>> i want you to stand by, clarissa. by the way, clarissa and matthew, about 300 miles apart. so not the same series of explosions that they are hearing. not possible for that. but i want to get to frederick pleitgen, as clarissa just mentioned. frederick is north of kharkiv. and frederick, i understand that you're hearing artillery fire. can you confirm that, please? >> yeah, you're absolutely right, don. we believe that we're hearing artillery fire. i'm in belgorod on the russian side of the border. essentially i would assume that some of the fire that clarissa is hearing impact in the kharkiv area is probably coming from russian positions right here in the area around belgorod. in the distance sort of over there we're hearing a lot of outgoing artillery fire. those are the sort of thuds you would hear from artillery cannons. but we're also hearing salvos that could very well be rockets that are being fired as well. just a couple of moments ago, i'd say less than a minute ago, there was a really loud bang here where it's hard to imagine that that would have been incoming fir

go back to cnn's clarissa ward who is in kyiv tonight.ow where that is and what's going on? >> reporter: yeah, so, basically, anderson, it's going on in multiple locations around the city. you've got that fighting going on in observe lon i was pointing out earlier. but we are now hearing explosions in the city, in the western part of the city. that's near a military base. we've also heard from the state service of special communications that in the eastern suburbs, there have been -- there's been some heavy fighting. all of this is really happening now, anderson, within the city limits. those images you saw there where the sky is kind of lit up, those took place in the southwest part of the city. so, you can see what i'm basically driving at here from the east, from the west, from the south. it's really coming closer and closer to the city center from multiple angles. and this is exactly what president volodymyr zelenskyy warned about just a couple of hours ago. he said, tonight is the night the russians will try to storm our capital. it'

clarissa, please go ahead. i must have lost -- i lost matthew. clarissa, can you hear me?'re able to hear that. we just had a steady stream of strikes went on for about 30 seconds or so. but it was a very steady stream. it had been quieter for a few minutes before that. and we know, he with sent one of our colleagues over to the bomb shelter. there is a public bomb shelter here. it's about 200 yards away. that bomb shelter is now open and there are police there. there's no sign yet that people have turned up at that shelter but that might change obviously throughout the course of the day if we continue to hear steady streams of strikes like those because we are just over 20 miles from the border with russia and we have seen through images on maxar satellite images but also from the reporting of our own fred pleitgen, who's just on the other side, that there is a massive build-up of russian weaponry and russian troops just over in that belgorod area. also our fred pleitgen was reporting earlier that he was hearing a lot of outgoing artillery. we've certainly been hearing qu

that's where clarissa ward is. i understand you're inside a subway station, where people are trying to take shelter. what are you seeing, clarissa? >> reporter: john, it is just absolutely surreal. yesterday this would have been full of commuters making their way back and forth to work. today, it has become an impromptu bomb shelter. it is just full. we arrived here about 15, 20 minutes ago. we were outside, and then we heard a series of thuds, and saw people start to pour in here and i think you can get a sense of just how many people are taking shelter here right now. these people are frightened. they're confused. they are desperate about what they're supposed to do, how long they can take shelter here, where they go from here. there are a lot of children in here. there are a lot of animals, dogs, pets, we have seen students who are studying here in ukraine from outside the country. i talked to a woman upstairs, who was crying because of just her sense of panic, fear and desperation not knowing where they can go,

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in belgorod, a few miles from where clarissa is. fred, you've been watching russian forces literally drive along the highway from russia towards kharkiv. tell us what you're seeing and in what numbers. >> reporter: yeah, you're seeing them right here. you're seeing them drive past us right here. these appear to be transport trucks. you see in all the trucks, jim, i want to point out, a z painted on the side, apparently what the russian forces have done in order to be able to distinguish their vehicles. you can see them make a right turn right there right now past that checkpoint. that is the straight way into ukraine. that is the straight way to kharkiv. these forces seem to be heading straight into ukrainian territory. that's what we have been seeing, essentially what this invasion has been looking like from our vantage point. we're at the last checkpoint before you go into ukrainian territory. we have seen that steady stream of russian vehicles here move that way. what we also have seen, jim, this is something kuquite troubling to

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spider, you hear the reporting from kaitlan, clarissa and jill, clarissa ex-pplicitly saying it feels different tonight. does it look different tonight to your trained eye? >> well what we're seeing clearly is additional build-up for what i think is an inevitable incursion, the question is a good one, what do we see? now there are limit to see what we can see clearly. information is publicly available, but there is a host, tons of classified intelligence that our intelligence community can gather, and intelligence that we're getting from partners from allies with whom we have sharing arrangements, that's what critical. i can guarantee the president of the united states and secretary of state are seeing very deep classified, special category-type intelligence we will never see. certainly see them after they're unclassified or if the president certainly wants to declassify that stuff and put it out there, but clearly they're looking at things that we're not seeing and that has to be with clearly with signals intelligence which gets into communications intelligence, hi john, this is spid

the two countries have felt it the most, clarissa mentioned ukraine.or that government to borrow money for a one-year period -- >> the president is walking out, so let me interrupt you and listen to president biden his latest thoughts on ukraine. >> well, good afternoon. yesterday vladimir putin recognized two regions of ukraine as independent states. and he bizarrely asserted that these regions are longer part of ukraine and their sovereign territory. russia announced it is carving out a big chunk of ukraine. last night putin authorized russian forces to deploy into these regions. today he asserted these regions are actually extend deeper than the two areas he recognized, claiming large areas currently under the jurisdiction of the ukraine government. he's setting up a rationale to take more territory by force in my view, and if we listen to his speech last night, many of you did, i know, he's setting up a rationale to go much further. this is the beginning of a russian invasion of ukraine, as he indicated and asked permission to be able to do from hi

i want to go back to clarissa ward in kharkiv in ukraine., such a short distance from the ukrainian border to the city where you are. i'm just wondering what you made of what general marks was saying about the options russian forces have in front of them. >> yeah, i mean it certainly doesn't appear to bode well, anderson, and sounds frankly ominous. what's striking to see, though, there haven't been any evacuations, any major announcements. here things do seem to be for the moment pretty calm. now, when i say calm i don't mean relaxed. it definitely feels tense and as i mentioned to you before when we're driving into the city, there's checkpoints. checked our identification, wanted to know why we were going here. there's also a checkpoint for people leaving the area. we didn't see anyone trying to leave, but it was already pretty late at night. i think it'll be interesting to see what happens tomorrow morning, whether there's some kind of announcement urging people to leave. the attitude up until this point really from the ukrainian governme

clarissa ward live in ukraine. clarissa, how would you describe the sense of urgency?ry, john. because if the russians did cross that border, the people of mariapole would be the first to know. we spent two days on the front lines. basically, no one seems to be that worried. they have lived under russia's shadow for many years. they had a pro with pro-russian separatists for eight years. they see what is happening at the moment largely a political issue. take a look. this is ukraine's first line of defense if russia decides to in invade. it is basic. half a dozen soldier in snow covered trenches. no signs of heavy weapons. separatists are half a while away. he's saying that every night there's fighting once it gets dark. these front lines have been frozen for years. a russian offensive would change that in an instant. but the alarm in washington is not shared here. what's amazing to see is despite the buildup of tanks and heavy weaponry on the russian side of the border, which is less than 20 miles away from here, here on the ukrainian said there is no sense at all tha

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clarissa, you went to the area shelled in eastern ukraine today.he video from your stop in the preschool. tell us what you saw. >> reporter: so, jake, just to give you a sense of how much the ukrainians wanted us to see this and how unusual a situation it was, it's very rare for them to take journalists to the front line at night. but that's what they did because they wanted the world to see what happened at this kindergarten. 8:45 this morning, two shells landed, according to the ukrainian military and also some employees and staff who we talked to on the ground. one of the rooms that you can see, the sort of play room, filled with children's toys, had a huge gaping hole allegedly where that shell had come through. there were toys scattered everywhere. by the grace of god, jake, there were no children in the room when that shell hit. the children were in a different part of the building having breakfast. we interviewed a teacher who said that she immediately moved them away from any windows into an internal corridor. she said that they told the yo

jim sciutto, clarissa ward, kaitlan collins, thank you. we'll come back to you. ce s s ce cedric leighton joins us. are you taking a statin drug to reduce cholesterol? it can also deplete your coq10 levels. i recommend considering qunol coq10 along with your statin medication. the brand i trust is qunol. with quality that's guaranteed for life, bath fitter doesn't just fit your bath, it fits your high standards. why have over two million people welcomed bath fitter into their homes? it just fits. call now or visit bathfitter.com to book your free consultation. "peace of mind." such a big, beautiful idea. and for us at booking.com this means - free cancellation on most bookings. it's a bit functional. but we'll gladly be functional. so you can be free. booking.com booking.yeah what if you could have the perspective to see more? at morgan stanley, a global collective of thought leaders offers investors a broader view. ♪ we see companies protecting the bottom line by putting people first. we see a bright future, still hungry for the ingenuity of those ready for the

of course, the danger with that, as clarissa was saying, it's a city of 3 million people. when you drop or intend to drop, a ukrainian intelligence is saying, that many bombs, artillery rounds, missiles, and perhaps even airdrop airborne forces, there are a lot of people in the way of that fighting. that's not an accident, by the way. russian military wants to cause panic, but also wants to decapitate the government. split people, politicians are targets, so we'll be watching to see if russia follows through. >> russians clearly want to capture and potentially kill the ukrainian president zelenskyy. >> reporter: yeah. >>> i want to bring in our military analyst, the former supreme nato allied commander, wesley clark. the french say that the fall of kyiv is not flel inevitable, but is it a realistic possibility that the ukrainian capital could fall tonight, or that the ukrainian military could hold on? >> i think it's not going to fall tonight. i think the ukrainian military has fought brilliantly. they're absolutely their determination to resist is a huge force mutt suppli

>> brian, that out rages me and especially after hearing clarissa's report right now. i don't think the correspondents that cnn has out in the field and i think cnn has more of them than anybody else at that front line, i will tell you what, i don't think they're wishing for war when there's mortar fire coming in on them. it's outrageous. it's the wannabe journalists the wannabe critics sitting back here saying we're rooting for war. do you know what, war is not that great a financial inducement at least in the television industry. a lot of sponsors don't want their product being shown during war, for one thing, it's like a natural disaster. and the other thing, to cover war hon ranly cost a lot of money. for hotdog critics to say, oh, television wants war, the media wants war, not at the high end. that's not the case with reporters who are out in the field like clarissa. >> furthermore, cnn all the way back in november had reporting from jim sciutto and tasha bertrand and others saying russia is making moves here. some folks didn't believe at the time but you look bac

let's begin with cnn's clarissa ward live in kyiv. clarissa, what's the latest from there?porter: so basically, kate, we've heard from president vladimir zelenskyy today. he's not using the invasion word and he said he does not believe there will be a war but what he said is he believes russia is essentially creating the legal basis for further armed aggression against ukraine. and what he might be talking about there, kate, is these two areas that russia has now recognized. you have the borders of those areas as they stand, and the borders of those areas as these pro-russian separatist leaders would aspire them to be. the borders, the way they aspire them to be, are significantly more expansive and include key cities currently held by the ukrainians such as mariappa, will we see with russian forces alongside them to try to nibble away further into ukrainian territory? now, for the most part now, it's been largely quiet this that donbas region today. we heard from the deputy russian foreign minister who's speaking to russian news service tasks that there were no plans to se

clarissa explicitly saying it feels different tonight. does it look different tonight to your trained eye? >> what we're seeing clearly is additional build up for what i think is an inevitable incursion. your question is good. what do we see? now there are limit. clearly, information is publicly available but there is a host, tons of classified intelligence that our intelligence community can gather and intelligence we're getting in partners and allies with whom we have sharing arrangements. that is what is critical. i can guarantee our president and secretary of state are seeing very deep, classified special category type intelligence that we will never see. we'll certainly see them after they are unclassified or if the president certainly wants to declassify that stuff and put it out there. clearly they are looking at things we're not seeing and that has to be clearly with signals intelligence which gets into communications intelligence, hi john this is spider. spied ther is john. different types of coms like that. electronic intelligen

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clarissa, you and the team, please stay safe out there.ways. >> thank you, clarissa. >>> so, the scdc announced new changes for the masks indoors. and with hospital capacity in addition to covid case loads to determine whether areas of the country are high, medium or low risk. now under this new guidance, only about 28% of the u.s. population lives in high-risk areas talking about los angeles, san diego, that's where masks are still recommended indoors. dr. abdul fayed is with us, an epidemiologist. doctor, appreciate your insight here. the cdc's endemic strategy, is that what we're seeing now play out, as they make the shifts? >> yeah, christi, for context, remember, the cdc's last protocols, last guidance were based on delta which per individual was far more severe than omicron which has dominated the covid landscape. and they needed to switch to recognize that. although omicron is far less severe. it's based on case count, assuming every case is very serious, instead, they're also including metrics that include the proportion of hospita

but first let's go to clarissa ward in kyiv. all right, now while the war wages on in ukraine we are seeing the indomitable spirit of many people as they endured this conflict. we're also seeing thousands of citizens who are desperately fleeing their country. cnn's chief international correspondent clarissa ward now. >> reporter: a man stands on his balcony looking out at a new reality just hours after a missile slammed into his apartment building. it was 8:00 a.m. when the projectile hit destroying parts of the 22nd and 23rd floors. according to ukrainian authorities two people were killed. officials here say it was a russian strike. russia's ministry of defense claimed it was a ukrainian anti-aircraft missile that went awry. whoever was responsible, this is what happens when war comes to a major city. homes and lives are destroyed. at the city's central train station a frantic dash as people try to escape to the west of the country. step back the train conductor says, step back. she tells the crowd to leave their bags to make

barbara, mj, clarissa, jim and nic. please stay close. we're waiting, any moment now, president biden will speak and make what we are told will be a significant announcement. and while we wait for the president, i want to get to former defense secretary under president clinton, william cohen. mr. secretary, thank you so much for joining me. what do you want to hear from president biden? >> i want to hear that president biden is going to impose very heavy sanctions upon putin, upon russia, the oligarchs. but i also need to say that i don't think this will deter putin from launching an attack. he has already invaded ukraine, but kind of a salami-type approach. a slice here, slice there. take crimea, donbas, just keep taking a slice out of the country. but i don't think he'll be deterred no matter how heavy these sanctions are going to be. what we have to do is what happens after the sanctions. what happens if he goes in. what is the policy here in the states. what do we do in terms of supporting ukraine and help them to sustain themselves a

clarissa ward is with us now from kharkiv. you are witnessing something that is taking place right in front of your very eyes on the streets. take us -- tell us about it. >> yeah, i think this, don, really speaks to the sort of desperation of this moment. we just see a small group of people, and i'm hoping you can see them on our shot here. a small group of people have gathered in the main square and they are kneeling and praying because right now there is truly a sense of having no idea what is coming down the pipeline, what is in store for the people of ukraine in the coming hours and the coming days. and it's freezing cold here. so to see these people kneeling on the cold stone in prayer is honestly -- it's very moving, don. and i think it speaks to the state of ordinary ukrainians here who have done absolutely nothing to deserve this, who have no quarrel with russia, who have no desire for war or conflict, who are not engaged with the geopolitical underpinning all of this, and yet who will ultimately be the ones to bear th

clarissa ward is in kyiv. contributor and criminologist jill dougherty in moscow, and in lviv, jim sciutto. clarissa, i want to start with you in kyiv. what has the reaction been in ukraine among officials to the sanctions announced and the canceling of the blinken/lavrov meeting? >> well, i think there's no secret that there have been some daylight between the u.s. and ukraine on the issue of how to respond to this threat that putin has been posing. the ukrainian point of view was always that if you know it's going to happen, this invasion, you should levy sanctions early. now, however, we're seeing a much more united stance. president volodymyr zelenskyy saying how grateful he was of the u.s., the eu, germany in particular for canceling that crucial nord stream 2 pipeline agreement which has such huge geopolitical and strategic consequences. zelenskyy also went on to say that he is now not mobilizing the army, but he is calling up reservists, and this is happening, john, as we are hearing from nato that russ

let's start with clarissa ward, joining us from kharkiv. what more can you tell us about this dire message from the ukrainian president czeh l zelenskyy tonight? >> that's right, wolf. he said he is target number one. his family is target number two. but he also said he is not going anywhere, that he intends to stay in the capital city of kyiv for the moment. one can only imagine how difficult a position that will be to maintain as we continue to see russian forces continuing with this assault. here in the city of kharkiv, wolf, you can see it's a very different scene than it was last night. last night this is the big middle of the town scare behind me. it was tense and it was quiet, but nothing like it is today because we're just over 20 miles away from that russian border where there's been that huge buildup of artillery, armory, also purse ml. they have been engaging with the army, and the people here now are basically waiting to see at what point they potentially arrive at this city. and nobody knows what will they do if they arrive at

erin burnett is in lviv, clarissa ward in kyiv and barbara starr is at the pentagon. barbara, i want to start with you because you have a couple of new, very important developments. nato announcing for the first time ever it's activating the response force. explain what that means. >> well, dana, this is a very nuanced development in military events in europe. nato has activated what is essentially 40,000-man response force. these are troops that would be ready to go to their positions on very short notice. no one is thinking that 40,000 are going. it will be something smaller than that as nato makes decisions throughout the next several days. but what it does is put troops on standby essentially. be ready. you may be deployed. you may be going to certain loca locations. this is something the u.s. is already doing. we saw 7,000 troops being announced by the pentagon. it puts in a framework for further deployments on the eastern flank of nato. air, ground, sea, command and control. it makes nato much more ready to respond if it's needed. so look for announcements in th

i want to go straight to kyiv, the capital of ukraine, where cnn's international correspondent clarissaard is live. president biden says putin has made a decision to invade. what are you seeing and feeling on the ground there? >> reporter: near kyiv, remarkably the streets are quiet but largely cam. however, that can't be said about the eastern part of the country where war has been under way for eight years now. those front lines had largely been frozen for some time, up until the last few days. yesterday was the highest amount of activity that we have seen on those front lines in years. two ukrainian soldiers were killed. a cnn team who were touring the front lines with ukraine's interior minister came under heavy fire. they were pinned down for some time, and then they were forced to flee the area. just days before we had also visited the site of a kindergarten that had come under apparent shelling. so a real uptick in activity along those front lines and a lot of people concerned that things could unravel even more quickly. for the most part, though, ukraine's leadership has been st

our chief international correspondent clarissa ward is in the ukranian capital of kyiv for us. clarissa, russian troops could be arriving in ukraine very, very soon. >> reporter: that's right. president violence key is expected to address the nation sometime in the next hour. his foreign minister has also said that he's asked an immediate urgent u.n. security council meeting to deal with this issue as everyone tries to grapple with how to respond with this fast-breaking story. essentially what we know according to this decree, this sort of friendship agreement between russia and the independent or they would argue the independent republics of donetsk and luhansk they have a ten-year binding security decree which allows rush to come in and protect borders, offer defense and offer also financial and economic support. that could start to unfold any moment now. we could start to see russian troops pouring across that border or trickling across that border. we simply don't know exactly what to expect yet there. have already been a number of reports popping up on social media none of

cnn's clarissa ward was there filing this report. >> reporter: we are here in a residential neighborhoodquite near to one of kyiv's airport and you can see behind me, i am just going to step out of the way so my camera man can show you here the damage that has been done. some kind of a projectile hitting the apartment. there are still balanambulance workers on the scene. they're trying to take some scaffolding to try to prevent the floors from collapsing. nol one was actually killed in this strike. we are hearing from ukrainian authorities that six people were wounded. it is hard to imagine how anyone survived that. six people are wounded and they are being treated in various hospitals. there is a little bit of al he or she going on about how this happened. ukrainian authorities saying this was the work of russian missile. the russians are saying they believe, it is very windy here and a lot of debris flying around. the russians are saying they believe that this was actually a ukrainian missile defense system that somehow when arrive ended up hitting this apartment building. who was resp

we have live coverage tonight as only cnn can, from kaitlan collins at the white house, clarissa ward in kyiv, and nic robertson in moscow. caitlyn, i want to start with you. president biden said the u.s. has not yet been able to verify that russian troops are leaving positions near the ukraine border. what is the white house hoping to see that would indicate clear de-escalation, and how like do they believe at this point that an invasion is likely? >> well, when we talked to officials about what this would look like if they thought an invasion was going to happen or if they thought russia was de-escalating, they said it would take either direction that putin took to figure out what was happening, to make sure they could verify what was heard on the ground, to make sure the intelligence was correct, and make sure what they heard was right. they are proceeding with caution here, given the level of concern about what they have said about a pretext for invasion, concerns here. so when it comes to this, the president said today they haven't been able to verify this claim that putin made e

clarissa, president biden says the u.s. believes russian forces are planning to target the capital kyiv, a city of almost 3 million people. you're there right now. tell us what's going on. >> reporter: well, wolf, you know, for a long time we've been hearing that an imminent -- an invasion might be imminent, an invasion might not be decided upon yet, it might be a small invasion, it might be a large invasion. but to hear in those stark terms that the president believes a decision made by putin and kyiv itself itself might be targeted is pretty shocking. certainly we're starting to see some of the other pieces fall in line that u.s. officials have been talking about. they warned of this false flag operations that we might see. well, today in the eastern part of the country in those pro-russian separatist areas, those break away republics, we're starting to see what ukrainian and u.s. officials say amount to sort of acts of provocation or false flag operations, apparent kind of refugee crisis being manufactured with civilians

cnn can, our chief white house correspondent kaitlan collins, chief international correspondent clarissa ward in the ukrainian capitol of kyiv and jill doherty in moscow now, cnn contributor and expert on russia at the wilson center in washington. kaitlan, first to you, obviously the remarks from president biden are hugely significant, most definitive characterization to date of russia's intentions, what makes the president so sure in what sort of diplomat, efforts remain on going? >> reporter: i think what makes them so sure, john is the intelligence, and the president citing the capability they have earlier there when he was speaking with reporters just briefly on this but what we're hearing from source as really what the president says today matches and lines up with what they have been seeing and reading in the intelligence they've been looking at and pouring over for the last several days but what's notable from the shift in the president, no one has said this publicly yet, even biden himself has said that he guessed that president putin would go into ukraine, said this at a press c

chief international correspondent, clarissa ward is in ukraine., i want sta start with dateline onto breaking news. what is the latest on these negotiations? >> russia responded to the written response the u.s. sent to russia last week. we don't really know, anderson, what it has said. the state department confirmed they did receive this but they are saying they are going to leave it up to russia if they want to lay out what was said. now, we know when the u.s. responded to these security demands by russia last week, we didn't really expect any breakthroughs because we were told by sources that the united states was basically going to say in this, what they had said publicly. that they were not going to comply with some of these demands from russia, including ones like ukraine should never join nato which we have told they are on the path to do so but it is going to be a long path to actually get there. and so, we are not expecting any big breakthrough on this and of course as you saw today with the russian representative there at the united natio

let's begin though with cnn chief international correspondent clarissa ward from the capital of ukraine, kyiv. clarissa, said the recognition is trying to create a claimed legal basis not just for aggression in the east but for further armed aggression. that said, he doesn't think there will be a war, reconcile those two for us. >> reporter: so basically what president vladimir zelenskyy is saying there will be no war to contain the ukrainian people's confidence but at the same time, what he sees playing out here is a sort of entree, if you will, for president putin to try to start nibbling away at ukrainian territory. what i'm talking about specifically is these, the idea of the territory of donetsk, recognized them in their current status but are they recognizing borders as they currently are or are they talking about them as the people and the leaders of these separatist regions perceive them to be because the territory they claim in these separatist regions is actually significantly larger than what they currently have and there are several major ukrainian held cities like slavansk

cnn's clarissa ward is in kyiv witnessing the aftermath.he filed this report. >> reporter: hi, boris, hi, christi. >> you can see the damage done, hit about 8:15 this morning. you can still see smoke coming from it. there was a big fire, still smoking. there are ambulance workers on the scene. what they're doing is trying to take scaffolding up there to try to prevent the 22nd and 23rd floors from collapsing. miraculously, no one was killed. we're hearing from ukrainian authorities that six people were wounded. frankly, it's hard to imagine how anyone survived that. but six people wounded and being treated in various hospitals. and there's a little bit of he said/she said going on about how this happened. ukrainian authorities saying this is the work of a russian missile. and the russians are saying that they believe -- excuse me, it's very windy and there's a lot of debris flying around -- the russians are saying they believe this was actually a ukrainian missile defense system that somehow went awry and ended up hitting this apartment bui

clarissa ward is there for us. tell the viewers who you are seeing. >> reporter: wolf, we had been told that tonight we should anticipate a major assault on the city. i'll say it is not the first time we have been told that. notwithstanding we are preparing ourselves and asked to lower the lights and putt on the body armor as you saw talking to alex there. i guess it was about 15, 20 minutes ago now we did hear a large explosion and probably see over the shoulder here in the distance, the sky is kind of glowing red like a pulsating glowing red. we believe and we have no idea that perhaps a fuel depot. and that the fire is still burning. that's why you are seeing the pulsing, glowing red light and heard a little bit of activity in the skies and small arms fire around but generally speaking with the exception of this large blast i can't say that so far this is a noisier evening than the last two we have had. certainly last night with a fair number of explosions. steady stream in the night. and the real question now i

boris, christi. >> clarissa, we thank you so much. you and the crew stay safe there.ccording to the ukrainian ministry, active fighting is taking place on the streets. in fact, minutes ago, ukrainian president volodymyr zelenskyy released an update saying, quote, we have withstood and successfully repelled enemy attacks. the ukraine embassy in britain reports that he told the uf, quote, the fight is here. that was in response. >> he has decided to stay. and he also filmed this rallying cry posting it on social media. >> translator: good morning, ukrainians. currently there are a lot of games appearing on the internet that i'm asking our army to put down arms and evacuate. so i am here. we are not putting down arms. we are defending our country because our weapon is our truth. this is our land. our country, our children. and we will defend all of it. that is it. that is all i wanted to tell you. glory to ukraine. >> that is response to the information that president zelenskyy has left the country. in fact, the russians are continuing to deny much of what you see happen

. >>> let's go to clarissa ward in kyiv. there is this intention now to sign the decree, to recognize the separatist enclaves in the donbas region. >> reporter: it's significant, but we don't know if president putin will go even further. he's been talking for some time now, and some of the things he's been talking about now, he says ukraine is an integral part of our russian history. ukraine has had to rely on countries like the united states, he says it's riddled with corruption and with the plague of nationalism. and so on and so forth. this has been quite the historical diatribe here. essentially delineating ideas he's already touched on in the past. last summer he wrote this long letter that was sort of a tome on this history of russia and ukraine and their links as brotherly nations. but we had expected that potentially this would be a fairly short address, he would come out and declare that he was recognizing the independence of these two breakaway republics in the east of ukraine. it's not clear whether that will be t

how dire, clarissa, is this moment? >> reporter: well, i think it is safe to say, wolf, here in ukraine things feel as though they're on a knife edge. president volodymyr zelensky didn't call it all out invasion but made it clear he believes russia has essentially established a pretext for further military incursion deeper into ukraine. you heard president biden in mj's piece talk about difference between existing front lines and stated borders of break away republics which putin has recognized as independent. the stated borders are much more expansive, deep into ukrainian territory, containing serious citie cities, and nato is saying they're seeing russian troops coming in. there's a real concern of further push or escalation. we heard again from president zelenskyy recently, he said while there will be no general mobilization of the army, he is calling up reservists. what was most interesting that we heard was something that the foreign minister said in his press conference that he just had with secretary of state ton

first to you, clarissa. the ukranian military once again, frankly, on a somewhat different page of the military assessment. >> what's so interesting about this is when you look at the intelligence report, they agree in terms of the russian troops. they said just over 148,000. president biden yesterday talked about 150,000. but they dispute the notion that that is enough troops for a full-scale invasion. now, i don't think it's entirely surprising that they might still try to continue to downplay the threat of a large-scale invasion. it's important to remember that they see russia's strategy here as being not just to potentially launch an invasion, but to destabilize ukraine with the threat of an invasion, with cyberattacks. and so what they are trying to do at the moment, i think, although of course this is an internal report and not designed for public consumption, they are trying to allay immediate fears of an invasion and try to keep up a semblance of normalcy in the country. certainly, jim, i think you w

let's go to clarissa ward live for us in kyiv.hey are warning that russia troops are very close to the capital. what's going on there? >> reporter: it is a very eerie situation. it is completely silent out there with the exception of the steady thud of explosions. mostly in the distance. few just 20 minutes ago were a little closer and then we heard those air raid sirens, which you mentioned before. that's pretty much the only sound you hear out on the streets these days. the air raid sirens. people are hunkered down, taking cover, fearing the worst. we know that russian paratroopers have already taken control of an air field just on the outskirts of kyiv. there are also russian troops moving toward the city in three different directions. they have been facing some pretty stiff resistance from ukrainian forces. the expectation from many is that it won't be long before they are able to press further in. we actually drove here today from the city of kharkiv in the east and we saw along the way a ukrainian military convoy, about thre

clarissa, you heard russia being urged to leave immediately. this just says they are -- >> we've heard the leadership take a milder tone here, urging people to be calm, saying they don't expect this to be a full invasion. of course, it's a violation of territorial integrity and of sovereignty and generally trying to tamp down any notion of panic. but there's definitely been a shift, i would say, in the last 24 hours or so. president zelenskyy announcing that he's calling up reservists and now an announcement saying there will be a state of emergency in the next 24 hours. that state of emergency would last 30 days. he said today, jim, the future of european security is being decided in an instant. we've also heard security forces here saying that if there is any provocation or any attack on ukranian forces that they will respond in an instant, but for now they have not yet mobilized the military. so clearly leaving themselves a little bit of road yet to go. they also said at some point they could enter in state martial law but that has not happe

thank you for all of your reporting, clarissa. needless to say, you and you crew there should stay safe. >>> today the united nations will vote to hold a rare emergency special session -- they're going to vote to hold the session on monday about the russian invasion. joining me is the u.s. ambassador to the united nations linda thomas-greenfield. madam ambassador, thank you for joining me. let's start with the news that the ukrainians and russians will meet without preconditions on the belarus border. what are you hearing about that, and how optimistic are you? >> well, that's a decision to the ukrainian government has to make and that they have made and we'll look forward to what comes out of those discussions. as you know, dana, we lean in on diplomacy with the russians throughout this process and we hope that putin would find a way to the negotiating table, and he made the unfortunate decision of aggression over diplomacy. again, this news is another effort by the ukrainians to find a way forward at the negotiating table. >> fr

clarissa ward, cnn, kyiv. >> and we want to take a moment and look at this, again. these dramatic and very moving images. this is about 110 miles of northeast of ukraine's capital. ukrainian citizens are begging russian soldiers to stop. they have even thrown bicycles in their path. then -- as you see -- a man jumped onto one of the tanks. you can see him holding onto the barrel of that tank. he slides off, tries to physical ly hold it back. he then drops to his knees, bringing the tank to a dead halt and creating a standoff that seemed suicidal. bystanders pulled him aside and the russian tanks lurched forward on their way. cnn has confirmed the authenticity and location of this video. we all have questions about the situation going on right now in ukraine. send me yours through twitter and instagram and i am going to try to pose them to the experts joining me tonight and tomorrow. our breaking news coverage of the russian invasion of ukraine continues in just a moment. you are in the "cnn newsroom." not all plastic is the same. we're carefully desisigning our bott

cnn's clarissa ward is in kyiv with the latest developments.larissa. >> reporter: so, brianna, it's just so difficult to know based on that video what you're actually seeing. is it a meaningful reduction? are they leaving in droves? are they going to a base nearby the border in which the whole case kind of becomes redundant? but what we're hearing from u.s. officials, from ukrainian officials, from nato leaders is that it does not appear as of yet there has been any meaningful reduction of u.s. -- of russian forces, rather. any meaningful de-escalation. we heard from the defense secretary who said no evidence of a withdrawal yet. 60% of russia's entire ground combat forces are still surrounding ukraine. while we are hearing the promises coming from moscow, it does in the appear that they are being borne out on the ground yet. and that is why people here are still on a state of high alert. though i would also say they are relatively calm for the most part. they see this primarily now as a war of words. they are living under the shadow of russian

clarissa, you're there in kharkiv. the u.s. had warned a particular concern for that city, that city where you are. what more can you tell us about what you're actually seeing right now on the ground? >> so, on the ground, wolf, you're seeing, as you can probably see behind me, it's incredibly quiet. it's the middle of the night. but this is a city of 1.4 million people, wolf. and it is pretty extraordinary to be in a situation where we could be potentially -- or certainly seems they're closer to -- an actual imminent invasion of some sort or incursion of some sort, and we don't yet see any mass panic. we don't certainly see any evidence of evacuations. we know there are public bomb shelters, one of them not far from here, everyone very clearly hoping that those will not be needed. but when you look at those satellite images that you mentioned just ten miles on the other side of the border, 50 miles from here, let's say, it clearly shows that things are moving in a very ominous direction indeed. so, the question now becomes, at