hello and a very warm welcome to our viewers joining us in the united states and right around the world. i'm isa soares in london where we are following the breaking news coverage of the war in ukraine right here on the show. >> this happened at almost exactly the same time that the russians were announcing their deescalation around kyiv.

>> we're listening, a huge explosion in kyiv and north of kyiv. >> they have increased the intensity of strikes. >> we will not give anything away and we will fight for every meter of our land. >> city of kharkiv is a ukrainian city and it will remain ukrainian. >> mr. putin has not been fully informed by his ministry of defense. >> announcer: this is cnn breaking news. good morning. thank you for your company. it's thursday, march 31st, 9 a.m. here in london, 11 a.m. in ukraine where president volodymyr zelenskyy says it is ready for new attacks from russia in the donbas region. russia has said it plans to focus in the east. held if you remember by russian-backed separatists with ukraine's southern coast including the besieged port city of mariupol. russia does not appear to be keeping the promise to scale back military operations.

a cnn crew on the ground in kyiv says there are repeated attacks in the suburbs. this is from irpin where half of the city is destroyed according to the mayor and the shelling is constant. furthest north ukrainian soldiers say they have recaptured a town outside of chernihiv. president zelenskyy credits ukrainian fighters, not a russian pullback. have a listen. >> translator: this is not a retreat. this is the result of the work of our defenders who pushed them back. >> authorities in chernihiv says the city has no water, communication. some residents are isolated without food or medicine. ukraine has agreed to a new civilian evacuation corridor out

of mariupol even though it accuses russia of shelling previous escape routes. the city is the hardest hit as the russian invasion now enters its fifth week. >> devastating what we're seeing there. the place is just being decimated from a structural perspective by the onslaught of russian airstrikes. >> meanwhile, the biden administration says mr. putin is being misinformed about the situation in ukraine. senior advisers are too afraid to tell him the truth. let's get the latest. nic robertson in brussels and jim biderman.

they're bracing for a new russia offensive. what more can you tell us? >> reporter: the broad pattern suggests the war is entering a transitional phrase. that's because russia to some extent is reorganizing and consolidating. u.s. and ukrainian official sals say they are seeing some russian troops pulling back. this does not mean russia has suddenly or is about to completely stop assaulting the outskirts of the capitol or the other areas they're pulling back from. what we're hearing from the ground those attacks notably with artillery still continue. take a look. on the same day russia said it would limit attacks on

chernihiv, its forces rained munitions down across shopping and residential areas. russia's purported goodwill gesture didn't prevent another difficult, painful night for the city. >> translator: chernihiv's mayor says russia increased the intensity of its strikes. he says 25 people were wounded in a colossal attack. chernihiv is cut off, surrounded. they're holding off russian soldiers while russian rockets crash down. this ukrainian soldier says he's embarrassed. they fight well against civilians. he's 18. he was struck down by a russian

shell while walking in the center of chernihiv. he's being moved in another facility in a car that wasn't designed for passengers like him. volunteer ambulance services are imperative. this is the outskirts of kyiv. this was captured in irpin on the same day russia said it wanted to reduce risk for people in the capitol. it's a gruesome, eerie scene. the quiet streets are full of debris and death. people still lying where they were struck down. the mayor is pleading with people not to return.

russia's will to destroy is captured vividly from space. new satellite images of the city of mariupol give a powerfully wide description. whole blocks, entire neighborhoods are destroyed. russia is determined to destroy mariupol. >> reporter: now it's pulling back as a goodwill negotiation. they say this is russia accepting the realities on the ground. they count take the capitol or encircle the capitol. they're overstretched on too many fronts. they've had to reassess what is realistically possible and set new, more achievable goals. by russia's own admission that is now outright military victory

in the eastern donbas area. >> a return now to jim bit terman in paris and this is a case of do not -- see what they do, not what they say in the case of russia. how is russia spinning this at home? the u.k. and the u.s. both believing putin is being misinformed. >> reporter: some of what phil was saying, basically saying their goal all along has been to take donbas back and that sort of thing. much reduced goal from what we were hearing just a few days ago. and another thing that we heard a few days ago is russian military basically was saying that, in fact, they had substantially reduced the fire power of ukrainian troops. we know that is false. truth being the first casualty of war, something they've said all along.

this is another case of that. we have to say some of the body bags are going and some of the destruction and some social media coming across describing what's going on in ukraine. it's the autocrat's dilemma in the sense you can control the media and whatnot. you can control the information flow to the public. you also can't control the kind of information you're getting. we heard from the american officials basically mr. putin is isolated to some extent and not hearing exactly how bad it is on the battlefield. isa? >> stay with us, jim. let me bring in nic robertson. talks are needed to restart both sides tomorrow. how does ukraine go into this meeting, nic, having seen russia break its word. i imagine they expected it but still -- >> reporter: look, the history

of russia's negotiations with ukraine dates back to trying to stop the war that russia initiated in 2014, the second round of those talks, minsk ii talks. russia was sitting at the table negotiating a way to end that conflict. at the same time, at the same time russia was sitting there at the table saying it was an honest broker to end the conflict backing the russian supported separatists in eastern ukraine, back then it was actually with its own troops, russia with its own troops trying to take a town on the ground. it was seen to them at the time as being a key strategic objective in that conflict. even while they were sitting at the table talking peace they were absolutely doing the opposite on the ground and trying to make land grab. ukraine goes into these talks

under no illusion that they are talking with a partner who has zero trust and this is why the ukrainians are saying that they need these international security guarantees, that they need to be able to see membership down the road with the e.u., that they're willing to put their neutrality on the table to get these things. in their talks they gave russia a list of proposals. that was one of the broad framework proposals. the other is the issue of crimea that is beyond discussion. even though they annexed it in 2014. the ukrainians said they can discuss it in a bilalt way. they put a number of things on the table on tuesday in the talks in istanbul. the question now will they respond in what are not expected to be face-to-face meetings but the continuation of the sort of virtual talks that the

ukrainians and russians have been having. i think the expectation is russia is not going anywhere unless it's absolutely forced either by ukraine's persistent military tactics on the ground to stall russian advances or international pressure to deny the air space to russia and the international support to continue to push any sanctions and economic burden on russia. >> nic robertson and jim bidderman, thank you both. the ukrainian ambassador to the u.k. thank you for coming on the show. let's pick up where nic just left off, which is really the next round of talks. we heard president zelenskyy basically say ukrainians are not naive. clearly what we've seen on the ground, the images of these things, there are promises being

broken. what next? >> i'm not surprised for the first negotiations at the same time attacking us when they are talking to us. so we have no reason to believe that the picture is changing now. what we have to do because we have no other choice, we are fighting on the ground at the same time people are coming in to talk with us. we know they are not getting us, not helping us negotiate in no way. that is part of their own tactics. we have our own tactics. that's why we're going to try to talk to our partners and our partners are going around and collecting everything we need and collecting support for us. >> let's focus, you know, you're saying they're regrouping. clearly what we've seen today from president zelenskyy in his address was that donbas, warning of an attack on donbas. how is mariupol in that?

you've seen mariupol besieged, part of it charred. how long do you think mayor pal can hold? >> we have pretty tough people. civilians and the military. there are almost eight years of war. war was going for eight years almost so these people are very determined to fight there and they are putting up a real fight. the problem is mostly they are besieged. civilians have nothing to eat, sometimes drinking water is a big problem. no medicine. kids, mothers being bombed. we are trying to get them out of the city. >> what we heard from president zelenskyy, he said 100,000 people are trapped in mariupol yet in the last hour, hour and a half or so we heard russia basically said they will allow a

humanitarian corridor for today. i mean, we've been here before and nothing has transpired so if you're trapped inside, how can you even take their word that you can get out safely? >> russians understand what's keeping us doing that, because our hands are tied by civilians, by children. we will be fighting much, much more fierce if we have this chance to let them out. russians are independent. they expect our position will be weakened because of this. hopefully we can withstand it. we want to create the corridor. >> how worried are you about the donbas region already? what is your assessment of what could transpire with president zelenskyy in the next few days? >> to some extent it's a good

sign russians are changing their narrative, their tactics. it's because they can't get what they want. it's not because they have goodwill. we're not going to the capitol, we're doing something else. >> you don't believe they have their eyes on the capitol? >> everything in kyiv is historic. it's a well-protected city. we defended it again the nazis. it's difficult to believe we're using it against russians now. >> when it comes to the negotiations and the question of neutrality, what would ukraine be willing to accept here or to give up here? >> it's very painful. because we understand there is nothing better than this organization of nato to extend next threshold.

they keep coming to us. if we are not part of something stronger than ourselves like nato, we won't be able to withstand next attack, and they have their own attacks. they're not neutral state but they are nuclear and strong and everything. they want to keep their company. offering us to stay between this bloc and neutral and on our own. >> it's very emotional here. you and i spoke at the beginning of the conflict and i remember you telling me that your mother was calling trying to find out is this going to happen? how serious will it get? what's your assessment, you know, 36 days into the conflict now? >> the particular impression, managed to get my mom, mother-in-law, two kids yesterday. my wife had to go to the slovak republic and get them and they're here safely. i'm happy very much. this part is not easy to do. still, very, very strong here.

many russian ukrainians are trying to get here and security checks. some people couldn't even grab their passports. all of it has to be somehow a result. >> let me ask you about the refugees. i think we have a map, 4 million supreme left ukraine. half of those children. give me a sense of the neighboring countries where they've gone. we don't have the numbers for europe but we did ask the government this morning who told us 25,000, almost 26,000 visas have been issued. the u.k. set out a scheme at the beginning of the month to welcome refugees. there's been a huge issue that while visas are being offered, but people can't get into the cities. >> that's what we discussed with you, that these people can get into europe with no visas.

it's so much easier than other areas. brexit is not helping, that's for sure. we don't have an exact number. most of them are waiting for a second to get back. realistically how much is it stopping people from coming in or slowing down the process? >> i was told about 30,000 people applying if numbers you are mentioning are correct, 26,000, meaning this is long process. there is a process which allows a couple of layers. allowed to extend that. >> even your wife couldn't get a visa for quite a while. >> that was a furious story. we couldn't manage to get a visa even when u.k. was part of the european union.

>> it points to prior to this, the bureaucracy, the red tape already in place. >> the country have a right to defend themselves even against ukrainians, i guess. >> very diplomatic. that's why you're the ambassador. thank you very much. great to have you on the show. still to come. ukraine's president makes a virtual plea. live from the city. that's next. -fixed. -that's my son.

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ukrainian president volodymyr zelenskyy had a virtual address to australian lawmakers. he received a standing ovation before he delivered his remarks. you can see it there. then he thanked australia for support and said more is needed. their fate is being decided now. have a listen. >> the distance between our countries you said is big, it's thousands of kilometers. we are separated by oceans, seas, territories of dozens of

other countries but there is no such thing as a distance for the brutality and chaos that russia brought to the east of ukraine, into the black sea and azur sea. >> let's get more from angus watson. give us a sense of what president zelenskyy said and how his message was received there. >> reporter: isa, president zelenskyy had an extremely important message. just by speaking to lawmakers here in australia. what he's saying to the rest of the world, not just australians and to moscow as well is that we have friends in all parts of the world and those friends are willing to come to our assistance. now australia has come to the assistance of ukraine already as ukraine has faut this bitter war of defense against russia. they have sent over $100 million

worth of aid both in terms of lethal military aid and hu humanitarian assistance. today they offered 25 million australian aid and that is unmanned ariel support and they came back and asked for the bushmaster armored personnel carriers. australian design war vehicles that the australian army has used to great success in the afghan and iraq wars. they say it's going over these requests from ukraine and will do its best. of course, australia has been amenable to these requests so far and that's partly because of the closeness they all talked about today. prime minister scott morrison and president zelenskyy, they all talked about this closeness between the two countries. part of that is because of nh 17. you'll remember back in july 2014 when that aircraft was

downed over eastern ukraine there by russian-backed officials. 27 australians dyed and they're really forging this relationship now between australia and ukraine. australia willing to come and help. a photo journalist whose work captures the reality of russia's devastation in ukraine. devastation we s saw, after the break. just like that gogo to shipstation/tv and get 2 months free do you struggle to fall asleep and stay asleep? qunol sleep formula combines 5 key nutrients

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and so many more in the xfinity app. get ready for next level entertainment. apple tv+ is now on xfinity. howdy y'all. with new apple original series and movies added every month... ...there's always something new to discover. and right now, you can get 3 months of apple tv+ free when you sign up. just say “try apple tv+” to get started. it's a movement. with xfinity, it's a way better way to watch. welcome back, everyone. ukraine's president is tamping down expectations for the next round of talks with russia set tomorrow, friday.

volodymyr zelenskyy said it's only words. despite russia's claims it is pulling its forces away from kyiv, ukraine says the shelling has only intensified warning some of the images we're about to show you are graphic. kyiv's mayor says half of the town is destroyed and it is now back under full ukrainian control. the southern port city of mariupol, meanwhile, has been battered for weeks. the pentagon says just about everything in the city is gone. >> reporter: it's devastating what we're seeing and the place is being decimated by a structural perspective, by the onslaught of russian airstrikes. >> meanwhile, the latest u.s.

intelligence says russian advisers are misleading putin about how badly the war is going. they're claiming they're retaking a town in chernihiv. president zelenskyy is vowing to keep up the fight. >> translator: we will not give away anything and we will fight for every meter of our land. >> as mr. zelenskyy pledges to fight, the high commissioner for human rights says russia has struck civilian targets and may have used cluster bombs which are widely banned. they saw just how brutal russian attacks can be. >> reporter: missiles have struck the town of bravery. this tangled jagged mass of

metal is left of a warehouse of paper, beer which can no longer be a consumed. this happened at the same time the russians said they would no longer strike kyiv. imagine the good fortune of the truck driver who was loading up to take crates, packages of food and supplies to take packages to kyiv. he survived. >> three workers killed but brovery has never fallen to russian soldiers. they are fighting over the town of irpin and now it does appear the russians are retreating from here, a clear indication that this war around kyiv has simply not gone the way russia planned. whatever the reason, moscow says it's retrenching. their intercepted radio

communications show their soldiers in requtreat. >> reporter: this was west of the capitol in makariv 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 brovery cemetery boris the caretaker shows us freshly dug graves.

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. all of these graves are for the fighters of this place who have fallen in combat since this war began. this grave is being dug but the family can't yet bury their son, a soldier fighting in a village 15 kilometers away 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, brovery, ukraine. >> so much heart break. our next story is a journalist who spent two months in ukraine. alex set out to document the images he saw every day.

this shows the pain and suffering. each image shows the country and the people utterly devastated by the war. alex joins me from krakow, poland. i know you left poland in the last 24 hours. you've been there before the war started. give us a sense of what you've seen through your lens from that february 24th date. >> yeah. so i think what was the most shocking about this particular conflict, you know, i covered others in iraq and syria, but they had already been ongoing for years and really within the first couple of hours of whatever they're calling it, special military operations, it became really clear civilians were going to pay a high price. >> we've seen that.

one photo i remember early on that you took is -- i think we can show it. this lady here with, you know, wrap on her head, dry blood on her face. iblg at the time russia called her a crisis actor. when you heard this, alex, what did you think? >> so, yeah, that literally would have been the first -- >> yeah. >> -- daylight hours of this occupation. i think i took that at 7 in the morning. me and my colleagues had arrived at a vef jumbled. she was one of many injured. to hear someone spit in the face of someone who's already had their whole life radically altered is offensive.

i have other words that i can't say on tv. it's nasty. >> i'm sure you have plenty of words to describe it. you know, we heard russia from the beginning of this conflict say that it was an attack on civilians. what you have shown the world is a very different story. >> yeah. i mean, i don't have much more to say about it than that. you know, whether it's sloppiness, whether it's intentional. you know, you can debate. i'm not in those rooms. i've seen them intentionally hit civilians at least once in irpin and, yeah, i mean, when they say they're not hitting civilians, that's completely false. >> a complete lie. one photo that moved me, and i actually shared it on my social media, was this one of this elderly lady, you can correct me if i'm wrong, who i believe she

remembers the second world war. i think she lost some fingers as well from the war. the pain and despair in that photo. tell us a bit more about this lady. >> so i want to say that was about two weeks ago in kharkiv and it was, again, in the morning because most of the shellings and attacks happen at night. and so we had come into this residential building. that was heavily damaged. this woman was in a state of emotional agitation and i went to shake her hand and she was missing two fingers on the hand and she kept saying boyna, boyna, which means war. my translator had an interaction with her. she was very emotional. what it boils down to is she lost those when she was a toddler in world war ii and the germans bombed her house and she lost part of her hand. her mother died in that war.

now she was saying my house is getting bombed, this time by the russians is the long and short of it. and her name is alexandra who is 83. >> forced to move again. >> i don't know if she's from kharkiv or not. that was the last i saw of her. >> alec, how do you deal personally with everything that you witnessed, you know, the brutality, the bloodshed, the families torn apart? i know you've covered iraq and syria. how do you deal with it personally? >> i don't think there's enough time in this interview to really cover that, but i'd say that journalism and photography especially i think -- listen, you can't stop these things from happening whether it's in a foreign conflict, whether it's civil unrest in the u.s. anything where there's strong negative emotions. as a journalist you're

powerless. what you can do is focus on doing the one positive thing that you're hopefully skilled at doing, and turning that into an art form that communicates the reality for people. and trying to keep your mind on how to best do that is i'd say our job. >> alex, really appreciate all of the incredible work you've done. you've been our eyes and our ears along with so many other photo journalists around journalists on the ground. i know you've been there. you were there for a long time. i'm glad you're now out, having a break. appreciate the time and thank you for all of your work. thank you. >> thank you. now u.s. president joe biden is considering releasing a million barrels of oil per day

according to -- the goal is to bring down sky high gas prices. just ahead, north korea claims to have tested a new highly advanced intercontinental ballistic missile last week. south korea says that might not be the whole story. what is the whole ststory? that story next. spray it every week to break the cycle.e. lysol. what it takes to protect.®

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north korea's recent launch of the most advanced intercontinental missile yet may not have been all that cutting edge. a south korean military official says aside from all of the pomp and the video with slo-mo, they

say it is a missile they've had. any test of an icbm is cause for concern. blake is following this. what more do we know about the icbm and why north korea may want to have sold that line that it was more advanced when it wasn't? >> reporter: well, you know, isa, just a few days after north korea claims to have successfully launched this new type of intercontinental ballistic missile, south korea is saying not so fast. after viewing this, south korea believes it was smaller and older than said. the icbm that it claims to have

launched has four engine nozzles, hwasong-17. it shows shadowing and cloud cover that didn't match the time and conditions on the day of the launch. experts say last week's launch shouldn't be discounted because it was successful and it was likely an improved version of what we've seen before. based on the altitude and flight time, this is the longest range missile ever tested by north korea. it shows the north has a missile capable of reaching all of the united states. the big question is whether or not this missile or any other missiles can carry one or several nuclear warheads to that point. pyeongchang hasn't proved whether they can get re-entry into the earth's atmosphere. kim jong-un said they will

continue to develop powerful defensive means to reinforce the army. the country's forces will be ready for a potential military operation with the united states. so far north korea has attempted 11 missile launches. they could be preparing for a nuclear weapons test. south korea says the north has been working to restore several tunnels at the main nuclear test site. this is the same underground test facility that north korea is claimed to have destroyed in front of cnn and others after kim jong-un claimed it was complete. >> still to come right here on the show, why u.s. officials are expecting thousands of migrants to show up on the border with mexico we'll have the details when we return. .most people saw% clearer skin at 16 weeks. the majority of people sawaw 9% clearer skin even at 5 years.

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the u.s. could see a surge of migrants at the border with mexico as they are looking to stop title 42. the cdc is analyzing the move

from the health perspective. officials near the border are preparing for a possible influx of up to 18,000 migrants per day. meantime, u.s. president joe biden received his second covid booster shot on wednesday. the president got the jab after the u.s. cdc extended emergency use authorization to second booster doses for adults over 50 years old. the cdc says being up to date on vaccination doesn't include a second booster yet. the president is urging others to continue the fight. >> meanwhile, in china shanghai is urging the residents to stay home effectively putting a city of 25 million under lockdown. they're trying to contain the

worst covid outbreak they've seen in two years. cnn's steven jiang is joining us with more. what more can you tell us about the city wide lockdown as well as the covid testing underway which i believe is pretty massive here? >> reporter: isa, the situation in shanghai has become so dire local officials a few hours ago apologized for being ill prepared for the surge of covid infe infections. this kind of mea culpa came after for days they denied there would be a city wide lockdown and there was a flawed lockdown and enforcement. then when thousands of people started testing positive, they

were crammed into haste stilly built makeshift isolation facilities with crowded facilities and little medical care being provided on site. we have seen elterrelly citizens being left to fend for themselves in a city that boasts the oldest population among all major chinese cities and the growing number of patients seeking medical attention for non-covid causes by hospitals being closed leading to at least two tragic deaths that have now been acknowledged by local officials. all of this is painting the picture and it's triggering serious debates and backlash against the zero core policy with many attributing the issue.

this case of zero covid is under chinese leader xi jinping as state media has made clear. it's very unlikely they will change course any time soon, isa. >> i know you'll stay on top of it for us, steven jiang. in his first public comment comedian kris rock said he is still processing it. he said at some point he'll talk about the slap he received from will smith for telling a joke about smith's wife. meantime, the academy of motion picture arts and sciences began proceedings against smith. they say smith was asked to leave the oscars after the slap but the actor refused. that does it here on "cnn newsroom." thanks very much for your company. i'm isa soares from london. do stay in touch. our coverage continues on "early start" with christine romans and

laura jarrett. have a wonderful day. bye-bye.

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this is cnn breaking news. welcome to our viewers in the united states and around the world. i'm christine romans. >> i'm laura jarrett in new york. john berman continues our live coverage in lviv, ukraine. john, what's happening this morning? >> good morning to both of you. this morning russian bombs still falling on kyiv in the northern ukrainian city of chernihiv. this is the day after moscow promised it would drastically reduce its assault on the two cities. even so ukrainian troops do appear to be making gains on