this is cnn breaking news. >> hello and welcome, everyone, to our viewers around the world and also in the united states this hour. i'm hala gorani live in lviv, ukraine. it is just past 7:00 in the morning across this country. now let's start with the very latest on what is happening on the ground here, and we're following breaking news developments. just hours ago, cnn teams on the ground in kyiv heard a loud explosion followed by sirens as an adviser to president szolkowy says volodymyr zelenskyy says russia is stepping up. he named several cities that are targeted, including kharkiv,

that has already been the site of widespread destruction. you're seeing images taken friday. russia's assault from the air is coming as ukrainian forces launch counterattacks on the ground and even manage to gain back some territory against the russian army. on tuesday, the two sides are set for another round of talks in turkey. so far these discussions have failed to yield any real tangible results. still, president zelenskyy shared his hopes for the latest negotiations. >> translator: our priorities in the negotiations are known. ukraine's sovereignty and territorial integrity are beyond doubt. effective security guarantee futures our state are mandatory. our goal is obvious. peace and the restoration of normal life in our native state as soon as possible. >> well, meantime ukraine says there will be an immediate investigation after video surfaced showing what appears to

be ukrainian soldiers shooting russian prisoners in the knees as they lay on the ground. this is said to have taken place during an operation in the region of kharkiv. ukraine's counterattacks on russian forces have been successful in parts of the country, as we've been covering for the last several days. but it comes with a tremendous cost as ukraine buries fallen soldiers. and all the while, ukraine's president is keeping pressure on western allies for more help on the ground. itv has that report. >> reporter: in the border landed, the battle for ukraine rages on. in a part of the country where the russian invasion began, a crank counterattack. in the diplomatic standoff on either side of this war, meanwhile, american officials have been trying to clarify their position after their president described vladimir putin as a butcher who cannot remain in power.

>> i think the president, the white house made the point last night that quite simply, president putin cannot be empowered to wage war or engage in aggression against ukraine or anyone else. as you know, and as you've heard us say repeatedly, we do not have a strategy of regime change in russia, or anywhere else for that matter. >> reporter: the russian defense ministry released footage of what it describes as its air strikes on ukrainian ammunition stores. but it is russia's bopping of cities and how to stop it that ukraine's president is most concerned with. mr. zelenskyy criticized his allies in the west who are still pondering whether to supply his armed forces with fighter jets. if only he said they had 1% of the courage shown by ukrainian soldiers. two of those soldiers were

brought tommy to lviv to be laid to rest today. the ukrainian defense of this country has been valiant, and it continues to be extremely effective, but it comes at a painful cost. among the mourners, defiance. >> we have not 20 or 30,000 army. today 40 million ukrainian people, huge ukrainian army. only victory. i believe in our victory. >> reporter: but this the immediate future of this war, a stalemate seems most likely, and the soldiers' sacrifice won't stop. itv news, western ukraine. >> kharkiv is one of the ukrainian cities bombarded by russian strikes over the past 24 hours. this is after ukrainian troops recaptured several villages east of the city over the weekend. joining me now is a senior

international affairs correspondent for the guardian, and she just recently left kharkiv after reporting extensively from there and elsewhere in ukraine. thanks for being with us. the situation on the ground. obviously the ukrainians are defending as best they can on the ground. they're even pushing russian forces back in some cases. but they don't have the ability to push back against what is coming from the skies. they keep saying over and over again they need fighter jets, anti-aircraft weaponry that they're not getting. describe to us what you've been seeing over the last several da is in your reporting. >> well, thank you so much for having me on the show. and yes, you pretty much summed it up. the ukrainian troops are fighting incredibly hard on the outskirts of kharkiv and having some military success there. but the problem is russia is pursuing in kharkiv as it did in mariupol and as it's doing in many other places a policy of punitive attacks on civilians. so while the fighting between the militaries is going on the

outskirts of the town, russia is showering the center of kharkiv, civilian districts with all kinds of munitions, with missiles, rockets, shells. and the extensiveness of the bombing there is truly shocking. there is sort of -- we were told there is 60 to 90 types of ammunition hitting the city every day. they announced this offensive essentially against the savian population with a missile hit on city hall. this huge imposing building that was totally hollowed out. firemen are now trying to sort of clear out the wreckage. they've already pulled out 30 bodies. they're expecting to find more casualties. and essentially, because of the intensity of this bombardment, which really is one of the most intense in all of ukraine, apart from outside of course mariupol, it's a city that's moved underground. so you go to kharkiv. the streets are almost empty. people have moved into the metro. they stay in their apartment blocks. they come out to get food, maybe

to get a tiny bit of air, and then they go back in. it's this eerily empty scene of vast boulevards that are empty. it's a very beautiful city. it's the second biggest in ukraine. it has this sort of incredible history. and a lot of residents said to me that their history, they're so close to the russian border. it's a russian speaking city, or has been traditionally, that's perhaps part of the reason why they are being so punitively attacked. they feel that putin, the russian authorities expected that russian soldiers would be welcome in this city. they got into the center of the city on the first day of the war, and were pushed back to the outskirt where they've been held ever since. and so many people in kharkiv, from the governor down to people i was speaking to in their homes were saying they felt they were being punished essentially for this resistance, for this refusal to welcome russian forces. but the thing that i found -- >> denying -- continue to talk,

but the russians deny that they target civilians intentionally. but when you see the damage and the shells and the missiles that are hitting densely populated residential areas, they tell a different story. >> i mean, absolutely. i walk, for instance, through a residential neighborhood in the north of the city. what i was going say although a lot of people have left, maybe half, two-thirds of the population, a full third have stayed. and some of them can't leave, but many of them say keeping their city alive, keeping its spirit alive is part of the battle against russia. they dent want kharkiv to be an abandoned city. a shell hits, people go and sweep up the glass, the rubbish. they try and board up their house and carry on living there. we went out with the rubbish collectors. they're i know wearing flak jackets because the rounds they're on are regularly shelled. their vans are peppered with shrapnel. but they say the city will become unhygienic. people's morale will fall if

rubbish is left to pile up in the streets. they're going out risking their lives that kind of attitude in kharkiv, so many people said the same. we're here to keep our city alive, its spirit alive, even though they're living in these incredibly difficult lives, you know. constant shelling the whole time, you know, landing, as you say in civilian neighborhoods. while we were there, one place where we've been watching these rubbish collectors, about 500 meters away there was a queue of people waiting to collect humanitarian aid. people are running out of food, of course. you can imagine economic life as stopped. and a rocket just slammed into this queue of civilians and killed them, giving a sense of perhaps how dangerous the city. one of the people who was killed was a woman who'd what been living in the metro for a month since the war had begun. she came up very briefly for air. even the few minutes of trying to get a little sunshine and a bit of fresh air, that cost her life. that's how dangerous kharkiv is at the moment.

intercont . >> and you said a third of the population of the city has remained. almost an act of resistance in itself. if by some miracle, the war ended tomorrow, how does a city like that even return from the state that it's in now, its population, its life, the life that once inhabited that place that is now hollowed out by russian missiles, bombs, and shells? >> well, as you say, the destruction is terrible. you sort of walked through the city center, and there is whole buildings kind of the holes punched in the streets. not just shell damage to the outside of the building, but an entire building collapsed by the force of very powerful missiles. but everybody i spoke to is determined to rebuild. i think the governor of kharkiv summed it up. we can rebuild our city. we will rebuild it. the thing that breaks my heart is the people who have died, the families. because you can't rebuild, you

know, a shattered family once someone has been killed. and the scale of the death there we went to a morgue, and they just can't keep up with the pace of death as bodies, you know, they couldn't even keep them all inside the morgue. there were dozens and dozens of bodies stacked in the courtyards, some of them just wrapped in sort of black plastic body bags. some of them wrapped in blankets because they're running out even of the body bags. you know, there is a terrible, terrible toll being taken on the civilians of this city. >> thank you very much for the reporting that you have -- >> sorry to interrupt. another thing that might give you a sense of the scale of the suffering and the intensity of the attacks, which went to a hospital where doctors and nurses have been living. the attacks have been so intense and they have such a strict curfew, and they have so many patients coming in that they have not left that building for a month. they've just been there trying

to save lives as the patients come in. there you can hear the bombing around you. there was a gunfight less than a kilometer away. the windows are sandbagged. it's all blackout curtains. the patients are mostly in the corridors because they're very aware that multiple hospitals have been targeted in this war. dozens and dozens have been recorded by the united nations as having been hit. but they're still there. again, they're determined to leave and save as many lives as they can. determined to stay. sorry. >> yeah, thank you, emma graham harrison there for highlighting that so many medical facilities have been hit in just a few weeks. thank you so much for your reporting. u.s. officials are trying to walk back president joe biden's fiery remarks about vladimir putin when he said the russian president cannot remain in power. you'll remember he said that was an ad-libbed moment at the end of his speech in warsaw. cnn's arlette science has the details from the white house.

>> reporter: with president biden back in washington, the white house continued to try to clarify his comments that russian president vladimir putin can note remain in power. those comments which the president made in a speech in poland on saturday caught many of his aides by surprise as they were not part of his prepared speech and seemed to suggest he wanted to see regime change in russia, which would mark a significant change in u.s. foreign policy. but president biden was asked directly by reporters here in washington on sunday whether he meant that he wanted regime change in russia, and he said no. secretary of state antony blinken further elaborated on what the white house's view on the matter circumstances the president, the white house made the point last night that quite simply, president putin cannot be empowered to wage war or engage in aggression against ukraine or anyone else. as you know. and as you heard us say

repeatedly. we do not have a strategy of regime change in russia or anywhere else for that matter. in this case, as in any case, it's up to the people of the country in question. it's up to the russian people. >> that moment really marked the third time that the white house had to clarify something the president said regarding russia and ukraine during his trip abroad. the white house very aware of tense situation, and how every word matters at this moment. now while the president was abroad, he really was trying to shore up support and signal western unity against russian president vladimir putin amid his invasion of ukraine. but the white house is also fully aware that the work is not complete simply because that foreign trip is over, and they will continue to look for ways to hold russia and punish russian president vladimir putin for his invasion as well as further offer support to the ukrainian people as they continue to defend themselves. arlette saenz, cnn, the white

house. well, coming up with russia's relentless shelling of civilians, many ukrainians are being forced to decide if they should leave the only home they've ever known. we'll have that story coming up. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪

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bombardment are returning to find their homes completely destroyed. >> translator: i've lived here since my birth. my husband as well. we got married here and have babies. what now? what is left for us? i don't want to go anywhere from mariupol, but there is nowhere to live here. >> well, this comes as ukrainian official says humanitarian aid is begin to wane, adding that more support is desperately needed right now. according to the u.n., more than 3.8 million people have now fled ukraine to nearby countries, and another 6.5 million are displaced inside ukraine. afghan refugees who fled their homeland only last year were starting a new life in ukraine. imagine that. now with the russian military invading their adoptive country, they find themselves fleeing again. josh campbell has the story of one afghan family's struggle to get out of ukraine.

>> reporter: a nation under siege. brutal shelling of civilian targets. families fractured, and now a humanitarian crisis as millions desperately leave ukraine, their fate uncertain. >> it happens so quick. and my parents, my mom especially, she was so worried. and she kept crying. >> reporter: among those fleeing putin's war, families who are no stranger to conflict. fatima hussaini is an afghan religion now in the united states. she has desperately been trying to get her parents out of poland. they find themselves escaping possible death for the fourth time, and it isn't the first time evading russia's regime. >> i was very young when the war erupted in afghanistan. when the soviet union fought in afghanistan, then we went to iran as refugees. >> the 1979 soviet invasion would last a decade.

>> when it became calm, we returned to afghanistan. then when we were there for a few years, the taliban came to power. then we became refugees again. >> reporter: once again, refugees in a foreign land. but eventually returning home to their native country at u.s. forces overthrow the taliban. but after america's chaotic withdrawal in 2021, the family feared saed's job in the afghan army would put them in the crosshairs of the afghan regime. >> i was worried about my family, my mother and father. god forbid if something happens to them. >> reporter: as thousands desperately fought to leave afghanistan, it was the ukrainian military who came to their rescue, launching a transport. >> we brought no clothes with us from afghanistan. >> reporter: they settled in

kyiv. but soon came the familiar sounds of war. >> at first, we had no intention to leave at all, because we had witnessed so much war. we suddenly heard a siren. it was very terrifying. >> reporter: with little money, few possessions, and unable to speak the local language, traveling to neighboring poland was marked by constant challenge and heartache. >> the most difficult thing was the train station. that i really did not know how to get on the train. >> so your mom is standing there in front of a packed train, talking to you. she's got the baby. >> exactly. >> and you're pleading with them to get on that train. >> yeah. because i thought that's the only option for them. >> reporter: fatima says her family's grueling journey out of ukraine was only made possible due to random acts of kindness by ukrainians they met along the way. >> people are beautiful. i mean, they're kind and they don't hesitate to approach you and help you. >> reporter: now in warsaw, their struggle far from over.

the hossein is hope to find refuge in canada. but with no funds to buy the expensive plane tickets, they wait. despite their own endless hardship, the hosseinis are grateful to be alive. >> i pray that no one, no other country, no person on the face of earth become a refugee, that all live in peace. >> reporter: can you imagine a day when members of your family are no longer refugees fleeing conflict? >> hopefully they won't have to again move to another country because of war and safety issues. that's what i'm hopeful. that's what i'm praying for. >> reporter: josh campbell, cnn. >> well, russia's push on kyiv has stalled in recent days. but ukraine's capital is still enduring the result reality of war. we've got the latest on that after the break.

welcome back. i'm hala gorani reporting live from lviv, ukraine. more details on our top story this hour. ukraine's president says his country is ready to accept a neutral nonnuclear status as part of a peace deal with russia. this comes as both sides are expected to meet this week for another round of negotiations which will take place in turkey. on the ground, though, ukrainian

officials say russia is launching more and more missile strikes across the country, especially in mariupol. the city has been the target of relentless russian attacks since the beginning. and the near constant fighting has trapped thousands of civilians inside. meanwhile, ukrainian troops have gained some ground, launching counter offenses to take back territory from russian forces in some parts of the country. but the country's military intelligence chief suggested sunday that russia is now changing its focus to the south and east, attempting to carve ukraine in two after failing to take the capital, kyiv. meantime, in recent days, the russian push for ukraine's capital has stalled with ukrainian forces pushing forward, and in some cases gaining territory back. our fred pleitgen is in kyiv with more. >> kyiv of course is still very much a city that is on a war footing. people here still do remain very

concerned for their safety. however, i do believe that today may have been a little bit more quiet than what we've seen here in the past couple of days, pretty much this entire week. however, we are still hearing those air raid sirens. we're still hearing automatic weapons fire. we're still hearing shelling as well. a lot of that could be due to the pack that the ukrainians are saying they're pressing that counter-offensive towards the north of the city. the northwest and the northeast of the city where they say they've gained back some ground from the russian military. but of course, the going up there is still pretty tough for them. we managed to get up to a village today to the north of kyiv. a small town where the people who live there, the few that actually still remain, they tell us that the russian military hasn't managed to gain any sort of ground over the past couple of weeks. but what they are doing is heavily shelling that area. a lot of that indiscriminate shelling. and it's really unsafe for the people who still remain there. nevertheless, the ukrainian

forces, they say that they're pretty confident they're further going to be able to push the russians back. but their leadership, they understand that these gains that the ukrainians are making, they're still pretty fragile. and of course the russian army has a huge force here outside of kyiv and does remain very dangerous. >> fred pleitgen, thanks very much. when the russian invasion began, it was staggering to hear estimates that nearly five million people could be forced out of ukraine. just weeks later, we've nearly reached four million. kyung lah shows us what those refugees face when they finally reach a safe destination. >> reporter: this is one of the main train stations in warsaw, poland, where after people cross the border, or if they're able to make it directly here, they can transfer to other parts of europe. poland has taken in some two million refugees, 350,000 of them, more than 350,000 of them according to the mayor have decided to stay in the city. this is a city that has seen a

population growth of more than 15% in just a month. so what happens when people arrive here at the train station? they'll pick up something like this, and get and figure out the steps of what life is going to look like now. how to get the equivalent of a social security number here in poland, access to health care, trying to figure out how to get a job, how to get their kids in school. and then others might transit to other parts of the continent. and so some of those women and children, they're going into rooms like this that white wall that you see there, that's for privacy, for women and children only. and that room is completely full. but we're hearing stories about people who have fled the country. shelling just two hours away from them. one of them is zema lasenko, a 15-year-old athlete on the ukrainian national team. shea long jumper, left his parents behind. he doesn't have any siblings,

but he managed to come here, traveling with his coach because he's an athlete and a polish university is taking him in. >> i feel more safety. and i feel help from the polish people. they help us very well. it's hard, but we believe we'll be back to ukraine. >> and little acts of kindness like those people donating dog food and water for the many animals. a lot of women, children, people who are traveling with their pets, you know, finding things like this along the way. but this is a strain on warsaw's infrastructure, because of the number of people who arrived here seemingly overnight. kyung lah, cnn, warsaw. >> well, now for something completely different after the break. it's hood's biggest night in los

angeles. but people are talking about justice one thing. if you're just waking up, believe me, this will be your main topic of conversation probably all day. my colleague lynda kinkade has the controversy surrounding will smith and chris rock, coming up.

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welcome back. i'm lynda kinkade. it was the biggest night in hollywood, the academy awards show. and it had an unscripted fight that stunned the audience. it started when chris rock made a joke on stage about jada pinkett smith's shaved head. she has alopecia, which is an autoimmune disorder which causes hair loss. will smith, jada's husband then took the stage and punched rock in the face. take a look. >> uh-oh. richard. oh, wow. wow. >> although it appeared to be a joke at first, smith returned to his seat and yelled at rock using pretty foul language. viewers at home did not hear the exchange as censors muted it. i'm joined with a editor out of the hollywood reporter. good to have you with us, rebecca. i have to say when that happened, my phone lit up with messages theying was that

scripted? was that meant to be a piece of the comedy. explain for us what went down. >> yeah, as your viewers just saw, chris rock made a little joke about jada pinkett smith's appearance, just as part of the general celebrity roasting that comes with the oscars. but, you know, she, you know, she didn't think it was funny. you could tell which the expression on her face. but when will smith got up there, there was still a chance that this was a bit, they were going to pretend to be fighting. but chris rock was very visibly shaken. and abc had to mute the sound for quite a long time as viewers at home could clearly read will smith's lips, and i'll save, and leave out the profanity, but he basically said keep my wife's nape out of your mouth, and it was not a joke. >> of course, his wife does have alopecia, which is this autoimmune disorder which causes

hair loss. smith went on the win best actor for "king richard" and then apologized. are you still with us, rebecca. >> oh, yes, i am. i'm sorry. i thought you were going to roll the clip. but i want to say it's -- we should be clear that he apologized to the academy, and he apologized to his fellow nominees. i would assume for sort of causing a disturbance. he did not apologize to chris rock, the man that he hit on stage on television. so, you know, and he sort of alluded to the incident by talking about richard williams, the real life man that he played in "king richard" and how he was a man that fiercely defended his family. you could easily read between the lines and kind of interpret that as will smith's explanation for why he took those actions. >> yeah. so he tried to bring it all back to the film and protecting his

family. i want to talk about some of the other awards now, because jane campion is now the third woman in history to win an academy award for best director for "the power of the dog." >> yeah, and it's significant that she was also the first, right. so this is a full circle moment for jane campion. a woman has never repeatled as best director. so that is -- that's hugely significant. i'm sorry, as a nominee. this is not the first time she was nominated. back in 1994 "the piano." you know, that was not a surprise. i think that she had been picking up lot of the best directing accolades throughout this awards season. so certainly, you know, back-to-back female winners of the best director race, i think we're a long way from some sort of a sustainable parody. but certainly very amazing to

have chloe zhao last year and now jane campion this year being dominated best director. >> in terms of best picture, many thought it would go to "the power of the dog," but it was "coda" that claimed that oscar. >> yeah, i think by this weekend, "coda" and "the power of the dog" were kind of running neck to neck. early -- "the power of the dog" was an early favorite, but "coda" picked up a lot of key wins in other awards shows late in the season, like the s.a.g. awards winning best ensemble. so it wasn't a total surprise, especially when "coda" won adapted screenplay earlier tonight. that's something that oscars watchers will know that that screenplay win is often a great predictor of best picture. and it's an incredible milestone for inclusion. we can't even say that there have been many film shas have spotlighted deaf or disabled communities at all.

so for this one to go all the way to the end and win best picture is actually a really significant achievement. >> yeah, exactly. in terms of best supporting actress, arianna dubois from "west side story" urge jed out "the power of the dog." and judi dench for "belfast." and in doing so, made history. >> yeah. ariana debose, there is a couple of different milestones there. she is the first afro latina ever to win an acting oscar. she is out, lgbtq, and she talked about that in her acceptance speech, talking about really showing queer women of color that there is a place for us. that's a famous reference to a lyric in "west side story." and this is i believe maybe the first time that an actress has ever -- that the same character -- how do i put that, that one character has yielded multiple oscars for different actresses. rita moreno of course winning the oscar for playing anita in

"west side story" back in the 1960s. >> of course, you obvious live cover these very closely. was there any standout surprise for you apart from the will smith punch? >> you know, i mean, we were going into this thinking that this was going to be a pretty predictable night. and in fact i wouldn't say there was any real surprises in terms of the awards that were handed out. you know, even the ones that we weren't sure about, best actress, jessica chastain i think -- nobody was surprised to have won, although she wasn't as much as a runaway front-runner as ariana debose or troy kotsur was. but it's all about the slap. i don't think a single person could have predicted that, especially where the conversation this year was about how fewer and fewer people have been watching the oscars. and the producers had been trying to come up with exciting ways to get the audience back,

inviting instagram influencers. controversially excluding many of the below the line categories to nontelevised events, just trying to get as many people in. at the end of the day all you have to do is have will smith hit chris rock on stage. >> exactly. a moment that will go down in oscars history for sure. rebecca sun, good to have you with us from the hollywood reporter. thank you so much. >> thank you. still ahead, covid cases surging, shanghai is now going to go into lockdown as health authorities try to test tens of millions of people. gearing have a live report when we come back.

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are you a christian author with a book that you're ready to share with the world? get published now, call for your free publisher kit today! welcome back. china's financial hub is going into lockdown for mass covid-19 testing. the shanghai government says half the city begins four days of lockdown on monday. the other half will follow on friday. all of shanghai's roughly 25 million residents must get tested to maintain a green health code status, which allows them into grocery stores and other public areas. china has reported more than 6200 new cases sunday. more than half o of them were in shanghai. the city has now seen more than 16,000 infections since the

latest outbreak began on march 1. cnn's beijing bureau chief stephen jang joins us now for more. so steven so, many countries around the world are dropping restrictions and opening up. and now we've got shanghai locking people down. this lockdown in two stages. >> that's right. this really follows days of confusion, or even chaos on the streets and also online in terms of what the authorities would do to shanghai, which is experiencing its biggest surge of covid infections since the pandemic began. now for days, the city actually deny -- it would impose a city-wide lockdown with police launching investigations into rumor mongers about the eminent closure. when you mention the numbers, 16,000 since march, obviously a huge deal here in china. there is also consistent suspicion about this number being underreported. but when we dive a bit deeper, more than 97% of these cases are

so-called asymptomatic cases which mirror what is happening elsewhere. the home kron even though highly contagious resulting in milder cases or cases with no symptomses that do not require a lot of hospital care. so up to this even giving hope that this would eventually be adopted by the rest of the country, but instead, of course, the exact opposite happened with authorities adapting harshering measures we had previously seen outside of shanghai with millions of residents now confined to their homes and the city's public transportation system largely shut, including the world's biggest metro system. that, of course, has led to a lot of panic buying on the streets, stores, super markets even take-out restaurants, as well as, of course, problems at the city's hospitals because many of them have been closed down because of covid or been dedicated to treating covid

patients, leaving a lot of patients seeking medical attentions for other illnesses being turned away, or even dying at least in one case as a result. so all of this has resulted in a lot of fatigue, frustration or even anger, really bursting social media, all of this, ultimately is up to the beijing leadership to decide, as of now, seems they are determined to stick to their zero covid policy, because the most important thing on their calendar is this communist party national congress party later this year, not going to tolerate covid cases raging across the country as xi jinping is set to take third term in office. >> wow, serious news this week. steven jiang thank you so much. back to our top story, russia's war in ukraine, foreign minister tells cnn he opposes the use of power against a sovereign country and says qatar will not plan new investments in russia

and parts of europe until there's more stability. speaking to a sidelines on the dohar forum. >> our understanding is communal, our stance is against aggression or use of power against a sovereign country or, you know, trying to undermine the integrity or territory and made this clear, stick to the international u.n., this has to be constructive. so we keep communication generally with all the parties. i was in moscow approximately 10 days ago. i had the chance to have a conversation with foreign minister of russia, talking about the ukraine issue but also keeping the communication on going with our ukrainian counter

parts, trying to help or offering our help or contribution to deescalate the situation and this war. >> reporter: is it your stance that president putin wants peace at this point? >> well, i cannot really say what president putin is thinking about, but what i believe, and from my conversations with my counterpart there in russia, that they are willing to engage on the demands they have put forward. now how far the government are willing to give them on those demands, this is really the ukrainian government, the ukrainian peoples' decision. but our interest now is, and priority is really to create some safe environment for the people, for the civilians over there. there is a deterioration in the humanitarian situation in ukraine, which is unprecedented. so i think that should be the priority. we should focus on having a

cease fire, humanitarian corridors, bringing humanitarian assistance to ukraine and in a state of having this conflict and disagreement on the battle field to be on the table. >> the west has imposed sanctions on russia in an effort to squeeze the kremlin at this point. the counter investment authority or the qie has a sizeable investment in the russian oil giant, rosn,ef, is qatar prepard to withdraw from russia? >> right now, with the current situations, we are not thinking about any new investments there. even, by the way, the in europe, until we have some creditability

on the stability of the situations. but our messages we took in the investment at that time was based on a commission assessment and these investments are still on going. >> so you'll make no new investments. >> in the current environment, i think the investment is really under a lot of review. >> the norwegians fund has unwound its position in russian companies. you're saying that qatar investment in russia is under review at this point? >> for the current, the current time, our investment decisions, as i told you, is based on commission assessment and what we have currently in russia, we are not thinking about increasing that these days until we see a better atmosphere and more political stability. >> well, becky anderson's full interview with qatar's foreign

minister airs 3:00 p.m., right here on cnn. thanks for watching, i'm lynda kinkade, thanks for watching.

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hello, everybody, and welcome to our viewers all around the world and also in the united states this hour, i'm hala gorani reporting line from lviv, ukraine, we are following breaking developments in russia's war on this country. an adviser to ukrainian president volodomyr zelenskyy accusing russia of quote, trying to wipe ukraine off the face of the earth as it steps up and continues to step up missile strikes across the country. this, as we're seeing new images of widespread destruction and devastation left behind by the brutal russian assault in cities like mariupol. russia's attacks from the air are coming as ukrainian forces launched counterattacks on the ground and even managing to gain