knows what he might be planning next. >> reporter: an emerging calculation putin is escalating ahead of proposing terms for peace. >> he's now trying to exit the war in the same way that he entered it, with him being the person in charge and him framing the whole terms of any kind of negotiation. >> reporter: and that's why the caution on calling russia out is going to take global unity to get putin to back down. nic robertson, cnn, london. >> and thanks so much for joining us. ac 360 begins now. the danger is not over. john berman here in for anderson, and that is trait from the national hurricane center. it is still forecast to bring dangerously high winds, heavy rain, storm surge and flash flooding as it moves inland. it has already done considerable

damage to the south carolina coast where it struck today as a category 1 hurricane. this is the cherry grove pier in north myrtle beach, one of two that partially collapsed today. and just as on the florida gulf coast and later in orlando ian caused significant flooding in the charleston and myrtle beach areas and knocked out power to about a third of a million customers in south and north carolina. so we've also just received some new video in of a high wave sweeping several people off a pier in miami. >> we have a big wave and about five people -- >> so that's in miami still from the high tide and the waves being kicked up by ian.

six people were hurt in that. no one, thank goodness, was killed. state-wide, the death toll is now at least 42, and that is expected to rise. and the damage especially in places like fort meyers beach became even more apparent today. it is so severe that a coast guard commander told our wolf blitzer his chopper crews simply do not have monday landmarks left to help guide them. we are flying, he said, in areas that are unrecognizable. as we said portions of of two piers collapsed on the south carolina coast, one in north myrtle beach, the other on poly's island where cnn's miguel marquez is for us tonight. miguel, what more can you tell us about the pier that was damaged? >> reporter: yeah, this was a fishing pier had been been here for many, many years, sort of beloved by the community, lots of fish caught off this pier. we can show you the remnants now. you can see part of the pier. it's too dark to show, but we

can show you a bit of what's left of this pier. it's a pile of rubble, but important to keep in mind this came on as a category 1 just south of here it made landfall, and it just pummelled the coast here and pushing tons of debris back into the city -- the town as well and further inland, just a massive amount of debris was pushed in destroying this pier along the way. amazingly no one was injured, no one was killed in this area that we have heard of so far. there were several rescues that were done. no one injured, no one killed, which is great. because of what happened in florida, because it was so bad in florida people really paid attention here. the plrp some people out on the street. there were no mass evacuations here. they were no evacuation orders. they asked meme to stay home, stay off the streets and watch the weather carefully, and it seems in the carolinas at least

people did that. >> what about the rest of polly's island? did that have any damage? >> reporter: there's several piers from here that are damaged. there's marshlands. they're connected to piers and boat ramps. a lot of those got damaged and push around, so it will take time for them to get things sorted out here on polly's island before people can come back. there's so much debris on them. we had to walk into this area. john? >> miguel marquez for us in south carolina. miguel, thank you. so many places affected by ian. we want to go back to central florida now, to orlando, which has seen widespread historic flooding and many, many water rescues. cnn's ryan young is there for us now. ryan, what are you seeing there tonight? >> reporter: john, the rain may be gone, the storm may be gone, but the devastation is still sitting here.

you can see all that water right there alongside this road. that is the front of the neighborhood. there are no cones blocking this neighborhood off. today we saw residents going into their own neighborhood to help each other because there are still people who decided to live back there. and the only reason this is lit up right now because we're standing here. i want to shut our lights off to give you an idea how dark it is out here. you have people who decided to stay back there on their own, flooded water above their mailboxes, all their cars flooded out, and they are still there because they do not want it leave their belongings. yesterday the rescue operations ended, but we'll show you the vi video today when we went along with the residents here very frustrated by the lack of response they say they've seen. they got in their own boat and helping folks out making sure they gave them a tour to get medicine and save pets and check on citizens who decided not to leave home. in the last half hour we saw a

citizen watching cnn show up with an air boat to try to get citizens out of this situation. listen to this neighbor frustrated who got on a boat to help out neighbors in need. >> are you frustrated you haven't seen any city officials or anywhere here to help out especially after what happened to you guys yesterday? >> yes, i am frustrated. because looking at the news and everything i think my neighborhood exactly has got it worse than any other neighborhood. yes, other neighborhoods have flooded, but i haven't seen not one other neighborhood with their house completely under the water. as we're going by i'm seeing water up to the door so i'm really frustrated. we need help out here. >> reporter: john, i want to punctuate this. we saw snakes ourselves. we saw a gator today, and a man tried to take his bike to walk

back home. when you have dozens of residents who decide to stay back here and there's no blockade, yes, without the help of their own neighbors, they would not have been able to make it back home today. but there's a growing frustration because they want to see more efforts from the state and city to help themselves out, because right now they are concerned what's going to happen especially on the other side of this situation. and with people who decide to huddle in garages tonight and burn bonfires sometimes to stay with the mesquities and everything else and cook food, they are very frustrated and hopes someone comes out here in the next few days and helps them out. >> so much danger all around, ryan, but such a hunger to get back to something close to normal, to get back to their homes. ryan young, thank you for showing us that. so joining us now by phone is kevin who fair to say witnessed some of the worst conditions anyone could imagine in the place that has seen the most devastation, fort myers beach, and is importantly is still

seeing that. kevin, if you can hear me, thank you for joining us. i am glad you are safe. i'm so glad that you're safe. >> thank you. >> tell us what happened when the storm hit. what did you do? >> well, you know, they were forecasting it. they were warning everybody this could be, you know, the worst storm ever, and it was supposed to go toward tampa, then they talked about the storm surge being 18 feet, you know, and i think a lot of people got caught off-guard because storm surge -- well, first of all we didn't even get the eye. we got the worst end of it, and it just came on. and the storm surge kept coming, and it got up to 25 feet high. i saw it all happen. houses are floating in the back bay. people are on their roofs. there's a lot of lives lost here. this island, i couldn't even find my street where i live.

that's how bad it is. >> you know, i saw it from the air and i can't imagine what it was like to be in it as it was happening. we have a photo you took from the second floor where you were sheltering. what did you think when you saw this storm surge? >> i was thinking, man, i made the biggest mistake of my life to be honest with you. i was able to get into a solid building. i got out of my place because i knew something was going to go wrong, and a guy that i lease from, his name is jesse, he stayed in the house. and this guy -- the house collapsed and he ended up on the roof of his house with his dog and was going toward the back bay and crashed on his house and he jumped on a tree. i had a friend they were in his house and he was with his wife and another couple, and the storm surge came all the way up and the windows were sucked out. these guys pushed their wives out the windows to where a tree was, and they were looking at

them and guys were holding on, and they just looked at their wives and they said we can't hold on anymore, we love you, bye, and that was it. i mean, people were sucking air at their ceilings. >> did they all make it? >> no, no. the two guys didn't make it. the wife and the girlfriend did because they pushed them out the windows first. >> oh, my goodness. >> so they just found somebody i just heard, too, like three hours ago. >> have you passed that onto authorities? do they know? >> oh, they know. they're here right now. i just want to explain i'm not trying to make this sound worse than anybody else. everybody's going through a real bad time now, but it's unimaginable to see 25 feet of water coming rushing through. it was like a dam broke. it was -- it was taking everything. there's cars floating down the

road. there's people. they're pulling people out of the mangroves right now. you know what i mean? they've got cadaver dogs down here going through the hotels looking for everybody. the horror stories are just incredible. a friend of mine was in a house and people that we all know each other on the island. it's a small community, and everybody freaked out, and i'm just here to talk to everybody and make sure everybody they need to talk. and he said he was holding onto his best friend's hair and the surge was like 25 feet and his best friend says you've got to let go of him, and he said no, he's my best friend, let go, and he says no. and he finally let go of him, and that was it. i mean, this is what happened here. i mean, it was like you couldn't see any buildings. it was -- i don't think we're ever going to see a storm like this again ever. and i would say i had to run up to the third floor.

i was on the second floor and it kept rising up. and i'm thinking if this comes up any higher we're going to be on the roof, you know what i mean? >> based on what we're seeing -- just based on what we're seeing with the destruction we now can see, you can only imagine, and based on the stories you're telling us what it was like to be there as it was happening. what do you want people watching this now seeing some of these pictures and hearing you describe it, what do you want them to know? >> do not trust the track of a hurricane, and what they need to do is now is take a cat 5 which is supposed to be 158 miles an hour, and turn that -- drop the miles down 155 and need to tell people if you don't leave, you will die. people need to get out. and i was fortunate enough to get into a solid building. and what i saw is just heart breaking, and all the friends i

lost and everybody else, the stories are horrific. it's a nightmare. this island is destroyed. they're going to teardown everything that was built with wood. everything -- they're tearing everything down. there's nothing left. the storm surge is like a wave. i've never seen anything like this in my life. >> kevin behen, i'm so sorry for your loss, for those close to you that you've lost. i'm glad for you that you did make it through this ordeal. i know it's going to be difficult for you going forward. please make sure that you let us know if there's anything we can do to help get the story out there, and i know the aid is coming in. please stay safe for the time being. >> we want everybody to know we need more help down here, you know what i mean? they're here but it's just -- it is what it is, i guess. we're just all saying a prayer and trying to help each other out. >> so much need. listen, thank you very much. be well. >> you got it. okay, thank you. >> can only imagine what it's

like to be in those circumstances right now, having lived through that and still face the challenges ahead. the storm, it does still remain a threat as it moves inland. we want to get the latest on it from cnn's jennifer gray in the weather center. so, jennifer, what is the latest right now? >> that was tough, john. this storm is still moving through the midatlantic. the storm is now post-tropical. it has lost its tropical characteristics, but the rain is still with it. we are looking at heavy rainfall all across the midatlantic, even spilling into the northeast, so we are going to see the potential for flooding. the good news around the coast of the carolinas, the storm surge has ended. all the water is flowing back into the ocean. we still have some flooding, some inland flooding going on, and we will have a tornado watch until 10:00. so the possibility of spinups definitely there as we go throughout the evening hours. but here's the forecast radar, and you can see a lot of rain falling across the midatlantic

even into the ohio valley throughout the weekend, even a lot of moisture spilling into the northeast. so we are going to look for the potential for some flash flooding. rainfall totals 2 to 4 inches, sometimes up to 6 potentially. you can see all along the i-95 corridor, we're going to see some heavy rain. this is for the next three days, john. so a bit of a threat with the storm and breezy along the coast as well. the rain will continue, but this storm is finally starting to wind down, thankfully. >> long overdue. jennifer gray, thank you so much for that. next the owner of one of the many b boats the storm tossed around like toys in this case whwhile he say onboard. > and later vladimir putin' land grab in ukraine. the dark and ominous speech he made announcing it, and what to make of the nuclear threat he once again made. get a personal loan with no fees, low fixed rates, and borrow up to $100k. go to sofi.com to view your rate. sofi. get your money right. ♪

so looking there at one of the indelible imagesf this storm, the number of boats of all types not where they should

be, some as our randy kaye showed us last night still attached to pieces of docks and moorings but washed inland by the surge. today she met the owner of one such boat and joins us now. randy, what did you see today as you continue to do such an amazing job covering the devastation in that area? >> reporter: thank you, john. we were driving around fort myers beach here. we saw the flooded communities, the flattened communities, the boats in treeses, of course. and we happened of what used to be a marina over here. this was a marina building behind me. it ended up out to sea, pulled by the storm. and this giant boat here took the other route, that was in the water, ended up on dry land. we poke to the owner of that boat who rode that storm out on the boat, and here's what he told us. have you ever seen a storm like this? >> no, not this big. seen hurricanes but nothing like this. >> reporter: when hurricane ian hit fort myers beach, the boat

captain was in for the ride of his life. >> it was surreal, very surreal. >> reporter: mike had decided to ride out the storm at this boat docked. mike showed me video of what he saw as the hurricane gained strength. >> here's the one you'll see the building collapsed over there. you'll get to see it in a minute. you can see we're running the engines, holding the boat in place. there's the building. >> reporter: wow, it's just right in the water. he'd tied the boat he was onto another large boat he owned. both weighed about 50 tons, he says. but even that was no match for hurricane ian. at about 3 a.m., all of a sudden mike was lifted up by the force of the water and the wind. >> we didn't actually get dragged around until the very, very end. >> reporter: what was that feeling like being carried along as the storm was going? >> it was out of our control at that point, so we were happy we were blowing inland because we

knew we'd wind up over land not out in water sinking and we'd be in real danger. the wind was howling, and we knew we were in the parking lot and we didn't know when we were going to stop. >> reporter: in the end after a wild 15 hours mike and his boats which were still tied together landed in the street. and while they aren't a total loss, ian sure took a chunk out of this boat mike used for business, a floating hotel. >> the wind did that. that wasn't even from a hit. we watched it and the wind as it got more and more started peeling the side back. >> reporter: and tore it right off. >> yep. >> randy, imagine thinking it's good news he was getting blown inland. at least he would end up somewhere like a parking lot instead of washed out to sea. did mike tell you what he's going to do next? can he salvage any of these boats? >> reporter: he hopes to salvage both boats actually, john, but only one of them is insured,

unfortunately. but he does have a generator on it. it's running right now, but he wants to get it back into the water as soon as possible, and here's why. if you look there it's leaning. this boat right here is leaning against a power line. the power company was here today, and if they deem that boat is in the way of them restoring power, mike says they will just simply destroy it. so he has a crane company giving them an estimate. he wants that boat in the water as soon as possible, and hopefully he'll fix up the other one. >> the predicaments so many are in. randy kaye, thank you very much. we just now received word from florida officials who have reopened several new facilities bringing the death toll statewide to at least 45, and that continues to grow. now i want to check back in with holly smith, the mayor of sana bell. when we spoke last night she already had a good idea how badly her town and the island it sits on had been hit. for the people who want to stay at this point what services

exist for them? how much damage is there? is it livable? >> frankly, no, but they do have the right to stay there, and right now, you know, it's important for us to go ahead and say do you have clean water, are you okay? i'll be doing my flyover tomorrow and getting on the island, my boots on the ground as well tomorrow so i can get a better assessment. >> and mayor smith does join us tonight. mayor, i know you were able to go to sanibel island today. what was it like? >> you know, watching all we watched, the videos and everything, we talked about that, but when you stepped onto that island and you walked around, it was -- it was overpowering. it really -- the extent of the devastation on the island, until you're on the ground and walking

around you -- you really don't get that sense. and i went out and my other council members along with some of the police department and we were able to get around to parts of the island, very limited parts. but those areas have extreme -- extreme devastation. >> are there still people on the islands who don't want to leave? >> yes, there are right now. but let me tell you some good parts here as well. when we were getting ready to get on boat to head over, they were bringing a number of people off, and those were faces that we knew. and i was so good to see them, and they were so glad to be safe. and then when we were on the island we also saw a number of people, and we took down every time we saw somebody we recorded their name, where they were so we can make sure that our list, we have them marked as safe. and then we had probably 25 or so people on our boat coming

back with us, coming off. and these were -- you know, there were elderly, younger. there was a pregnant woman on, and what they went through, the descriptions they had were just absolutely horrific. >> it must be such a relief to see faces that you know and have them be okay. i know governor desantis announced that he's going to help bring barges in to get heavy equipment on sanibel. what more do you know about how that's going to work, and what else do you need? >> well, i was out-of-pocket today, so i haven't had an opportunity to speak to the governor's office to find out what assets they're bringing, are being brought on. and i neglected to say our city manager was on today, so i really can't speak to that. it's our understanding that we are getting national guard coming forward here. i don't have a timeline, and that will be a 24-hour guard on the island. the barges i know are in play.

where they are, i'm not sure, so i couldn't answer that specifically. >> well, hopefully that help is on the way. mayor holly smith, thank you again for speaking with us tonight. we're glad you're well andnd yo could connect withth people you know there. we'll get more on the fort myers raraejen just ahead. cnn's bill weir is going to take us to a place that shows not just the damage but does it in a destructive and powerful this storm was. that's ahead on 360.

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all right, a reminder. just a moment ago the death toll in florida from hurricane ian rose to 45. and that number sadly will no doubt rise again. earlier we heard from kevin behan who lost his home and went through so much during the storm. it has seen some of the very worst. i'm joined now by bill weir in fort myers. and i know you tried to get into fort myers beach today. you're going to tell us about that journey, but also one of the things you're seeing and you really see it everywhere is boats in just impossible places. >> reporter: absolutely. that just -- all of them, an illustration of the physics of the storm that did the most amazing things. i was on my way because we heard 90% of fort myers beach was wiped out. the road was closed there by the

sheriff's department. it sounds like they're going to open that up in coming days, but while we're sitting there and looking around and look at the images of this crackerjack, the charter yacht parked on the top of a chevy suburban with the alarm going off inside to alert the captain something is wrong. and there is this yacht across the boulevard had to be shoved across. they're bringing in this heavy equipment to try to move all this debris out of the way. they're shoving it for the time being. but then take a look at this footage. you compare that to what's happening here in fort myers. this is near the yacht basin. it's near joe's crab shack, if you've been there before. i looked it up. back in 2017 irma and maria took out about 65,000 boats in florida at a cost near $650 million. it's hard to imagine that this storm won't exceed that. but it's not just property damage we're talking about, these are peoples homes down here in florida. i met a guy, a captain down here

in the basin who wanted to ride it out in a pretty small boat, 24 footer. he has two dogs, though, and when this big yacht started banging into his and come loose, he got his dogs, came out. people across the street saw him, helped him. he rode out the storm with them on their balcony watching this basin, which he says is just families, everybody knows each other and they'd been taking care of each other. he says he's pretty sure most people weren't on their boats here in this harbor when that happened. but there's no telling, john, how to search -- to clear each one of these vessels to make sure there wasn't somebody inside. and when you think about it in those terms, you see the sunken boats here in the harbor, it just fills your guts with dread. and amid all this debris right now i look down and just are reminder these are families lives we're talking about. this is not -- you know, this is not disaster porn. these are human lives and these

are somebody's grand babies and who knows where this came from. if you recognize these people you can hit me on social media. we can at least try to get this back to them, but the one lesson i got from captain lou here just a minute ago was just how much people are taking care of each other in this community, another inspiring example of this storm drawing folks together. the longer it takes to clean this up, though, i worry about that sort of frame a bit. we shall see, but everyone of these a reminder of the wrath of ian, john. >> yeah, and it's a great point. yes, boats and homes destroyed but the important thing here what it's done to people and their lives just uprooted now. bill, your coverage has been terrific. thank you so much for being with us tonight. >> my pleasure, john. thanks. we're going to go back to the fort myers region later in the broadcast and talk to shev jose an dreas of world central kitchen. russian president vladimir

putin attempmpting to annex a large chunk of ukraine in a speech steeped in anger, coconspiracies, and hints about using nuclear weapons. a didiscussion with one of our reporters who recently returned from moscow and a former cia official. that's next. yeah. this is the plan to finally connect with our family's heritage. grandma! start your plan today with a northwestern mutual financial advisor and spend your life living. ♪ hey, i just got a text from my sister. you remember rick, her neighbor? sure, he's the 76-year-old guy who still runs marathons, right? sadly, not amore. wo so sudden. um, we're not about to have the "we need life insurance" conversation again, are we? no, we're having the "we're getting coverage so we don't have to worry about it" conversation. so you're calling about the $9.95 a month plan -from colonial penn? -i am. we put it off long enough. we are getting that $9.95 plan, today. (jonathan) is it time for you to call about the $9.95 plan?

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so major developments we want to tell you about tonight in the war in ukraine. as ukrainian forces appear to be

encircling russian units in a strategically important town in the east, vladimir putin held a celebratory concert in red square today after declaring that russia would annex four regions in ukraine. that includes the same region donetsk where ukrainians appear to be encircling some of his troops, encircling russian troops. so this was a spectacle to be sure. it began with a speech in one of the grand halls of the kremlin. putin's words were at times dark, confrontations, conspiratorial. at times putin seemed to be projecting, charging the west and the u.s. with being despots who infringe on nations rights and break international law. now in the orders putin signed today they include lands his armies do not actually occupy. nevertheless, today he proclaimed all of it, quote, our land. >> translator: i want the kyiv authorities and their real masters in the west to hear and

remember those people in those four regions are becoming our citizens forever. >> putin also spoke about the use of nuclear weapons, hinting at their use and once again blaming the united states. >> translator: the country which used nuclear weapons twice in hiroshima and nagasaki, they have created a precedent. >> in response president biden said putin's actions are a sign he's struggling. ukraine's president zelenskyy called today's show a, quote, farce. i'm joined here by our senior international correspondent matthew chance who's not only reported from the war zone in ukraine but also from moscow and cnn national security analyst steve hall, a former cia chief of operations. matthew, it's always an honor to see you in person. this speech from vladimir putin it is fiery and comes as hundreds of thousands of russians appear to be upset with the direction that he's taken. how do you think this speech

will play with the russian people? >> i think you're right. it's a massive disconnect between the kind of rhetoric and sort of patriotic fervor that we heard from vladimir putin and that crowd of invited guests as well in red square. the disconnect between that and what's happening on the battlefield, first of all, i mean this is the first time i can think of that a country has actually annexed territory it is actively retreating from, it's been pushed out from by the opposing army in this case the ukrainians. but there's also a massive disconnect, i think, with the attitude that many russians feel now about what russia calls the special military operation because as we all know while the celebrations are being staged in the center of the russian capital, we've got hundreds of thousands of russian men trying to leave the country to escape the military draft. they know they need to get out as quickly as they can otherwise they're going to be sucked into that, you know, kind of bloodbath. >> just to follow up on that, do

you have a sense that the message from today and the mobilization from a few weeks ago have backfired? >> i think the mobilization's definitely backfired. i think what we're seeing today with this message, you know, of victory is aimed at a domestic audience to say, look, we got what we wanted. this is the russian traditional lands coming home, and he along with his propaganda machine and the state media are going to be spinning that yarn to russians, you know, for the foreseeable future. >> steve hall, let me follow up on that with you. do you see this speech putin gave today as more for that domestic audience? or what was the message intended for the west? >> yeah, it was definitely for the domestic audience, i think, john. i would characterize it as just silly. it's crazy. i'm sure people are already doing analysis of it, and it's interesting. but it's pure theater. it's trying to win over, you know, those pockets or those parts of the russian population they're still very concerned about that.

and most of those populations are in the, you know, better educated, richer parts of russia relatively speaking, places like moscow and st. petersburg. i think this type of propaganda and the big show, the big concert they put on in red square i've seen those in person. they're very good at doing those things. those things play better in the russian hinterlands where people have a more difficult time getting access to the internet and have to rely more on russian media. he knows the west is watching but also knows the west is not taking it seriously. >> do you believe he thinks conflict with the west is inevitable, steve? >> he's got to be careful by that because it depends on what we mean of conflict with the west. it's good he's rattling the nuclear saber without saying anything about nuclear weapons except, you know, when the united states used them, and that's a precedent. but that's extremely useful for him because we get in the west

apoplectic about this, because when we're talking about nuclear weapons everyone has to take it seriously. but he also knows if the russian people and more importantly his senior advisers thought he was seriously considering some sort of nuclear confrontation with the west, he wouldn't be in this job very long, i don't think. no one wants that to happen inside of russia. >> that nuclear threat which has gone from thinly veiled to not veiled at all really or at least nuclear discussion from vladimir putin, what do you think he's driving at there the there that nuclear threat, by the way, is thinly veiled from vladimir putin himself. it talks about explicitly -- they've spoken about that. i just think he's raising the stakes. he's not got much else to fall back on apart from these threats, the threat he could deploy those much feared russian nuclear weapons because his conventional army has, you know, frankly failed to achieve the military objectives.

they've been bringing them back in body bags, and he's not got much else, i don't think, to throw at the conflict except for this kind of last ditch attempt to scare the west and to scare ukraine into backing down. >> matthew chance, it is great to see you in person. steve hall, thank you as well. more now on the ukrainian counter offensive. cnn's nick paten walsh and his team recently visited a newly liberated town. this is what one resident told him. >> reporter: ana is one of nine people left in her block. she almost didn't make it. >> translator: the scariest is when the russians one night were in a fire fight in my courtyard. i was in the doorway and tried to hold the steel door shut, but a soldier pulled at the door so i jumped down and fell in the basement. he tore open the door, shot his gun into the darkness and missed me. >> all right, here now is cnn's nick paten walsh in eastern ukraine. nic, what is this so-called

annexation mean to the ukrainians? >> reporter: well, nothing at all, to be honest. unless, of course, you are standing in territory which russia actually physically occupies and has declared part of russia, then you do in theory have a new government in russia's eyes. but where i'm standing this is a place which as of this morning russia said was ukraine and now thinks is part of russia, but it is controlled by ukraine. and that brings home, i think, how at times delusional what we heard from moscow was. yes, there was strong messaging about leading a path to victory but it seemed more about trying to justify past mistakes and necessarily suggest that the current path is really working. and what you're certainly seeing here, we're seeing flashes on the skyline and the importance of the direction of the strategic town is ukraine moving forward. if they look likely or they haven't already to encircle that

has thousands of russian troops inside of it. it could well fall to ukraine in the days ahead. those troops could surrender or fight it out, and it could then have a knock on effect across russian positions in the area of luhansk, another key place. the issue here is the rhetoric we heard in moscow is totally undermined by how ukraine is seeing daily methodical progress on the battlefield here, john. that is proving to be something in which vladimir putin is struggling massively to bridge the gap between his rhetoric and what is happening here on the front lines, john. >> i remember when it fell to the russians. if it get back in ukrainian hands, how big of a strategic step is that? what could it portend for what's next? >> reporter: well, if you look at the ukrainian strategy certainly when the areas around kharkiv fell, the focus of the ukrainians was a town called izium which was essentially the supply hub, strategically important to russia because it

used that to supply its other forces. and remarkably when izium fell, everything fell that was reliant upon it. and there are thoughts possibly leman fills a similar function in the donetsk and luhansk areas. there are places russia has had forces in probably since 2014, so they probably have more defenses in place, but we have seen russia at times unable to regroup, unable to work out what it would do if it loses a place it didn't think it would lose. perhaps thinking the idea of it actually falling was never going to happen. what have ukraine done? they've gone around the back of it rather than doing what russia does which is the full frontal assault with lots of lives lost. they've simply cut off the supply by going around the back of it. that's what we're seeing at the moment, and knock on effect we may see from there is the towns behind it that rely on leman for

supply may not know quite what to do and russian forces may fall back into disarray. that's a possibility not a dead certainty at this stage, but remarkable to see with this rhetoric coming out of russia hour by hour as putin took the stage, his forces are losing ground in strategic places here. john? >> yeah, as his forces do worse, the threats get stronger, as matthew chance was saying befofore. nick paten walsh, very nice to see you. please stay safe. >> up next we're going to go back to fort myers. our guest chef jose an ddres wi share how he and his team are getting do you take aspirin? plain aspirin could be hurting your stomach. vazalore 325 liquid-filled aspirin capsule is clinically shown in a 7 day sdy

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you follow the plan, you'll lose weight. >> disaster strikes, chef jose and his team at world central kitchen get right to the scene. he joins us tonight from fort myers. chef, it's great to see you. what are you seeing there as the greatest need now that the hurricane is today's gone from that region? >> well, we've seen the images, the destruction, obviously, is very big. we see these two islands, sanibel, and pine island, that they are really, very much in bad shape, as you could see, you could only accessed by boat or helicopter. today, i've been able to be on both islands, we've been there

the last two days. [inaudible] a lot of destruction, law enforcement doing a lot of rescue missions, taking a lot of people out, to the hospitals, everybody, quite frankly, is doing god's work. we do it quickly, we go out, to the communities, bring them water, bring in food, sandwiches, hot meals. the last two days, we've done more than 2000 meals that already -- we do this because we have [inaudible] kitchens in tampa, fort myers, you know, using the infrastructure these have to do what we do, to give everybody food and water. >> you are incredible at, it and you really are so good at doing this, and there is so much need. you have prepositioned in florida ahead of the hurricane so you could spring right into action. what is your set up there?

you mentioned getting by boat and helicopter. is that how you reaching these hard-hit areas? >> yeah. today, myself, i was in -- do different things during the day for many landings, the same spot, the community is waiting for. as we have -- dropped the food and water, they are helping us, not only to serve in a central locations of people know we go every day, but also those communities who don't have cars, or they are even further away. the community comes together -- began positioning food drives and key places. we had different restaurants from those restaurants, you would be smart in the way you do distributions, for hospitals, to fire stations, to the communities, that are in very

bad shape. in the, and i say we are the biggest organization in the world because every restaurant, every warehouse, every person, every cook, everyone belongs to world central kitchen. what happens, they don't know it yet, but in the moment we show up, they see big problems are very simple solutions. when the community comes together, you see food and water should never be a problem. >> i know it makes everyone feel better as soon as they see you all on the scene. and you are there, right away. people need to know, that from covering the storm for being down there. i see your people simply everywhere, even before the news crews, even before the coast guard and other people get there sometimes, you are there. chef, great to see you. stay safe. we will talk to you again. >> thanks. >> and we'll be right back. here. but for someone to be able to work from here, there has to be someone hehere making sure everything is safe. secure. consistent. so log in from here. or here. assured that someone is here ready to fix anything.

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the best part? the prequel is pretty sweet too. ♪ ♪ >> the news continues. attended over to laura coates who is filling in for don lemon tonight. laura? >> nice to see you, john. great coverage on the hurricane. so important to have your perspective on the ground. we are here tonight. this is don lemon tonight, i am laura coats in for don lemon. ian is no longer a hurricane tonight. that's true. it's been downgraded to a post-tropical cyclone. doesn't sound that much better, does it? the danger from this massive storm is far from over. it's still packing drenching rains, high winds, and the threat of flash flooding as it goes north to the carolinas into virginia, and even the