. >> cnn's scott mclean is there with us from a train station. k to us about what you're witnessing right now. >> reporter: hey, christi, yeah, a crowd of people are actually waiting for a train that has just arrived here in from lviv in ukraine. this train has been delayed by six hours because it's taking, so, so long for ukrainians to actually process everybody's passports and give everybody an exit stamp. ukraine is not allowing men between ages of 18 and 60 to leave the country. i just want to talk to someone else. it's important to keep in mind while the polish authorities say 100,000 ukrainians have fled the country since all of this began. not everyone is leaving. some people is actually going back. i met this woman christina, you're actually going back to l lviv, why? >> yeah, because my little son is there, i have two grandparents, old and sick, they cannot move, they have no option. >> you were working in the uk, when you heard the news about what was going on, you made arrangements to go back as soon as you could? >> i actually was plan

scott mclean is in lviv. scott, what are you hearing about these talks? >> reporter: hey, john. yeah. i don't think that a lot of people where i am in lviv are holding out a lot of hopes those talks are going to bear a lot of fruit. that's because where i am at the train station, people are still desperately trying to get out of the country as quickly as they can. the east sidest way to do that by and large is by train. the trouble, though, john, is that it's not actually that easy. when we arrived at the station earlier today a couple hours ago, there were no trains listed that were headed to any of the neighboring countries. about an hour ago they made an announcement saying there was going to be a train leaving on the platform down there. and so everyone ran across the tracks to try to get there. the problem is police stopped people from going that way. there was one woman who particularly was arguing with police. she had a heated argument. you could sense the exhaustion on her face. this is someone who has traveled for a day. other people have traveled several days just to g

cnn international correspondent scott mclean is on the scene for us. s of actually staying in poland? >> hey, wolf. it is cold. it is miserable. it is 3:30 in the morning. and the people who are crossing this border, could not be happier to be on this side of it, fleeing what's going on in ukraine. let me just show you around here really quickly. you can see people are gathered here after having crossed the border. there's a little cafe there. people are huddled inside. you see a lot of men here. some of them are driving taxis. some of them are trying to get rides. most of the men here are boarding buses. they're going to reception centers. the authorities have been handing out these papers which says if you're ukrainian and if you're crossing the border, you're allowed to come here and then giving them a little bit more information. a lot of people who have been crossing the border, wolf, they don't know where they're going to go. they're just happy to be on the side. most of the people who we've met do not expect to start a new life in poland. they th

scott mclean, sam kiley, fred pleitgen. appreciate it.nks to you all. >>> and joining me now from geneva is neil melvin, international director of security studies at the royal united institute. great to have you with us. there is an interesting aspect to all of this i wanted to talk to you about. that announcement, the russian troops would continue to stay at least for now in belarus. how big of a deal would it be if those russian troops stayed full stop effectively in definite forward operating on ukraine's northern border? >> it's on notice what's happened under the guise of this russian military into russia's security space. so now we're looking at 30,000 russian troops which are on the belarusian territory. from there they would be able to threaten not just ukraine, but also central europe and the baltic states, nato member states. they may see russian military infrastructure, airports and fixed facilities being established there in the future. >> which is pretty worrying. it's interesting, too. the belarusian leader alexander lukash

cnn correspondent scott mclean was at the lviv train station in the middle of the chaotic exodus todayet me describe the situation to you. just saw this baby was just pulled up from these stairs. they are trying to pull children -- if you can look down there. they're trying to pull children out through the groove. women and children up to try to get on the platform where there's a train leaving to poland. you can see there's some young babies. i'm spotting babies that are as young as 2, 3 years old. and they're trying to pull the bags up. trying to get -- they are prioritizing women and children but it's obviously quite a chaotic situation and there's a lot of angry people who are going to be disappointed that they're not going to be able to be on this train to poland. you can understand the desperation of people. we've known this train is leaving from this platform for about two hours. and they basically are trying to let people onto the platform as orderly as we can. if you can just show there are people starting to get on the train. there's military assisting. there's police assisti

cnn's scott mclean is at a train station on the polish side of the border. >> reporter: they are tired and for many people in this train station, they have no idea where they are going to be sleeping tonight or the next couple of nights. we are at the train station about 30-minutes or so inside the border and a train from dokyiv has just arrived here and people trying to figure out where to go from here. some people are holding up signs, offering rides to different parts of poland. there is also a lot of volunteers here handing out food, handing out water. they are also trying to link them up with places to stay. sometimes, it is maybe a school gymnasium they might be staying in. in other cases, it is families who have actually offered to take in women and children, as well. now, the ukrainian government is not allowing men between 18 and 60 out of the country. though, we have run into some here. we spoke to one man in his 40s earlier today who described having to convince the border guards to try to let him across, which he managed to do. he also describes the chaos of getting onto th

and scott mclean joins us. you were at the train station today.t you saw. >> reporter: if you're trying to leave the country, you could go by car but you might be stuck in line, but you could be stuck outside in the frigid cold for 12 plus hours so the best way to go is by train. so we saw families at lviv train stations this is the furthest west most hub. next stop is poland. a lot of people had the same idea. what we saw today was when we got there, there wasn't a train for poland on the board but people were milling about, waiting for the train. if there was one, then there was an announcement and people ran toward -- >> do people have tickets or just letting -- >> some people think they have tickets and they think that will get them on the train but it doesn't because they're not checking them. the police were just prioritized women and children on to the train. and so there were a lot of people blocking the way. they made everybody go downstairs underneath of the platform and you have to come up by the stairs and there were so many people blo

ministers getting upped way soon in brussels, so let's go live to brussels where we find cnn's scott mclean. scott, there are calls for the e.u. to start sanctioning russia even before any invasion. but is there any appetite on the e.u. side for that? >> reporter: the short answer to that question, laura, is no. but you're right, it was actually the ukrainian president volodymyr zelenskiy making that point over the weekend. if the west is so, so convinced russia is going to invade ukraine, his point is, look, what are you waiting for with these sanctions? now, that is a point that the ukrainian foreign minister had an opportunity to make this morning to the foreign ministers from the 27 e.u. member states. he met with them for about an hour and a half or at least that's what he was scheduled to meet with them for. and the e.u.'s top diplomat joseph burrell said, look, the package of sanctions the e.u. is proposing is already prepared and ready to go, but still needs to be approved by each of the 27 member states. it is very likely or he's confident that will happen. but it will not happen u

cnn's scott mclean joining us from lviv, ukraine.t a significant amount of time along the border and spoken with a number of these folks firsthand. >> that's absolutely right. the word that comes to mind is desperation and exhaustion. that's how people here are feeling. we're on the platform -- one of the platforms at the lviv train station, waiting for a train that should have arrived about an hour ago that is supposed to take people to poland. we were here about an hour, two hours ago when an earlier train arrived and it was absolute madness just trying to get people onto that train and to try to keep others off of it as it was being filled up. they are, you'll notice, as we look around here, you'll notice it is almost entirely women and children and that is who they are prioritizing right now. when the last train came, they were actually holding all of the single men back, and so on the stairwells you actually had, because there was this backlog of people and police standing at the top, you actually had people grabbing children fr

cnn's scott mclean is in lviv, ukraine, with much more on this angle of the story. >> reporter: russia now says they have opened a corridor for residents of kyiv to get out of the city safely. there have already been more than half a million ukrainians flee abroad to other countries and surely now, there will be even more. they will end up at transit points like this one. this is lviv train station and everyone on this platform is waiting, hoping for a train to take them to poland. you'll notice it is almost exclusively women and children, police have almost only exclusively allowing that group on to the platform and that led to scenes earlier today where children were literally being grabbed out of the stairwell and on to the platform in a desperate attempt to get them on to the train. there was one mother in particular who managed to get her 2-year-old child and herself on to the platform and she was absolutely wiped, absolutely exhausted when she finally got on the platform and realized she was going to get on this train. now the preference for women and children has meant that ther

scott mclean is at the polish border. nick paton walsh is in ukraine. kaitlan collins is at the white house and oren liebermann is at the white house. we'll begin with alex. russian forces are trying to encircle kyiv. alex, what is the very latest now? >> reporter: don, this was a night that president zelenskyy predicted would be very difficult. as you noted, he says the fate of ukraine is being decided right now. over the course of the evening we have seen all kinds of gunfire and explosions coming from all different directions. just in the past few moments, as you and i were on the air, we did hear significant, heavy, sustained gunfire coming from the south of the city. i can see it going up into the air. you saw red tracer rounds. this was some kind of heavy machine gun. don, we have also tonight seen the closest explosions yet to the city center, within the city limits. that is coming from the western part of the city, near, we understand, a military base. for now, it does appear that the russians are targeting ukrainian military targets, military i

. >> scott mclean, appreciate it. clarissa ward as well. we'll continue to check with you. when we come back, a former commanding journey of the u.s. army in europe on the ongoing battles and whether he agrees with the assessment that russian forces may be having a tougher time of it than anticipated. more on that ahead. [bikes passing] [fire trucuck siren] [first responder] onstar, we see them. [onstar advisor] okay.y. mother and child in vehicle. mother is unable to exit the vehicle. injuries are unknown. [first responder] thank you, onstar. [driver] my son, is he okay? [first responder] your son's fine. [driver] thank you. there was something in the road... [first responder] it's okay. you're safe now. long day huh? thank you! (beer can opening) hey buddy! you want a sam adams? all right. (slurping, burps, beer can dropping) hello! your cousin. from boston. wickeds all around! cheers! get it girl. robots! robots! (cheering) he wasn't lying! we're gonna live forever! call security. that is security. this is the best night of my life. >>> clarissa ward mentioned the sounds

scott mclean in lviv. thank you.rgeting civilian populations would be of course a war crime. cnn has seen even more rocket launchers heading toward the front line. our reporter is close to the ukrainian border. does it appear as though russia is preparing for an even more aggressive attack on kharkiv right now? >> reporter: well, there are certainly some troubling signs. one the of the unique things, we can see it toward the front line in kharkiv. sometimes you can see what military moves they might make next. one of the things that we observed tonight, literally, say about an hour ago, was heavy artillery rocket fire going from russian positions toward the territory of ukraine. of course, impossible for us to tell whether or not they're targeting kharkiv or the area around it but certainly, considering this is belgorod, the next city on the ukrainian side, that is highly likely. we did see further additional heavy rocket launchers be deployed toward the area of the front line there. they're rocket launchers that can

let's go to cnn's scott mclean in poland right near the ukrainian border.talking to people, a lot of folks fleeing ukraine right now for good reason. what are they telling you? >> wolf, they are telling me that they are relieved to be here and that it was not easy to get here. the folks that you're seeing behind me coming up these stairs are just arriving on a train from kyiv where one woman told me that it was stopped on the tracks at passport control for about 12 hours for the ukrainians to check everyone's documentations. believe it or not, these folks are the lucky ones. obviously, some are waiting outdoors at pedestrian crossings for hours on end. let me show you over here. this has been set up by the polish authorities. this is resources to help people find a place to stay. most people are showing up not knowing where they're going to sleep tonight. some polish people have opened their homes to strangers, women and children to stay with them for the near future. of course, ukraine is not allowing men between 18 and 60 to leave the country. we met one

cnn's scott mclean is live for us in london with more.n that things are a little bit chaotic at downing street. boris johnson in one day is losing his chief of staff, chief of communications, and also his principal private secretary. he's the man that the tabloids here have nicknamed party marty because he's the one who penned the invitation to a byob party. the thing that will sting the most is likely his policy chief. this is a woman tphepld mirza. she has been with him since he was the mayor of london a while auto back. she asked him to apologize, that they had personally failed to prosecute a notorious pedophile. yesterday he clarified his comments but refused to apol apologize. that seemed to be the last draw for mirza who wrote, you are a better man than many of your detractors understand which is why it is desperately sad that you let yourself down by making a scurrilous acquisition against the leader of the opposition. this was being said, which is being perceived as a swipe at his boss. listen. >> with regard to the comments, bei

scott mclean over the polish border, thank you so much for being with us. >>> breaking news, ukrainian capital under siege as russian forces are closing in. people are being told to fight, even to make molotov cocktails. james clapper, former director of national intelligence. we were really struck by something that nina said on the program. this is someone who, by the way, studied ukraine, studied vladimir putin, in general, gotten inside his mind a little bit. she said she never would have imagined he would be crazy enough to do what he has done to go pore all of ukraine. what do you think? . >> well, i think there's some question about his mental state, frankly >> really? >> he's been a bureaucratic bubble for 20, 22 years, and a physical one for two. and it's very obvious from his performance at these meetings that there's nobody pushing back. he is the ultimate decision maker. and he's not getting bad news from his intelligence services. so i wonder about that. i was worried about the chilling warning about the consequences for ukrainians. that was pretty chilling. on the heels of

scott mclean, just really tragic images there.dred thousand ukrainians have already left the country, as we can see right before you. thousands more trying to get out. this is the western city of lviv, where it's just a short drive over the border into po poland. people go back and forth all the time. you can see now how difficult the last leg of the journey is. people still desperately trying to make it. thank you so much for your reporting. >>> russia's vladimir putin facing pushback from many of his own people, as nearly 6,000 have been detained for participating in anti-war protests across russia. joining me now to discuss a the chief of staff to jailed russian opposition leader alexei navalny. sir, thank you so much for being with us today. i'm just wondering what you think of these protests where you have thousands of arrests. >> well, i can very clearly say this proves that putin does not equal russia. it is highly unpopular and very much unsupported. last year when alexei navalny was arrested, 20,000 people were arrested a

scott mclean is along the border.narily a drive that would take a couple of hours from here or, you know, five or six hours from further east, is taking triple, quadruple, even more than that. those lines at the border, just people desperately trying to get out. and you're actually seeing them when they finally start to come across the line. tell me what they're telling you about these extremely traumatic trips they're going through. >> so we're at a train station about 30 minutes from the border and this train here that's just arrived and the people standing here have just arrived from kyiv. you mentioned things are late. this train is well over six hours late. the reason we can't go talk to people is because they still have to go through further passport controls on the polish side. we understand the delays are when they have to go through the exit stamp process with the ukrainians. of course, the ukrainians are being extra careful about who they let out of the country because they don't want any men between 18 and