nick paton walsh is in central ukraine. what's the status of these evacuations? >> reporter: we have russian state media and ukraine military officials on the ground saying something pretty similar. which is 20 people, six of them children, according to the ukrainians, injured, women and children, have managed to begin their evacuation out. now a ukrainian commander on the ground there has talked about how the evacuation was supposed to start at 6:00 a.m., they didn't get through till 6:25 p.m. what is unclear at this stage is which direction the evacuation is going. there are two, jim, one is towards ukrainian held territory to the east of where i'm stand standing and the other is east into russia where tens of thousands of people from mariupol have been forcibly taken and put through filtration camps there. definite, awful choice for -- or not choice directions for those initial evacuees and a lengthy journey ahead. but possible glimpse of light here after multiple occasions where the corridors have not come off that maybe something might be changing. i think t

end, enabling russia's genuine motives here and possibly in the east from being pursued. >> nick paton walsh, appreciate it, thank you. >>> you'll recall last night nick brought us the really horrifying story of a 16-year-old girl who says she was raped by a russian soldier in her village. when we first told you about it last night, bethman jacques had just spoken at the u.n. on the subject of war crimes, including rape and summary executions. the u.s., she said, now has credible information that a russian military unit operating near donetsk had murdered ukrainians trying to surrender. this was not an isolated incident. i spoke to the ambassador shortly before air time. ambassador, we hear this horrific reporting from my colleague nick paton walsh about a 16-year-old girl in the kherson region who says she was raped by a russian soldier at her family home. how does that align with the evidence u.s. government has been gathering about the situation in ukraine when it comes to sexual violence? >> thank you for that question. it's really disturbing the reports we're hearing coming out of ukrai

cnn's international security editor nick paton walsh joins me now.ou're in a southern city, where russian forces are trying to move on. what are you seeing? what's the latest. >> reporter: there's been an intense back and forth in the remote farming villages on the outskirts of the key ventilator hub, the hometown of ukrainian president, volodymyr zelenskyy, and there are fortifications around it, as we speak. a fear that this may be the target of that intensive push from the southern city of kherson that's been moving up the west-hand side of the donipa river. that does potentially provide the russian military with a number of options. one target could be here, the other could be linking up with forces to the east where you've seen the damage happening in lieu hand a push off to the wes toward odesa and mykolaiv. and also adding to those fears has been the thought of a r referendum in kherson, and repeatedly, there have been no signs of it happening at all, essentially a sham vote intended to provide that russian occupation there some sort of sense

. >> joining our coverage tonight, cnn's nick paton walsh reporting on russia's new offensive in the south. matt rivers just back from a tour of chernobyl, where he talked to the world's top nuclear watchdog group about how close we came to a second nuclear disaster there during russia's brief occupation of chernobyl. also with us tonight, cnn's chief international correspondent clarissa ward seeing the battle in kharkiv. up first, nick paton walsh with the southern front. >> reporter: these southern fields conjure a pieces long past, a world away from ukraine's hell. it's quickly ruptured by russia's new offensive. sending waves of evacuees fleeing the growing unthinkable world of russian occupation. families for whom the shelling over the last two hours was finally too much. saying one of the villages were hit down here. the russians aren't close to them yet, but it's impossible to stay. a woman was injured there. anina was 3 when the last war ended, but doesn't know when this one will. hour by hour, everything changes. things are moving fast enough here that just 24 hours ago, a v

nick paton walsh was there. >> reporter: if moscow had any surprises left, it is along here. here the western side is caught in the fast-changing landscape of this week's push. that is the prize over there, the river is up past which on the left side bank here the russians are trying to push, wanting controlling of both sides of that vital part of ukraine. here we are told there are a handful of russian tanks just over a kilometer away on its outskirts, pushing, probing, but ultimately kept at bay by ukrainian forces that still hold the town. brazilians here embodied under the threat of rocket fire planting onions. i'm here until victory, she said. her children are gone, it is just her and her mother. and her mother says she is not going anywhere and she won't leave her alone. all her windows are blown out, she says. ukrainian forces who don't want their positions filmed are dotted around the town as too are the signs of innocent lives lost here. rockets peeking out from under the water. and this boat in which 14 civilians tried to flee russian occupation on april 7, four of

nick paton walsh, great to see you as always. what do we know about this small group that apparently got out of the mariupol steel plant? what can we say about more vacancies that cevacuations that be on the way? our previous guest was talking about how this may simply be kremlin propaganda to show they're being humanitarian to some extent. what do we know? >> reporter: that report about the 25, including six children, is from russian state media so it comes with that enormous caveat that it may be fictional. but it does fit with some other signals possibly suggesting that there may be the possibility of some kind of evacuation from one of the shopping malls there. that's been hinted by ukrainian officials. at the same time too, the presidential level, an adviser to the ukrainian president, has said that the russians have rej proposals there. there are 100,000 in the city, across it, so we're not always talking about the azov steel plant. but across the city, the threat of disease, frankly, because of the number of bodies there,

and nick paton walsh is there. >> reporter: the southern fields conjure a peace long past, a world away from ukraine's hell. it is quickly ruptured by russia's new offensive sending waves of evacuees fleeing the growing unthinkable world of russian occupation. families for whom the shelling over the last two hours was finally too much. one of the villages down here were hit. russians are not close to him yet, but it is impossible to stay. a woman was injured. and she was three when the last war ended but doesn't know when this one will. hour by hour, everything changes. things are moving fast enough here that just 24 hours ago, a village about four kilometers in that direction was the meeting point from which people would get evacuated. now it seems to be under fire and you just see panicked locals rushing into collect their relatives. distant tree lines are packed with troops. the blue horizon sometimes pot marked by smoke. there is a number of rockets here and you can see the damage of what they have done before. but somewhere like this has felt to 134 degree that it survived the wors

. >> cnn's nick paton walsh is live in southern ukraine. iupol fit into the larger campaign of the russians to take control of the south of ukraine? >> yeah, first, i think for the whole south of this area, it shows how brutal russia is prepared to get. frankly destroying anything that remains in mariupol, and despite vladimir putin saying that really a fly shouldn't be allowed around the steel plant, there were suggestions of a humanitarian corridor that were rejected by ukraine because they couldn't allow russia to let them out safely. in the event russia moves things away from mariupol, it frees up troops to start moving further west. last week, russia announced a lofty goal, a second phase of its operation to try to push across the black sea coast through mykolaiv, through odesa, even to moldova, part of the european union to a break away region russia has assisted there as well. that was a lofty goal, almost impossible. something they have been trying to do for the past two weeks. what we have been seeing here is important because it's

she recounted the account to nick paton walsh. and the details are harrowing. >> reporter: it is from these gentle shrugs of villages and xt panses of the region that some of the ugliest crimes are being dragged in to the light. this is dasha, she is 16 and was six months pregnant when just over a month ago russian forces came to her village here. her family were in the basement sheltering from bombs. the cold and the russians shooting in the air. at dusk, they brought the children out to the kitchen to eat where there were two soldiers, one drunk. [ speaking foreign language ] >> reporter: his sober colleague and told the drunk attacker to stop, to no avail and left. [ speaking foreign language ] by then night had fafafafaen in cold house. she heard the russians say her attacker's name was blue, he was from donetsk and had a criminal past. he tried to attack her again she said until russian snipers came to help her. but still some of the russian soldiers in that unit even were disgusted by what happened and tried to move her and

nick paton walsh, ukraine. >> thank you for that excellent reporting.umnist on foreign affairs at bloomberg. so nice to see you. thank you for dropping by. overnight the five russian missile strikes on kyiv after the u.n. secretary-general met there with ukraine's president zelenskyy. and just days after he was in moscow meeting with vladimir putin to talk about deescalation here. is this putin sending a deliberate message to the rest of the world? >> yes, it is putin demonstrating the scorn for the international order, specifically for antonio guterres the united nations secretary-general and the united nations as a whole. it is impossible that the russians were not aware that guterres would be there, and impossible that this is just a coincidence that it happened. remember when secretary of state antony blinken was there recently, officials traveled by train shortly after they left train lines and ukraine was struck by russian missiles. this is part of a pattern. we shouldn't kid ourselves. will is putin saying here is what i think of your attempts at

nick paton walsh introduced us so one girl who said she was raped by a russian soldier and a warnings of vimmages and lady and clean in the great expanses of kherson that some of the war's ugliest crimes are being dragged foot light. this is dasher. she's 16. and was six months pregnant when just over a month ago, russian forces came to her village. here her family were in the basement sheltering from bombs, the cold and the russian shooting in the air, she said. at dusk, they brought the children out to the kitchen to eat where they there were soldiers, one drunk. [ speaking foreign language ] >> his sober colleague then came in and told the drunk attacker to stop. to no avail. and left. [ speaking foreign language ] by then night had fallen in the cold house. she heard the russians say her attackers name was blue. he was from donetsk and had a criminal past. he tried to attack her again, she said, until russian snipers later came to help her. while still some of the russian soldiers in that unit even were disgusted by what happened and tried to move her and part of her family away

cnn international security editor nick paton-walsh is on the scene for us. >> reporter: these southernd away from ukraine's hell. it's quickly ruptured by russia's new offensive. sending waves of evacuees fleeing the growing unthinkable world of russian occupation. families for whom the shelling over the last two hours was finally too much. just saying one of the villages further down here, the russians are actually close to them yet but it's impossible to stay. a woman was injured there. antonina was 3 when the last war ended but doesn't know when this one will. hour by hour everything changes. things are moving fast enough here that just 24 hours ago a village about four kilometers in that direction was the meeting point from which people would get evacuated. now it seems to be under fire, and we just see panicked locals rushing in to collect their relatives. distant tree lines are packed with troops. the blue horizon sometimes pockmarked by smoke. there is a rumble of rockets still here, and you can see the damage of what they've done before. but somewhere like this has felt to some

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let's bring in cnn international security editor nick paton walsh in kryvvi rih, ukraine in the central part of the country. so tell us, nick, first, what is the latest on this off again, on again, off again plan to evacuate civilians trapped in that steel plant? is there a path out? is russia respecting it? >> reporter: i'd have to say it is hard to tell. it does look like the statement from the ukrainian president's office that renewed plan would be put into effect today to get civilians out, getting very little details and i think many may have speculated possibly on the back of work done by the u.n. secretary-general antonio guterres who met vladimir putin and was in kyiv to possibly engineer some kind of humanitarian corridor, though that work seemingly disrespected by the russian decision to hit kyiv with air strikes the moment that guterres was in the capital city. there are suggestions that the russians are blocking access to the azovstal steel plant. deeply troubling suggestions from ukrainian officials that the number of injured from recent air strikes, remember, there was int

. >> cnn international security editor nick paton walsh is in kryvvi rih, ukraine, where russian forces have been trying to encroach. what more can you tell us about what is happening in that region, nick. >> reporter: it does appear to feel it is a russian target. we have seen to the south of here, over the past days, numbers of villagers changing hands, back and forth, and certainly i think it is fair to say some sense of russian progress towards here, ourselves about 20 to 30 miles to the south, seeing how russia is shelling, moving into areas rendering them inaccessible to the ukrainian military and causing many locals to flee. also, too, though, reason for fleeing, there have been 7,000 at least civilians who have come into this city, according to military commander here is a referendum to the south. remember kherson, first city russia took at the beginning of the war? today they were supposed to have been a referendum by all accounts from locals, a sham vote, to try and suggest popular support for that region becoming its own, quote, people's republic and closer to russia, gentrif

let's begin with nick paton walsh in eastern ukraine. we've been following this mariupol attempted evacuation for some time. now in the midst of all that, russia chooses to bomb the heck out of the place. what's happening? is there any safe way out for those people? >> reporter: jim, this is really more of the same it seems sadly, doesn't it? each time these moments of hope when there seems to be some plan floated to get those children and injured caught under that steel plant out, something, of course, gets in the way. now there were hopes, and that was embodied in a statement from ukrainian president's office of some unspecified plan to get people out, that maybe the trips done by the u.n. secretary general to moscow where he met vladimir putin and to kyiv where he met volodymyr zelenskyy, that may have yielded some sort of agreement that could really bring that to light. but you have to cast doubt as to how serious russia would have been about any promises made if it went then last night to bomb kyiv where the u.n. secretary general w

cnn's nick paton walsh went near the front lines, he is live for us there. nick?eporter: yeah, south of here, kryvvi rih, there's a lot of movement, villages changing hands in a matter of hours as russia discussions from kherson the first it occupied up towards the north zaporizhzhia, here is what we saw yesterday. if moscow had any surprises left in this war, it is along here, the other side of the river has been russia's for weeks, but here the western side, is caught in the fast-changing landscape of this week's push. that's the prize over there, the dnipro river up past which on the left side bank here the russians are trying to push, wanting control of both sides of that vital part of ukraine. here we are told there are a handful of russian tanks just over a kilometer away on its outskirts, pushing, probing, but ultimately kept at bay by ukrainian forces that still hold the town. resilience here embodied under the threat of rocket fire planting onions. i'm here until victory, she said. her children are gone, it's just her and her mother. her 80-year-old mothe

. >> nick paton walsh. horrifying and given everything we have all seen and heard ourselves here.rican assessment of russians culpability. we are joined by fareed zakaria. places like bucha where we saw citizens on the street day after day being shot to death, they had the effect of terrorizing the local population, they're galvanizing much of the world of ru russia. will global outrage have any impact on vladimir putin? it certainly thus far. >> it won't have an impact on his course of action. the only thing putin understands is power and military defeat in the south, not even economic pressure or sanctions, particularly not while we are sending $350 billion euro to vladimir putin to pay for oil, gas and coal. it does have an effect in setting a standard of outrage bearing witness, holding testimonies for a possible prosecution at some point. there has to be standards or norms even when they can't be enforced. the reason this jars all of us is it reminds us something we needed to be reminded which was this can happen anywhere. human beings can be brutal and motorists and bar bari

nick paton walsh, ukraine. >>> u.n. secretary-general antonio guterres, is calling it the crisis within the crisis in ukraine. he is calling for the opening of a humanitarian corridor to get people out of the city of mariupol. two days after meeting vladimir putin in moscow. accordingly, mr. putin agreed in principle to allow civilians to evacuate. the u.n. chief says they face a life-or-death situation in their besieged plant. >> mariupol is a crisis within a crisis. many are elderly and need medical care or limited mobility. they need an escape route out of the apock apocalypse. >> translator: ukrainian people need to ensure the implementation of any agreement reached. we hope there will be a humanly attitude towards those people on the part of russia. we believe part of the mission of the u.n. secretary-general would be effective. we are ready to support this in whatever manners possible. >>> regardless of how the situation in mariupol plays out, ukraine is creating the fastest-growing refugee crisis since world war

which brings us now to cnn's nick paton walsh. warning first, his story tonight is very tough to stomach. nick, talk about what you have been seeing and hearing. >> reporter: well, certainly to the south of where i'm standing, there are a number of villages, particularly now, in the cross hairs of a renewed russian offensive pushing north to where i am. some of them, though, were held in fact earlier by russia prior to their liberation by the ukrainian military. and one story we heard involves the behavior of one particular russian unit in a village not far from where i'm standing. and as you pointed out, we should remind people this is a graphic story of quite horrifying content involving the sexual assault of a 16-year-old pregnant girl by russian troops who were only briefly in the village where she was living. again, i should warn you, this report does contain some disturbing content. >> reporter: it's from these gentle shrugs of villages, lazy and clean, in the green expanses of kherson region that some of this war's ugliest

. >> nick paton walsh, thank you so much. >>> joe biden today calling on congress to approve a $33 billion fundamental spending bill, and he wants it as quickly as possible. kaitlan collins, does he have a sense of whether or not it will pass and have bipartisan support? >> reporter: generally, they are confident that something will pass, but when something passes remains to be seen. because that's where things get complicated after joe biden made this announcement saying they want this $33 billion in funding for ukraine. they believe that's what would last ukraine through the end of the fiscal year. of course, it's now in the hands of congress and out of the hands of the white house. it remains to be seen how they handle this. so far, congress has had this issue with qucovid-19 funding, these deep disagreements. so that's where it comes into place, how they try to pass this request from president biden. lawmakers have been supportive of sending military and economic assistance to ukraine, with humanitarian assistance. that's what is included in this package, but do they pass that package

nick paton walsh has the story of a 16-year-old girl's encocounter with russian soldie next. ♪ we believe technology that makes it possible for every business... and every person... to come to the table and do more incredible things. before treating your chronic migraine, 15 or more headache days a month each lasting 4 hours or more, you're not the only one with questions about botox® botox® prevents headaches in adults with chnic migraine before they even start, with about 10 minutes of treatment once every 3 months. so, ask your doctor if botox® is right for you, and if a sample is available. effects of botox® may spread hours to weeks after injection causing serious symptoms. alert your doctor right away, as difficulty swallowing, speaking, breathing, eye problems, or muscle weakness can be signs of a life-threatening condition. side effects may include allergic reactions, neck and injection site pain, fatigue, and headache. don't receive botox® if there's a skin infection. tell your doctor your medical history, muscle or nerve conditions and medications, including botulinum toxins, as

let's begin our coverage in central ukraine with nick paton walsh. let's turn our focus south to the humanitarian crisis in mariupol. what is the latest on evacuations from the steel plant? >> reporter: as you were saying, yes, there appear to have been a small number of women and children according to one ukrainian official who have begun their evacuation journey. it was supposed to start at 6:00 a.m. but it seems that the convoy taking them out didn't arrive until 6:25. and russian state media say that these are individuals from the azovstal steel plant and they do apparently include six children. the question is which way do they go. because evacuation from mariupol isn't simply told ukraine held territories, like zaporizhzhia. it could also mean a darker journey east towards russia where there have been filtration camps set up for those taken out of mariupol. and so this is obviously a key question. the second one being this is the start of something or a rare exception. for weeks now, the talk of humanitarian corridors out of mariupol has reverb

. >> nick paton walsh is "outfront" live in ukraine. nickckckwh is the latest on the ground where you are? >> reporter: much of the focus on whether or not there will be a referendum in kherson, the key southern city seized by russia. they had thought a referendum had occurred today. that's not the case. instead, that's been usurped by protests by locals in the morning and also tonight, images on social media showing explosions in the city, possibly near tv broadcast there. unclear what's behind that. but it's certainly not the suggestion that russians wanted to put forward that this referendum, a sham vote would subject that city was suggesting it wanted to be closer to the russian occupiers inside of it. fighting in the east and explosions in the areas bordering ukraine inside of russia, particularly an ammunition depot that may have been the work of ukrainian military. >> so you're talking about what's happening tonight on the frontlines. you also have a chance in your reporting to see some of the atrocities committed by the russian

let's begin with nick paton walsh near the front line in central ukraine, and nic, you're following this situation that continues to become more and more dire in mariupol. what's the latest? >> certainly those children and the remaining fighters possibly as many as 500 according to the latest information we have are holed up in the steel factory, because it is the safest place and still surrounded. there have been a hope today from a statement by the ukrainian president's office of another attempt to establish a humanitarian corridor to get civilians at least out. we have no specifics with that statement, and it doesn't appear today as though that's come to nothing. it is most likely because of other reports we're hearing that, in fact, the russians have blocked the -- one of the exit routes, one of the access routes to the steel plant through a park to the north. all that information we can't independently verify, but it fits into a pattern we've seen here where humanitarian corridors are announced and then never materialize. this particular one, though, had higher hopes behind it, poss

. >> nick paton walsh, wonderful reporting. >>> a major bank with a chilling projection about the future, the immediate future of the u.s. economy. >>> and contact tracing under way at the white house after vice president kamala harris tests positive for covid. >>> and new audio revealing house minority leader kevin mccarthy's fears of republican leaders inciting violence after the insurrection. >> the tension is too high, our country is too crazy. i don't want to look back and think we caused somethining or missed something and someone got hurt. ect to naturure. you're probably thinking that these two are in some sort of lover's quarrel. no, no, no. they're both invested... in green energy. and also each other. digital tools so impressive, you just can't stop. what would you like the power to do? ♪ it wasn't me by shaggy ♪ you're never responsible for unauthorized purchases on your discover card. okay everyone, our mission is to provide complete balanced nutrition for strength and energy. woo hoo! ensure, complete balanced nutrition with 27 vitamins and minerals. and ensure complete wit