our ed lavendera is standing by in odesa with more on this. ed, take us through what happened there. >> reporter: well, it has been a jarring morning here in the city of odesa. the key port city on the black sea in southern ukraine. it was just before sunrise, around 6:00 a.m. local time, when we heard the explosions of multiple blasts here inside of the city. we have been able to reach the location. you can see the dark clouds, the dark smoke still billowing here in the background, from our vantage point. and closer to the scene, the strikes, multiple strikes, perhaps as much as, as many as a half dozen or so, hit a fuel depot area inside the city. as we go closer to the scene, we kind of discovered that it's an industrial area, not highly populated with residents, but there were a couple of apartment buildings right next to the fuel depot. we spoke with several witnesses there who described the terrifying moments when they were woken up by these series of blasts, just across the street from where they were. we could see the broken out glass

ed lavendera talked to the residents and joins us now live from odesa. ed. >> hey, jake. one small town that they might have had a success in fighting back the russians but you also learn in this war, when you're near the front lines, the fighting to save lives never really ends. one look at these massive craters in the small ukrainian town near mykolaiv, and it's not hard to imagine the horror inflicted by russian forces bombing this neighborhood. the town's mayor brought us here. he says the russian plane that dropped the bomb circled over these homes several times before unleashing the explosive attack. this is a simple peaceful town, he says, with just ordinary people. no military, farming is what we do here, to feed the country and the world. there was a 70-year-old man in this house peeling potatoes when this bomb struck. what happened to him? god decided not to take him away, he tells me the man survived. for more than a week in march, this little town of 12,000 people fought off the russians any way it could. town council member vitale put out a facebook plea that

ed lavendera, thank you so much for that piece.re ways you can help folks in ukraine that desperately need assistance. go to cnn.com/impact. there are links there to organizations that are providing a helping hand. and even the smallest contribution goes a long way. stay with cnn. we're back after a quick break i don't t just play someone brainy on tv - i'm an actual neururoscientist. and i love the science behind neuriva plus. unlike ordinary memory supplements, neuriva plus fuels six key indicators of brain peormance. mo brain performance? yes, please! neuriva. think bigger. so, should all ourt move to the cloud? the cloud would give us more flexibility, but we lose control. ♪ ♪ ♪ should i stay or should i go? ♪ and we need insights across our data silos, but how? ♪ if i go there will be trouble ♪ ♪ ♪ wait, we can stay and go. hpe greenlake is the platform that brings the cloud to us. ♪ should i stay or should i go now? ♪ ♪ ♪ (vo) verizon is going ultra! and now, you can too with the offer you just can't miss. for a limited time,

ed lavendera spoke with some of the shaken residents who live nearby. >> reporter: the missiles explodedrtling violent barrage. about six strikes lit up the sky. russian military officials say the attack on odesa was launched from the sea and land, using high precision missiles. the massive plumes of black swirling smoke covered much of the city of 1 million people. the strikes landed in a largely industrial area, destroying an oil refinery and fuel storage facilities. multiple air strikes hit the port city of odesa here in southern ukraine just before sunrise sunday morning. there were no air raid sirens that went off before the blast, and the explosions could be felt and seen from miles away. ukrainian officials say there were no injuries, but tatiana says the explosions threw her from the chair she was sleeping if and window blasts shattered all over her. tatiana volunteers in this building late into the night, cooking meals for ukrainian soldiers. in recent days, she says reconnaissance drones were flying over the fuel storage facility. two other residents told us, they saw the drone

very little information on that front. >> all right, ed lavendera, stay safe, my friend. thank you. >>> i want to bring in now the u.s. ambassador. he was the u.s. ambassador to nato under president obama. mr. ambassador, good to have you with us. late this week there seemed to be some optimism that was coming out of these talks in istanbul until friday when there was an attack on an oil refinery in russia. russia blamed that on ukraine, said it would hurt efforts for diplomacy. ukraine in a statement wouldn't confirm or deny involvement in the attack. what's interesting, though, is then today we heard from one of the ukrainian negotiators who sounded pretty positive noting there had been some advances, perhaps there was even a chance for direct talks between zelenskyy and putin. what do you read into this and what do you think is going on at those talks and how much optimism do you have? >> i think what we're seeing is just a continuation of the warfare and other means using statements about making progress on peace negotiations coming particularly from the ukrainians wh

ed lavendera is "outfront" in odesa where as anyone who watches the show knows he has been reporting earning about the latest attack? >> well, it's been one of the most active days we have seen since we have been here in odesa in southern ukraine. it started early friday morning with three missile strikes on the edge of the northeast edge of odesa. and then about midday, we heard another round of attacks as well. ukrainian military officials say that several people were killed in the early morning strike in the northeast edge. they're short on specifics, just simply saying what was hit is an infrastructure facility, but the russian military is claiming that it fired and struck a military training facility for foreign fighters. we made our way as close as we could possibly get to that area earlier today. we were blocked by several military checkpoints, but resident in the area say they were very skeptical of the claims russia is making about foreign fighters being trained there. that this is a military facility that has been there dating back to the 1970s and the soviet era. the strike

. >>> cnn's ed lavendera is in odesa. there have been some air strikes where you are and in mykolaiv. what have you learned about those attacks? >> reporter: well we went through two rounds of air strikes here in city of odesa, which is the key port city in the south. one early morning on sunday, one late at night on sunday. hitting a oil refinery and fuel storage facilities. officials here in the region say that one person was injured in those attacks. and then earlier today, we learned that there was strikes just up the road, about a two hour drive northeast of here in mykolaiv, where one person was killed and five people were injured. but what is separating these two attacks is that here in odesa, it appears it was specifically targeted. that it was a pinpointed toward a strategic target. officials in the mykolaiv area say that intention of the shelling there was to create harassment and panic among the public, that it was more of an attack on the population there. and that is why it is rather nerve- nerve-wracking for

but we start here with ed lavendera, who is following russia's tacattack on that port city of odesa as we mentioned a to the top of the show. ed, some pretty dramatic images from that attack. bring us up to speed on what you know so far. >> reporter: well, early this morning, the residents of odesa were jolted awake with the sounds of multiple missile strikes. this is what it sounded like, this is what it looked like just before sunrise this morning. >> reporter: those missile strikes struck a fuel storage facility in the city here. we were able to make our way to the scene shortly after. the area was a mostly industrial area. there are a number of apartment buildings just across the street. residents in those apartments say, and we witnessed the windows had been blown out of because the bank account and their close proximity to that fuel storage facility. but you can see there from that video, it was multiple air strikes. this really did send a shock wave of concern through many of those residents, who were just, in many cases, one person standing out in their bath robe, looking at th

ed lavendera is there. >> reporter: the cluster of explosions jolted this residential neighborhood in mykolaiv friday morning. witnesses say some people were walking their dogs in a park at the time. one of the munitions struck just feet away from an orthodox church. >> you can see the impact shot that went off this morning. as you look around here, you can see the impact and the damage done to this church here as well. multiple people were killed and more than a dozen others injured. paramedics treated victims on the scene. across the street, under the shattered windows of an apartment building, there man told us he help drag two injured people into a store for safety. >> translator: noise. the noise of a rocket flying and explosions. that's what i saw and heard when i was in the shop. people run into the store and i saw people scared. i saw people dropping to the ground from explosions. >> reporter: the sounds of explosions inside the city started around mid morning and appeared to strike at least three different locations. mykolaiv authorities released this video of a private home

. >> ed lavendera, thank you for that report. >>> of all of the horrific images of this war, some strikenow tell the story of this woman murdered by russian troops while simply riding her bike. stay with us. them. so she'll get some help from fidelitity, and she'll feel so good about t her plan, she can focus on living it. that's the planning effefect, from fidelity. when you really commit to a garden and nurture it, and the vegetables that you're growing. find more ways to grow at miracle-gro.com ♪("i've been everywhere" by johnny cash) ♪ ♪i've traveled every road in this here land!♪ ♪i've been everywhere, man.♪ ♪i've been everywhere, man.♪ ♪of travel i've had my share, man.♪ ♪i've been everywhere.♪ ♪ i didn't know my genetic report could tell me i was prone to harmful blood clots. i travel a ton, so this info was kind of life changing. maybe even lifesaving. ♪do you know what the future holds?♪ at xfinity, we live and work in the same neighborhood as you. we're always working to keep you connected to what you love. and now, we're working to bring you the next generation of wifi. it's u

ed lavendera reports for us now.attacks struck just outside the city. >> reporter: we are on the northeast edge of the neighborhood in odesa, this has been attacked twice by the russian military with missile strikes. last night around midnight, we heard three loud explosions followed by a barrage of air defense systems firing into the sky. today, the ukrainian military is saying that, quote, infrastructure facilities were struck and that several people were injured. the russian minister of defense is claiming the attack struck a training facility, a military training facility for foreign fighters. this is as close as we can get. this area that was struck is several kilometers. several miles away from where we are standing. because of road blocks and check point, the military is blocking any kind of access to areas that have been targeted in the last week. and of course, this is an example of how the fight here in ukraine is rapidly changing with this focus into eastern ukraine and the south as well. we should also me

ed lavendera in one recently liberated ukrainian town and the horrors its residents witnessed. >> reporter: war stopped time here. bombs and artillery scorch this village in northern ukrain. russian occupation ravaged the minds of its people. the story of what happened here is just emerging revealing how the russian army held this village hostage for more than 30 days. sophia shows us the underground bunker in her shed where she first hid from the fighting. she says she had food stored here that the russians ate. this is where she slept. sophia says russian soldiers went door-to-door rounding people up and taking them at gunpoint into the basement of the village school. sophia tells us that when the russian soldiers moved them all into the basement of the school building that they were put down there and that the soldiers told them they were being put in the basement to die. a woman named natalie took us into the basement where she was trapped. i was in a stupor, natalie tells me, i was just sitting there, praying, hoping it would all stop soon. residents tell us there were about 350 peopl

cnn's ed lavendera talked to ukrainian farmers who know all too well how putin's unprovoked war is killingse who helped feed. of europe. >> reporter: sergy runs a one-man dairy operation. he has six cows just 15 miles from the front lines of the battlefield in southern ukraine. neither russian soldiers or falling rockets have stepped the franl-year-old from tending to his work. that is his house there in the distance. and there is an unexploded rocket that landed this close. landed here about a week ago. did you hear the rocket land? everything happened before my eyes. the explosions erupted all around him when this strike hit. russian rockets often target his village of 500 people. >> translator: we were covered with dust. dust and shrapnel all the way here. i fell to the ground crawling. not feeling my legs or arms. it was scary. for those who have not gone through this, you would not believe it. >> reporter: sergi keeps one eye on his herd and the other eye on the war. >> reporter: so these are his six dairy cows. if you noticed, he has them spread out, he wants to separate them so they