i'm hala gorani reporting live from lviv in ukraine. any hope that russia would keep its promise to scale back its attacks on ukraine has been dashed by another day of missile launches, air strikes, and shelling. we want to start with a hard-hit city of irpin just west of the capital, kyiv, take a look. the mayor of irpin reports that half of the city has been destroyed. water, electricity still out. uninhabitable, basically. much of the video from the region is graphic and heartbreaking, and some of it we cannot show you because it is too graphic. emergency workers ventured out on wednesday to collect some of the dead bodies. the mayor says irpin is now under full ukrainian control but russian soldiers are still

lurking nearby. he says many civilians remain in the city despite the fighting. look at all those body bags. farther north, ukrainian forces claim they've retaken a key town near chernihiv. you can see the bombed-out russian tank and ukrainian soldiers on the streets. recapturing the town is crucial to ukraine's push to break russia's encirclement of chernihiv to the north. a cnn team on the ground reports heavy fighting on the outskirts of kyiv, including constant shelling, rocket launches, as well as small arms fire. ukraine's president says russia's pledge to reduce its attacks on the region, clearly, wasn't true. >> translator: yes, we have negotiations process but they're only words without anything concrete. there are other words about alleged pullback of russian troops from kyiv and chernihiv and reduction of activities of the occupiers in these territories. this is not a retreat.

this is the result of the work of our defenders who pushed them back. >> cnn's fred pleitgen and his team traveled outside the capital, kyiv, to get a closer look at the fighting and the destruction and we want to let you know, as always, his report contains some graphic video. >> reporter: through heavily fortified checkpoints, we reach the edge of kyiv at the suburb irpin. suddenly, on top of the artillery barrages, we hear gunfire. gunfire. much closer, and we have to take cover. this is what it sounds like after russia said it has scaled down its military operations around kyiv. even in the calmer moments, the big guns are never silent. this is the final checkpoint before you would reach the district of irpin but it's impossible for us to go there right now, simply because it's

much too dangerous. it's also impossible for the people who live there to come back to their homes because there's still so much shelling going on and so much unexploded ordinants still on the ground. >> irpin was heavily contested between russian and ukrainian forces as vladimir putin's troops attempted to push through to kyiv. now, the ukrainians say they have pushed the russians back, taken control, and released this graphic video of the aftermath. buildings and cars destroyed, dead bodies still lying in the streets. ukraine's security emergency service has now also released this video showing rescuers taking out at least some of the dead while under fire from russian artillery. some of the remaining residents were also brought to safety, including many children irpin's mayor tells me. >> translator: irpin is 100% ukrainian. we are taking out the wounded and dead bodies. today and yesterday, we

evacuated approximately 500 people. today, i myself evacuated about 50 children and 100 adults. >> reporter: the evacuees are brought to this base outside of irpin. it's not only people, aid groups are now also evacuating the animals left behind when their owners had to flee, including these puppies. >> we have volunteers who are going under the fire and picking animals on the street. >> under fire, you are going into irpin and picking animals up? >> yes, yes. >> reporter: the ukrainian army says it's in the process of pushing russian troops further out of this area, hoping to silence putin's guns and restore calm to this once-quaint suburb. fred pleitgen, cnn, kyiv, ukraine. so many individual acts of heroism there. joining me now from new haven, connecticut, matthew schmidt is a professor of national security and political science at the university of new haven. thanks for being with us. what do you think the -- the -- the russians are doing here? at the negotiating table, they

claim they will deescalate, that they will draw down their troops, and then minutes later, they start renewed shelling, bombing, and -- and targeting of civilian infrastructure in many cases around the capital. what's -- what are they doing? >> i think we need to understand that railwar is about using mily force and the threat of military force to change political outcomes. and i think that's what you see happening here with vladimir putin and russian forces. they continue to use terror, they continue to increase the brutality of the war against the ukrainian population, the civilian population, in order to shift, you know, what they hope the negotiating standards would be of zelenskyy as they go forward. that is to say, to take more of what they want. to get crimea in negotiations, to get the whole of the donbas, instead of just the currently-occupied territories. you know, the nato question and

so forth. but they are using brutality in order to drive the political situation. >> what about these reports of, in some cases, russian troops refusing to obey orders? in one case, we understand according to intelligence reports perhaps even accidentally shooting down one of their own aircraft. there is some video circulating online of russian troops hitchhiking away from their positions because they just do not want to fight this fight. what impact does that have overall on the russian war effort? >> it's hard to say because this is fundamentally an information war where, you know, where the kinetic war is driving the information war really. so you have these incidents. it's very clear that you have a morale problem within the russian military. perhaps, all the way up into the, you know, the ministry of defense, you know, in russia. but at the same time, what really matters is what people think is going on. what they perceive is happening on the battlefield. so it only takes, you know,

enough troops to commit brutalities to -- to frighten enough of ukrainian population to change zelenskyy's position of negotiating table. and even though there are russian troops that, you know, may or may not be shooting on their own aircraft, that doesn't mean that the chechen mercenaries that come in, syrian mercenaries that come in, either know or care about that. they would still be capable of engaging in war crimes in order to again up the brutality and push the negotiating position forward. >> and where do you think that stands -- this negotiation -- at this very early stage about one month into this russian invasion? how -- how -- how does it -- how is it shaping up on the diplomatic front here in your opinion? >> i think it's extremely fluid. as we've seen here with words, saying one thing and then actions being another. the thing people need to understand is that ukraine is a parliamentary republic and zelenskyy has said over and over again that any question about

negotiations about the future of the territorial integrity of the country, about nato ascension, these sorts of things have to go to a national referendum and i think people just wave their hands and they think that well if vladimir putin can say x is going to happen and then x happens for russia, zelenskyy can't do that. and he won't do that because he is fighting for a democratic principles here. but when you look at the ukrainian population, right, just two weeks ago, there was some polling down and almost 70% of the population essentially said we will fight on. we don't want to give up the whole of the donbas. right? they even said we don't want to give up crimea and don't want to give up nato. so it is very unclear that zelenskyy could even pass through the negotiating positions we've been talking about for the last week. >> right. well, obviously, when a -- when a democracy is engaged in -- in a battle with -- with an autocracy with no accountability to citizens, it's an uneven fight in that sense as you described that so well.

what about the timeline? because when the russians made those statements that they would deescalate around kyiv, there was a wave of optimism around -- oil prices went down and the markets went up and people sort of took russia at its word. but is it possible that this is just a strategy -- a lie -- to prolong the -- the -- the situation on the ground so that they can reposition troops, and that really we should expect a very long-term battle here? >> unfortunately, hala, that's where i think we're at. um, often the outside world i think dismisses zelenskyy, dismisses his cabinet as knowing their enemy better than we do. but i think that they do and they -- they understand what's going on here between the military fight and the -- the political fight. um, and so, you know, what you see here is that there is no downside to putin to negotiate in bad faith, and then to try to increase the brutality and the pressure on zelenskyy. he's pushing zelenskyy into a

position where zelenskyy has to look out and say essentially these are the ukrainians that are alive still today. right? and i am responsible for them and how much do i want to save those lives that are alive today, versus future ukrainians in 20 or 40 years that want to live in -- in a country with real independence, with real security, right? with real european-style economy, european values. he has got to weigh that. that's not an easy decision and every time putin murders another ukrainian civilian, he increases the -- the chance that zelenskyy will turn around and say, enough, i have to save people now. i can't keep this fight going. but that's what the referendum's for, too. >> yeah. professor matthew schmidt in new haven, connecticut, thank you so much for joining us. really appreciate it. rescue and recovery operations are said to be ongoing in mykolaiv in southern ukraine after a russian strike on a regional administration building on tuesday. the death toll has now climbed to 15.

cnn's ben wedeman gives us a firsthand look at the devastation. >> reporter: somewhere in this jumble of concrete, bricks, and twisted metal are more bodies. trapped in the ruins of the office of mykolaiv's regional governor. tuesday morning, a russian missile struck the building, killing more than a dozen people, wounding many more. >> they bombard our city and civilians are dying here. >> reporter: mykolaiv mayor doesn't normally come to city hall like this. but he saw war coming long ago, and prepared himself. >> i think from 2014, i thought that the war will be like this. so, everything you see on me is vest, boots, anything, i bought it couple years ago. so, i started to learn how to shoot. i was in a special school for

that. >> reporter: on the outskirts of his city, recently downed russian attack helicopters suggest the ukrainian military also saw this war coming. they've managed to stop russian forces in their tracks, regaining territory lost at the start of the war. 5-year-old micha is recovering from shrapnel wounds to his head in the basement turned bomb shelter at mykolaiv's regional children's hospital. his grandfather, vladimir, shows me phone video of the bullet-riddled car micha's father was driving with his family to escape the russian advance. russian soldiers, vladimir calls them bastards, opened fire on the car, killing micha's grandmother and mother. as we speak, the air-raid siren goes off. taking shelter is an oft-practiced drill. stay calm and carry on. ben wedeman, cnn, mykolaiv.

well, they didn't want to leave their country and for many, the only homes they've ever known, refugees who only recently escaped the violence tell cnn what finally drove them out of ukraine. cal: our confident forever plan is possible with a cfp® professional. a cfp® professional can help you build a complete financial plan. visit letstsmakeaplan.org to find your cfp® professional. ♪

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thirty-four miles per hour! new personal record, limu! [limu emu squawks] he'll be back. only pay for what you need. ♪ liberty, liberty, liberty, liberty. ♪ the united nations says the number of people fleeing the russian bombardments in ukraine is now more than 4 million. the vast majority of these refugees have been heading to neighboring countries. according to unicef, half of those who have left ukraine are children with another 2.5 million minors internally displaced. the ukrainian prosecutor's office says 145 children have been killed since the start of this invasion. the ukrainians able to escape the shelling are facing an

uncertain future, and dealing with tremendous anguish. the u.n. high commissioner for refugees tried to explain what they are going through. >> i can't put it in context. there is no more context here to compare to -- this to anything else. it's not just numbers. it's the fear. it's the loss. it's the separation. it's the uncertainty about the future. and this is difficult to compare, difficult to measure, difficult to address. >> grandi there. hundreds of thousands of ukrainians have been crossing into hungary. cnn's matt rivers spoke to some of the new arrivals about what finally drove them out of their country. >> reporter: the train station just across the border from ukraine. it's here where refugees fleeing the war touch hungarian soil for the first time. people have been arriving here since the first days of the war but these are the people that

chose to stay longer. up until they couldn't. people like alana, who left with her husband and three daughters. how old is she? >> five. >> and she asked if the tank would shoot at us? >> yeah, because she saw tank every -- every day because they -- >> she saw russian tanks? >> russian tanks. a lot of russian tanks. >> reporter: alana says russian soldiers had occupied her village and set up artillery positions and that ukrainian forces started to target them. just a few days ago, she says there was an explosion about 100 meters from her house. right after it hit, she knew it was time to go. she says, i thought to myself, i'm 34. i have three children. it can't end like this. so, we walked right into the forest for two hours. a ukrainian soldier then stopped us and told us that there were snipers everywhere. they put us underneath shields and walked us to safety because there were firefights everywhere.

they never wanted to leave, she said, but eventually she had no choice. it is a common sentiment from those here who waited for weeks after the invasion to make a brutal decision to flee the only home they've ever known. olesia was one of them. we stayed a really long time after the war started, she says, about a month. but every day, the sound of the bombing got closer and closer and our children are small. our building didn't have a basement and there was no cover available. so, she joined the hundreds of thousands of other ukrainians that have arrived here in hungary and as her kids sit and play in her lap, she gets emotional about the threat to their lives and others. i can't understand why, she says, choking up. there are lots of small children who died and i can't understand the purpose of this war. it's not only my children that are in danger. the ukrainian prosecutor's office says at least 145 children have died in the war.

a number that is almost certainly an undercount. olessia fled because she didn't want her kids added to the list. and now, she gets back on the train headed toward budapest with an uncertain future amidst a horrible war. matt rivers, cnn, hungary. >> for another ukrainian family fleeing the fighting meant a harrowing overnight drive, a separation at the polish border, and finally, finally a reunion in the united states. and the elderly man who has offered them a home is no longer a stranger. randi kaye has that story. >> i realize that something happened because when at 5:30 maybe a.m., the neighbors call me and ask did you hear something? >> reporter: she was on a business trip last month in lviv, ukraine, near the polish border when russia started bombing her country.

her husband and their three children were hundreds of miles away at the family's home outside kyiv. >> i just ask my husband to bring the kids to me. >> reporter: iryna and her husband, alexander, devised a plan. he would drive them through the night, about seven hours one way, to meet her in lviv. so as your husband drove toward lviv, you were able to track him on your phone? >> in whatsapp, it's the one option, share your location. and i can online check where he is because, you know, it was like hardest hours when you realize that all your family, your husband, and your kids driving and it can bombing and it can be anything. >> reporter: when the family reunited, iryna thought her husband wasn't able to krcross e border since men of a certain age were being told to stay and help defend ukraine. so, she and her kids, ages 3, 7, and 9, boarded a train to poland. meanwhile, around the same time, half a world away, this man,

phillip bradford, was watching the russian siege on tv at his florida home. phillip's mother was croatian and his wife's stepmother was from ukraine, so he felt the urge to help. >> i heard my wife and my mother and my stepmother-in-law, my mother-in-law telling me get off of my rear end and go do something. >> just a few minutes away in cooper city is st. nicholas ukrainian orthodox church. >> i went to the church and i gave them a couple of hundred dollars thinking i have done my good deed like a boy scout. my -- and i said if i can help more, let me know. >> reporter: turns out, there was more. a lot more. iryna had made her way to miami with her kids. she had visited that same ukrainian church last year, so when she went back and shared her struggle, a church volunteer called on phillip to help.

>> i was told about this mother with three children from ukraine. >> said yes, i want to help. i have the big house. i want to give you the place to stay for your kids. you have the separate room for all of them. >> reporter: phillip's wife has been in naursing home for the last four years so he has been living alone. not anymore. iryna and her kids moved right in. >> i am almost 80 so it's like having grandkids running around again. >> how do you feel about a stranger opening up his home to your family? >> you know, i was shocked and now we are like one family. all together. >> reporter: phillip even insisted she take the kids to disney world, his treat. >> you sent them to disney? >> oh, she told you about that? >> we know all your secrets. >> that's what grandfathers do, i guess. >> reporter: meanwhile, soon after she left ukraine, she found out men who had three or

more children were allowed to leave the country so a few days ago, this happened. >> papa! upon his arrival as a gesture of thanks, iryna's husband, who will also live with phillip, brought him this bracelet in the same colors as the ukrainian flag. >> what does that bracelet mean to you? >> well, it kind of makes me one of them in a sense. yeah. >> bonded? >> yeah. right. >> reporter: randi kaye, cnn, cooper city, florida. >> so heartwarming. and if you would like to help people in ukraine who may be in need of all these basic necessities, you can head over to cnn.com/impact and there you will find a curated list of organizations helping civilians in this country. russian infantry may have

hit the wall but missiles and artillery still cause damage near kyiv. we will take you to areas that took a heavy hit, and show you evidence that civilians may have been intentionally targeted. for back pain, i've always been a take two and call in the morning guy. but my new doctor recommended salonpas. without another pill upsetting my stomach, i get powerful, effectivand safe relief. salonpas. it's good micine.

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i'm hala gorani in lviv, ukraine. the ukrainian president volodymyr zelenskyy is scheduled to address the australian parliament about two hours from now. we'll bring that to you live when it happens. mr. zelenskyy and u.s. president joe biden spoke on wednesday for nearly an hour with the u.s. promising another $500 million in direct budgetary aid. ukraine says talks with russia will resume on friday and that

they will take place online. but president zelenskyy is downplaying any hint of a breakthrough, saying the meetings so far have been, quote, only words. the u.s. military says more weapons and supplies are arriving in ukraine daily. a pentagon spokesperson said shipments of switch-blade attack drones, as well as anti-tank and anti-aircraft systems will be coming soon. the u.s. also believes russian president vladimir putin is being misled and misinformed by his generals and advisers about the true state of the russian' war effort and the true impact of sanctions. here is what the pentagon said wednesday. >> on the reports of -- of putin not being well advised. i am going to be careful not -- not to get into any intelligence but we would concur with the conclusion that -- um -- that mr. putin has not been fully

informed by his ministry of defense at every turn over the last month. >> well, that assessment mirrors the view in the united kingdom. the head of british intelligence claims morale is low among russian forces with with some of them even sabotaging their own equipment and even allegedly refusing to follow orders. now, whatever mr. putin knows about russia's military performance in ukraine, the u.n. human rights chief now says it may amount to war crimes. the high commissioner for human rights says russia has struck civilian targets and may have used used cluster bombs, which are widely banned. some cities just outside kyiv saw just how brutal a russian attack can be. christiane amanpour went there. >> reporter: missiles have struck the town of a suburb of eastern kyiv twice in the last week alone. this tangled, jagged mass of metal and cladding is what's left of a massive warehouse that

stored food, paper, and the beer and alcohol that's no longer allowed to be consumed under martial law. this happened at almost exactly the same time that the russians were announcing their deescalation around kyiv. this missile struck right here. imagine the good fortune of the truck driver who was loading up to take crates and packages and boxes of food and supplies to the supermarkets in this town, and also to kyiv. he managed to survive. we are told three workers were killed but it has never fallen to russian forces. directly west of here, russian and ukrainian troops have been fiercely fighting over the town of irpin. and now, it does appear that the russians are retreating from here. a clear indication that this war around kyiv has simply not dgon the way russia planned. whatever the reason moscow says it's retrenching, their intercepted radio conversations verified by "the new york times"

show their soldiers in distress from the very start. [ speaking foreign language ] this was west of the capital in makariv in the very first days of the war. already signaling the focus on civilians, once their own so-called properties were out of harm's way. this security video shows a russian-armored vehicle just blowing up a car. instantly, killing the elderly couple inside. ukraine has lost its fighters, too. here, in the brovary cemetery, boris the caretaker shows us

freshly dug graves. this guy, this soldier died on the very first day of the war? it's raining, it's drizzling here today. it's almost as if this city is crying as it mourns its war dead because all of these graves are for the fighters of this place who have fallen in combat since this war began. this grave has been dug but the family can't yet bury their son -- a soldier who was fighting in a village 15 kilometers away that's held by the russians. they haven't yet been able to get his body released. and even boris's heart breaks when he tells me about a father who's just lost his son, his only child, and who asked what do i have to live for now? christiane amanpour, cnn, brovary, ukraine. >> well, i will have more from lviv, ukraine, at the top of the hour. but first, let's go over to kim brunhuber in atlanta. kim, over to you. thanks so much, hala. as strong storms hammer the

southern u.s., at least seven people are injured after a suspected tornado ripped through a town in arkansas. videos from springdale show buildings torn apart from the area littered with debris. the city mayor says many residents were forced to leave their homes. many businesses were also hit, including this furniture store. its roof peeled off by the storm. millions of people are at risk as the system moves eastward and strong storms are also expected along the eastern seaboard on thursday. well, if russian gas slows to a trickle, many are wondering how europe will cope. coming up, we'll look at germany's warnings and which other countries may step in to help. stay with with us. i may be close to retirement, but i'm as busy as ever. and thanks to voya, i'm confident about my future. voya provides guidance for the right ininvestments. they make me feel like i've got it t all under contro. [crowd cheers]s] voya. be confident to and through retirement.

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the warning from german officials, save your gas. this prompted by a payment dispute with russia. moscow wants all energy payments in rubles, not dollars or euros.

but in a phone call wednesday, german -- germany says chancellor olaugh scholes was told by the russian president the ruble demand doesn't apply to european partners. euros would still be accepted but they would have to go through a russian bank that is not under sanctions, and converted into rubles. germany says chancellor scholes hasn't agreed to that but is seeking more clarity on the plan. in the meantime, germany's economy minister is urging conservation. >> translator: we are in a situation in which i have to clearly state that every saved kilowatt hour of energy helps. and this is why i want to also use this declaration of the early warning with an appeal to industrialists and private consumers to help us. to help germany, to help ukraine by saving gas and energy overall. >> have a look here. this map shows just how many pipelines are sending russian

gas into europe. germany alone has four of them, though it's halted the nord stream 2 project since russia's invasion of ukraine. so, with the future of russian oil increasingly under pressure in europe, many countries on the continent are looking to the u.s. for a post-russia energy plan. claire sebastian looks at what might come next. >> the european recovery program, the marshal plan. >> reporter: 74 years after the united states launched a package of economic aid to help rebuild postwar europe, the war in ukraine has european economies, again, looking to the u.s. as they scramble to redesign their energy future to end decades of reliance on russia. >> at this point in our history, what is going to be our version of the marshall plan for clean and secure energy? >> reporter: liquified natural gas, or lng, will be critical. just six years after the first export cargo set off from the mainland united states, the u.s.

became the world's top exporter of lng in january with significant growth potential. >> we are going to work to ensure an additional 15, 15 billion cubic meters of liquified natural gas, lng, for europe this year. >> reporter: 15 billion cubic meters, though, is less than 10% of the natural gas that the eu imported from russia last year. helpful in the short-term, analysts say, but not much of a defense if russia decides to turn off the taps. >> obviously, if -- if the unfortunately, even with lng, the situation could be extremely difficult for europe. >> reporter: while gas runs through pipelines, lng requires specialized terminals to liquefy it before loading onto ships and regasfy it on arrival. >> the places where european countries are rushing to try to build additional infrastructure is germany and italy. germany doesn't have re-gas

capacity at the moment and italy has very little. >> reporter: building those terminals takes several years. the quicker option is to use specialized ships, known as floating storage re-gasification units that can be installed in a matter of months. european countries are now racing to source these. russia predictably says diversifying away from its fossil fuels is impossible. the country's deputy prime minister warning in a recent address to the russian parliament that without russian hydrocarbons, the global market would collapse. experts agree right now there is no direct replacement. for the longer-term, the eu and u.s. say this will accelerate efforts to generate more renewable energy. >> the climate is not going to wait on our efforts to confront autocrats. both crises need addressing now. >> there is not a moment to lose. germany activated an early warning wednesday amid fears of possible gas shortages after g7

countries refused russia's demand to pay for gas in rubles. and now, attention also turns to opec and opec plus which includes russia. they are meeting on thursday and have so far resisted pressure to accelerate planned oil production increases to help stabilize the market. claire sebastian, cnn, london. in the u.s., president joe biden is considering releasing a record amount of oil from the country's reserves to help reign in gas prices. biden's plan involves releasing around a million barrels of oil from the strategic petroleum reserves every day. that is according to a source close to the deliberations, which adds the announcement may come later on thursday. the war in ukraine caused a spike in gas prices in the u.s. which was already dealing with high prices. three deadly attacks in a one-week period has israel on high alert. five people were killed in the latest attack near tel aviv on tuesday. and the prime minister naftali

bennett is urging israelis with firearm licenses to carry guns at all times. cnn's hadas gold reports. >> reporter: mourners pack the streets of the orthodox city on wednesday. funerals for two of the five victims of a deadly terror attack the night before. the third such attack in israel in just a week. the death toll now at 11. in what officials are calling a new wave of terror. the attacks started here when two ukrainian nationals sitting outside this convenience store right here were shot. and a driver at the intersection was shot through his window before a father walking his baby son was shot just along this street. the baby was unharmed. police officers on a motorcycle engaged the attacker, shooting and killing him. one of the officers later succumbed to his wounds. >> we were very shocked because something that never happen in the city at all. and i'm from jerusalem originally and more of these things. >> reporter: just last sunday

north of tel aviv, two israeli border police were killed and six passerbyes injured by a shooting by two assailants affiliated with isis. by a man who had once been arrested for supporting isis. tuesday night's attack was carried out by a palestinian from the west bank with palestinian militant group claiming responsibility directly tying the attack as response to the historic summit earlier this week where four arab foreign ministers met with their american and israeli counterparts in israel. prime minister naftali bennett said in a statement that israel is facing a wave of murderous arab terrorism vowing to fight terror with an iron fist. and palestinian authority president also condemned tuesday's attack. israeli security forces are now on high alert. already bracing for violence in the coming weeks as tensions had been rising in jerusalem in the west bank, especially as the holidays of ramadan, passover, and easter coincide this year.

hadas gold, cnn, israel. >> all right. still to come. comedian chris rock makes his first public comments since being slapped at the oscars. while actor will smith waits to learn what punishment he could face. stay with us. eline. 'cause when you save more, you can “no way!” more. no wayayyyy. no waaayyy! no wayay! [phone ringing] hm. no way! no way! priceline. every trip is s a big deal. my a1c stayed here, it needed to be here. ruby's a1c is down with rybelsus®. my a1c wasn't at goal, now i'm downith rybelsus®. mom's a1c is dow with rybelsus®. (♪ ♪) in a clinical study, once-daily rybelsu® significany lowered a1c better than a leading branded pill. rybelsus® isn't for people with type 1 diabetes. don't take rybelsus® if you or your family ever had medullary thyroid cancer, or have multiple endocrine neoplasia syndrome type 2, or if allergic to it.

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large out-of-state corporations have set their sights on california. they've written a ballot proposal to allow online sports betting. they tell us it will fund programs for the homeless, but read the fine print. 90% of the profits go to out-of-state corporations, leaving almost nothing for the homeless.

no real jobs are created here. but the promise between our state and our sovereign tribes would be broken forever. these out-of-state corporations don't care about california. but we do. stand with us. in his first public comments since the oscars, comedian chris rock says he's still processing what happened at sunday night's ceremony. rock performed a sold-out show in boston tuesday and got two standing ovations from the crowd. in the meantime, the film academy is considering what action to take against smith. brian todd reports. >> reporter: the board of governors of the academy of motion picture arts and sciences has initiated disciplinary

proceedings against actor will smith for violating the academy's standards of conduct according to a statement from the academy. violations which it says include inappropriate physical contact, abusive or threatening behavior, and compromising the integrity of the academy when smith slapped chris rock live at the oscars. >> that was a nice one. okay. i'm out here -- uh-oh, richard. oh, wow! wow! >> reporter: in its statement, the academy also apologized to rock and said will smith was asked to leave the ceremony and refused. comedian wanda sykes, one of the three co-hosts of the oscars, broke her silence on ellen degeneres's talk show. >> and i just felt so awful for my -- my friend, you know, chris. and it was -- it was sickening. it was absolutely -- i physically felt ill, and i'm still a little traumatized by

it. >> reporter: amy schumer posted a statement on instagram saying, i'm still in shocked and stunned and sad. an uncensored feed from a japanese outlet shows how rock and smith reacted immediately afterward. >> will smith just smacked the shit out of me. >> keep my wife's name out your [ bleep ] mouth. >> wow, dude. >> yeah. >> it was a g.i. jane joke. >> keep my wife's name out your [ bleep ] mouth! >> reporter: how could the academy punish smith? >> i can't see them possibly taking steps about his membership in the academy. i mean they could remove him from the academy. they could take away his voting rights for future oscar votes. they could take away his participation in other academy events, and they could ban him from coming back next year. i think that's most likely. >> reporter: what most observers don't expect is for the academy to take away the oscar that smith just won for best actor in

"king richard." the academy didn't take oscars away from harvey weinstein after sexual assault allegations were leveled against him. and director roman polanski was awarded an oscar while he was a fugitive from the u.s. decades after he pleaded guilty to having unlawful sex with a minor. the academy did expel weinstein and once expelled car mien caridi. chris rock is back on tour. his stand-up comedy act sold out at several venues across the u.s. rock's younger brother tony, also an akdor and comedian, has spoken out on twitter. asked if he approved of will smith's apology to his brother, tony rock replied no. asked how his brother is doing, he replied, still rich. brian todd, cnn, washington. i'm kim brunhuber. we'll go back to hala gorani live in lviv after the break. please do stay with us.

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>> announcer: this is cnn breaking news. hello. welcome to our viewers around the world and also in the united states this hour. i'm hala gorani live in lviv, ukraine, where it is just past 8:00 in the morning. russia has dashed any hope that it would scale back its attacks on ukraine with yet another day of missile launches, air strikes, and shelling. we begin this hour with the hard-hit city of irpin just wet of the capital, kyiv. the mayor reports half of the city has been destroyed. water and electricity are still out. much of the video from the region