with unitedhealthcare medicare advantage plans, you can take advantage of free eye exams and free designer eyewear. - wow. - uh-huh. free yearly eye exams, designer frames and prescription lenses. take advantage now. wow! >> announcer: this is cnn breaking news. welcome once again to our viewers here in the united states and all around the world. i'm michael holmes live in lviv, ukraine. expectations not high, but at least they are talking. russian foreign minister sergey lavrov is set to meet with his ukrainian counterpart in turkey about two hours from now. kuleba says his priorities are a cease-fire to resolve humanitarian issues. we're not sure what would satisfy mr. putin. meanwhile, more diplomacy

happening in poland. the u.s. vice president kamala harris will meet with the country's president and prime minister in the hours ahead. she's hoping to clear up a dispute over poland's plan to send fighter jets to ukraine by way of a u.s./nato air base in germany. the u.s. rejecting that idea, saying it could just make things even worse. meanwhile, there is growing outrage over a merciless blast in the hard-hit city of mariupol. ukraine accusing russia of targeting a maternity ward and children's hospital. we're told 17 people at least were wounded. pregnant women, new mothers, and staff members. but amazingly, no deaths yet reported. ukraine's president calling the attack a war crime and genocide. >> translator: a children's hospital? maternity ward? why were they a threat to russian federation? what kind of country is russian

federation that is afraid of hospitals, afraid of maternity wards and destroys them? a strike on a maternity hospital is a final proof, a proof of genocide of ukrainians is taking place. >> a warning for you now. the next few images we're going to show you are disturbing, but they are important to see to really understand what happened. they show some of the visibly wounded victims from that hospital, extremely pregnant women being rushed out and in some cases carried out on a stretcher. russia denying responsibility, again insisting its forces do not target civilians. but a few hours before the attack, the russian foreign ministry claimed ukrainian combat troops had taken up position inside the hospital. ukraine, of course, denies that. mariupol has endured more than its share of misery, and once again we're about to air some photographs you might find upsetting, but which are important to show. they are mass graves, the result of relentless russian attacks on

that port city. overwhelmed workers and terrified families clearly unable to provide fitting burials. two city officials say about 1,300 civilians have been killed in mariupol since the start of the invasion. cnn cannot independently confirm that figure, and it does far exceed the u.n.'s estimated death toll of just 516, which is for the entire country and is almost certainly a vast underestimate. emergency workers mourn a severe shortage of basic supplies are going to create an even larger crisis. >> there is no drinking water at all and nowhere to take it. people are looking for different sources of water from the ground like springs in the park. also people collecting water from the roof when the snow melts. and because this night there was

snow, people collect wood to cook their food. >> in northeastern ukraine, the russian military is unreleasing massive firepower. the british defense ministry tweeting win that kharkiv is now completely encircled. its mayor says heavy artillery and air strikes are constantly pounding the city, often targeting civilian areas. one resident documenting her life under siege and bombardment. itn's dan rivers with her story. >> reporter: kharkiv is increasingly resembling a 21st century stalingrad. only this time it is russia laying siege to a city which is defiantly resisting. somehow amid all this, its residents are surviving. the day after a missile slammed into kharkiv's town hall, we asked a resident of this city to document what's happening to her

home. >> my city, kharkiv, is under constant attack, bombings, rocket fire, artillery fire all day, nonstop. just today, four russian warplanes flew near my house. >> reporter: she is trying to keep her body, mind, and soul together with her family in their apartment where they're sheltering from the bombs. >> this is our hiding place. it's a vestibule area between two walls with no windows. we also have a little bit of space for our bunny rabbit. i just found out russians have bombed my favorite place in kha kharkiv. i feel really angry. look what they've done.

i celebrated my birthday one time in this bar. >> reporter: as the siege tightens, so does her struggle to survive forces her to venture outside. >> me and my sister are going to pick some water. my sister is going to fill this bottle. the elevator is not working for ten days now, so we need to walk on stairs. go, go. this is how we do it. >> reporter: her sleep is now often interrupted by the sound of warplanes circling as the bombing of kharkiv intensifies.

>> i have some good news. my family is alive. i am alive. my house is still standing. my friends are okay. no one i personally know have yet died during russian invasion of ukraine. i have electricity, drinking water, some food -- not much, but enough. >> reporter: each day the bombs are falling closer. this is the university sports complex. >> we heard a very loud explosion. the doors shook and windows too. and this was it. "apocalypse now." and among the ruins, we have found a little dog. look at him.

my sister says he's really trembling really hard. last night was probably the most terrifying night of my life. kharkiv was terribly bombarded last night. air strikes all over the city. dozens of buildings destroyed, buildings where people live.

just -- i'm not going to take much because i'm hoping i will return soon enough. my sister says it's like going on a trip, but an awful one, i guess. so as we can no longer stand the constant bombing, especially after last night, which was truly a terrifying thing, we are going to leave if we live that long, of course. so i don't want to leave, and i won't be leaving ukraine. we will be moving to somewhere just farther away from russian

border. i don't know why, but being bombarded is easier than leaving your home. >> utterly heartbreaking. just put yourself in the position of those people. now, beth saner is a former u.s. deputy director of national intelligence, now a cnn national security analyst. a lot of people thought this invasion wouldn't happen. she thought it would. i asked her why she was so sure vladimir putin would invade ukraine. >> i think fortunate you've watched putin over many, many years, you know that he is capable of just about anything. and if you combine that with what he felt was his role in history to recreate this part of russia, historic russia, and he looked at his watch and thought, you know, time is running out and that the moment is right. and there were lots of reasons for the moment being right.

he had prepared for this for a long time, and he decided to pull the trigger. i think also just understanding that, you know, he is not getting the kind of information that would have caused him to make good decisions based on the information. so he did not understand that it was going to go this way, and i think that that, you know, plays into that. >> whatever his isolation, he obviously in his head made a strategic decision. given the united response of the west, the problems on the battlefields, the sanctions, the isolating of russia as a country, the damage being done to the economy -- given all of that, would he be thinking now it was a good strategic decision? >> probably not. i'm sure that there's some buyer's remorse here. but, you know, when you have put this much in, it's not like you can walk away and say at this moment, never mind. you know, he has to kind of go forward, and i think that's why a lot of us are saying that we expect him to double down a

little bit more before he's actually going to be willing to make any concessions. he's going to have to get something out of this given what he has expended. >> yeah, and the question is what is that? do you think there will come a point where he realizes there is not a military solution for him in the way he would have envisioned anyway, toppling the government, having ukraine as some sort of vasal state. do you think that point will come, and if so, what then? >> i think that that point may have already come, but that doesn't mean that he can stop now. he may see, and perhaps that is part of why there's a meeting now today, thursday, in turkey between lavrov and kuleba, the foreign ministers, is because he's preparing for that point where there should be a negotiated -- there must be a negotiated solution. but i think also we have to keep in mind that it can't just be a negotiation between ukraine and russia.

it's also going to have to bring in the united states and the europeans because he's going to have to get some kind of agreement that walks back just the incredible pain that we are now placing on the russian economy. >> beth sanner speaking with me earlier. we're going to take a quick break. when we come back, the number of refugees has now passed the 2 million mark. when we come back, we will dig deeper into where they're going, how they're getting there, and what awaits them. we'll also meet one woman who left her family behind to help orphans and foster children get to safety. we'll have her story too after the break. this mom's one step closer to their new mini-van! yeah, you'll get used to it. this mom's depositing money wiwith tools on-hand. cha ching. and this mom, well, she's setting an appointment herere, so her son can get set up there and start his own financial journey. that's because these moms all have chase.

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think about that. according to the u.n., they're mostly heading to ukraine's neighbors, such as poland and hungary. however, some are fleeing to other eu countries and even russia. most of the refugees are women and children leaving behind everything, fleeing for their lives. there are no flights, so the trip is on foot or in a car or on a train. most ukrainians heading to poland as we've reported, where they may have relatives or friends perhaps. our sara sidner met with a group taking care of orphans who had nothing when they left ukraine. they are safe for the moment but have little hope of returning home anytime soon. >> translator: the normal beautiful chaos of children at play. but these children have been through hell and back more than once in their young lives. some are orphans. others, foster children in ukraine. and suddenly, overnight, they

became war refugees. fleeing over the polish border from kyiv. the youngest one says, "i want to go home. i'm telling him he can't. it's scary there. he doesn't understand." this is the only woman they know as mama. this is their comfort, their constant. she helped them escape ukraine. but doing that meant leaving her own family behind and coming a refugee herself. "i have a daughter and mother in ukraine. i'm worrying so much, but these children should be saved." her daughter is staying behind to fight russia as a member of the ukraine territorial defense. these children have been fighting for their place in the world from an early age. we're not showing their faces to protect them. is there abuse as well, actual physical abuse? "before the war, our children

had been abused, physically, ps psychologically. they suffered. they didn't have a poland. now they are safe at the children's village, but the trauma of war and abuse never really goes away, their longtime mental health counselor says. she's held it together to reassure the children even while they all hid in the basement with bombs exploding outside. "it was around 4:00 a.m. i woke my husband up and told him, this is war. we started to seal the windows. the children started to scream. i was trying to calm him. look at me. breathe. we're going to seal the windows. everything is under control. now, we need you to stop the panic and help us." so far, sos children's village says it has brought 107 orphans and foster children out of ukraine. some children escaped without seeing war up close. others witnessed horrific scenes. "there's a girl which is coming to us. she broke free from the hell of

irpin, a city that's been leveled, and she witnessed a family being shot before her eyes. when she thinks about the man responsible for raining down bullets on her beloved country, her tears turn to rage. "putin is the second hitler. it is serious. if the world doesn't stop him, there will be world war iii." putin has said he is going into ukraine to kill nazis. you are saying that putin is, in your mind, the new hitler. "yes, it is obvious now that he is not fighting nazis." while they are all grateful to escape to poland. the children and adults all say they want one thing, to be able to cross the border home to a safe ukraine. and i should mention that now the number of refugees in total that have come over the polish border from ukraine is now up to 1.3 million people. sara sidner, cnn, poland.

>> i want to bring in now the head of global communications at the u.n. refugee agency. good to see you. you have traveled to the polish, moldovan and romanian borders, so you have a good lay of the land. what have you been seeing? >> we've been seeing what has been described and is genuinely the fastest exodus since world war ii in europe. in addition to the 1.3 million refugee who's have come into poland alone, there have been 2.2 million refugees overall in just 14 days going into all the neighboring countries. so it is a huge-scale refugee crisis. >> it is staggering. it is utterly staggering. and when you see some of the people who pass through here on their way to places like poland, the numbers just beggar belief. i saw where you said, quote, the

level of fear and trauma is clear. give us a sense of that level of trauma, the impact of it. >> i think for many of the refugees that i've met, they had just minutes to decide to leave because they had been hoping to stay in ukraine. they did not want to leave. one of the women that i met, she was traveling with her three children and their two dogs, and she said she had every intention of staying. she left behind her husband, her parents, her brother, and she said the only thing that finally made her go was that her daughter started having panic attacks, was barely able to breathe. and i could see they were completely shell-shocked. and we're seeing that across the border. and as you've seen, it's almost all women and children that are coming across at this point. >> yeah, i did read where you mentioned the look in that daughter's eyes in that car.

now, the fact is as horrendous as this humanitarian crisis is, the magnitude of it in this space of time speaks for itself. but the reality is it could be just the beginning, right? >> we fear it is just the beginning because right now, the people that are coming across, many of them are coming by car. they have the means. they have family members. and what we're also thinking is it's people that probably are either living with disabilities, are physically or mentally unwell to be able to leave right now in the early days, and it's also people who might have large families and not enough of a support structure. so what we fear is that the next group of refugees that come out are going to be the ones that are even more at risk and that will really need international support and the support of the neighboring countries. >> and the reality is, is it not, that, you know, depending on what happens in the weeks and

even months ahead, this could be a years-long problem, couldn't it? some people might not be going home for a very long time, if at all. >> considering the devastation that we're seeing inside ukraine, it is very possible. i mean it's similar to -- i started my career in the bosnian war, and there are so many similarities in terms of the scale of destruction that we're seeing. and i think that, you know, we're talking about entire cities at risk, entire populations on the move. and ukraine has a huge population, and so it is something that we're extremely concerned about, about how long is this crisis going to last. >> yeah, and the challenge is always to make people around the world see past the numbers and to see into the eyes of the individuals. really appreciate your time and the work that you're doing.

>> thank you. if you would like to help people in ukraine who might be in need of shelter, food, water, and warm clothing, i can tell you it's 11 degrees fahrenheit right here, right now, minus 11 celsius. think about that. a lot of people outside making their way to the border and so on. go to cnn.com/impact if you'd like to help. a lot of resources there for you. well, it is no easy feat to move thousands of people away from the dangers in this country. coming up, volunteers putting their lives on the line to help. >> all this is happening under the threat, the threat of artillery strikes and gunfire. that's a real threat right now. >> that's a real threat, but we have no choice.

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welcome back, everyone. we are about 90 minutes away from the highest level face-to-face contact between russia and ukraine since the start of this invasion. the russian foreign minister, sergey lavrov, expected to meet with his ukrainian counterpart in turkey, dmitry kuleba says his priorities are a cease-fire, liberating ukrainian territories, and resolving humanitarian issues. meanwhile u.s. vice president kamala harris is in poland where she will meet in the coming hours with that country's president and prime minister to discuss issues regarding fighter jets for ukraine. and back in washington, the u.s. secretary of state meeting with the british foreign secretary, liz truss. >> we have surprised putin with our unity and the toughness of our sanctions, hitting the banks, the ships, the planes, the oligarchs, and the oil and gas revenues.

and the brave ukrainian people have surprised him with their determination and their leadership. now is not the time to let up. putin must fail. >> meanwhile, ukrainian civilians, of course, increasingly being targeted. one of the latest attacks hitting a maternity and children's hospital in the southeastern city of mariupol during what was meant to be a pause in fighting on wednesday. ukraine's president calling the bombing a, quote, russian war crime and proof of genocide. local officials say mothers and staff were among the at least 17 people wounded. and of course it is not the first ukrainian hospital to be hit. the world health organization says it has verified at least 18 attacks on health facilities, health workers, and ambulances since russia began this invasion, causing at least 10 deaths. >> the only real solution to

this situation is peace. w.h.o. continues to call on the russian federation to commit to a peaceful resolution to this crisis and to allow safe, unimpeded access to humanitarian assistance for those in need. a peaceful resolution is possible. >> now, there are plans to prepare six humanitarian routes to open up in the coming hours. they would offer desperately needed evacuations of places like mariupol. president zelenskyy says nearly 35,000 people were rescued from sumy and also the kyiv region. matthew chance now reports on the humanitarian corridors that are a lifeline away from makeshift shelters and relentless russian strikes.

>> reporter: in the chaos of this evacuation, the frantic search for a lost child. in the rush to escape the fighting, an orphan has been left behind. each bus desperately checked for a familiar face. >> hello. >> hi. >> you speak english? >> reporter: for the journey across the front line, the children are well protected against the cold, if not the bombs. the older kids were terrified, natasha tells me. but the little ones didn't understand the danger they were all in, she says. this is a mass exodus from areas under heavy russian assault. an agreed safe corridor which hundreds of civilians, entire families are using to escape before it closes, leaving the horrors of the past few weeks behind. >> my name is nadia. >> nadia, where have you come

from? >> from vorzle. this is a place which was very dangerous, and there are a lot of russians and a lot of chechens. i don't know. >> russians and chechens? >> yes, russians and chechens. they kill our owner of the house. >> they killed the owner of the house? >> yes. yes. they killed the owner of the house. >> so you and your family over here, you must have been terrified? frightening? >> it was terrified, absolutely terrified. my family is okay. now we are going to leave. ten days in the underground. >> you've been ten days underground? >> ten days underground. >> oh, my goodness. >> reporter: there you have it. just one family that has taken this opportunity to escape the horrific situation they find themselves in for the last ten days or more. and, again, you know, you take

that chance to get themselves and their children out of here. >> we have a lot of volunteers who help with nutrition. >> reporter: and helping them do that safely, this ukrainian official tells me, is now as much a part of fighting this war with russia as killing the enemy. >> we have warm food and warm drinks. we have a medical crew that helps to manage people that were wounded. we've seen shelled people with broken and ruptured legs here. >> yeah. >> and we have a security force that actually interview people because we are afraid that russians may have sent some of their own in this. >> as spies? >> as spies. >> saboteurs? >> as saboteurs, yeah, right here. >> all this is happening, of course, under the threat, the threat of artillery strikes and gunfire. that's a real threat right now. >> that's a real threat, but we have no choice because we have

thousands of people who really have spent more than a week in the basements with no cellular coverage, with no access to medical assistance, with no food, no lights, no electricity. and they want to flee. they need us to help them. >> reporter: but as the buses leave for the capital, the boom of artillery fire resumes in the distance. the window for this escape from the fighting is closing fast. matthew chance, cnn, kyiv. i will have more from ukraine later this hour, but let's go to john vause in atlanta for now. john. >> thank you. still to come here on cnn, while his military underperforms on the battlefield, putin's propaganda someone appears to be losing the information war, outplayed on social media by ukraine's comedian turned president. a closer look at why when we

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the white house is warning russian forces in ukraine could potentially use chemical or biological weapons. press secretary jen psaki pointed to russian allegations that the u.s. is developing chemical weapons in ukraine, tweeting this. now that russia has made those claims and china seemingly endorsed them, we should all be on the lookout for russia to use chemical or biological weapons in ukraine. the tweet said that could be part of a false flag operation. psaki added russia has a track record of using chemical weapons and accusing the west for its own violations. the u.s. state department also accused the kremlin of lies after accusing the u.s. of chemical and biological weapons activities in ukraine. cnn takes a closer look at how these once debunked claims are finding new life. >> reporter: the foreboding

music, biohazard warnings. >> translator: this russian state media footage from 2015 claims to show america running facilities in ukraine and georgia that caused deadly outbreaks of disease and killed local livestock. this story is false, but that has not stopped in continuing to circulate, evolving from biological hazards to biological weapons and becoming a key part of russia's disinformation campaign, justifying the invasion of ukraine. the claims were debunked several years ago when, in 2020, the united states issued a statement to, quote, set the record straight, explaining the facilities are, in fact, for vaccine development and to report outbreaks caused by dangerous pathogens before they pose security or stability threats. but this week, the story was back. >> translator: we are confirming the facts that were unveiled during the special military operation in ukraine that indicate an emergency cleanup of military biological programs by

the kyiv regime. they were carried out by kyiv and financed by the united states of america. >> reporter: multiple times the russian foreign ministry has resurfaced the debunked story. on tuesday, it was mentioned by a russian ally. >> translator: it is reported that those biolabs store large number of dangerous viruses. during russia's military operation, it was found that the u.s. is using those facilities to conduct biological militarization activities. >> reporter: alongside these official statements, it's being repeatedly shared across social media from facebook to twitter to telegram. and cnn's been tracking its spread. you can see here it's been posted in canada, australia, germany, and this tweet is one example. you can see it's been re-tweeted over 500 times already. the theory has now attracted the attention of figures and platforms with significant followings in the united states. >> go into ukraine and take oh the biolabs. >> reporter: such as the conspiracy theorist -- and has

been featured on the far right platform infowars. >> u.s. bioweapons labs in ukraine. >> reporter: and so russia's false narrative on american biolabs in ukraine continues to spread. cnn, london. some russian disinformation may get traction like the false story about u.s. biochemical labs in ukraine, for the most, russia's propaganda machine is underperforming much like its military on the battlefield, surprising because of putin's reputation as a master media manipulator. what's gone wrong? welcome to the program. >> thank you for having me. >> russian control over the narrative at home in theory should have been fairly straightforward, but putin's propaganda machine has struggled here to prevent the real story actually from reaching a fairly significant chunk of the population. what's gone wrong on that front, and what are the consequences here for vladimir putin, especially if the body count ticks up and there are body bags

coming home and there are russian mothers mourning the loss of their sons? >> i think what's gone wrong really seems to echo what's gone wrong on the battlefield. the overconfidence that the russian government had that its narratives, which of course are wild, lurid stories about ukraine being fascist, ukraine packed with nazis. these narratives just don't seem to have caught on with the population at home. there are, of course, a number of state tv, state media consumers who aren't looking beyond that narrative, who are really fired up by this stuff. but especially when you look at younger russians who are much more engaged on social media and who are using messaging apps like telegram to share and read news, they're getting exposed to all sorts of stories from outside of russia, including good and reliable sources like, of course, yourselves, and non-reliable misinformation and disinformation that's coming out of ukraine and is coming out of

opposition outlets in russia too. the consequence for putin is that, well, ultimately if you're going to have a long and costly war, costly both in terms of the bodies you mentioned and in terms of the sanctions and the effect on daily life, then you're going to need to have a motivated population to fight that war. we've seen what's happened in america with enthusiasm for iraq, with enthusiasm for afghanistan. we remember what happened in vietnam in america. think how enthusiasm waned over the years as the justification for war seemed to die away. well, putin's regime doesn't have that justification amongst its wider population already. >> talking directly to the people of russia, managing to get his message to them, and it's been quite effective. >> absolutely. so many of putin's justifications for war are based

around references to world war ii, are based around references to the soviet union and russia having saved the world. what zelenskyy has done is he's turned to russia's population, spoken in the russian language -- and he is a native russian speaker as well as speaking perfect ukrainian. and he is painting himself and his country as the heirs to that heritage and saying, we're under attack by this huge, aggressive state. we're the ones who are in besieged kyiv just like besieged stalingrad and leningrad during the war, so please come and support us. look at our populations being tortured and killed. and of course he's playing this game on the international front as well. he's reaching out to the british parliament. he's reaching out to the u.n., and he is using all of the skills he learned as an actor and as a media operator to just turn the screws on whoever he's talking to at any given time. >> you mentioned when he

addressed the british parliament, zelenskyy actually used shakespearean language. here's a small clip. >> translator: we will fight and defend our land no matter the cost. we will fight in the fields, in the forests, on the coasts, in villages and cities. >> it's a real lesson in know your audience, but also the people of russia know him because he was an actor and a very popular comedian before he became president. so there is a connection there that he manages to have with the people of russia. >> absolutely. putin's propaganda outlets have long tried to paint him as just some comedian, right? he's just a stand-up comic, just a funny guy, irrelevant, kind of a nobody. but he's not. he was a big actor, and he's clearly a phenomenal and a smart media operator. he came to power. he won the presidency off of the back of a social media campaign that painted him as the guy that was all about a new ukraine, all

about europe. and it appealed to ukrainians and it really appeals to progressive and liberal-minded russians as well who want to see their country go in that direction. clearly what they are is a movement towards europe but a stampede away from it. >> yeah. ian, thank you so much for being with us. we really appreciate your insights. it's interesting discussion, interesting part of the story, too. thank you. >> of course. it's a pleasure. >> much more of our breaking-news coverage of vladimir putin's war of choice in just a moment when we return live to michael holmes in lviv right after this. you are watching cnn. urke) that's not wrong. when you switch your home and auto policies to farmers, you could save yourself an average of seveven hundred and thirty dollars. (customer)r) that's something. (burke) get a whole lot of something with farmersrs. ♪we are farmers.bum-pa-dum, bum-bum-bum-bum♪

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it is win of many grand displays of support around the world. let's have a look in hungary. more than 1,500 green peace activists and volunteers came together to form a massive peace sign in budapest. and in the u.s., a giant ukrainian flag unfurled on a hotel across from the russian embassy in washington. a powerful message from the community there. live from lviv in ukraine, i'm michael holmes. our breaking news coverage continues after the break. with voltaren arthritis pain gel. my husband's got his moves back. an alternative to pills, voltaren is a non-steroidal anti-inflammatorory gel for powerful arthritis painin relief. voltaren, , the joy of movemen. people everywhere living with type 2 2 diabetes are waking up to what's possible... with rybelsus®.

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and this is emmanuel, a future recording artist, and one of the millions of students we're connecting throughout the next 10. through projectup, comcast is committing $1 billion so millions more students, past... and present, can continue to get the tools they need to build a future of unlimited possibilities. this is cnn breaking news. welcome, everyone. two weeks into russia's invasion of ukraine, the country's

foreign ministers are about to try talking again. this time, in turkey. that's meant to be in about an hour from now. but all previous attempts at dipl diplomacy have failed to yield any real braeakthroughs. and russia's ongoing attacks on civilians will be tough for ukraine to get past. the latest target appears to be a maternity ward and children's hospital in mariupol. we are about to air some images you will, no doubt, find upsetting. they show some of the 17 pregnant women and staff who were visibly wounded in that blast. you can see there is blood and a tremendous amount of rubble. a few hours before the bombing, russia's foreign ministry claimed that ukrainian combat troops were holed up in the hospital, and had expelled patients and staff. clearly, that is not true. mariupol's mayor called the attack pure evil, and said the occupiers will face justice at the hague. the ukrainian president agrees it is a war crime.