. russia's invasion severely impacting ukraine's most vulnerable, both the young and the elderly.

nurse mariyam sabo knows a moment this pure... ...demands a lotion this pure. new gold bond pure moisture lotion. 24-hour hydration. no parabens, dyes, or fragrances. gold bond. champion your skin. (johnny cash) ♪ i've traveled every road in this here land! ♪ ♪ i've been everywhere, man. ♪ ♪ i've been everywhere, man. ♪ ♪ crossed the desert's bare, man. ♪ ♪ i've breathed the mountain air, man. ♪ ♪ of travel i've had my share, man. ♪ ♪ i've been everywhere. ♪ ♪ i've been to: pittsburgh, parkersburg, ♪ ♪ gravelbourg, colorado, ♪ ♪ ellensburg, cedar city, dodge city, what a pity. ♪ ♪ i've been everywhere, man. ♪ ♪ i've been everywhere, man. ♪

♪ i've been everywhere. ♪ certified turbocharger, suspension and fuel injection. translation: certified goosebumps. certified from headlamp to tailpipe. that's certified head turns. and it's all backed by our unlimited mileage warranty. that means unlimited peace of mind. mercedes-benz certified pre-owned. translation: the mercedes of your dreams is closer than you think. stuff. we love stuff. and there's some really great stuff out there. but i doubt that any of us will look back on our lives and think, "i wish i'd bought an even thinner tv, found a lighter light beer,

or had an even smarter smartphone." do you think any of us will look back on our lives and regret the things we didn't buy? or the places we didn't go? ♪ i'd go the whole wide world ♪ ♪ i'd go the whole wide world ♪ i had no idea how much i wamy case was worth. c call the barnes firm to find out what your case could be worth. we will help get you the best result possible. ♪ call one eight hundred, eight million ♪

when a truck hit my car, ♪the insurance companyed, wasn't fair. eight million ♪ i didid't t kn whahatmy c caswa, so i called the barnes firm. i'm rich barnes. it's hard for people to k how much their accident case is worth.h barnes. t ouour juryry aorneneys hehelpou

ukraine's first lady, olina zelenskyia is speaking out about the horrific plight facing civilians in ukraine calling out distressing conditions where women and children are spending days at a time underground sheltering from russian bombs. other children forced to flee their homes. many of them might never come back. and it's not just the young. as cnn's clarissa ward reports, many of ukraine's oldest citizens are isolated and in increasing danger. >> reporter: incredibly, they emerge. some still standing. some too weak to walk. after more than a week under heavy bombardment in the kyiv suburb of irpin. volunteers help them carry their bags the final few feet to relative safety. there are tearful reunions as relatives feared dead finally

appear after days of no contact with the outside world. many are still looking for their loved ones. soldiers help where they can. for larisa and andriy it is an agonizing weight. their son has been pinned down in the hotel he owns. we wait, we hope, we pray they tell me. "this is the grief of all mothers, of all people," larisa says. "this is a tragedy." every time the phone rings there's a scramble. anticipation. that it could be their son's voice on the line. this time it is not. "excuse me. i can't talk," andriy says. "i'm waiting for my son." they are not the only ones waiting. these residents of a nursing home were among the last to be evacuated from irpin.

they have been sitting here now for hours. confused and disorientated, many don't know where they are going. a volunteer gently guides these women back to wait for the next bus. valentyna tells us she is frightened and freezing. after days of endless shelling and no heat. "i want to lie down," she says. "please help me." but for now there is no place to lie down. the women are shepherded onto a bus. their arduous journey not over yet. for larisa and andriy the wait is finally over. their son is alive. >> the only words you can tell to the phone, like mom, i'm alive. mom, i'm alive. and that's it. >> reporter: "i'm the happiest mother in the world right now,"

she says. "my son is with me." but not every mother here is so lucky. and for many the wait continues. russian media is reporting, don, that the russian military is offering another cease-fire tomorrow to start at 10:00 a.m. moscow time. that is 9:00 a.m. here in kyiv. it would be for the same five cities that were supposed to be part of today's cease-fire. the ukrainian military has replied to that offer saying, quote, don, "it is difficult to trust the occupier." don? >> clarissa, thank you very much. it has become a rallying symbol for the russians, the letter z, emblazoned on everything from russian tanks to athletes' uniforms. but what does it mean? make it three. (young womanan) three? (g(grandmother) did you get his number? (young woman) no, grandma! grandma!! (grandmother) excuse me! (young woman vo) some relationships get better with time.

that's why i got a crosstrek. (avo) ninety-six percent of subaru vehicles sold in the last ten years are still on the road. (grandmother) i'm so glad you got a subaru. (young woman) i wonder who gave me the idea? (avo) love. it's what makes subaru, subaru.

[ marcia ] my dental health was not good.

i had periodontal disease, and i just didn't feel well. but then i found clearchoice. [ forde ] replacing marcia's teeth with dental implants at clearchoice was going to afford her that permanent solution. [ marcia ] clearchoice dental implants gave me the ability to take on the world. i feel so much better, and i think that that is the key.

the letter z is now a symbol for russian forces that have invaded ukraine, and it's a key part of putin's propaganda campaign to get russians to support his bloody military assault. more tonight from cnn's phil black. >> reporter: it's impossible not to notice. many of the russian vehicles invading ukraine carry a distinctive mark. trucks, tanks, fighting, engineering and logistical vehicles, they are advancing through ukraine with the letter "z" painted conspicuously in white. the people being invaded have noticed.

here in the eastern ukrainian town, an angry crowd swarms after and attacks a single vehicle. its only obvious connection to the war the letter z. >> it's almost certainly some kind of tactical grouping. there is a million different theories what the z means, but i think it's just a marking. it's an easy thing to mark. it's like a square or triangle. >> reporter: in a war where the wanna-be conquerors are not flying their national flag, that single character has taken on special significance. at a recent gymnastics world event, 20-year-old russian competitor ivan kuehl yak accepac accepted bronze medal wearing his z prominently on his chest. he was standing next to a ukrainian athlete. the sports governing body described it as shocking behavior. but how do you describe this? terminally ill children and their careers formed a giant z outside a hospice in the russian city of kazan. >> it's disgusting that the state is coopting young children

to be propaganda mechanisms for their war. it is dangerous when small little symbols become proxies for being a loyal citizen in an au authoritarian regime because those that don't wear it could be targeted by the state. >> reporter: in this highly produced propaganda video, russian men wearing that letter declare their support for the invasion, chanting "for russia, for the president, for russia, for putin." an aerial shot shows a giant z, a traditional symbol of russian military glory, usually associated with victory over nazi germany. by accident, or design, a character that doesn't feature in russia's alphabet has become an iconic symbol of putin's invasion and a propaganda campaign, to win support among his people. phil black, cnn, london.

>> phil, thank you. and thank you for watching, everyone. our live coverage continues. ♪the zebra♪ been getting a lot of calls like this lately. [coins falling] the zebra compares the top ...insurance companies ...so you could save over 900 dollars on car and home insurance. that's a lot of cash. [gurgling] compare and save today at thezebra.com i've always focused on my career. but when we found out our son had autism, his future became my focus. lavender baths always calmed him. so we turned bath time into a business.

♪ and building it with my son has been my dream job. ♪ at northwestern mutual, our version of financial planning helps you live your dreams today. find a northwestern mutual advisor at nm.com

♪ ♪ ♪ hey google. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪

this is cnn breaking news. >> hello and welcome to our viewers in the united states and all around the world. i'm michael holmes coming to you live from lviv in ukraine. russia again proposing a limited ceasefire in five ukrainian cities set to take effect in just a few hours from now. another chance to get civilians out and aid supplies in. now it include